[NCalHippie]

I guess I mostly missed the 80's, married in '77 and starting a family with three young boys. Nearly every spare minute was spent working on four wheel drives and camping in the High Sierra's.

 

[ttkciar]

Since a lot of movie plots are obsoleted by cellphones and other tech, some movie makers have set their movies in the 1980s, to give characters an excuse to ask a stranger if they can come inside to use their phone, and such. I've been rather enjoying it.

MaleVolent is such a one. They did a really good job of keeping the cars, tech, decor, clothes, etc all 1980s.

 

[ajole]

When I think of the 80’s, I think about parachute pants, members only jackets, girls with jellies and big hair.

I think about bands like Journey, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, Ratt and Foreigner.

I remember the Cutlass Supreme and the Monte Carlo were very popular cars.

I was 30 minutes too late to buy a T-Top Monte Carlo with a stick shift. $2500. I don't remember if it was a late '70's or an early '80's model. Man was in lust for that thing!

I saw Bon Jovi and Def Leppard in Mannheim at Monsters of Rock in '86, I'm somewhere in that picture of the crowd Def Leppard put inside their album. Saw Ratt in '87, even got a photo. AC/DC in Karlsruhe, Heart at the Rosengarten in Mainz...good times.

 

[Mr. Sockpuppet]

Porky's was a fun film to watch when it was released...Especially that shower scene.

After years of economic malaise and foreign policy disasters, Reagan was inaugurated January 20, 1981. That was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union and their Eastern Bloc satellite nations.

Reagan (barely) survived an assassinated attempt by John Hinkley, just 2 months after becoming president.

Cocaine went big.

Margaret Thatcher became PM of Britain.

Gasoline was still relatively affordable, for even those with a minimum wage job.

The Personal Computer became Time's "Person of the Year" in 1982.

Mt. St. Helen's erupted.

Chernobyl melted down.

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X becomes the first commercially available cell phone.

Game 3 of the World Series in Candlestick Park was interrupted by an Earthquake.

Canada gained official independence from the United Kingdom, though the throne still remains the head of state.

PATCO went on strike, and were fired.

The Berlin Wall fell.

 

[Vinegar Joe]

My start of the 1980s reminded me of the 1970s - about the same.

POTUS Reagan got shot. Jury found Hinkley mentally ill.

The civil war in Lebanon had some of us "worried".

I remember Nixon's Vice Pres Spiro Agnew getting convicted and other events related events hoing on leading to the overall palace coup d'.

Forgot when but vaguely remember one of the Beatles got killed. Had thought NYC had strict gun control.

Toward the end of decade, remember that the Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK got a wind generator. Virginia was not the first.

With Margaret Thatcher getting PM job in UK, I know the world wasn't exploding away.

LTC Ollie North of Reagan staff got convicted re Iran-Contra. In D.C. blaming anything on a LTC (pay grade 0-5) is like blaming an infant for something outside the swamp.

Not too much is new under the sun.

 

[Sailorsam]

it was nice to be able to get good music on your radio
all crap today

and we got to catch an eyeful of Kathy Ireland, Debbie Harry, Adrienne Barbeau, Phoebe Cates...

 

[Jim from 28DaysLater]

You're right. They've become militant, and since the political system won't allow them to defeat the majority, they no longer care to play the game, they want to change it. They're doing that two ways; use the media to change public opinion by hiding the truth and emphasizing the lies, and change the political system by any means necessary. Fraud, corruption, whatever it takes to destroy faith in the system and make it non-functional; so that people WANT a change; that way their offer sounds like a viable option, despite all the horrific historical lessons telling us it's NOT.

It's definitely getting a little Orwellian around here.

 

[Faultyphoenix]

Grew up in the 80s I guess. I don't listen to music or watch tv now. Before I got married in the late 80s, I hung out with a few high school buddies. Lot of "dungeon and dragon" type movies. Lot of going out and shooting. Out drinking until the sports teams discovered our favorite place and ruined it. Was also in the national guard then and helping my dad do a lot of firewood cutting.

 

[Jim from 28DaysLater]

In the old days, almost everyone I knew was really negative on metal and rock that wasn't Metallica, Pantera, or similar. I think it kind of influenced me.

Now I'm getting more open-minded, and and checking more things out from the old days. I'm finding a lot of old stuff that I never would have given a shot in the old days, but is great for me now.

I moved during the pandemic. One of the first things that happened to me around here was I found a music store in a mall with a huge display of tapes. The tapes aren't that useful to me, but just seeing all those names and albums was really inspiring to me. It gave me a lot of good ideas for things to check out.

Real nostalgic for metal kind of stuff from the 80s.

Another thing, kind of similar, that gets me like that is the sword and sorcery, dungeons n dragons, fantasy art aesthetic from the 80s.

Golden Axe, Gauntlet, The Himalaya...

I don't think we really have the same thing today-- GOT, LOTR, and all the video games. It's nice to see it return to movies, and get big budget special effects of today, for sure. Except that it's all too different, and a little overwhelming. It's really not quite what I wanted for that stuff. Can't say I'm a GOT fan, and only watched the LOTR movies one time. Haven't stopped in for The Hobbit 🤣

What gets me more now is I would really read medieval history books now, or really read anthropology books or military history books about the middle ages or earlier.

I really liked when Conan, and the little thief with the bows and arrows, and Valeria went into the cult headquarters with all the camouflage paint on, and rescued the princess. That was GNARLY

 

[Jim from 28DaysLater]

Was kinda weird when I walked by a big display of Star Wars toys in a Target today, though...

Back in the 90s, you would have said something like, "Dangit, my kids will NEVER get to experience anything cool that's Star Wars, because George Lucas will never get off his butt again and make anything..."

 

[1911Glock]

I was 30 minutes too late to buy a T-Top Monte Carlo with a stick shift. $2500. I don't remember if it was a late '70's or an early '80's model. Man was in lust for that thing!

I saw Bon Jovi and Def Leppard in Mannheim at Monsters of Rock in '86, I'm somewhere in that picture of the crowd Def Leppard put inside their album. Saw Ratt in '87, even got a photo. AC/DC in Karlsruhe, Heart at the Rosengarten in Mainz...good times.

You have good taste in music, my friend! I saw Ratt, in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1985. It was the Invasion of Your Privacy Tour. It just so happens that Bon Jovi opened for Ratt. I saw AC/DC, in Shreveport, in 1986. That was The Who Made Who Tour. I saw Def Leopard, in the early 90’s, in Houston.

Man, that music was good!!! I’m mellowing out now. I still listen to that music, but the concerts are in my distant past. We did make an exception for Lionel Richie, a couple of years, in Las Vegas.

I wanted one of those Monte Carlos! The only problem was, my income didn’t allow for that. I was a sacker, in a Safeway grocery store. My $3.35 an hour job, just didn’t allow for such luxury. LOL I supplemented my income, by tinting windows on cars.

I drove a 1982 Chevy S-10, that I bought in 1984 for $4,700. It had 60,000 miles on it. It was a good truck, but my teenage driving skills sent it to an early grave, when I wrecked it. I got a well deserved ticket for that act of stupidity!

Those were the days! LOL

 

[Jojo]

Best parts of the 80's:
Living in Manhattan before Times Square turned into Disneyland
Camping out for 3 days to get tickets to Pink Floyd The Wall at Nassau Coliseum - $125.00
Making friends in that line I still have - priceless.
Outdoor music festivals.
Meeting Andy Warhol, visiting for a half an hour and finding out he was a super down-to-earth and nice guy. We showed each other pictures of our pugs and he autographed his personal copy of the next edition of Interview magazine for me.
The death of disco and the rise of the Goths and EDM.
MTV actually payed music videos.
Listening to Allison "The Nightbird" Steele on WLS-FM and Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM.
$99 one-way plane tickets to anywhere in the continental US.

Worst part of the 80's - Seeing Lennon in the park several times a week and then being less than a block away when he was shot.
To the person who asked when - Dec 8, 1980 somewhere between 9-11pm
Leaving NYC
Breaking my #1 rule and getting married.

 

[ikean]

Wolverines!
View attachment 397680

I see the Calumet sign ever time I go to Las Vegas N.M to go to Walmart.

 

[InOmaha]

Commodore 64. Plugged into the TV and used as a video game/computer.

I wrote my first program on it.

All of us kids got it as a Christmas present.

Other than that, cruising, hair bands, parties. Back then with no internet, fashion and trends varied quite a bit around the country. You made plans by agreeing to meet at a certain time somewhere or you drove around looking for people.

It was violent as hell through that time frame in some cities. But not our area.

Everyone still smoked.

I was in elementary school when Regan was shot, high school when the Challenger exploded.

 

[Vinegar Joe]

Best parts of the 80's:
Living in Manhattan before Times Square turned into Disneyland
Camping out for 3 days to get tickets to Pink Floyd The Wall at Nassau Coliseum - $125.00
Making friends in that line I still have - priceless.
Outdoor music festivals.
Meeting Andy Warhol, visiting for a half an hour and finding out he was a super down-to-earth and nice guy. We showed each other pictures of our pugs and he autographed his personal copy of the next edition of Interview magazine for me.
The death of disco and the rise of the Goths and EDM.
MTV actually payed music videos.
Listening to Allison "The Nightbird" Steele on WLS-FM and Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM.
$99 one-way plane tickets to anywhere in the continental US.

Worst part of the 80's - Seeing Lennon in the park several times a week and then being less than a block away when he was shot.
To the person who asked when - Dec 8, 1980 somewhere between 9-11pm
Leaving NYC
Breaking my #1 rule and getting married.

That person might have been me. Thank you for specifics. Haven't listened to music after hearing loss in RVN. I do remember the Beatles got knighted for their service that was, in substance, an export.

I loved listening to Art Bell ! Radio must be on close to full blast to hear but madam sleeping at this time and was in my study.

J,

 

[ActionJackson]

R.E.M.
Guns & Roses
Van Halen
Duran Duran

Ronald Reagan and the great economy and common sense leadership.

Music seems to define most eras of my personal life. It brings me back to places, events, people, feelings, etc.

 

[InOmaha]

I didn't listen to as much stuff on the radio. It wasn't my type of music and reception was poor in the country. So I bought tapes.

My brother made mix tapes from Casey Kasem's America's Top 40 every Sunday buy putting a tape recorder microphone on his radio speaker. And running a wire from his antenna around our room for better reception.

 

[1911Glock]

I didn't listen to as much stuff on the radio. It wasn't my type of music and reception was poor in the country. So I bought tapes.

My brother made mix tapes from Casey Kasem's America's Top 40 every Sunday buy putting a tape recorder microphone on his radio speaker. And running a wire from his antenna around our room for better reception.

Casey Kasem! Wow! I haven’t thought about him in a long time. There was American Bandstand and Soul Train too. You also got me thinking about the 8 tracks and the cassettes. I remember the very first time I heard music on a CD. I think it was 1986 and I didn’t know what a CD was. I just knew the music sounded much better than my cassettes!

 

[InOmaha]

I remember getting a 2 track cassette tape demo of fledgling Nirvana in college for free. I wish I would have kept it. Teen spirit was one of the 2 tracks. That might have been 90-91 though. Grunge wasn't popular in the Midwest so they had to work around the radio stations.

 

[hatchet jack]

Plus one on the Art Bell Show. I still listen to C2C some but its just not as good as the Art Bell days. You can go to google and type in Tunein Radio and in the search box type in Ultimate Art Bell and click on the arrow and listen to all the old Art Bell shows. No ads and no bumper music 24/7.

I was born in 1957 so the late 60s and all of the 70s was my time. Married in 1977 but a total music junkie. When the Stones came out with Angie in 1974 thats when I really decided to learn to play guitar. Then I heard Lynyrd Skynyrds song Simple Man and that put me over the top on guitar bands. The 80s had great music and we played some of it. The real guitar songs anyway.

In the 80s I still had my 76 Chevy van. I wasn't ever a car buff. To me a car was something that got you from point to point. I still remember that as a good time. Didn't have much money but I had a wife I loved and in 1982 my first son. I really liked my time with him. The 30th of this month he will be 39 years old. It seems like just a few weeks ago he was born. In 92 I had me second son and final child.

The 90s were also good. I was making more money in my own business. I was able to buy more of the things I wanted. Had my first house and a good family life. I guess time is a bit of a gossamer thing to me. I don't pay much attention to dates. I'm just here and doing my thing.