When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours play in Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Donkey Kong or Frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We never beat the Rubik's Cube. I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Thundarr the Barbarian." In between I would watch School House Rock ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")
On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut? At the movies Ferris took the day off and the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."
Ronald Reagan was some old guy. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
Mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my BraveStarr lunch box, and filled my Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those. I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday.
Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher was a baby-sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
The world stopped when Challenger exploded. Did a
teacher come in and tell your class?
Half of your friends' parents got divorced.
People did not just say no to drugs.
AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a
grandparent die from cancer.
Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
When you put all this stuff together, you have an
80's childhood. If this stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too. We are children of the
eighties.
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the
first "lost generation" nor today's lost
generation.
We are the ones who played with Lego Building Blocks
when they were just building blocks and gave Malibu
Barbie crewcuts with safety scissors that never
really cut.
We collected Garbage Pail Kids and Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Ponies and Hot Wheels and He-Man action figures and thought She-Ra looked just a little bit like I would when I was a woman. Big Wheels and bicycles with streamers were the way to go, and sidewalk chalk was all you needed to build a city.
Imagination was the key. It made the Ewok Treehouse big enough for you to be Luke and the kitchen table and an old sheet dark enough to be a tent in the forest. Your world was the backyard and it was all you needed.
Girls had that pink portable tape player, Debbie Gibson sang back up to you and everyone wanted a skirt like the Material Girl and a glove like Michael Jackson's.
Today, we are the ones who sing along with Bruce Stringsteen and The Bangles perfectly and have no idea why. We recite lines with the Ghostbusters and still look to The Goonies for a great adventure. We flip through T.V. stations and stop at The A-Team and Knight Rider and Fame and laugh with The Cosby Show and Family Ties and Punky Brewster and what you talkin' 'bout Willis?
We hold strong affections for old 80's toons and why did they take the Smurfs off the air? After school specials were only about cigarettes and step-families. And aren't the Power Rangers just Voltron reincarnated?
Friendship bracelets were ties you couldn't break and friendship pins went on shoes - preferably hightop Velcro Reebox - and pegged jeans were in, as were Units belts and layered socks and jean jackets and jams and charm necklaces and side pony tails and just tails. Rave was a girl's best friend; braces with colored rubberbands made you cool. The backdoor was always open and Mom served only red Kool-Aid to the neighborhood kids- never drank New Coke.
Entertainment was cheap and lasted for hours. If a girl wanted to be a princess...all she needed was high heels and an apron. The Sit'n'Spin always made you dizzy but never made you stop. Pogoballs were dangerous weapons and Chinese Jump Ropes never failed to trip someone. In your Underoos you were any Superhero or Cartoon Star you wanted to be! And in your Treehouse you were king.
In the Eighties, nothing was wrong. Did you know the president was shot? Star Wars was not only a movie. Did you ever play in a bomb shelter? Did you see the Challenger explode or feed the homeless man? We forgot Vietnam and watched Tiananman's Square on CNN and bought pieces of the Berlin Wall at the store. AIDS was not the number one killer in the United States. We didn't start the fire, Billy Joel.
In the Eighties, we redefined the American Dream, and those years defined us. We are the generation in between strife and facing strife and not turning our backs.
The Eighties may have made us idealistic, but it's
that idealism that will push
us and be passed on to our children - the first
children of the twenty-first century. Never forget:
We are the children of the Eighties.