Everything You Loved, and Hated, About the '80s

National Geographic ^

[mylife]

The Jam was awesome~ That's Entertainment.

[mylife]

Motorhead~ SHINE

[mylife]

The Dead Boys~ Young Loud And Snotty

[mylife]

From the sisters Mona Lisa, Graham Parker~Get Started, Build a Fire

[mylife]

Sheesh...The Mona Lisa’s Sister

[jmacusa]

Walk like an Egyptian.

[IndyTiger]

Heather Lockear in TJ Hooker

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"I could never figure out what the Spaniards did to warrant a US invasion."

Grenada was not owned by the Spainish. They were their own country. The legitimate government was overthrown and the Prime Minister (Bishop) was killed. The military looked to be taking control of the country and there was instability. We had medical students studying at the college there. Apparently, it's a place where people who can't get into medical schools in the states (because of quotas) go to get their medical degrees. So we invaded to protect the Americans that lived there and to re-establish the legitimate government. In truth, we did not want to see another country in the Americas go red. Keep in mind, this is the time when Nicaragua was going red and Cuba was spreading communism throughout central America. In truth, we did kill a number of Cuban special forces people down there.

Couple things that people forget about the invasion 30 years on. One is that it took place just a couple of days after the Beirut bombing. Another thing is that every branch of the service had to get involved in it. Communications were screwed up between the services and the ops was (if truth be told) a cluster f@#!#@ck.

For my own part, I was on ship. We had left Beruit at the beginning of October. I remember the day the Captain announced over the loudspeaker the bombing in Beruit and then a couple days later that we had invaded a tiny carribean nation called Grenada. It seemed to me at the time that the world (and our military) was going to hell in a handbasket.... I can precisely remember when I felt that our American military was starting to come back and take it's rightful place in the world. That was in April of 1986 when we sent those bombers to Libya.

[DoodleDawg]

Ditto. I was born November 5, 1980 which, IMHO, was the second most important event of the week.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Interesting.... three of your examples of terrible music involve former Beatles. :)

[ArrogantBustard]

President Ronald Wilson Reagan.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“From the motorhead perspective, 1980s cars were cool because they were the best of two worlds. They were modern in the sense of being fuel injected and using electronic engine management, but they weren’t so complex that you couldn’t work on them. They struck the perfect balance. I’ve got two cars from the 1980s — a Toyota and a BMW, both in headturningly excellent condition — and they are simply great cars.”

Amen to that. It was also the decade when performance cars reappeared; I still remember what big news it was when Ford brought back the Mustang GT (with its 2-bbl 302 packing a mighty 157-hp wallop).

“From the cultural perspective, the 1980s was the last decade that was still rooted in traditional America. I was in elementary school in the 1980s and several of my teachers were women in their fifties, as was the principle, who set the tone for the school. They were educated and started their careers in the 1950s. That was the culture they taught, though of course somewhat modified by their experiences in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1980s was the last decade where people in power positions within the educational establishment had their roots in the 1950s and early 1960s.”

As someone who graduated high school in the ‘80s (class of 1986, btw), I tell people I was among the last generation that was taught HOW to think rather than WHAT to think.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

They say on a clear day in Monterey, CA, you can see parts of Denver...

[angcat]

The best years Heavy Metal, Ronald Reagan!!!!!!!!!!!

[married21]

Yeah. I think the Beatles were better together than separately.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I agree. Particularly Lennon and McCartney; Paul tempered John’s cynicism while John kept Paul from getting too sappy.

[KC_Lion]

Well I was born on June 24, 1988 so I got the tail end of that era :)

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Let’s see.... Van Halen w/DLR, Rush (the band, not the pundit), Iron Maiden, Metallica, Def Leppard (Pyromania was the first rock album I ever bought), women who looked like women (as did a few men, hehehe), the rebirth of fun cars, and of course Reagan as President.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I was born in 1967, so I got the full ‘80s experience. :)

[Eepsy]

Born in the suburbs in ‘79. I think I was in the last batch of 8 year olds allowed to freely roam their neighborhood all day til dinnertime.