The 80s

I'm going to pause with my usual takes on books and movies and pay hommage to the 80s. VH1 eat your heart out!

We had just moved back from Florida, back to Indiana, back to Penbrook dr. when I discovered MTV. It was night time, and I was wearing a pair of Strawberry Shortcake Pjs. My mother was spending the night and the t.v. was on. We had one of those old televisions that you had to turn the channels that made a hum-click noise as you flipped through them. Mostly I remember flipping past the news and stuff until I stopped on a channel that had what we now call a video on it. I remember being spellbound because I wasn't really exposed to alot of rock music outside of what my mom played on the radio or what was on my step-dad's 8track in his green Chevy Nova. The song was Video Killed the Radio Star and from that moment, I was a bonafide fan!

The 80s, we had all the great toys, Strawberry Shortcake, Barbie, the Rubix cube, Teddy Ruxpin(which kind of creeped me out), and the decade of the board games. There was also the fashions of shoulder pads, hyper colors, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper-the fashion divas, and the men of the 80s. I have to say who ever made it a fashion statement for men to sport the combo of a perm mullet with a porno'stace should be shot! Sears was popular for their Lauren Ashley collections for girls and women everywhere, which can still be worn by women who belong to cults and the women of most LDS plural marriage compounds. Then to save all us normal people, we had bands like Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, and others of the Hair Band persuason that introduced us to ripped jeans*which I was forbidden to wear*, Aquanet, a tease comb, and the wonderful world of t-shirts. Just about every resturant was still providing the ambiance of Harvest Gold, Burt Orange, and Brown motifs that now remind you of a Truck stop. No one cared about their arteries or cholestrol in the 80s or wearing sunblock. Milk was still bought in cartons and Coke Cola came in glass bottles. Shows like Little House on the Prairie, Air Wolf, A-Team, and Dallas were the shows people watched. Friday nights were split between the latest horror movie block and MTV's Video countdowns. There were no reality shows, unless you watched PTL, the Jim Bakker show or you caught the Jerry Lewis Telethon. We all wanted to be on the Bozo show and win the Schwinn Bike or on Double Dare. HBO was the "naughty network" but gets props because they had Fraggle Rock and Brain Games. I used to spend weekends at my mom's just to be able to watch the channel that I was forbidden to watch at home. Every morning we all watched Happy's Place, where they showed Thunder Cats and Jem and the Holograms. In the after noon we caught Levar Burton for Reading Rainbow. Benji was the new Lassie, and we all wanted to be Savannah Smiles. Women's hair was either big and feathered or they were sporting the "power hair cut" to go with their power suits. A short cut that was cut at odd angles.Something no one in their right mind would wear today, but then again grown men and women are still sporting the mullet, because if they weren't, Jeff Foxworthy would be out of a job!

I remember up until the Challenger Explosion, schools made shuttle launches a big deal, where all of us would gather in the gym to watch them go up into space. I think through the biggest part of my elementary school years, my teachers had an obsession with the animated versions of The Hobbit,Lord of the Rings, and Charlotte's Web. Brooke Shields,Punky Brewster, Jo Kolnecheck, and Tootie were the girls we all wanted to be. We all fell hard for Patrick Swayzee, Chad Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Keefer Southerland, Keanu Reeves, Billy Wirth, and Matt Dillon. I saw the move Little Darlings and Tex and was forever hooked on Matt Dillon!

I could go on and on, but all in all the 80s were pretty good to me and most of the 90s. I feel like one of those old couples that goes on about the '50s and '60s. Don't worry I won't, but I get now why people like that talk about their generations-because I find myself going back now and again and I want to just hang out there one last time, but that's an impossibility so I snap myself to the present. So that's my 80s moment y'all and I'll be back with more great books and movies to talk to you about!