Why were you scared of the 80s?

[Wetzelbill]

Ok, lots of stuff to be scared about from the 80s. In our fear driven culture we are pumped with something supposedly earth ending every five minutes, back in the 80s, Ronnie was scaring us with Communism, Poppy Bush with Willie Horton, and all kinds of wacky feamongering stuff was put forth.

So why was I scared of the 80s? Killer bees. I remember thinking as a young child killer bees would engulf the whole country. In fact, we were told they were already in Mexico and parts of the Southwest, and I figured soon my hometown in Montana would be brought to it's knees by killer bees. I am surprised we lived. In fact, why do I now live in the Southwest? Is that a bee outside my window? :scared:

So why were you scared of the 80s?

[CBHagman]

1. I traveled/lived in Europe during part of the '80s.

And remember that virtually every European I met had questions and/or criticism about Reagan's policies, Cabinet, etc.

Then I came back to the States and George Will et al were assuring Americans that Ronald Reagan was greatly respected abroad. :eyes:

I hated the warmongering, hated the Middle East and Central America policies, with the administration's inherent hypocrisy and tendency to play both sides in a conflict.

I hated the administration's casual disregard of human suffering. I hated seeing people line up for a measly few jobs.

My pessimism at the time, though, was less specific and more general. The media was already into serious fear-mongering mode and only got worse! And of course the press was far too kind to the Reagan administration, and that too continues to be a problem.


I hated he

[Rambis]

2. The great communicator?

:wtf: :puke:

[CBHagman]

5. I traveled to Berlin in 1982 and...

...in West Berlin I saw an amazing amount of anti-Reagan graffiti. Right opposite our hotel was the legend "Piss off, Ronald," spray-painted on a wall. All of the American students in my group lined up to take a portrait at the site. I'm not sure what happened to my copy.

[Rambis]

9. I apologized

to every person I met my last trip to Ireland for * and his distruction of the world. Everyone, to a man or woman said something along the lines of.... "we know he was not elected"

I learned not to trust american media under raygun because of things just like you describe. I also listened to the BBC on short waive radio back then and his image did not reflect reality.

[vi5]

3. Actually Killer Bees scared me as well....

..probably one of my biggest fears. Although I thought that was the late 70's more so than the 80's. I was pretty much freaked out by anything on that show In Search Of.... but watched it religiously.

I remember in the 80's I was scared of Nostradamus's predictions. Specials on that subject were pretty big at the early part of the 80's and I remember hearing in 1980 (when I was 10) that one of the predictions was that in 2002 the US and Russia would be allies and that we would unite to tackle a dictator in the middle east in the third world war. I'm not going to lie, in 2002 when to some degree this happened I was pretty freaked out. I remember when I was 10 that 32 sounded pretty old so back then I was o.k. with it all.

[KamaAina]

4. Raygun + nukes.

I remember doing an overnight college radio shift, in a studio that had an old-style AP machine in it. I remember thinking, What if that thing goes off now, and I have to be the one to tell New Haven it's getting nuked?" :scared:

[Initech]

6. Because our vice president sold weapons to the middle east?

Then told us that Saddam was "one of the good guys"?

[LeftyMom]

7. Heights, dinosaur attacks (turned out it was the backyard fence blowing over)

and all the usual shit little kids are scared of. Plus duck-and-cover drills at school, since everybody knows a school desk will save you from a nuclear bomb attack.

[Wetzelbill]

8. how about the Tylenol murders?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Chicago_Tylenol_murders

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. My mother dumped every pill in our house out...even the non Tylenols

and 1 half empty bottle of the T, which we had all taken some of with no ill effects. Mothers... :eyes:

[skygazer]

10. The hair

I was in my 20's during the 80's and lived in fear of being attacked by someone's mullet. :scared:

[Wetzelbill]

11. or any derivative

I feared the "Rat-Tail."

[newmajority]

12. Reagan and his warmongering.

Around the time he was joking about "bombing Russia in 5 minutes", and the Russkies themselves burned through about three dead old farts in charge within a year or so, I was convinced that senile old bastard was determined to bring on the nuclear annihilation.

That and Sammy Hagar joining Van Halen. Now that was frightening......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rvri_da8_E :scared: :puke: :argh:

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Seeing a mushroom cloud in the sky...

...and those bees.

[tonkatoy57]

15. The Clothes

nt

[DarkTirade]

16. Umm... did you SEE hairstyles in the 80s?

There is very little more frightening than 80s hairstyles.

[flvegan]

17. The televised WWF matches were terrible.

5 matches with superstars against preliminary bums, and one main event. And when something cool did go down, like a Snuka v Muraco match, the ensuing bloodbath was shown with a big "X" over the screen.

At least World Class was cool.

[MrCoffee]

18. That's because the cool kids were all in Houston Wrestling (Mid South)

I saw Junkyard Dog, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Kamala the Ugandan Warrior, and Ted DiBiase on one Friday night card at the Sam Houston Colleseum.

Paul Boesch was a god among promoters.

[HughBeaumont]

57. Money, you know you loved King Kong Bundy vs Sivi Afi or SD Jones.

Ah, 80s WWF. Sucked ass on ice, but DAMN JYD was fun to watch.

[MilesColtrane]

19. A president with dementia with his finger on the nuclear button...

[CreekDog]

20. "We interrupt this broadcast for a Special Report"

:nuke: :hide:

[logosoco]

21. the clothes with all the zippers

and the tight leg pants. I had a hard time getting a pair of those off one time!!!

[myrna minx]

22. Nuclear War, killer bees, the A Team would be cancelled,

AIDS and getting pregnant.

[Sequoia]

23. Nothing scared me, I liked the 80s.

[Inchworm]

24. Zero - nothing - I was invincible

My teen years :)

:hi:

[BarenakedLady]

27. You still are

Aren't you?

:shrug:

[Inchworm]

36. I am indeed invincible

I'm soo tough and meeen!

*purrs*

[BarenakedLady]

43. *meow*

That's all I hear.

[BarenakedLady]

25. Jason Voorhees

And Pennywise

[Inchworm]

37. Did you goto school with that Jason feller?

;)

[harmonicon]

26. I'd forgotten about the killer bees

I remember that they were the next big threat, but I don't remember ever being too worried about them myself. Nuclear war was what scared me to death - and Andre the giant. I still remember a horrible nightmare I had as a child where Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant were going to square off with nukes and we were all going to die. It didn't help that I had incredible strange dreams as a child and was a sleep walker.

[My Good Babushka]

28. I remember when we weren't sure if you could get AIDS

from mosquitoes.

[Deja Q]

29. Hair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM93ilsmcug





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM93ilsmcug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Vi5BltIks

:scared:

[hiaasenrocks]

30. Nuclear war with the Soviets. The 1980s were my "coming of age" years....

10-19. I had a good childhood, but I do vividly remember being a little scared of nuclear war. My generation grew up with a president who talked about it all the time, and also with nuclear war as a major part of the pop-culture entertainment, from movies to music.

[Miss Carly]

31. I wasn't scared in the 80's

early 80's was dressed like Joan Jett
mid 80's Madonna
late 80's Tiffany

Everyone was probably scared of my fashion sense.

Carly

[Miss Carly]

32. ...

[malta blue]

33. PCBs

I went to high school in a town where GE dumped gross quantities of PCBs into the river and I was terrified I was going to get cancer and die.

[Bucky]

34. Boots.

Boots still scare me a little

[TK421]

35. About the only thing I had to be concerned about in the 80's was the effects

red dye had on kids, and just about every candy you consumed ( thanks, Jack and Jill ) contained the stuff...oh, the horror stories about this one. This went on for almost another decade.






I miss red dye, myself

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

38. Actually, that's when I sobered up and came to my senses

and really started living. It was a fairly productive decade for me in all respects.

[KG]

39. Twisted Sister

rock and roll begins its death spiral.

[newmajority]

56. Yeah... but their guitarist JJ French has re-recorded one of their old songs, and it ROCKS!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgkrX-NSt6Q :headbang:

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Reagan's policies, American paranoia, hair styles, Religious Right, the dumbification of America

(represented in the shitty music, clothing, TV shows, and etc. that were popular), and yet one more time, I mention Reagan and the religious right, which I was sure would lead us back to the dark ages intellectually which would let Reagan and the Christian fundy fucks finally have that nuclear war that made them all so orgasmic.

[TK421]

59. So...would I be going out on a limb here, Rabrrrrrr, by assuming that you didn't care for the 80's?

[rateyes]

41. Barry Manilow.

:scared:

[Fox Mulder]

42. Wasn't that the decade where everyone started caring only of themselves?

That's why I was scared of the '80s.

Forgot to add that I was also scared because Reagan was president.

[femmocrat]

44. Shoulder pads!

They could knock you over if you side-swiped them!

And BIIIGGGG hair! EEEEK

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

45. Disco

I couldn't stand it - and puffy HAIR
Loved the cold stand up braless tittys that were still around from the 60's and 70s
Bring Them Back

[mwooldri]

46. These people:

Living in the UK it was Maggie that scared me more.

[Finn Polke]

47. I was not scared during the 80's

By late '89 I started to realize and reluctantly accept that the '70's, which sucked, btw, were not coming back, ever.

I have done better with more recent decades, at least as far as lamenting the passage of previous times.

[grannylib]

48. Ray Guns. Bad music. Bad hair. Bad fashion.

[newmajority]

60. but not Bad Religion!

They rocked in the 80's. (And still do, actually)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RG8ZkI2Uvs

[Ptah]

49. I was afraid of the 80s because I had read '1984' in the mid-60s.

[Lorien]

50. Nothing you mentioned. I thought delusional Raygun would nuke us all

and that global warming would be the end of us if psycho Ronnie didn't kill us all first. I still think that climate change will do us in, but I never bought a word of Right wing fear mongering.

[yellowdogintexas]

52. I was most afraid of Reagan, I guess nt

[Blue_In_AK]

51. My ex-husband. n/t

[crim son]

53. Catsuits.

Women who looked sexy in punk makeup, rather than like children dressed up for a pornographic talent show (me). Other than that... the censure of my peers? Excessively tanned women with lots of money and great clothes. Oh, also anybody with courage. Bob Dobbs scared the shit out of me too, but only when I was tripping.

[Canuckistanian]

54. Lawn Darts and Clackers

I honestly don't know how I slept a wink from Jan '80 to Dec '89.

[unsavedtrash]

55. my biggest fear in the 80s was AIDS.

None of us really understood what was happening and there weren't many who wanted to help.
Too many friends and family taken way too early.

[Duer 157099]

58. I can't remember being afraid of anything in the 80s

In fact, I wasn't chronically afraid until Bush and Cheney took over this country.

[madeline_con]

61. I thought everyone was looking at me, so I...

left the company Christmas party! Turns out, it was just the coke freakin' me out! :rofl:

[MedleyMisty]

62. I was born in 1980

Hmm - I remember being terrified one night when I was convinced that there was a cowboy sitting in a chair in my bedroom and that I could hear him breathing.

Also one time my grandmother and mother went out for a walk and didn't come back for what felt like hours and I actually called the operator and said they were missing, lol.

I had this collection of pictures of various sorts of animals, and I was terribly scared by the one of a snake eating another snake -I think it's why I have a snake phobia to this day.