So what were YOU doing in the eighties?

[Mythsaje]

Were you already an adult, working a job, watching the inception of the Reagan Administration with a cynical eye? Or were you, like me, in high school, dealing with the social dance of teenage interaction while trying to find and maintain an identity all your own?

The eighties are known as the "Decade of Decadence" and the "Decade of Greed." It's when the conservatives took control again, ushering in another era of propping up dictators in foreign countries and working against the interests of the common man and woman worldwide. It was when the twelve years of Republican rule from the White House somehow managed to dominate the Democratic Congress, or at least confuse it enough to get away with what amounted to war crimes on a regular basis.

It was the era of "Alex Keaton," the young conservative in his business suit and starched tie, marching off to save the world from the evils of liberalism. It's the decade when a fat boil-on-the-ass of America began his on-air bluster.

It was when I came of age. What were YOU doing?

Here's what I was doing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2913348&mesg_id=2913348

[leftofthedial]

1. sex drugs and rock and roll

[Mythsaje]

2. "Are all my brain and body need?"

;)

Sorry, reflex.

[NC_Nurse]

69. Who could forget that Ian Drury classic?

:yourock:

[hobbit709]

7. You got it!

[MiniMe]

30. LOL, that was my first thought too

Those were my college and early adult years. I also went by the motto "Disco Sucks"

[blm]

86. Yep - sampled some of that cheap IranContra cocaine being dumped in LA and around

the country.

Guess who was doing the dumping through an airport in Arkansas? Poppy Bush.

[madokie]

129. and not necessarily in that order

[Bicoastal]

3. Wetting my pants and watching the Smurfs...

...I was in my 20's.

[Breeze54]

17. lmao!

:P

I hope that situation has improved! :rofl:

[Bicoastal]

18. But seriously, folks...

...born in 1982.

[DarkTirade]

65. Yes, I'm much older and wiser than you.

... born in 1981. :P

[BuelahWitch]

98. Wow, so was Reagan!

[BuelahWitch]

99. Graduated high school in 1980 in PA

Moved to Utah and went to work for Sperry (later Unisys)the same year. Stayed there in various positions until 1994. I was lucky to be employed throughout the '80s, although the work conditions and medical insurance deteriorated.

Oops, meant to reply to the OP. DUH!

[LiberalEsto]

4. Having 2 kids

My first one was born in 1983, the second in 1986. I did all my wild stuff in the late 60s and early 70s.

[MuseRider]

9. Yup me too.

One in 1984 and one in 1985.

Watching in horror as our country lauded the very existence of that horrible, doddering old fool.

[Mythsaje]

21. Tell me about it. n/t

[Flying Dream Blues]

138. Me, too. In 1981 and 1984. nt

[Karenina]

35. Same here, 83 and 85

Thinking it would all work out in the best way.

[shanti]

84. yup

having 2 of my 4 kids (1980 and 1982).

[Breeze54]

5. Getting divorced, changing diapers, working full-time & suing the electric co. for women's rights

;)

I was a busy woman.

I won the electric co lawsuit after two years of fighting them and they can no longer discriminate against
single, separated, divorced or widowed women and at the same time, I won my lawsuit against the drunk
driver who nearly killed me and I won all in my divorce... including all the bills. :(

Except the electric bill! :P :woohoo:

Then I moved across the country to the west coast all by myself with two pre-schoolers.

[Mythsaje]

8. Wow...you deserve accolades for all of that.

Good job!

[Breeze54]

10. Thanks. I'm especially proud of setting a prededent against the Electric Co.

It was a great day!! :D

[Mythsaje]

13. Damn straight. That's awesome! n/t

[orleans]

150. way to go, erin!

[shanti]

85. parallel lives...

i got a divorce and moved 500 miles away with 3 kids under 6, u-haul and all! it changed my life forever. strong women do what needs to be done! :woohoo:

[gaspee]

6. School

Graduated high school in '87 and college in '90.

I remember it all very clearly.

[mdmc]

11. I was in 5th grade when Ray gun won

it was the worst day ever.

Luckily I found Public Enemy and the Dead Kennedy's, then, by 1989, I had found Bob Dylan, the Traveling Willberries, and the Grateful Dead.
I had been saved

[Mythsaje]

14. I was listening to Ozzy, Metallica, and Queensryche, myself...

I was both saved and PISSED off. LOL

[mdmc]

73. I was in to Ozzy / KISS / and hard rock in junior high

Got the DK / beatles / U2 in HS...
The dead and dylan in college...:kick:

[Ghost in the Machine]

12. Cocaine..... LOTS of cocaine...

I refer to the 80's as "my dark days"... I lived the total "cocaine cowboy" lifestyle in Miami from 1981 til 1992... I'm lucky to still be alive and firmly believe I would be dead now if not for the birth of my first child when I was almost 30... it changed my life for the better, and I've never looked back.

[Mythsaje]

15. Youch.

Never saw the attraction of cocaine. What good is a five minute high? 'Course, I've got an unnatural resistance to that species of drug. You should see me at the dentist. Sheesh.

[0007]

143. I bet you was a real gas indeed! As they'd say in the old days

"Square as a goats ass"

[Wiley50]

16. Wives and Babies, Two Pairs

First pair lived, Second pair didn't

Working like a dog to make enough money
to keep the wives friendly to me
and Pampers on the babies asses.

All of which got pissed and shit on
(The Pampers and me, that is)

The wives sought greener pastures

The wife from the first pair is still my friend
and the baby is a wonderful 25 yo man

The second pair are buried side by side
(No, I didn't have anything to do with that)

[mitchtv]

19. Getting over the 70's and working for a major Dial tone

provider. I watched most of my generation of Gay men die from AIDS, andand had the time to devote a little to my carrer and personaly wealth. While with telco, I became a shop stewart for CWA and was once elected to the Board of the local. We bought a small farm outide Sonoma, and commuted for ten years or so. I learned to make Cabernet sauvignon by '86. and lost the rest of my friends. On long weekend in the country we collected stories which I now post in my journal uner the title "Gypsies , Tramps and Thieve's". ( do not try this at home)

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mitchtv

[Mythsaje]

20. Great response...

Thanks for all you did.

[kevinbgoode]

70. I was with a telco too...in a repair shop position and was steward

with IBEW. I used the company's tuition-assistance program to help me earn a B.A., worked my butt off at my job and unpaid internships, met my last longterm partner (for 16 years) and, like you, watched some of my friends die of AIDS.

By the end of the decade, I had marched in the second national gay rights march on Washington, pushed for gay rights with the union contracts at GTE (which took a few more years after my departure) participated in AIDS demonstrations in front of the White House (Ray-gun always disappeared on those weekends) but otherwise loved my circle of friends in my old hometown area.

Funny how much time changes things...we moved to South Carolina...then Chicago...then Atlanta...I earned my M.A. and am finishing up a PhD...and am alone. Half of the people in my old address book, which I still keep even though it has been falling apart for the last few years, are gone.

But then, some things endure. . .I continued my gay affection for Miss Ross and saw here for the umpteenth time in concert just a year ago. As strange as it might seem, it is nice to know someone's music lived through all those years with me and that the artist is still around and performing.

One of my favorite clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnzmPrsLXn8

I was very proud to see this version used in a member-made youtube video as part of a GLBT protest against youtube.com censorship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm855KgglAw

[Elspeth]

22. Trying to avoid the whole decade and its bad music

Thank God for Kurt Cobain.

[Mythsaje]

26. Bleh.

The early nineties nearly spelled the end of rock and roll. If not for Guns and Roses and the other bands, those mislabeled as "grunge," we would've been lost. Alice in Chains, STP, and Bush, baby! Nirvana was like fingernails on a chalkboard to those of us who grew up listening to the voices of Dio, Geoff Tate, and Rob Halford. You know, people who could actually SING. Intricately composed, progressive, experimental music with depth and purpose.

Cobain was angst personified, and success killed him.

[LWolf]

23. Working, raising babies, and going to school at night. nt

[Breeze54]

95. YOU ROCK!!

:yourock:

I know that wasn't easy.

I did the same for one semester but my baby got sick. :(

I finished that semester though. I got an A+ in English- Creative Writing :D

[LWolf]

123. You're right; it wasn't easy.

In the midst of the economy under Reagan with jobs scarce, and interest rates sky high, times were tough. I got through it because I had to; because I couldn't support my kids on what I could make as an unskilled worker, and I knew I couldn't count on their dad.

While I don't regret it, it's safe to say that my life was consumed by the effort, leaving room for not much else for many years.

[devilgrrl]

24. I was in college, hated the preps and thought Reagan was a total tool

The only thing good about the 80's was the music being played on college radio.

[mitchum]

80. That pretty much also describes my life in the 80s

[RandomKoolzip]

25. Listening to my dad's record collection and wishing desperately that it wasn't the 80s.

[MADem]

27. Working, pretty much around the clock, in different locations around the world.

I did miss a lot of the television coverage of the Reagan years, for which I remain grateful.

I probably would have been ill if I'd had to watch that bullshitter every day.

[Irishonly]

28. The Day After

Reagan was elected most of the staff including myself at Perry Middle School wore black and were quite depressed. Throughout the REagan years I spent more of my teaching salary on supplies for my class room, saw the quality of life for a lot of Americans go downhill. It was a depressing time. I watched people get by with treason and I saw union busting. It was very depressing.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

29. Not even conceived yet.

I don't appear to have missed much in the way of good taste or sanity. :evilgrin:

[Mythsaje]

44. In the political arena, no...

But I'll tell you, I had a LOT of fun on the fringes. <g>

[DarkTirade]

78. The political arena... clothing... music...

:P

[Mythsaje]

97. Yeah...like the music YOU listen to would even exist

if we hadn't help push the envelope. Just like those who came before US with their bellbottoms and paisley vests and acid rock.

:D

[DarkTirade]

100. Yes, because people got so sick of the crappy music in the 80s

that it drove them to actually make good stuff. :P

I keed, I keed. There were occasional gems in there.

But Jesus Christ... what was the deal with the clothes and hair in the 80s? It's like people were trying as hard as they possibly could to look as unattractive as possible.

[Mythsaje]

102. Hey, I've HEARD Nirvana, remember?

That's only "good stuff" when compared to the sound of a burlap sack of pots and pans being thrown out of a moving car.

;)

[DarkTirade]

103. Them's fightin' words there...

:grr:


:P

[drmeow]

118. Fashion always sucks

"It's like people were trying as hard as they possibly could to look as unattractive as possible."

IMHO the current fashion is like people are trying as hard as they possibly can to look as stupid (and fat) as possible.

[DarkTirade]

122. Fashion seems to follow 20 year cycles

so the ridiculousness of the 80s has been back for a while. It's not quite as bad this time around thankfully... but it's still bad.

[AlCzervik]

31. The 80's sucked for me in so many different ways.

Let's see when i was 17 in 1985 my mother died from brain cancer, we were lucky in one sense because she had in home hospice care and i think they saved me from just losing my mind, also i went to college and paid for it myself, "My parents never gave me anything, you need to pay for it yourself" Gee thanks Dad, no wonder your name is Dick, it's also an adjective. Ok so i go to Northeastern, you work 6 months and go to school 6 months so basically i didn't have 2 nickels to rub together but i made it through.

The only people i knew that were rolling in money was my Dad and his buddies, they all had lots of expensive toys and young girlfriends, everybody else i knew was struggling.

the 80's just sucked.

[Touchdown]

32. Just joined the Army.

In Basic Training, those of us who got absentee ballots were hauled into a room. The Drill Sergeant Yelled out "You heroes better vote for Reagan!" I voted for Mondale out of spite.:P

I was pissed. They cut off my Billy Idol hair. I was proud of that peroxide job!



They sent me to the German border. I saw that fence (the Iron Curtain) and wondered what the people were like on the other side. It seemed so barren and uninhabited. Little did I know that 2 years later it would all be torn down. Strange World (Scorpions reference)

[tabasco]

91. I was in the Army too.

Oct 81 all through the 80's.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

33. I was a year old in 80.

From 84-89, I was going to elementary school, and listening to my sister's music. She was 8 years older than me and she was in high school in the late eighties.
Duckie

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

34. Teaching school

I was single, owned my own home and my own car free and clear. I saved most of my income, started taking supplements and trying to eat healthy, trying to recycle, etc. Spiritually, I went from being a Methodist to being a Sufi initiate. In 1988, I worked on the Presidential campaign of the late great Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, and regret to this day that he didn't get the nomination. Paul would have made a great President.

[canis_lupus]

36. When the '80s started ...

I had just graduated college and settled into my first job.

By the mid-80s the decade got even darker as I watched so many of my gay friends die of AIDS, the disease Reagan couldn't even mention until we were five years into the epidemic.

At the end of the decade (well, give or take a couple of years) I was a full-fledged activist who was volunteering for Clinton's first campaign and getting ready to take part in the LGBT March on Washington.

[Breeze54]

40. Welcome to DU, canis_lupus!

:hi:

I feel your pain... the 80's were horrible.

Aids, Raygun and the near miss and Lennon... :cry: to name a few.

Besides so many other issue's. It was a very tough decade.

[Mythsaje]

46. Thanks for all you've done.

I was being a wild child and you were doing important work. It's much appreciated. And I second that welcome to DU.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

37. I was in primary, intermediate, and middle school

I was a child, hehe.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

39. Forgot to add... I was being indoctrinated as a fundie

It didn't work though! Thank God!

And (S)He is proud of me too..... (God)

[Warpy]

38. Getting through nursing school, getting out of an alcoholic marriage

establishing my career in a new place, doing a lot of talking, reading and writing about just what the Reagan gang was really up to, hoping people would see what I was seeing on the nightly news and wake the fuck up, wondering why more of the Iran Contra mess didn't bite them in the ass, especially Daddy Bush, wondering how in the hell that man got elected twice followed by the more realistic but infinitely more corrupt Daddy Bush, wondering when people would notice the dementia that had set in shortly after Reagan was shot, saving every dime I could so I could afford to leave New England for drier pastures out west, losing my health insurance for the last time, although I didn't know that in 1987, watching marginal workers hit the streets as homeless people every time another yuppie bought a brownstone rooming house and turned it back into a mansion.

The 80s were very painful. I don't want them back.

[Breeze54]

42. Thanks for jogging my memory more...

Sometimes it's all a blur to me... so much stuff was going on

back then, politically and personally, for me. *sigh*

[Starbucks Anarchist]

41. Never getting out of the single-digit age range.

[Mike03]

43. That was my big transitional decade.

I graduated from HS, went to college, fell in love with the girl I would later marry, got a degree in a very idealistic, artistic trade (filmmaking, screenwriting and fiction writing) and tried to launch a career that was only moderately successful. I was not extravagent in the least. It was a decade of self-doubt and struggle. And, come to think of it, every decade since has been a decade of self-doubt and struggle. It was also the decade in which I found Buddhism, which helped me enormously to get my priorities more sane.

But every decade is a struggle, at least for me.

[annabanana]

45. mostly chasing small children. . . . n/t

[MedleyMisty]

47. Gurgling

and then learning to walk and talk and stuff and then going to preschool and then the early to middle years of elementary school. Reading a lot - I read the Constitution that was in the back of a dictionary from the 70s we had around the house and decided I wanted to be president when I grew up.

Playing with My Little Ponies and Barbies. Hanging out with friends. Dealing with my father's death - he died in January 1988, a month after my seventh birthday.

[Breeze54]

48. I just love this thread ... so I'm kicking it!

:P

:hi:

[thevoiceofreason]

49. I travelled across the political unicerse

Began as a republican (moderate), graduated college, worked in the oilfield, became disillusioned with the nuts in the R party, began drifting toward sensibility, left the working world, had a child, got a divorce, went to law school, became a democrat. Then, in 1981, ... (just kidding).

[gauguin57]

50. work, then some grad school (w/part-time work), then more work. And NO BIG HAIR

Also experienced the end of a 13-year relationship (which should have ended after about 5 years!), went all over Europe (Eastern and Western), wrote a lot of newspaper articles and literature essays.

Listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

And hated hated hated Ronald Reagan.

And NEVER had big hair! I couldn't bring myself to do it! Big white-lace Peter Pan collars on my dresses, yes. Big shoulder pads, yes. But NO BIG HAIR.

[Mythsaje]

57. My hair wasn't big. Just long.

And, for the record, I want my mullet back!

[Breeze54]

75. My hair is still long...

;)

[Mythsaje]

77. My hair's too long to be managable...

I'm due for a haircut. My wife objects, but I'm in a service sector job and I have to look professional.

Besides, my hair's getting to the point I want to shave it all off rather than deal with it.

[DarkTirade]

108. Define 'long'?

:P

[Skittles]

51. lived in Austin

worked in the basement of the American Bank gold tower on 6th Street :D

[DarkTirade]

52. Growing up.

I'm at the very tail end of Gen X, as far as I can tell. Maybe a little overlap with Gen Y.

But since I barely watched TV growing up, I have to say I grew up in a slightly different 80s than most people here in the US. :)

[Mythsaje]

58. Sounds like my wife...

Though she's a little older. She was just in Germany throughout most of the eighties and TOTALLY misses American 80s pop culture references.

[DarkTirade]

66. I've caught up with some of them

but there are still plenty that sail right by me.

And I never had cable until I got to college and it was free in my college apartment.

Still never owned my own TV, but I usually had roommates that did. :)

[Angry Mollusk]

53. I was in high school, class of 1987

I was in jr high and high school in the 1980s, and was class of 1987.

I miss those days in jr high in the early 80s, coming home after school to watch MTV (back when they played music)

[marmar]

54. Another Gen-Xer who came of age in the '80s (Class of 1990)....

I was listening to Prince, watching The Cosby Show and The Breakfast Club, and wondering how a bad actor was re-elected as president.

And if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy - Punch a higher floor!" :headbang:

[Mythsaje]

59. I was dreaming when I wrote this, so forgive me if it goes astray...

Ah, yes. Can't forget Prince.

[jannyk]

55. I moved from London to the US in 1980 - Houston of all places -

I was 28, divorced for 5 years (no kids) and came on a 'whim'. Two years later I moved up to the Bay Area and within 4 weeks had met my current husband and got sort of 'stuck' here. Spent most of the 80's as a 'headhunter' in the semiconductor industry before opening my own business in 1991.

[lumberjack_jeff]

56. I graduated HS in 1980. I got married in 1983.

My first election was Reagan v Carter. I've earned my cynicism.

Other than that, and the 1983 recession, the 80's were pretty good to me.

The movies were awesome (I took three different dates to three consecutive showings of the double-bill of "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie" and "Caddy Shack")

The music rocked, although I never did really understand what Tom meant by living like a refugee, why my schoolmates Jack and Diane broke up and I never dialed 867-5309 (of course now it makes no sense; "where are the other three digits?")

The church of Joan Jett never really took off though. Bummer.

Being 18 was cool. I hope my own kids "hang onto sixteen as long as they can".

[Mythsaje]

62. Great Memories...

Caddyshack cracked me up, as did Airplane...but it took a second viewing of the latter for me to "get it." And then Ghostbusters, one of my favorite all time movies, which I waited two years to see after it was out of the theaters because I was afraid of the hype and wanted to decide for myself.

Remember "Jack and Diane" and "Hurt So Good."

Saw Joan Jett in concert last year at the Casino. Rocked. But the Benatar concert later on REALLY kicked ass. She sounds better than ever.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

60. In order:

Finishing my Ph.D., being unemployed and under-employed for three years, taking part in the nuclear freeze and anti-intervention movements (Central America), the first seven years of my eleven-year teaching career.

[AZBlue]

61. I was coming of age like you. I graduated HS in 84.

[Mythsaje]

63. I was Class of 84 too...

Though I was already wandering before I hit that point. I ended up having to go back years later and get my GED before going to college. I was SUCH a beatnik.

[AZBlue]

64. I graduated HS but not college

Still need to go back and finish that! :)

[davidinalameda]

144. class of 86 here

[NC_Nurse]

67. Having and raising children. Mine were born in 1982, '86, and '88.

I was a busy woman. :D

It was wonderful....sigh. Now they're all grown. B-)

[Breeze54]

74. Hey there NC_Nurse! Mine were born in '77, '79 & '88!

We have a lot in common! :hug:

Busy we were but mine too, are all legal now!

[shanti]

88. hey breeze4!

:hi: are you a grandmother now too? my first is due in june!:woohoo:

[Breeze54]

93. Hell no!! But congrats to you!

That's wonderful news! :D

No, my son's aren't into making babies right now... er... having babies! :rofl:

They are into making them or at least practicing. :P

My youngest better not be into having any babies right now!! ;)

Congratulations! Keep us posted! :D

[NC_Nurse]

121. We sure do have a lot in common!

No grandkids here yet either. ;) :hug:

[SalmonChantedEvening]

68. Excess, you?

Too much of just about everything.

[Mythsaje]

71. I have to say that I generally avoided excess

except for perhaps the physical abuse I inflicted on my body.

Otherwise everything else in moderation. Mostly.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

72. My counselor and I agreed on one thing.

I never had a problem with addiction, just consumption.

But doing piles of anything leaves scars. Holy does it ever.

[x-g.o.p.er]

76. Started the decade in junior high

Finished it as a warrant officer candidate at Ft Rucker, trying to learn how to fly helicopters.

In between was a year of college, marraige, and kids.

[treestar]

79. The earlier part in school and the middle and later part in my first

jobs.

It was a more rational time, even if conservative. It's only gotten worse since then, so comparatively, it was rational and sane.

As a lawyer, I can say the government was fairer and more reasonable than it is now. It was far less imperious. Even Reagan was mild compared to Bush - at least Reagan didn't claim the Presidency had the power to detain people indefinitely, etc.

It may have been the Decade of Greed, but it was merely the first one and the least so.

[sakabatou]

81. Being a toddler

[shanti]

82. getting divorced

raising 3 children and attending college as a single parent. yeah, that's it.

[Breeze54]

94. Hats off to you!

:applause: :applause:

[shanti]

83. duplicate post

SELF-DELETE

[blues90]

87. In was in my 30's and I was waiting for the 80's to end

[Pamela Troy]

89. I was living in Chapel Hill, going to graduate school

and posting to what would later be known as "the Internet."

The night Reagan got elected, our campus felt like a morgue. Even the young Republicans were a bit subdued. A mimeographed flyer went out the next day, posted in various places all over campus. The one sentence I remember from it was "We are in for a decades-long sh*t storm such as we have never seen." Very prescient.

[GreenPartyVoter]

90. Junior and senior high mostly

[Thothmes]

92. In the Navy during the entire decade

3 tours as a chief engineer, one on a group staff and one on the PEB

[Kat45]

96. Day after Reagan was elected, I was on the subway writing prettty bad, depressing poetry

reflecting my feelings that our country was heading into a very bad place.

As for the decade, I finished grad school, then got a totally unrelated job. Then I started writing for a local rock magazine and having a great time hanging out in the local rock scene (while still working at that totally unrelated job).

[EFerrari]

101. My babies started grade school and I went back to college.

I loved the eighties. There was a divorce in there somewhere but there was also our first house and some great summer trips to Yosemite. Man, I want a time machine. :)

[Nye Bevan]

104. Listening to Nik Kershaw and Adam and the Ants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBzbdo2LjU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgHbt0ODr4

[tchunter]

105. first half, i think i was just DNA, second half: LEGOS

[Catchawave]

Soccer Mom !

My other job was commanding officer's wife :D

[Angry Mollusk]

106. It was a time when MTV played music- and good music at that

I miss the days of rushing home to watch MTV- Granted, MTV created a whole generation of 'one hit wonder' artists, but some of them were great bands..who can foget the videos for

'Take On Me' by Ah Ha
'Sledge Hammer' by Peter Gabriel
'Shock The Monkey' by Peter Gabriel
'Goody Two Shoes' Adam Ant
'Down under' by Men At Work
'Thriller' by Michael Jackson
'Tempted By The Fruit Of Another' by Squeeze
'Rock Me Like a hurricane' by the Scorpions
'Heat Of The Moment' by Asia
'Owner Of A Lonley Heart' by Yes
'Satisfaction' by Devo
'Love Shack' by the B-52s

Man, I miss the music of the 8os....
Music of the 90s was totally fogettable in comparison

[DarkTirade]

136. MTV did what what not?

I find that hard to imagine... :P

[nookiemonster]

107. Graduated HS in 87,

spent the rest of the eighties working Minuteman II silos in South Dakota (USAF). I was promised that there was a woman behind every tree, as if there were TREES! Bah!

:)

[tedoll78]

109. Still living at home.

Born in '78, so..

Went to Catholic school and got good grades. Mom and Dad worked hard to afford the loans for school; I'll always be thankful for the education I got.
Caught bugs and lizards and frogs along the canal banks.
Climbed trees.
Began my love affair with all things Nintendo (ZELDA!).
Rode my bike everywhere, and got in trouble for riding all the way from Kenner to New Orleans' city limit when I was 11.
Started having funny feelings for other boys around 1989; it scared the crap outta me back then.

My suburb actually still had some undeveloped acreage nearby back then (it's all paved with condos & ticky-tacky houses now), so I'd grab a machete and cut trails through the woods to observe wildlife.

It was a great childhood, in retrospect.

[marmar]

110. Speaking of '80s....I'm watching Purple Rain on VH1 as I write this.....

.... Despite some of the worst acting on record, it's still a great music movie.

[Mythsaje]

120. Damn fine album...

So, yeah, as a music movie, it HAD to be good.

But, yeah, the acting sucked.

[Fire Walk With Me]

111. Being utterly disgusted at the utter vacuity surging and oozing all around me.

Laughing at the hair bands that everyone else now laughs at. Raging at Reagan. Colleging and getting into the then-new negative musics in rebellion at the pure emptiness of society (which was the wrong direction for me, overall).

Excepting some really good electronic and alternative music, the 80s should be severed from reality and forgotten.

[EFerrari]

113. Nooooooooooo! The 80s was when my 10 yr old introduced me

to Bob Marley!

[Fire Walk With Me]

115. I said excepting the good music, didn't I?

:)

[EFerrari]

117. Yes, you did. My bad. My oldest turned into one of those good alt music types.

And I'm pretty sure his old man is out there playing folk music in coffee bars. lol

[Fire Walk With Me]

130. Please allow me to officially extend my love to you and Marley :)

[Serenades]

112. Kid

Playing with toys.

[Feron]

114. I was 3-12 yrs. old.

I remember:

-Watching MTV when they played music videos especially Madonna and Michael Jackson in the early 80s. Later I became a big George Michael, Debbie Gibson, and NKOTB fan.

-Spending 30 minutes every morning in the later 80s creating explosion bangs. It's not easy with thick hair. Crimping my hair was a lot easier.

-I did sport a mullet at one point. LOL!

-Watching the Challenger explosion on TV.

-Playing with Barbies, My Little Ponies, and Breyer horses.

-My family moved to a subdivision that was largely unbuilt. The neighborhood kids including myself would play in the woods and make little clubs in them. We would also pick berries in the spring.

Overall I generally had a good time.

[ThatsMyBarack]

116. Homework, homework, homework!

For that reason, I'm happy to be a "retired student"! :woohoo:

[tammywammy]

119. Pre-school, kindergarten, elementary school

I was born in 1980

[MountainLaurel]

124. I was in the 2nd grade through high school

In a poverty-stricken state. I saw my friends' parents and family members striking in the coal mines over safety violations and poor pay, as their jobs were replaced by machines. For an hour two days a week, I sat in a gifted classroom that was literally in a janitorial closet that barely had heat. I sat in a pretty white-steepled church that taught that AIDS was a gift from God and that mental illness didn't exist. I nearly lost a sibling because my father couldn't be bothered to lock away his guns. I attended a high school where we couldn't drink the water for weeks at a time, and where students walked out in protest because of it. I spent three years wondering when my friend's boyfriend was going to make good on his threats to kill her. I spent my summers at the town pool and marching practice, playing with my brother and watching soap operas with my gram. I moved across town to a different world, in which more than one of my playmates would end up incarcerated. I walked my furry best friend around town, to the creek and the park. I spent Sundays in the woods with my cousins, making the most of our imaginations.

[doni_georgia]

125. Graduated high school 82 - in college or grad school rest of decade

I was the anti-Alex Keaton during the 80s. Active in progressive causes and groups, protesting, shopping at thrift stores, demanding my right to not conform.

[Xenotime]

126. The 80s were great. More was better

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

127. I was elementary school. n/t

[ChazII]

128. Learning about Neurofibromatosis

and getting a divorce. A very ego centric time but born of necessity.

[drmeow]

131. In 1981 I was a senior in HS

and taking a required class in economics (one semester). One night I was sitting with my boyfriend telling him how Reagan's economic policies were the same as were in place right before the Great Depression and were thus likely to put us into another Great Depression. (Many years later I found out that my boyfriend, who also was in the required class, had no clue what I was talking about.) What I didn't understand at the time was how long it would take to completely destroy the US economy.

As for what else I was doing in the 80's: graduating HS; starting, dropping out of, going back to, and graduating from college; working for an environmental consulting firm; dancing my butt off; dying my hair awesome colors; wearing mismatched earrings; and smoking a hell of a lot of dope.

[AnnieBW]

132. Graduated HS in '83

Graduated college in '87. And all that time, I still couldn't get "big hair" the way that most girls in the '80's had it.

[leftyclimber]

133. High school class of '88.

Seventeen during the election. Not happy that I couldn't vote, when almost all the other college freshmen did (this was at the University of Oregon, where politics were pretty serious business in the undergraduate population).

I was in sixth grade when Reagan got shot. I was a junior in HS during Iran-Contra.

I think if I said I was in the drama club in HS I wouldn't need to explain more, but you'll have to get back to me on that. ;)

[WheelWalker]

134. I was building hand trail and fighting fires in the wilderness. n/t

[mattfromnossa]

135. hmm...

i was rocking out to new wave.

[DireStrike]

137. The Real Ghostbusters and Muppet Babies

Oh yeah and NES.

[kineneb]

139. BA in 1981, got married

moved to SF Bay Area and tried to live on Hubby's low wages. Spent most of the time clinically depressed, don't have too many memories.

[FlyingSquirrel]

140. Wackin off

:freak:

[union_maid]

141. Raising kids, getting older

Getting sadder because of Reagan and the rise of regressive politics and what seemed to be the wipe out of years of hard won advances. Waiting for things to turn around and not knowing how to make that happen. Waiting for the internets to be invented so we could once again connect with like-minded people.

[0007]

142. By the time the eighties rolled around I had been out of High School

for forty years, and had lived a full life up to that point in time.

Are you writing a book or are you just bored?

[dysfunctional press]

145. dropping out of college to work heavy construction...

and looking for someone to love and be loved by.

didn't happen that decade.

[Jennicut]

146. Born in 1975, I remember the Challenger blowing up and the Iran-Conta Hearings

I was in the cafeteria at school for lunch time. I think I was in 5th grade. It was announced over the loudspeaker and some kids started crying as one of the people killed was a school teacher. I also remember the Iran-Contra Hearings and I think that started my dislike of Republicans as their dumb scandal was interrupting my soaps. God, I used to watch General Hospital with my Mom when I got home from school as it was on at 3:00pm. Those were the mems. My parents were and still are conservative Republicans and my parents and their neighbors thought Reagan did nothing wrong but I knew then I didn't like these guys. I was a smart kid.

[ngGale]

147. Working + Soccer mom...

Dance school with daughter, sports with the boys...watching "Dallas" - "Knots Landing" - pretty cloths with shoulder pads. And...

IRAN CONTRA - which led us to the mess we live in today. Same people, different year!

[Kitty Herder]

148. I was in elementary school. I turned thirteen at the tail end of 1989, was a teen in the 90s. nt

[MrSlayer]

149. Turned 10 in 1980. The 80's ruled.

It was one big party for me. The real world sucks.

[orleans]

151. i was reveling in the "Decade of Decadence"

from the mid seventies to the later part of the 1980's

then i had my little girl and fell in love
and spent the next several years in what i lovingly refer to as babyland