  I LOVE "I LOVE THE 80s"...I THINK It has been with the greatest affection and the strongest-possible nostalgia that I have been watching "I Love The 80s" and its more recent offspring, "I Love The 80s Strikes Back" on everybody's favorite music - and nostalgia - network, VH1. I had, in the past, seen bits and pieces of both series while channel-surfing, but it was just recently that I made the conscious decision to record and watch every episode available. This process, of course, was made infinitely more 'do-able' by my use of the handy-dandy Time Warner Cable Digital Video Recorder (shameless plug!).
If you are completely unfamiliar with the show - and I doubt that there are many who fall into THAT category - it's basically just an hour-long look back (one for each year of the decade) at the crazy music, fashions, TV shows, etc. that folks were into back in the 1980s. Watching it has been a REAL trip down 'Memory Lane' for Yours Truly. Switching gears for a moment, let me ask you: isn't it weird the things that stick with you over the years? Did you ever have some strange little, otherwise-insignificant, event in your life make a lasting impression?
Well, this little story is going to sound weird, but I assure you that it's true. Believe it or not, I quite clearly remember an unusual question that popped up while playing a board game some 10 years ago. My ex and I used to own a 'party game' called "I Think You Think I Think". As were a LOT of the popular games of the time, "I Think You Think I Think" was based on the concept of finding out how well you actually knew the friends or family members you were playing with. I remember that one of the questions posed to me during an "I Think..." session was this: "If you had the choice, which of the following decades would you prefer to have spent your teenage years in?". The answers were as follows: (a) the 1890's (b) the 1940's, (c) the 1950's, (d) the 1960's, or (e) the actual decade that you WERE a teenager.
I honestly had to think about that one for a while. After all, I suppose there's a lot to be said for the idea of growing up during the simpler times of the 1940s. The '50s, of course, would have been pretty cool as well. - At least, if I can believe all of the hype from such sources as "Happy Days", "Grease", "American Graffiti", and so forth.
I'm thinkin' that the '60s would have been pretty 'shagadelic' - except maybe for all of the turmoil going on in the world. I think stuff like the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the very real nuclear threat, and the Vietnam war would have pretty much put the kibosh on THAT era! The 1890's? ...PASS! I'm all for the simpler, quieter life, but I find that I'm sort of stuck on things like electricity, refrigerated foods, and my personal favorite - indoor plumbing!
Nope. ...Give me the good old 1980s. In all honesty, I have to admit that - in fact - my teenage years were split pretty evenly between the late 1970's and the early 1980's. But seeing as how my last several years in high school fell in the years 1980 - 1982, I consider myself to be an 80s teen through and through! And I can say with complete conviction that I don't think I would have it any other way! Now there WERE a few drawbacks to being a teen in that era - let me just say THAT right up front. I don't know how things were here in Chautauqua County back then, but starting off high school was kinda scary for us 'Ohioans' back in the day. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, watch the movie "Dazed and Confused" sometime. Although the film is set in the year 1976, it very accurately portrays the kind of abuse that freshman - and underclassmen in general - had to go through back in the late 70s when I was entering high school. I've got to be honest - high school pretty much sucked until my Junior year. Those first couple of years were spent in the ever-present fear of being a 'goosepile' statistic.
Us Freshmen and Sophomores guys didn't spend any extra time in the hallways of my school. - It was all about getting where you were going and getting there quick! Now if you're not familiar with the infamous 'goosepile' technique, all I've got to say is consider yourself lucky! Let's just say it involved anywhere from 2 to 10 senior classmen - and one seriously-terrified underclassman; well, that, and the fact that it WASN'T very pleasant! 'Nuff said! Fortunately, I made it through those 'wonder years' relatively unscathed. In fact, entering my Junior year, I discovered that - much to my amazement - I had never even ONCE become a goosepile victim.
So, I had survived the gauntlet of the late 1970s and was now eligible to enter into the exciting future that the 1980s presented. I remember being really excited about the new decade ahead. In fact, two of my favorite music artists of the times had come out with songs looking towards the 'shiny, happy' new era ahead.
Nick Gilder had a great track on his 1979 album, "Frequency", called "Into The 80s". Over a percolating sythesizer beat, Nick summed up my hopes for the dawning decade: "What will the 80s bring for you and I? What will the changes be for you and I? Will it be the same by another name? Billions of years to get to here. I'm not clinging to my yesterdays. Tomorrow waits with a hungry gaze, bids you and I to take our chances, as we go on...into the 80s" And, who can forget the legendary "Ready For The 80s" by Village People? (Alright...go ahead and laugh, but I STILL love this song! ) While not nearly as insightful or deep as the Nick Gilder track, it too looked towards an exciting time to come.
Maybe it was just all about being 16 - and dealing with all of the crazy emotions that go along with that age; but I was really pumped up about entering the new decade. Corny as it may sound, as these two musical artists had pointed out, the promise of change was in the air.
Now, I could go off on a tangent about how the economy was on an upswing, the stock market was rebounding, cracks were beginning to show in the Cold War, Jimmy Carter was about to be shown the door of the White House, etc. But, come on....this is ME talking here! I'm afraid that James Reed is not NEARLY that deep! No, instead I was excited about the new music that was beginning to hit the scene. Punk Rock had shaken up the music industry and New Wave was beginning to make inroads into U.S. radio.
Blondie, Talking Heads, Police...great stuff. And just think...A Flock Of Seagulls was just a few short years down the road! And, of course, MTV came out in the early 80s. It would no doubt be hard to explain to the kids of today just what an astounding effect this silly little cable network had on those of MY generation.
It wasn't just musical tastes that were changing. Fashion was doing a '180' as well. Suddenly, the late 70s 'school uniform' of Journey T-shirt (Zeppelin or Boston T-shirts were also acceptable) and bell-bottom blue jeans had become passe. Now kids were decked out in all manner of funky Pat Benatar, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, or (God help 'em ) Human League getups. Shoot, even such a 'fashion-backward' person as myself owned a 'Members Only' jacket back in the day. In fact, I had forgotten all about the "Members Only" phenomenon until good old "I Love The 80s" came along!
The movies of the time were great too. I remember all of the classics like "Superman", "The Empire Strikes Back", "E.T. " and "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Sad but true, I ALSO have fond memories of all the dreck my friend Dave and I used to go see back then. We would check out pretty much ANYTHING that had a sci-fi or fantasy theme to it. As a result, we sat through such 'grade-A' material as "Forbidden World", "Parasite" (in 3-D, no less! ), "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone", and what is perhaps the worst movie ever known to mankind, "The Dungeonmaster". I also remember the 'sweet rides' Dave and I had back then. He had a dark green Ford Pinto and I had a beat-up, old, rusty orange Datsun B210.
(Orange was a good color - it helped the rust blend in! ) So when it came time to head up to the mall and cruise for chicks, we'd fire up either the "B210 Bomber" or the "Millenium Pinto" and head out. Once we actually arrived at the mall, it's interesting to note that - due to our relatively shy personalities - the actual 'cruising' part of our time would take approximately 10 to 20 minutes - and then we'd inevitably end up at the arcade.
Ah...video games. THERE'S some good memories! The 80s truly were the heyday of the video game arcade. You could walk into your favorite arcade and find crazy new 'titles' just about every week. Some of my 'regulars' were Ripoff, Joust, Galaga, Tron, and PacMan. Then there were all of those slightly-more-obscure games that you would stumble onto every now and then: Paperboy, Pengo, Satan's Hollow to name just a few. And you didn't necessarily have to head to the mall to enjoy your favorite video games. No, my friends, you could just stay at home and fire up the good ol' Atari 2600.
I spent many a happy hour blissfully staring at oversized pixels manuevering their way across my TV screen. In fact, there can be no doubt that I owe much of my still-excellent hand-eye coordination to my old pal, "Pitfall Harry". (As a sad-but-true sidenote...the Atari 2600 is the LAST videogame system I ever owned! I never even graduated to the Nintendo! Pathetic, isn't it? ) Dating was fun back then too. (And also good for the hand-eye coordination - but that's all I'm gonna say about THAT!
) I remember taking dates to such goofy movies as "9 to 5", "Bustin' Loose" with Richard Pryor, "Caveman" with Ringo Starr, and "Ghostbusters". Another great thing to do on a date was to head to the beach. Of course, this was back when the summers were actually HOT! And if things got TOO hot outside, there was always the classic dating standby - the bowling alley.
(Hey, what can I say? I'm a classy kind of guy! ) Alright, alright...back to the present day. Time to put away the memories of 8-track tapes, Rubik's Cubes, Pop Rocks candy, an MTV that played music videos, "Star Wars" films that actually rocked, and Stevie Nicks before she turned from 'fantasy girl' to matronly spinster! (Sigh) So, in conclusion, I have to admit that I guess it's finally happened. - I've officially become a sentimental, nostalgic old fool. - And at the ripe old age of 40 years old, no less! Guess that's what happens when you take too many trips down 'Memory Lane'! Thanks a LOT, VH1!!! Next week's article: I LOVE "I LOVE THE 80s"...I THINK, Part 2: THE COLLEGE YEARS (Just kidding!!!
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