Mike Spohr
(at PBS)
Posted on 12/12/2023 4:40:23 PM PST by DallasBiff
The Thirties were an awful time to grow up.
But at least people did grow up.
And if you didn’t, there was always Uncle Sam to straighten you out in the Forties.
Loved the 80’s, graduated college with a worthless degree in ‘81, went into business for myself, had a Porsche 914 that sounded like a V-8 chainsaw and ate money, and in Maryland could listen to WHFS all day long.
Misery is relative. We complain when we know there are other alternatives. I moan about a twelve-hour road trip in a heated/air conditioned cushioned music box because I know I could fly that distance in an hour or so. You don’t miss what you can’t conceive. Kids, whether growing up in the eighties, sixties, forties, twenties, etc. made do with what they had. If they were naturally creative and enthusiastic, they were rarely, if ever, bored. Today’s noncreative kids are bored stiff with all their gadgets and technology. It has nothing to do with the times and everything to do with personal growth and challenges.
As David Lee Roth said, in the 80s, “The music smiled, the clothes smiled and you smiled!
I am grateful they didn’t have that kind of thing when I was a kid.
I went out in the jungle, swam in the ocean, made rope swings that sometimes failed, made skateboards out of my sister’s metal roller skates, tried to group Estes rocket engines together to make a rocket sled, sleeping in a parachute, tormenting the monkeys, catching lizards and bugs, sailing in the ocean, and innumerable other things.
I know for a fact, if they had things like the driving games and first person shooter games, I would have been doing that instead of being outside. I think my brain would have been wired to desire that.
I am glad those were unavailable to me.
I miss the hair I had in the 80’s. It wasn’t like that, but it was on my scalp.
Middle aged guys should not be saying “AF”.
because you had no cell phone or Game Boy to pass the time with.
ReEEee Ree ReEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Wearing a Def Leppard t-shirt at the arcade playing TRON.
Yep.
Galaga, a KDX 200, a hot girlfriend, a truck,a good job, high school.had fun.
Looking back, the 1980s were the last time Americans were free.
I graduated from college in 1981 and moved to New York. The next ten years were magical.
1992 was the start of doom.
Great memories... I was good enough at "Haunted House" that other kids/teens would stand around to watch me play it. Pinball games were great in the early 80's.
Yep. The writer has no clue about the 1980s.
I agree. My son was born in 1980 and my daughter in 1986. Both have fond memories of growing up.
The map-reading thing? Not only did he misspell "poring"—
Those wonderful ADC Map Books that were published during that era catalogued every single street in any major area. I remember being in a light snowstorm with my extremely anxious mother while driving her around her hometown, renowned for its confusing street layout, to see the Christmas lights one last time, as she was in the active process of dying. Realizing I had become lost at one point, she was about to panic—when I whipped out my ADC map book and found our route in half a minute. She was so impressed, I escaped a criticism!
I also taught my offspring to "navigate" while I was driving. I had map books of every place in the country that we traveled to and would ask, "We are at the light on Highgate Street—how many streets until Grandpa's street, Upton Street?" Then we would count them as we crossed each one. A kid's growing brain learns a lot about spatial relations, design, problem-solving and self-reliance from map reading.
Also, standing in line is a major social activity in Philadelphia. You chat seemingly aimlessly, meet people, share your insights, learn about things—I once got a major contract from a random guy I met while waiting for a bus.
Life is what you make of it. If you want to enjoy it, just enjoy it!
That is so fortunate. Must have been a Catholic school. Envy is a sin, but I'm a sinner over that (saved by grace, however).
I have studied five European languages without that basis. Could have saved myself a lot of trouble!
Hardly bigger than today's cellphones, without all the other dangers to kids from the smart phones.
LOL! —AI probably wrote the article!
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