Posted on 06/24/2005 9:04:37 AM PDT by missyme
The Economy Boom The western economy boomed. Youth culture stopped hogging the scene as the teenage market lost impetus. The dominant market was getting older and was also financially secure. Demographics changed the face of society. People were living longer and seemed to act younger at the same time. Old industries died, while new technologies developed and boomed.
Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan in the USA celebrated presidential success with a style that used fashionable conspicuous clothes and social events to display the affluence of American society to a world audience.
The world was in flux; ever changing. The USSR relaxed rules and opened up to private enterprise. The Berlin wall came down and other eastern bloc countries craved western clothes and liberation.
In Britain Thatcherism promoted privatization and the idea that greed was good was given credence. Temples to modern living, shopping malls sprang up throughout Britain. Western society consumed and consumed. Yuppies Yuppie was an acronym for 'Young Upwardly Mobile Professional Person'. The word was coined by the advertising industry to capture the essence of a particular type of work hard, play hard, ambitious minded city career person of either sex. The hectic lifestyle of a yuppie meant that after long hours of work, rare free time was spent in a self indulgent way frittering away the cash earned on anything, from expensive make up and perfume, to a bottle of fine champagne. Conspicuous wastage was part of the attitude.
For day Yuppies sported wide shouldered jackets and for weekends they wore a Barbour to effect a country aesthetic or a ballgown to assume the appearance of a more advantaged lifestyle.
My dad had two '66 Mustangs. one was a 289, not sure what he did to it, but it was quickfast. He got rid of it a few years ago, before I cared about cars. too bad.
I noticed there are quite a few Freepers that were in 6th grade in 1980...
You all could have a reunion! :)
I feel so old next to all these kids.
No Joke...The 80's was quite a decade!
It was definetly for Baby Boomers!
Started my senior year in high school that year. Worked at McDonald's and drank beer with the manager after work each night; the local cop stopped by and kept us company while we drank! Favorite groups at that time: REO Speedwagon, Blue Oyster Cult, Todd Rundgren/Utopia, and Kansas.
You forgot Journey! Guns and Roses?
Trying to avoid a layoff.
For me, back then it was pre-Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers, and don't laugh, the Little River Band.
Journey-definitely! Guns and roses-wasn't a big fan of theirs. I also forgot Styx (Grand Illusion) and the Eagles.
I'm with you on the Doobies. I actually got to meet them backstage after a concert in the late 70's. Great concert; Michael McDonald seemed to have a superiority complex, but the other guys seemed pretty decent.
9th grade...no mortgage...no husband...no need to work...and my only worry was who would ask me to the Friday dance....or would we go roller skating....what would I wear.....and would my 16 year old bratty brother agree to drop us off or pick us up! Seems like a lifetime ago!!
We do; it's qam1's Xer ping list! We all sit and sing to ourselves as we read through the threads,
"Conjunction, junction, what's your function..."
or
"I'm just a bill, and I'm stuck up here on Capitol Hill...."
Let's see....I was a record schlepper.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
I was in 7th/8th grade. I remember we went from disco styles to wool-plaid 50s style skirts. Can't remember much else...I have tried to block out as much of my 7th grade year as possible. I hated life then.
8th grade was a blast though!
The good looking one, of course.
Let's see, 1980, 1980, I think I was either eating Play-Dough or crapping my pants...or maybe crapping Play-Dough. One of those three... :-)
I know people went thru this a lot in the 70's, but the 80's?
Strange, I remember the 80's and 90's as a time of vast employment. Oh well, guess everyone doesn't always have the same experiences.
In 1980, I was in elementary school. I do remember Reagan taking office and I watched the attempted assasination of Reagan on TV in our classroom. I remember relatives breathig a sigh of relief when Carter was fired on election night.
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