If you were alive in the 80's - what do you miss about the time

[The Straight Story]

The music for me, and innocence I had back then. Good friends now passed on, and being on the cusp of tech changes. The early video games. My trs-80 Model 1. Crazy hair styles. A blissful ignorance of politics. Playing chess at chess clubs.

And for some reason, the cold war seemed to be something interesting that is now all gone. Odd I know. Things seemed more defined then. But that is just me.

One of many videos from the 80's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkAMt-N96eU

[grace0418]

1. I miss being 18, that's for sure.

I miss going dancing and a loving the music. I wish there was somewhere to go that would play 80's alternative dance music.

[Lautremont]

The high-quality teen sex comedies.

I'm not even kidding. Private Resort? The Last American Virgin? Those movies were great, and there were tons of them.

[Bullwinkle925]

2. The 80"s????

Good Grief! Am I feeling old. I 'came of age' in the 60's, man! The 80's were busily spent raising a child, working and paying the bills.

[TheBaldyMan]

3. I miss my rowdy no-good friends

I am nearly the only one left, the rest have died (drug ODs and traffic accidents mostly). Lived fast and died young. I was astounded when I finally hit forty, if I'd known I was going to last this long I'd have taken better care of myself.

[Lars39]

5. ~

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO what a ride!".
:)

[TheBaldyMan]

21. That explains the Martini & chocolate stains on my shirt

Gosh I was so wasted back then.

[unsavedtrash]

22. who said that?

what a great quote! :thumbsup:

[TheBaldyMan]

23. Hunter S. Thompson - I think

[Redstone]

4. Christ, nothing except that fact that I was in my 30s then.

Redstone

[The Straight Story]

9. Damn!

For some weird reason I pictured as my age (41) :)

I will drink a few for us both tonight ;)

Ok - so what do you miss about the 60's!

[Bullwinkle925]

18. EVERYTHING!!

I wish I was smart enough then to have really enjoyed what I was experiencing. Crappity-crap!!

What I would give to go around one more time with the smarts I have now.

:hippie:

[The Straight Story]

20. You and me both!!!!! (nt)

[Redstone]

30. I'm 52, and not for much longer, though I may not look it.

Lots of people make that mistake.

Redstone

[Kat45]

91. Redstone, you're 52??

I had no idea that you and I are so close in age. :hi:

[democracyindanger]

My girlfriend that reminded me of Molly Ringwald

Ended up marrying my best friend. Fuck.

[Lautremont]

11. Does your friend look like Judd Nelson?

[democracyindanger]

27. No, but he looks like

Gerard Depardieu. Go figure.

[some guy]

6. not much actually

I was a very confused young man most of those years. :D

The drinking and drugging were the best parts, but largely because it minimized my capacity for overthinking everything.

an (barely) 80s toast from you tube...

:hi:

[libnnc]

7. I miss Cagney & Lacey, American Bandstand...

Top 40 request local FM radio.

High waters blue jeans, big colorful sweaters, Panama Jack tee-shirts, Wayfarer sunglasses, Swatches, Esprit catalogues (I couldn't afford anything in them but they were cool to get in the mail) Simon Le Bon, my friends in marching band, making fun of Mr. Starnes, pep rallies, gold and black, "On Wisconsin" fight song, typing class, pizza, french fries and Fanta grape soda, how I looked in my drum major uniform, 3:15 on a Friday afternoon, my first car date, yearbook staff, writing for The Ridgerunner, the way the mountains looked from the parking lot of our high school...

I was young, pretty, skinny, and the world was waiting.

What the hell have I done with my life? Where have the years gone?

[The Straight Story]

14. Where have the years gone? Well, here is my accounting:

1984 Dropped out of high school
1985 Married
1986 First kid
1987-1996 Marriage was hell, 3 kids, wife that I could not get along with at all (control freak)

1996-1999 Moved from Ohio to California. Lived with a much younger woman. Found myself again. Free at last! Saw the US. Broke up and found the woman of my dreams (AutumnMist here)

2000-now New child (see her pic on my earlier post), mom died, bought a house, got a few good jobs in that time, stress, happiness, sadness - all rolled into one.

Xwife died, saw one of my 3 boys after 8 years of not seeing them. Lots of deaths in last 2 years, and welcomed my first grandchild into the world.


That is the condensed version. Full version would be like war and peace...

[evlbstrd]

8. Nothing.

Except it was the last time I was single.

[MoseyWalker]

10. I miss thinking

that Reagon was just a political blip on the radar, and the music.

there was still an unprogrammed love of energy and quality and individual creativeness.

[JI7]

36. for those old enough to be aware of politics, the music must have really helped

no internet like today where we can easily find like minded people to share our feelings with. especially people who live in right wing areas or have right wing relatives.

overall i think it's far worse today. but i think the things we have allow us to deal with things in a better way.

[flying_monkeys]

12. I miss not knowing that AIDS existed.

Back then, our biggest fear was herpes.....

[madrchsod]

13. good weed,

lots of downtime because reagan out sourced by job,and cheap rent. i forgot- video disc players and i had one too..trs-80

[Zero Division]

15. some of the music of the early to mid 80's, my early childhood

I was born in 1979, so the early 80's hold a few good, even if vague memories of my early childhood: the general wonder and awe I held for a world that seemed so mysterious to me, the simple childhood pleasures of things like blowing up GI-Joe figures with firecrackers in a friend's backyard or playing in a tree house or jumping out of swings.

It's funny that you chose "Wrapped around your finger" from the Police. I recently made a comment to a co-worker when that song was playing over the radio about what an odd child I must have been to have had that song as one of my favorites. Of course, I just loved the dark, mysterious atmosphere of that song as child.

[The Straight Story]

17. Let's not forget Prince either - and I agree with you:

"Of course, I just loved the dark, mysterious atmosphere of that song as child."

I did too as a teen. I was playing AD&D a lot back then, and it seemed to fit for some reason. Has a lot more meaning now to me.

[Zero Division]

28. Yep, once I could pay attention to and understand the lyrics...

I enjoyed the song on a different level, now that I'm older and educated enough to understand lyrics like "caught between the scylla and charybdis".

And Prince: one of the many 80's artists I remember from back then but only learned to really appreciate in my late teens. But here's a video for a song from an artist I did love back when I was around six: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZnkFFQh2fQ&mode=related&search=

[TimeChaser]

16. I miss my My Little Ponies

mommy got rid of all of them :(

[The Straight Story]

19. Funny how we remember and attach to toys at times

I still remember a stuffed bunny. I was in top of the garage going through a box and found it and felt bad that it had been sitting there alone after giving me so much joy.

I wanted a teddy bear to sleep with for years, parents thought it weird and never got it for me. My wife a few years back got me a huge moose to sleep with - called him 'Marty Moose'. They we got two big dogs who would drag him around trying to screw him. He eventually met his end with Max, the rottwieler mix. After all the sex he had with marty I didn't want him back anyway :)

[unsavedtrash]

24. I was in my teens in the 1980s

I miss good friends who left far too soon, I miss the incredible music, and I have to admit that I miss the equally incredible drugs. Things I don't miss-parachute pants, and members only jackets.

[Ringo84]

25. The 80s

I was very young in the 1980s (born in 1984) - too young to really remember too terribly much about it. But like everyone else, I miss the innocence. You're pretty innocent as a three year old. It's before you get corrupted by society into discriminating against people.
Ringo

[mcctatas]

26. My 23 inch waist

John Hughes movies and The Smiths...

[Broken_Hero]

29. The cartoons...:) Sorry, I'm simple like that nt

[Nikia]

47. Me too

My sister and I watched cartoons all Saturday morning when we could.

[Arugula Latte]

31. I miss college.

Also, many people deny it, but there was some fantastic music back then (not the top-40 crap popular then ... the alternative scene was great).

[QMPMom]

32. I miss my kids being babies.

*sigh* They are all grown up now.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. same here. 1984 was the Year of the Baby. ..

I miss the skinny me before the pregnancy and I miss the tiny child that was the result.

HOWEVER: I rejoice in and adore the adult daughter I now have. She is just great!!!!

[Dulcinea]

33. Definitely the music.

I still love '80s music. So much of the music today sucks. I loathe rap. And the clothes were more fun! Low rise jeans that cost $100 & aren't even made from real denim? Horrors. Please send that terrible style to the scrap heap of history, NOW.

The 1980s were my coming of age; I graduated from high school in '83, college in '87.

But what I miss the most is thinking I had the world by the ass instead of the other way around. Life was full of promise then.

[Hugin]

39. 'I had the world by the ass instead of the other way around.'

Pretty much sums it up!

:thumbsup:

I graduated from HS in '83 as well.

[Dulcinea]

62. Wow, I'm flattered!

You used my quote in your sig line! :)

[Hugin]

67. Awe, well...

I felt a little like that on Tuesday of last week. :)

Thanks for putting how I was feeling into words.

:thumbsup:

[mr blur]

34. The day my son was born

The music and just about everything else about the 80s sucked but that was a great day.

[JI7]

35. i was a kid

born in late 78. so i guess i miss not being so worried over things as i do today . i remember some of the teenage movies back then and thinking how cool it would be when i get into high school.i remember being hooked to the nintendo of that time. the horror movies of those days. i loved cabbage patch kids and my little pony.

[NuttyFluffers]

37. when MTV was actually worth watching.

and even then it was sketchy and degrading fast.

[u4ic]

96. Friday Night Videos

when they were a treat and not running 24/7 on 6 stations...

[Hugin]

38. This thread is a classic....

Brings tears to my eyes it does.

Not that I don't appreciate every minute of my time here on Earth.

I miss the music and the Friday Night Videos.
I miss my friends whom I grew up with... Seems like I hardly see any of them anymore.
I miss the *real* malls.
I miss my car.
I miss dinner with my family.
I miss when cable TeeVee was a new thing.
I miss the stupid cartoons.

There's so much...

Ah, so... Nostalgia is okay. Now back to the here and now.

[ikojo]

40. I miss going to GOOD Doctor Who conventions

that were run by FANS instead of for profit entities. It was a challenge to see who could stay up and secure a good spot in line. Of course since I had a few friends to go along with me, we kind of tag teamed the waiting in line thing.

I miss waiting for the next Star Wars and Star Trek movies. Now that all of the LOTR, Star Wars and Trek movies have been released, I don't really look forward to any movie coming out.

I miss standing in line to buy tix to movies like Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and hoping I had gotten in line early enough to guarantee a ticke to the first show on the first day. I love the Internet but it's kind of taken the fun out of big movie premiers.

I miss staying up all night on a Friday night to watch Friday Night Videos and whatever videos show was on what was then WTBS.

I miss MTV when it was actually MUSIC Television...Mark Goodman, Martha, and the early VJs.

I miss the Monkees marathons MTV did in 1986 and becoming a Monkees FANATIC.

I HATED Reagan but wasn't really politically active in the 1980s...that didn't happen until 1989 when I went to my first Earth Day event in Creve Coeur Missouri (a suburb of St Louis).

[YankeyMCC]

55. Halley's Comet n/t

[The Straight Story]

64. Got to say I share a lot of the same memories! Wonderful reply btw

MTV used to be something I would watch.

I saw Indiana Jones 20 times at the dollar theater.

I stood in line for return of the jedi and some guy with his girlfriend wanted to see it really bad and gave me a 20 to buy his tickets and hers, and I got to keep the rest. Of course my brother-in-law did the same thing that too for me so I made out well :)

I saw Empire Strikes Back at the 12:01 showing when it came out.

And yeah, ain't many movies now I could say I would care to do that for (most recently for the new star wars movies).

I actually liked raygun, but I was not in politics back then. I saw him on TV once in a while and he seemed like a nice guy. Felt the same about Carter too. I was too busy with having fun to pay attention :)

[mitchum]

41. Being able to live on $75 a week, college radio, LSD, my unlined face

[NewWaveChick1981]

42. I miss college (started in 1981), great New Wave and alternative music,

the liberalism that flourished despite having Reagan in office, and experimenting with whatever I wanted to. ;) :evilgrin:

[baby_mouse]

43. Everything.

The innocence, the hope that things were going to get better in the world, the Speilberg movies, being a teenager, the music, the summers, the winters, the daft hair, the "anything goes" feeling, trannies at no. 1 in the UK, the colours...

It was like a big neon dream of delights. It was beautiful.

Of course, I was a teenager then. Most of it looks very different now. (But not all of it. Some of it's just got better and better...)

Capitalism was different then. It wsan't so frantic and fevered.

[Orsino]

45. The peaceful liberalism of the Reagan era.

I'm only half-joking.

[bikebloke]

46. A travelling decade for me

I spent a lot of time outside the country, hoping to settle elsewhere. Easier said than done. There were four yearsworking in Israel on a kibbutz and moshav. For a while it was a good life. But in the end, I realised that not being Jewish (or subscribing to any religion) I would always be an outsider. On a personal level, my dating life here wasn't too good with women turning their noses up at me for mot being rich or pretending to be. The Europeans and Aussies I knew, fancied me for me. Wandered all over Europe. I also travelled across South Asia, just to see some other parts of the globe.

Alas, now I'm stuck in the wrong part of the world for me.

[LeftyMom]

48. Affordable concerts.

Still couldn't see a decent show in Sacramento but it really sucks to have to drive 2 hours or more and pay a shit-ton of money on top of it.

[carlydenise]

49. We are the 80's.............what do I miss?..........

1. Gas well under 2.00 a gallon
2. My skinny figure
3. The Valley Girl skirts I wore on my skinny figure
4. My 84 mustang and the freedom to just get out and drive on a road trip when I felt like it
5. Miami Vice!!!! (it's now available on Sleuth channel, thank goodness)
6. MTV actually playing music videos and nothing else
7. John Belushi, John Lennon, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson
I was a young adult during the 80's pretty cool time I guess, I still think the 70's was a better era IMHO

Carly

[Haole Girl]

50. I miss my fit body

Of course, I was a workout fanatic...and walked on the beach almost every day for three years in the late 80's, so I have only myself to blame for letting myself go. :cry:

Oh..and the pop music of the era was truly energizing. It would still be energizing, if it didn't remind me so much of the past.....does that make any sense?

[Joey Liberal]

51. I miss being that young

[Nikia]

52. I miss my extended family

I saw both sets of my grandparents every week or more. I saw my aunts and uncles and cousins often. We had regular family events: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July. I also had three great grandmothers still living also.
Now I live far away from. My great grandmothers are dead as are two of my gradparents.

[johnnie]

53. What I missed about the 80's?

The 70's

[Aristus]

54. Y'know what? I miss the clothes! Really! Even parachute pants,

Guess? jackets and Vuarnets sunglasses.

I miss the preppy look high school kids affected; Bass-Weejuns, topsiders, sweaters, argyle socks and knit ties. Everyone dressed to look nice. Nowadays school kids dress like gangsta rappers.

Wow! Do I sound old or what? B-)

[nini]

56. not much.

That decade was full of self serving yuppy crap, bad music, fashion, hair etc. and the freaking Reagan years :puke:

There were good things in my life of course, but compared to other decades.. the 80s was just plain lame.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

57. When I was living in the '80s I hated it

Poverty from the Thatcher economy. Inflationary spikes followed by recessions. I was a young child at the time. It was only when the '80s (and those hard times) were left behind that I started listening to 1980s music in earnest, and watching shows like St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues, that I appreciated that there were some good things about that decade.

[sakabatou]

58. Nothing as I only lived in it for two years

[femmocrat]

59. Not a damn thing! Those were the Reagan years!!!

All I can remember are the factories closing, the foreclosures, the distressed communities, homeless people, the closing of the mental hospitals, the union-busting that started with firing the air traffic controllers, ketchup as a vegetable, pollution-causing trees, and the Moral Majority.

I have not a whit of nostalgia for the worst decade of our lives!

[RetroLounge]

60. The 80's?

I miss the endless lines of coke going up my nose, days without sleep or food, crashing and thinking i might die this time.

I miss the bottomless glasses of whiskey, puking in alleys, alcohol poisoning, hangovers that lasted for days and thinking i might die this time.

I miss my size 28 waist, flat belly, man with the child in his eyes features.

I miss the lines of women getting naked in my bed, nameless, faceless, souless, spiritual and emotional emptiness.

I miss the all-night parties at the dance clubs where I knew the DJ's and could play what I wanted.

I miss Neo, Octagon, the West End, The Exit, McGreeveys, Smart Bar, Club 950.

I miss playing guitar in bands. I miss my long hair.

I miss seeing the 80's bands live in their heyday.

I miss my black 1965 Impala Super Sport which I drove for the first 1/2 of the 80's.

I miss the innocence of never having been married or scarred by love gone to hell.

Some of these are sarcasm, some are not. I would never go back...

RL

[skygazer]

61. Not a hell of a lot

Work, marriage, child-rearing, money issues. I was younger but more stressed out.

Now the 70's...... :evilgrin:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

63. i miss jumping off my bunkbed and breakdancing in parachute pants

making mix tapes from the radio
my apple IIe with Might and Magic, Aquatron, Karateka etc.
endless summer nights, sneaking out, throwing m80s into neighbor's pools, knocking on doors and running away. generally causing trouble

[Alexander]

65. Being a kid again (I was born in the 80s) and the bliss of ignorance.

I was born in 1983. I did have some vivid memories that were saturated in Reagan-era "Die Yuppie scum" goodness.

-Seeing Michael Jackson's music video "Bad" for the first time in 1987, and thinking how cool he was.

-Goofing off with the kids in my neighborhood (Avon, Connecticut) and, among other things, having squirt gun battles in the summer.

-Hearing consistently good music, although at that point I wasn't mature enough to formulate opinions on it. I just remember it was all good, and that it may have been that there wasn't as much crappy corporate rock then, or that I just didn't know anything about music back then.

-Getting a Nintendo for my 5th birthday, and playing the hell out of it with my friends. Birthday parties were also much more special.

-Thinking that certain parts of town that I never saw must therefore be exciting, and that one of these days I was going to have an adventure and go explore the area. Only to find it looked about the same as everything else.

-Being blissfully unaware of politics to the point where the three presidents I could name off hand were Washington, Lincoln and Reagan. Reagan was THE president, and as a little kid, I had to like the president. This child worship continued a little bit into Bush's term, although I distinctly remember not liking him from about 1991 onward.

-Reading maps (I'm still really into maps) and wondering what a "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" was. Also remember reciting random countries off-hand, and being chided by my parents for saying I wanted to visit Libya.

-Being told in kindergarten that the Berlin Wall fell, and the significance of it.

[idgiehkt]

66. not understanding that there would ever be a time when someone

would ask 'if you were alive in the 80's...' lol.

[Shell Beau]

68. My childhood! I had a fun childhood.

I certainly do not miss the fashion!!

[Ramsey]

69. 80's music was the best!

There were so many interesting genres, so much creativity and experimentation. Music has been in a real slump since the early 1990's, and there is almost nothing of interest coming out today. I don't know if it's the corporate music industry culture and media consolidation, or if people are just much more conservative in their tatses and endeavors. Lately I've been downloading lots of old 80's tunes and cranking up my 80's and New Wave mixes!

The clothes, however, really sucked. Personally I dress much better now!

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

78. I like 80's music too.

[miss_american_pie]

70. *trying to remember*

I miss the smell of Mary Kay night cream and Emeraude perfume, bedtime stories and lullabies.

I miss believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and fairies and pixies, that wishes made on stars come true and dead princesses can wake with a kiss.

I miss a farmhouse and a German Shepherd, and freedom and possibilty.

[RetroLounge]

75. ...

:hug:

RL

[NaturalHigh]

71. The music and decent pro wrestling.

I don't like either of the current products.

[dajoki]

72. My kids being young...

and all the things we did that you do with your kids when they are small. Enjoy them while you can because they grow up fast, but with that comes many new pleasures!!:hi:

[Zomby Woof]

73. I hated 80's music then

And it hasn't aged well - it STILL sucks. I was born 10 years too late, and with taste. ;-)

I didn't have the luxury of being ignorant about politics. It was the decade which raised my consciousness about it - apartheid, Nicaragua, etc. Ronald Fucking Reagan made me a Democrat, and for that I am thankful.

I graduated high school in 1985, so I could say I miss the free time I spent with my friends, the $10 concerts, and the general freedom from responsibility we had as youths. I stay in touch with my closest friends of the era, and we are settled well, comfortable with our middle age. :-)

[alarimer]

74. MTV when they still played music

I just miss being young.

[Little Wing]

76. 50 cent meant a soda from the machine

New Metallica/Megadeth albums that didn't suck
Samantha Fox

[sweetheart]

77. sex before AIDS

and the novelty of the fairness doctrine.

[idgiehkt]

80. amen to that.

I was a little hussy for a while and I was terrified when I went to get my first AIDS test. I don't know if I've ever been quite so scared. I sure haven't looked at sex the same way since then.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

79. Here is a list :

1. My Nana (greatgrandmother) and my cousin's mom were both still alive.

2. I felt like I so happy magical and free.

3. The music . Duran Duran , Janet Jackson , when Madonna first came out. Hall and Oates on the radio. 80's R&B music was at an all time high. Robert Palmer was amazing. Did I mention Duran Duran ? John Taylor was the only guy that looked good with a mullet.

4.I was'nt depressed ...

5. Simon,Alvin and Theodore aka The Chimpmunks every Saturday morning.Along with The Smurfs and The Carebears.

6. Jem was truly outrageous. Barbie and The Rockers

7. I was happier in the 80s.

[Texasgal]

81. The drugs!!!

HA! Just kiddin' :P

I miss the innocence too, thinking we were always safe... thinking that we would always be financially secure... thinking that a college degree would get me anywhere...

[SKKY]

82. 2 Words...

PARACHUTE PANTS!!!!

[Xipe Totec]

83. This:

The maiden voyage of Columbia

[ulysses]

84. parachute pants.

:eyes:

[philosophie_en_rose]

85. Kickass cartoons on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

So what if they were simplistic attempts to market derivative characters to impressionable children?

I feel sorry for children these days. Spongebob squarepants? Rugrats? :puke:

And they don't even have hard plastic lunchboxes with random sitcoms and celebrities on them. :)

[Kajsa]

86. My metabolism at the time.

I could lose weight easily, just by cutting back on calories
and getting more exercise.

That's not true, anymore.

[deutsey]

87. I miss next to nothing about the '80s

[yellowdogintexas]

88. not being stiff and sore when I get up in the morning!

my dark hair
being thin effortlessly (first half of the decade)

[Jamastiene]

89. To be honest, I've spent much of my adulthood trying to

forget my horrible teen years during the 80's. I don't miss a thing from that decade.

[Kat45]

90. The music scene

From the mid-eighties on, I was writing for a local music magazine and having a blast going to rock clubs to see bands around three nights a week (or more). It was so much fun; there were drop-dead gorgeous guys everywhere. I loved the music then, and I'm talking hard rock, much of which was excellent--but of course much of the excellent shit was music that never quite broke in the mainstream. That was one of the most enjoyable times of my life.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

92. Having no responsibility.

I was born in 1979, so the eighties were my childhood. And I miss my sister.
Duckie

[BarenakedLady]

93. MULLETS!

Ok, not really.

leg warmers and ripped sweatshirts? nah

shoulderpads? nope

great sex and drugs....oh yeah

[MysticalChicken]

94. It's weird. I hated the 80s when I was going through them but now I wish I could go back to them.

I was born in 1979, so I really only remember stuff from around 1985 onward. Although I do have a vague, fuzzy, hazy memory of an episode of Fame that I watched in 1983, when I was almost four years old. It involved the Wicked Witch of the West and it scared me so much that I refused to watch that show from then on, and a few years after that I started thinking that I had imagined the WWW (or "the green witch" as I called her then) being in Fame was a false memory or something, until 23 years had passed since I saw that episode and learned from tv.com that yes, that episode did actually exist.

Anywho. Old-school Sesame Street, before they got all politically correct, and EFFING CHANGED COOKIE MONSTER, ruled. I was on the LiveJournal community whatwasthatone the other day, and someone had asked "what was the guy on Sesame Street who was in a glass and could go through counters" or something, and someone else posted a video for the Teeny Little Superguy. I adored the Teeny Little Superguy. Oh! And someone else had posted a video of an orange that acquired, one at a time, eyes, a rubber-band mouth, pink flower-petal eyelashes, and hair, and she started singing opera and I was like OMG I REMEMBER THAT!! Isn't it weird how you can completely forget about something you've seen in your youth, as I had with that, and you never think about it and when you see it again you have that reaction or something similar?

I was nine or ten years old and in fifth grade when the Berlin Wall came down. I remember our teacher went to No-Longer-East-or-West-Germany-But-Just-Germany-Now, and brought back a piece of the wall and IIRC it had graffiti on it.

I've been looking for old 80s commercials on YouTube. Watched one for Reese's Pieces that I remember distinctly but also hadn't thought of for years.

Speaking of commercials, there are three that I remember very well from aroun 1985-87. One was for Bounce dryer sheets and had Van Halen's "Jump" playing in the commercial. Another one was for, I think either Hickory Farms or Hillshire Farms (it was H____ farms, I know) smoked sausage with the song that goes "Our house is a very very very fine house," (it is NOT Madness' "Our House"!), and that song still reminds me of smoked sausage if I hear it. Finally, the Skippy peanut butter ads with Annette Funicello, from around 1985. I was around five or six years old and I was so terrified of Annette Funicello that every time one of those commercials came on I would run and hide or put a blanket over my head because I didn't want Annette to get me.

I love VH1's I Love the 80s series. This is me during that show:
"Oh my god! I had that! Aaah! I remember that! I loved that show/book/movie/song! I had one of those and I lost it! I wanted one of those!" etc., etc.

[Twillig]

95. I think the 'jump' Bounce dryer sheet ad was pointer sisters

Their coincidentally named "Jump(for my love)" song.

I would have remembered such a sellout if Van Halen had done that. I think.

[MysticalChicken]

104. I don't think so...

I distinctly remember it was a male singer. And I'm pretty sure it went "Jump! (and then there was a woman falling backwards into a giant ... um, dryer sheet? o_O) You might as well jump!"

Feh. I wish I could find it on YouTube. Then I'd know for sure. It was probably from around 1986 or so.

[Kat45]

97. That's the Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Our House" nt

[Mr_Spock]

98. Celebrating the death of disco!

I hated disco :)

[EFerrari]

99. the 80s are over?

[Skittles]

100. nothing

the decade of reagan and greed and big hair was just plain nasty

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

101. knowing that everything was gonna be ok

my parents basically instilled in me that whatever happened I was gonna be ok, then my dad had a stroke a few years ago and now I totally disagree... other than that I mostly miss the music and being a kid at christmas time..

[CanuckAmok]

102. Style, and DIY fashion

I liked being able to get away with wearing a suit for no particular reason. Guys got to be peacocks in the 80s. There was that throwback to 40s Film Noir fashion (see any Ultravox video, orCatherine Deneuve and David Bowie in "The Hunger"). My ex reminded me that girls and guys sometimes made their own clothes, and everybody experimented with different elements of a "look", throwing together something new... with mixed results.

Not like today's skatepunk/hiphop/trailer-trash assembly-line look.

I also miss being 18.

And I miss Klaus Nomi.

And the Chipwich.

[American Jesus]

103. Van Halen

[MysticalChicken]

105. Just wondering...

Your username gives me the impression that you are a Bad Religion fan; are you?

I LOVE Bad Religion; Greg Graffin has my favorite male singing voice ever. Except maybe for Peter Murphy. It's really, really close.

[KrazyProf69]

106. I have always been fond of Rage Against The Machine...

Their works have been a very accurate depiction of the degredation of our society today under the guise of capitalism, if I do say so myself. They have certainly achieved intellectual standards unseen since the masters of socialism of the 19th century. Regrettably, the four who comprise the orchestra have since disbanded. Zacharius Manuel de la Rocha, if you are reading this, you MUST contact Thomas Baptist Morello, Timothy Commerford, and Bradley Wilk, and RE-UNITE! Millions of people depend on you to fight against the Powers That Be of the so-called "Free World!" Bush, Sharon, Blair, all of them! They MUST be destroyed!

[KrazyProf69]

111. I am also nostalgic for increasing wealth tenfold from the Internet!

How I miss those days when you could actually make money from the dot-com industry.

[NNadir]

107. Personally for me, I met and married my wife. Other than that, the 80's

sucked. Reagan, Bush I and a whole lot of other awful stuff took place in that time. There was the war in El Salvador, the first Afghan war - in which we armed Osama bin Laden and the Taliban - Star Wars, one icky thing after another.

[chknltl]

108. I often miss my "ex".....

...but with a little more practice......






















......... my aim should improve!

[Left Is Write]

109. I wasn't ignorant of politics - blissfully or otherwise.

I absolutely could not stand Reagan or Bush I.

I miss the music. Of course I can still listen to it, but I miss being able to listen to it with that feeling of currentness and freshness. Now when I listen to 80s music, my ears hear only nostalgia and my brains sees only memories. I feel the same way about my beloved 80s movies - I see them through a perspective 20+ years older, and it's just not the same.

As a point of reference, I graduated from high school in 1984.

[ThomCat]

110. Being that young

and having all those options I didn't know about.

And being healthy. I hadn't been hurt yet and didn't have this disability.

[Saboburns]

112. Incredibly cool thread

I graduated High School on my Eighteenth Birthday, June 3rd, 1985.

It was a time of innocence, fun, sex, drugs, beer. I still thought that people were basically good. I've lost that feeling lately, and I'm worse off for it.

I miss kissing Sherry in her front lawn as the fireworks were going off right over our head.

I miss playing high school sports, dunking a baskeball and throwing TD passes.

High School REALLY was the best times in life. Because of the people who made each day a helluva lot of fun to live. One never knows what the next day might bring.

I thought I'd always be skinny and athletic.

Friday Night Videos, and seventeen year old sex partners.

My gay sister, who made me realize how many more important things there are about someone other than sexuality. And she led me into so many new experiences and different things than I knew ever existed. Thanks Kelli B.

Mostly I remember being happy and healthy. And it doesn't get any better than that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

113. The 1980s? Not much.

Aside from being younger and thinner, I thought the 1980s were pretty awful.