posted
I'm only 13, so I don't know what it was like to live in the eighties. I've heard of lots and lots of eighties movies and fads, but I would really like to know what it was like to live in the wonderful decade that is the eighties!
Posts: 42 | From: Vernon, New Jersey | Registered: Jul 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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it was great for me..from the great space coaster show,to mtv starting..so many great memories,wow! I think of the 00's,the new version of the 80's.. especially with the look back onto the 80's,on mtv and vh1..and I think the music of now,is just like the music of the 80's,or a tribute to the 80's..Especially bands like the Ataris,Lennon,Dashboard Confessional,The Donnas,
yeah the 80's were great... lol hope this post helps.. Posts: 2 | From: port saint lucie,florida | Registered: Jul 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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Sorry Nick, I can't help you out very much.. I was born in 1984.. but I have a pretty good memory, I can remember 1986.
I remember being scared of teenagers.. they seemed so strange, the clothes they wore, their hair.. they also seemed so old to me, I thought that they knew everything and never had any problems!
They also looked like the people on MTV... and I remember the cartoons.. Jem, The Smurfs, Thundercats, Inspector Gadget, Danger Mouse, Ghostbusters.
Duckie Posts: 54 | From: A Smoky Jazz Club | Registered: Jul 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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mamamiasweetpeaches
She's with you, but she's thinking of Jake Ryan....
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I think teenagers were a lot more carefree and lookin for a good time,rather than the angst-ridden grungey teens you see today. For a better idea of how it was watch VH1 classic 80s videos or movies like 16 Candles,Breakfast Club.Fast Times at ridgemont High,The Wild Life, Pretty In Pink,Ferris Buellers Day Off........
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mamamiasweetpeaches
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another totally 80s movie was on cable last night so I taped it:Secret Admirer! thats how I remember teenagers dressing in the 80s.
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I was born in 1988... but there wasn't a single day of my life I didin't wish I had had born ten years before.
Posts: 65 | From: lisbon, portugal | Registered: Aug 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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Oh, did you ask the right question, or I feel like I am the perfect person for this one. I loved growing up in the 80's. I graduated in 1986. So, being a kid in the 70's, I had all the best cartoons-like Hong Kong Phooey, Magilla Gorilla, The Great Grape Ape, I mean you lived for Saturday Morning cartoons, and the Kroft Show-with Land of the Lost and the Far Out Space Nuts and the Bugaloos. I loved regular tv, like Happy Days, and Three's Company, and lived for Dallas on Friday nights. I loved Charlie's Angels, and Wonder Woman, and the Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man. I have talked about the food I miss, and the clothes-(designer jeans-especially). I remember my Aunt taking all her jeans and sticking elastic around all the ankles, and dying white ones purple. Does anyone remember watching Donny & Marie, or Sonny & Cher-I am sure I watched reruns in the 80's.And The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew-I was in their fan club. How about Dynamite magazine? How about getting the tv guide and not being able to put it down? I loved Solid Gold, and That's Incredible-which is suppose to be having a reunion. Everything was so cool. I had a great family, and my own life at times,looking back, feels like out of alot of these movies all put together. Nothing was scary like it is now, I lived in a small town, and knew everyone, and rode my bike everywhere, and wasn't afraid someone would grab me. You could leave yours keys in the car and your door unlocked. In high school, for fun we would have chinese firedrills,on friday nights and ride through town in our pajamas, and then get out at the stop light and run around, wearing chinese straw hats, and change drivers. We'd be in clubs-like Campus Life-, and have waterballoon fights. Going on a date was fun, we went with groups of our friends, no one I knew had ever even knew what drugs were, I have never tried smoking or drinking to this day, because noone I knew ever did, and I never felt any pressure on me. In 7th grade I remember the Rubik's cube was the hottest form of entertainment,or playing UNO or the Mad Magazine Card Game, or going to the arcade with a pocket full of quarters, and being completely addicted to Pac-Man. The music was great, the bands were the best. I actually feel really bad for kids now, including my own, who can only imagine it, but I lived it, and I have had a great life too. I remember always having a friend spend the night, or I was at a friends' and there wasn't the meanness there is in school with the way kids treated each other. My graduating class was really close.Kids don't hang out with each other like they used to. For fun, we'd watch Benny Hill , or the old Saturday Night Live reruns-with Bill Murray and Chevy Chase. Comedy was actually funny- and not disgusting. For summer vacation you hung out all day, all summer long, and played games, and rode your bike for an ice cream cone and would go swim in the creek, and nobody cared about what they were doing. Everyone is so uptight now, and thinks about what everyone else thinks of them. It's why I am so glad there is this great site, because I miss it so much, and it isn't just the movies I miss, it's the feeling I had, at that time of my life. I could go on forever, but I hope that everyone else on here, who did grow up in the 80's has similiar memories too, I guess alot has to do with where you lived too. But, I am grateful, for that period of my life, and who I am now because of the experiences I had then.
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TKO
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quote:Originally posted by isis9968: I miss it so much, and it isn't just the movies I miss, it's the feeling I had, at that time of my life. I could go on forever, but I hope that everyone else on here, who did grow up in the 80's has similiar memories too
See what you made me do now, Isis… Now I’m crying, sniff… No, serious. I recognize a lot of my own memories in your story and I miss it too. But you know what? We’ve been there and they never can take that away from us.
Yes, the 80’s were great. They should make some kind of 80’s theme park for all of us to enjoy, now that would be neat. Posts: 1058 | From: Echo Beach, far away in time | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 8
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I am glad someone else can relate. I had a birthday party for my son this year, and it was all retro. I got all the prizes off Ebay- and did all the treat bags with 80's candies I got from different places, and the kids loved it-and I even put the Garbage Pail Kid trading Cards-unopened packs, which they all opened, and tried to chew 20 year old gum, they loved the cards, but said the gum was yucky-I forgot to tell them not to stick it in their mouth, geez! I only played 80's music. They played hot potato to Do the Donkey Kong-another big hit by Buckner and Garcia-hehehe, and I gave the winner a big stuffed Donkey Kong Doll from the 80's. I even gave out a prize for the best dressed retro kid, I had some kids dress like Kiss-so that was kind of cool. We have a huge Halloween party too, I actually might be in the Oct/Nov issue of a national magazine, my party pictures went over really well, with this company I get alot of recipes from, they called me yesterday, my house might actually be being photgraphed for another magazine, So maybe 1 day I will be famous, and consider that 80's theme park. Hehehe. I would love to have a diner-like in Back to the Future, with a mini golf place on the side, you could make it all 80's with a Pac-Man trying to eat your golf ball, before it gets in the hole, right???
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EVEN HERE IN THE ISLANDS, THINGS ARE MIRROR IMAGE OF WHAT IS HAPPEINING IN THE BIG COUNTRIES....IT'S SO SAD....THESE DAYS.., EVERYTHING ARE ALMOST 100% ARTIFICIAL...NOT MUCH ORIGINALITY LEFT....
Posts: 58 | From: Palau | Registered: Aug 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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Yep, it totally bums me out, that the only feeling of what the 80's were like are just left to the movies now, cause nothing is the same in the world now. It is a total drag. I remember in 7th grade, we had no mall near where I lived, to go to one, you took a field trip, with the Home Ec club, and you maybe had a little money, for something to eat, but with $10 bucks, you could get in to a movie, you could get something to eat, you could buy some 45 records, and some cool hair accessories or jewelry. It was a blast taking a trip to the mall, now no one hardly ever goes to the ones around us. I remember sneeking in to see Arthur at the movies, and thinking my mom will kill me if I saw a PG movie by myself. That is so mild now, compared to regular tv. I like the song by Eddie Money- I wanna go back, cause I wish I could, and relive it all over again.
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Good discussion going. I pass my old house from time to time where I grew up in the early 80's, and I always feel nostalgic, just seemed like yesterday that my little sister was listening to Culture club in the room next to me. I know we had the wedding singer movie, but there should be more films like Peggy Sue got married only set in the 80's. I find a lot of bands from New York have that 80's style. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Faint, Ex models, Selby Tigers, Epoxies, Radio 4 and Soviet in particular.
Posts: 4413 | From: Where the streets have no name | Registered: Oct 2002 | Site Updates: 0
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Well, it is wonderful to know that I wasn't the only one with these type of memories.
I attended high school from 1980-84. So i got to live out some of the 70s which was very cool too, and spend most of my teenager years in the 80s.
How great were they? The 80s was a non stop time of fun. Between the movies, music, arcade games, toys, candy, etc. I have a friend that is almost 21 and he asks me. The same question asked here and there "What was it like?" I tell him it was all the material stuff but it was also a general feeling of hapinness, fun at every turn, and just more mellow and carefree.
I to grew up in a generally small town. I look back now and say to myself boy did I have a lot fun there. Riding my bicycle everywhere, hanging out friends, building tree forts, going to the arcade, movies, chuck e cheese, etc. Life was different then. We would watch tv but not all day like some do now. I would watch my prime time shows like Threes company, different strokes, and watch my saturday morning cartoons like the superfriends, and reruns of bullwinkle and rocky. But I would go outside and get dirty and play sports etc.
As Isis said, I really never felt in danger going around in my bicycle. I would disappear for many hours and nothing would happen. Life was more easy going. People were not as corrupt as now.
After studing sociology as my undergrad, and looking back. I think part of the downfall was the indroduction of 24 hour cable and then later the internet. I dont watch tv (actually cancelled cable) much anymore other than to pick up an occasion out of print vhs or a new special edition dvd of something 80s or 70s. I love the internet however but most people dont use it to its full potential. The internet it seems, to some has replaced socializing, and generally it's trying to replace Tv. I think cable as good as Mtv was in the beginning became a focal point to place trends into peoples minds and the focus of being really good looking started with Mtv. So people started to emulate it. At first it was cute but as the years went into the late 80s. It wasn't as cute anymore and dont get me started what I saw as college students in the 90s. Can anyone say **** poor atitude, take a shower, take off those three shirts arent you hot, and stop whining about nothing.
I returned to university in my late 20s to finish what I should of done then. So I have a unique perpective. What I notice now is that people are really uptight as Isis says. They are walking billboards for companies or music artists. They are afraid to be themselves it seems and generally just more mean spirited. I have wrote somewhere on this forum about man vs woman releations compared to the 80s. I will sum it up Men trying to cool afraid to talk to women because of what will people think syndrome. Women being to harsh to men. Women also worried what people would think. Men and women with no imagination and generally afraid and with no guts.
How great were the 80s? Like I told my young friend. Way better than now. The whole feeling of how people thought and did was different. I tell him of my life like Isis said was a mixture of most of these 80s films. That was how it was like. My friends usually says wow was it really like that. I say well not everything happened in one day like they potray it. But i can relate to many a film character or events in these films. It was really like this in the 80s. I would do anything to go back there. I wouldn't return because I would know things would change and most things not for the better.
Current I am a graduate student in the Master of Science of Marrage Family Therapy program. It is going to be interesting to see if any older people are in my classes. So I can get there take on the 80s. I realize things change but man did they ever. Popular culture sure wasn't what it was like in the 80s and 70s.
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It was really cool to see someone else with the same type of memories as me. I mean, everyone I grew up with shared it, but I don't see alot of people my age, that dwell on it, like I do. I feel so glad to have been single then, and dating was a blast-and I would hate to be single now, and try and meet people-like through the internet. People are crazy, and it is hard to trust anybody. I knew I was safe, with people I didn't even know that well then, because you could just know it, and the media hadn't bombarded everyone with the crazy news that people are addicted to now. Reality Shows drive me crazy. I hate every one of them, who's reality is that? Like the Bachelor- like all these women are going to be attracted to this complete stranger they have never laid eyes on before, and he has to pick a wife, give me a break. Women are obsessed with their bodies, and changing themselves, to be this image of a person that doesn't really exist. It scares me to see what teenagers go through now, and what they take on themselves, and the bad images they have of themselves, and how they see themselves. I don't know how that happened, and we got so far away from quality tv and movies. I may get flack for this, but I hate the sitcoms out now, they aren't funny, they are gross, and they show no kind of moral values for kids to relate to. It is really bad. I can't even stand the commercials. Bring back, Where's the Beef? and YaknowwhatImean? The cool Pepsi commercials. I just want to be able to drink Pepsi from a glass bottle again. Coke is doing it, maybe it will happen. I swear as soon as I decided I really love something, they take it off the market. The other thing, I thought of, about being able to play outside, and not be in fear, what kid really does that anymore-that builds forts in the woods, we did it all over town, and had club houses, and now, people would flip- someone would turn you in for littering or something stupid, kids have it rough. Like the Goonies- they would be written up for a public eye sore or something, for all the stuff in the yard. I love the whole underlying message to The NeverEnding Story-the 1st one, where if people loose sight of their dreams and don't dare to really live, then everything will be destroyed, and there will be nothing left. I believe that. I feel like it's happening all around us constantly, and no one is doing anything to stop it. That's why I'd take Ronald Reagan any day of the week now, to get away from where we are going in the world now.
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quote:Originally posted by Nick Napolitano: I'm only 13, so I don't know what it was like to live in the eighties. I've heard of lots and lots of eighties movies and fads, but I would really like to know what it was like to live in the wonderful decade that is the eighties!
You probably won't believe this, because someone your age would probably see the 80's as your mom and dad's decade, but the truth is that the 1980's were basically just like now. The technology wasn't as advanced as now, but that can't be helped. Your computer will be outdated in 5 years. The fashions and music were different too, but "the way life was" was the way it is now.
I was born in 1977, so I grew up in the 80's. If someone told me the 60's were basically like the 80's back in the actual 80's I don't think I would have believed them. I kinda had it in my head that back in the 60's there must have been hippies on every street corner, and everyone was a John Lennon/Beattles fan or Vietnam War protestor. These days I see kids thinking that back in the 80's every guy dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice, and ever girl dressed like Madonna and that every fad and fashion were going on every year from 1980-1989 non-stop. Obviously that's not the way it happened.
Life was basically just like now. So I don't know if you will believe this. When you're a kid you have a rather warped view of the decades you weren't part of. I know when I was about your age in the late 80's, I thought that the previous decades must have been really different, after all, look at the crusty old adults that are a product of those times. You got to get older to probably understand that the past decades really weren't all that different from "your time". People lived, had fun, had misery, went to school, went to work and repeat.
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Born 1977 as well, yeh I think Kevin S has summed it up perfectly.
Although I will say that the 1980s wasn't as hectic as the times we live in now. People seemed to have a lot more time and respect for one another back then.
Also, I think we was happier back then when we had less, like we appreciated what we had and it weren't taken for granted, if you know what I mean. Erm sometimes more is less?
Oh yeah you also woke up on saturday mornings to great cartoons like Thundercats and Dungeons & Dragons.
Before the advent of SKY & Cable it was always a big deal when there was a major movie event on television (we only had 4 basic television channels).
In particular during christmas time, folks would go out and by their copies of Radio Times and TV Times. Then plan out what they was going to watch during the christmas holidays, not everybody had video recorders. So when movies like Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Superman 3, The Karate Kid, Ferris Bueller and all that stuff aired on television it was a real big deal.
It's all about personal memories, for me Public Enemy, Bomb the Bass, The Goonies, The Karate Kid, Michael Jackson, my blue Raleigh BMX with mag wheels sums it up for me.
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^I definately remember getting excited over the "movies of the week" back in the 80's!! They were sorta like events like you say. I watched the first two Karate Kid films when they were shown on NBC towards the late 80's. I saw Back to the Future on NBC back around 1987 too. And I remember me and my older brother used our old two-piece 400 pound VCR to record Superman: The Movie off of ABC back around 1984.
Yeah, if you had no cable, and since renting videos weren't as big as now, these little movies of the weeks were a BIG deal for us back then.
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I think from about 1988- to now- it is pretty much the same. But, from the late 70's to 1987- it was not the same as it is now, at all. I can see the moment in my life, where things really did a complete 180- I had thought it was just me, and where I was at, at that time in my own life, but now, I know that it changed for everyone and not just me right around then too. It isn't that I grew up then either- cause I really don't think I will ever totally "grow" up- I like to have fun and goof around, I think people are way too serious now, over nothing. The 90's are a total blur to me, I couldn't tell you something that happened in the media in 1995 to 1998 or 1992-it's all the same. But, give me trivia question from the 80's, and I can pretty much nail it, a song, anything. There isn't anything worthwhile going on in the media, now that's worth remembering. All I can remember is horrid news topics-like OJ Simpson- The Mendez Brothers, Waco, Lorena Bobbit, Amy Fisher, Tonya Harding, Pam Smart, Columbine,Robert Blake,-so many things- The Oklahoma City Bombings, then the worst- 9-11, it was one tragic event after another. I don't remember stuff like that in the 80's. The 70's had alot of crazy nuts in it- Charles Manson, and Jim Jones and all that stuff. But, I definately think the early 80's were nothing like now-that's why I want to go back and sit in 1985 for the rest of my life.
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Kevin, I also recall during the 1980s that Friday and Saturday nights over here in the UK, seemed to be reserved for horror films on BBC 1 and ITV.
I still remember vividly staying over at my cousins house during the mid 80s weekends and being allowed to stay up late to watch movies like Halloween, Amityville 2, Children of the Corn, Cats Eye, The Thing, Psycho 2, Omen 2, The Changeling, The Fog, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Chiller etc etc when they all aired for the first time on UK network television.
It was such a big deal, and it was worth all the sleepless nights that the scary movies gave me!
We also used to have this show called Murder, Mystery, Suspense which aired all these made for tv horror and thriller flicks such as Killdozer, When Michael Calls, Timebomb etc hah hah great entertainment.
I still remember when Indiana Jone and the Temple of Doom first came on TV wow! Also, Back to the Future was shown during Xmas 1988, great days, great movies.
We also had this programme called Film 84 (then it became Film 85, 86, 87, 88 etc as the years progressed of course).
I would tune into it just to catch glimpse of all these movies that were coming out and would not see for sometime. Clips of movies like Friday the 13th Part 4, Big Trouble in Little China, Gremlins, Rocky 4, Aliens, The Lost Boys, Top Gun and all that stuff it seemed like a real big deal when you was a kid growing up
Ha ha I also recall recording The Beastmaster when it came on tv back in 1987. Me my brother and my cousins probably watched that movie at least 9 times after that recording.
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