Were you fortunate enough to grow up in the 80's?

[mnf1fan]

Interesting post.
Having grown up in the 60/70's still much of all whats been said holds true for me.
I'll never forget watching the moon landing on our 19" black and white TV.
Now being in my late 50's with no children, I often wonder how my friends with small kids handle the world today and all the BS. Its does my heart good to hear you all are still concerned with raising them knowing right from wrong.
Maybe...just maybe, our great country isn't doomed like many of us now believe it to be.
Stay strong.

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[DirkG]

Interesting post.
Having grown up in the 60/70's still much of all whats been said holds true for me.
I'll never forget watching the moon landing on our 19" black and white TV.
Now being in my late 50's with no children, I often wonder how my friends with small kids handle the world today and all the BS. Its does my heart good to hear you all are still concerned with raising them knowing right from wrong.
Maybe...just maybe, our great country isn't doomed like many of us now believe it to be.
Stay strong.

I'm in my 40s and coach baseball and basketball and used to coach soccer. My wife and I are active at our local Church and a lot of people know us in the OC community in which we live. I say this because I've come in contact with a lot of families with young children. Not just in the OC, but around SoCal, NorCal, Arizona, and Texas. There are A LOT of families who "get it". Regardless of race or demographic, get your education, work hard, play hard, and help out your fellow brother or sister if they're in need. That's the American Way.

There are 328 million people in the United States and the actions of a few thousand shown on media outlets have nothing to do with the true lifeblood of the U.S.. If you haven't watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix yet, I highly recommend it. As others have mentioned, social media is the culprit for much of our division as it sensationalizes [insert your political / social preference here]. Firing you up means more clicks; more clicks means more money. Large corporations are making a lot of money off our social discourse.

BUT it's on the parents of this new generation to help them navigate through the BS. Millenials were duped by the social "networking" of Facebook, IG, and Twitter. I think a lot of people (not all, but a good amount) are seeing through the facade and being much more careful with their children's exposure online. I know I am.

 

[Ghostwave]

Graduated HS in 86. What an era. Mt St Helen’s blew up not far from me in Vancouver Wa. I began My love for the JEEP SCRAMBLER!!! (How did you guys miss that?).

I treasured my Thriller album. I knew how to pronounce DEVO, and had many pairs of Vans checkered shoes. I learned to recite the movie Airplane by memory.

it was a time!

 

[The Crusader]

Mesquite, TX. My music tastes are mostly late 60s to late 70s rock, but I graduated in 85. My youngest is 19 and he knows all of the words to every song on classic rock stations and can play most of the saxophone solos.

We rode bikes all over Mesquite, drank from water hoses, made rope swings over the creek in the woods, jumped trash cans on bicycles, rode skateboards, and played newspaper tag. If you weren't fast, you learned to throw. Head shots didn't count, but were still fun.

 

[hobbsserv]

Mongoose bikes

Oh Man! I had a blacked out Schwinn bike with red mag wheels and knobby tires, pipe insulation over the handle bar and center brace covered in black electrical tape. It’s was bad a...

 

[Plumbob]

Oh my goodness, where do I start? I was born just a few weeks after America’s Bicentennial anniversary. (1976 for you millennials).

The 80’s were great, that decade produced the greatest movies, no doubt. I think the decades before and after had better music overall, but some masterpieces did emerge.

As far as innocence lost, In my opinion I see America (and the world) as pre-September 11th and post-September 11th. There are very few events in history that as you watch them unfold you know the world is changed forever, the world you woke up in is gone and you go to sleep in a different and worse world. But I digress.

As far as our current situation, I blame social media 100%. We are raising a generation of narcissists. My two college age daughters can’t go 5 fucking seconds without taking a picture of themselves and posting it to social media, looking for that hit of dopamine they get with each “like”. I blame social media for the political division. It’s manufactured by media, social and mainstream.

Gah, I need to stop.

Back to the 80’s.

He-Man! How could yall forget He-Man? GI Joe, He-Man, Transformers, and Spaceman Lego sets were my obsessions.

The movies are countless....Indiana Jones trilogy first and foremost....The Goonies...National Lampoons “Vacations”...Weird Science....Top Gun....there are hundreds!

Don’t forget Stretch Armstrong

 

[Ghostwave]

Goonies never say die!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Kids (everyone in this thread), be thankful you missed out on the disco era. Ugh.

My two college age daughters can’t go 5 fucking seconds without taking a picture of themselves and posting it to social media, looking for that hit of dopamine they get with each “like”. I blame social media for the political division. It’s manufactured by media, social and mainstream.

A lot of truth there - and in other parts of the message.
I saw a challenge a few years back proving that the cell phone/social mediocre thing IS an addiction as real as drugs, cigarettes, gambling or alcohol or any other addiction. One of the early fakebook pioneers tried to warn people - of course zuck made sure we didn't get the message.
Anyway, I think it was 3, perhaps 4, young women were tasked with giving up their cell phones for a period of time. As I recall, one of them literally went into physical withdrawal symptoms, sweats, shaking, depression, etc. In the end, none of them could do it.
The tech companies know this and feed off it.

 

[5JeepsAz]

 

[DirkG]

OMG how did I forget about Stompers?? I had quite a few...I loved how you could switch the shells and mix and match the rubber wheels.

 

[The Crusader]

Probably mid-70s, but almost 80s.

 

[mbbq22]

I'm a child of the 80s and have 2 little ones of my own now, 4 & 6 years old. We do an 80s night once per week where we sit down and watch a movie from my childhood. Recently we've been on a Karate Kid "kick". So nice reading all the above posts, great nostalgia for all of us. I also happen to work with college aged kids everyday and I can say that the point made previously of our responsible to help the young navigate through stuff, especially social media, is incredibly important. Sometimes I feel like our societal reactions are toward the problem at hand and not necessarily addressing the root... Just my 2 cents. Happy 80s everyone!

 

[Dewyaw]

Kids (everyone in this thread), be thankful you missed out on the disco era. Ugh.

A little KC and the Sunshine Band every now and then is a good thing!

 

[mstrav73]

Ok, you guys left me no choice:

Mtv (when they actually played music), space shuttle disaster, beastie boys, cops that still pulled you over and told you they were going to tell your parent and let you go, board games, Nintendo, Atari, arcade games, skate boards, vans, figuring out how to fix things the old fashioned way with a chiltons book and no internet, mini bikes, neighborhood parties for 4th of july, a-team, bigfoot monster truck, hulk hogan, junk yard dog, Andre the giant, iron sheik etc..., Saturday morning cartoons, tape players and then cd's, vhs, microwave in every house, regular leaded fuel at the pump, battlestar galactica, dukes of hazard, friday the 13th, terminator, payphone booths cost .20 to call for a ride home, ninja streetbike,


one thing about growing up as 80's kids, we didn't have to walk to school barefoot, up hill in the snow both ways like our parents supposedly did, Ha

 

[5JeepsAz]

So there's this study of people going through something, an event, work project, etc, that asks them how they feel during. Everybody fits the normal curve - commentary about how it's ok, bad, could be better etc. Then they go back with same questionnaire 1 year and 3 years and five years later. Know what? Principle of nostalgia. Yep. The longer ago the better we like stuff. Nostalgia is a real thing. This is why I'm hopeful that this generation will look back when they get old and remember the good parts.... Like corduroys.

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