Tag Archives: 1980’s

You Can’t Go Back Home Again….But, You Can Visit

Michael Jackson dancing with the living dead.

Image via Wikipedia

I graduated from high school in 1986.  Fellow classmates are putting together a twenty-fifth reunion, that will take place in a couple of months. I wish I could go….but, alas, I cannot. I grew up in Maryland, but now live in Ohio. Life tugs at me. So much to do, busy schedule, time slips away. How did I get from 18 to 43? From attending Friday night football games to Saturday morning soccer mom? From staying up late to dead tired by 9pm? From long talks on the telephone with friends, to email and smart phones? From being the teenager to now having teenagers of my own? When did I get old? Sigh. It would be great to be able to attend the reunion, because we are all in the same boat. Life has changed us all. We are on an even playing field now, no longer tied to our high school images. We might see other “children of the 80’s” at WalMart, our kids sporting events, or walking our subdivisions….and we just know.

My time in high school was good. I wasn’t a jock, or a geek, or a band member, or new wave. I did have friends that were. I don’t really know what I was in high school. I guess I was fairly average. Isn’t that pretty much how it goes? A teenager, trying to find herself….. The teen years are so confusing anyway.

It was the ’80’s. I watched The Cosby Show and Family Ties. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was at the top of the charts. ( Still, every time I hear the music from Thriller, I want to break into that zombie dance–I can’t help myself) The preppy look was in. How many layers of shirts could one person wear? Michael J. Fox was Back To The Future. I loved listening to The Police, Madonna, and the Eurythmics on my cassettes. X box and PlayStations weren’t heard of, we had Atari. VCRs were new, as were microwaves that weren’t the size of a house. If I wanted to get in touch with someone I called on the rotary phone that hung on the kitchen wall, or mailed them a handwritten letter. Email was unheard of. Cruising around 140 shopping center was the thing to do. Hanging out. Life was simple.

I can’t ever go back to the way things used to be. I can’t say that I’d really want to do that anyway….but, the memories are fun.

The old saying, You can’t go home again, is true…..but, I’ll always be part of the WHS Class of ’86.

Related articles

You Know You Are A Child Of The 80’s If……

I’m currently listening to my 80’s music on Pandora. It is so funny how a song can transport one back 25 years in time. Who needs a time machine?

Who remembers skinny ties, stirrup pants, leg warmers, slouch socks, jeans with holes in the knees, Swatch watches, Izod shirts, medical scrubs, Polo shirts, prairie skirts, painters pants, rat tail hair, and shoulder pads? I mean come on….you couldn’t have gone through the 80’s without falling into the fashion blunder of AT LEAST ONE of these things! Don’t be scared to admit it. Hey, if you are really brave you might admit to the “Miami Vice” look. Remember Don Johnson with the blazer and T-shirt and loafers with no socks. Come on.

Let’s continue down memory road…..Banana clips, Valley Girl, Donkey Kong, BIG hair (I admit it!), MTV is new, Punk and Cabbage Patch kids. Remember Brooke Shields and her Calvins? Going to the mall to just hang out, wearing Jellies, and velour—velour everything. For crying out loud.

What about Baby Jessica? Reaganomics? Acid Rain? AIDS? And Hands Across America? The Huxtables? Family Ties? Facts of Life? Miami Vice?

Movies we had to see—E.T. Extra Terrestrial, Dirty Dancing (No one puts Baby in the corner! Sniff. I miss Patrick Swayze) , Back To The Future  (Hey McFly!), Risky Business (the living room scene…need I say more?) , Flash Dance (made me want to rip all my sweatshirts), Ghostbusters (Who you gonna call?), Lethal Weapon (Mel pre-the drunk years), Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Die Hard (Yippey Ki Yay!) , Fatal Attraction (Poor bunny in a pot), The Karate Kid (Wax on, Wax off), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Bueller? Bueller? BUELLER!!!), The Breakfast Club (Molly Ringwald was THE ACTRESS of the 80’s)and A Nightmare On Elm Street. (I can still sing that creepy song…One, Two..Freddy’s Comin’ For You!)

Michael Jackson in his hey day. I wanted to wear a sequined glove and be able to moonwalk. He really was a musical genius, sad that he became so odd at the end of his life.

Do you remember Mt. Helens exploding in 80?  Getting up really early to watch Lady Di marry Prince Charles in 1981? Tylenol recalled nationwide because some freak laced capsules with cyanide in ’82? Trivial Pursuit came out in 1983. Apple introduced the first McIntosh in ’84. New Coke was the joke in 1985. Bill Gates took the world by storm in ’86, and the Challenger exploded while we all watched it on TV at school. In ’87 televangelist Jim Bakker goes down. Pan Am flight explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland in ’88. In 1989 a huge earthquake hits the Bay area in CA. The Berlin wall falls, and hurricane Hugo takes out a big chunk of the Carolinas.

Did you know that all these things were created in the 80’s? Post Its, Sony Watchman, Microsoft, Apple Macintosh, disposable contacts, Rogaine, disposable cameras, Nintendo,cordless phones, and cell phone networks. Wow.

This trip in the time machine makes me want to go play Pac-Man, or Rubik’s Cube….or maybe go rollerblading.

Hey, don’t worry about the fact that those of us that remember these things are in our late 30’s and 40’s now. Who cares? We are kids of the 80’s and our decade ROCKED.