All Things 80's...

[cloudy]

Do I remember you saying he palmed your head or something?

Yep...I'm not short by any means, but I was barely past his bellybutton. You don't realize just how damn big those guys are, and he is HUGE.

Really nice guy, too. He was joking around and that led to him palming my head like a basketball.

 

[Katyusha]

One thing I don't think I'll ever forget is watching the Challenger disaster on TV.

I was in the first grade when that happened and we were watching it at school. The whole school always watched the shuttle launches. They called our parents, sent us home early that day. I remember seeing it happen but I don't remember much of the rest of the day; my mother told me awhile back that all three of us were really upset and scared.

Another event where pretty much everyone who was alive for it remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

 

[kimbalee]

man, the lists are pretty long, but I don't remember seeing

ET

Better Off Dead

Dirty Dancing

Top Gun

Moonlighting (Bruce Willis & Cybil Shepard)

Miami Vice

Phil Collins

Cindi Lauper

 

[cloudy]

I was in the first grade when that happened and we were watching it at school. The whole school always watched the shuttle launches. They called our parents, sent us home early that day. I remember seeing it happen but I don't remember much of the rest of the day; my mother told me awhile back that all three of us were really upset and scared.

Another event where pretty much everyone who was alive for it remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

I was in my sophomore year in college, and my soon-to-be husband was in one of his engineering classes when they heard the news. I remember he told me that his professor said, "This was caused by an engineering problem. Remember that," and then he walked out of class.

Very sobering event.

 

[bb_peaks]

God love the 80s!!!!

Alot of mine were already named.

Tiffany
Large earrings
Sixteen Candles
Tesla
Whitesnake
Scratch n sniff stickers
garbage pail kid stickers
acid washed jeans

 

[christabelll]

Valentino jeans! LOL
Vidal Sassoon
Basic Instinct
Romancing the Stone
War of the Roses
Men in Tights
Lady Hawke
Terminator
John Matuzak (Raiders)





I was watching the shuttle from work - I was a waitress at the time. The whole place just burst into tears and curses.

We had just moved from Western Montana to St. Louis MO. When St. Helens Blew. Missed 12 inches of ash by four days - but everything (all the glass anyway) where we were became etched over the next several days - man my uncle was having fits over that!

I was in the financial district San Francisco - skipping out of work five minutes early because every one had gone to the World Series (Giants verus A's) with the Loma Prieta Hit ------ It was really freaky having sheet glass burst around me, watching the road move, and the buildings rock back and forth like blades of grass in the wind....It truly was a moment in time where everything appeared strobed.

 

[SweetWitch]

One thing I don't think I'll ever forget is watching the Challenger disaster on TV.

I was fresh from college, living with my sister and her husband. The job hunt had gone badly that day, so I went home early and decided to watch a little TV. I remember being thrilled to be there to watch the shuttle take off. I was sitting on the floor, watching it leave the ground in a cloud of vapors and smoke and thinking that I wish I had been the one woman that was aboard.

Then it just flew apart. It shattered in mid-air and time stopped for that moment.

My brother-in-law walked through the door a minute later. He was still in his air force drag from work and he asked what I was watching. I turned, looked at him and said, "Disaster. The shuttle just exploded."

The look on his face was something I'll never forget.

 

[slyc_willie]

Better Off Dead

"I want my two dollars!"

Don't forget One Crazy Summer -- same director (Savage Steve Holland).

John Matuzak (Raiders)

And the Goonies . . . .

 

[slyc_willie]

I was fresh from college, living with my sister and her husband. The job hunt had gone badly that day, so I went home early and decided to watch a little TV. I remember being thrilled to be there to watch the shuttle take off. I was sitting on the floor, watching it leave the ground in a cloud of vapors and smoke and thinking that I wish I had been the one woman that was aboard.

Then it just flew apart. It shattered in mid-air and time stopped for that moment.

My brother-in-law walked through the door a minute later. He was still in his air force drag from work and he asked what I was watching. I turned, looked at him and said, "Disaster. The shuttle just exploded."

The look on his face was something I'll never forget.

I was in Germany still when that happened. I was playing outside with my friends, came in around five or so for dinner and my sister was crying. She had been one of thousands of young women who had sent Crista McCauliffe congratulatory letters. My sister really wanted to be a teacher, and Ms. McCauliffe was one of her idols.

I guess it's poetic that my niece is named Crista, although sis never did become a teacher.

 

[john-the-author]

I was in driving across Northern Wales on the EXACT day that it was getting rained on by fallout from Chernobyl. I didn't know about it until weeks later, so there wasn't anything to be done about it at that point. But >bleah!<.

I was living in Seattle in 1980 and remember watching the mushroom cloud on the horizon from the 2nd Mt. St. Helens eruption from the upstairs office at my job. It was surreal. We got a slight dusting of ash there in Renton, but very little, thankfully.

 

[michchick98]

I was fresh from college, living with my sister and her husband. The job hunt had gone badly that day, so I went home early and decided to watch a little TV. I remember being thrilled to be there to watch the shuttle take off. I was sitting on the floor, watching it leave the ground in a cloud of vapors and smoke and thinking that I wish I had been the one woman that was aboard.

Then it just flew apart. It shattered in mid-air and time stopped for that moment.

My brother-in-law walked through the door a minute later. He was still in his air force drag from work and he asked what I was watching. I turned, looked at him and said, "Disaster. The shuttle just exploded."

The look on his face was something I'll never forget.

I was home from work that day and my grandparents were visiting. My mom and grandma had gone to the store and my dad was at work so it was just me and my grandpa. He'd watched every shuttle launch since the first one and we were excited to watch this one together.

When my grandma and mom got back from the store, they hadn't heard about it. We told them and my mom and I hugged each other and cried. Back in the 80s, I was fascinated with the space program and I thought the shuttle was the coolest thing in the world.

I was 18 years old when that happened and I can still remember it like it was yesterday.

 

[slyc_willie]

Not to demean the somber tone in remembrance of an American tragedy . . . .

When I was fifteen, I had a mullet and a rat tail.

I wore suspenders with jeans.

And net T-shirts.

Paisleys were cool. So were Ninjas, clear sodas, and Gummi Bears.

I lusted after Samantha Fox, Ginger Lynn and Vanity.

Don Johnson was the Alpha Male.

Just sayin'

 

[rengadeirishman]

I was born in 1987, so all i can remeber caring about was what new and interesting things i could find to play with.

 

[Vermilion]

Oh yeah - Scrunchies, T-shirt rings, heat-change t-shirts, snap bracelets, trolls, my little pony with translucent wings that flapped when you pushed the button on its back, Home Alone.

 

[impressive]

... I had a mullet and a rat tail.

I had this at 20.

This is pre-rat tail (and post "Sun-In"), taken the spring before I finished my undergrad degree.

Oh, and Flashdance... which inspires my "work wardrobe" to this day.

 

[JagFarlane]

The MASH movie ending an era.
"Read my lips, NO NEW TAXES." - George H.W. Bush
Creepy Crawlers!

 

[SweetWitch]

Not to demean the somber tone in remembrance of an American tragedy . . . .

When I was fifteen, I had a mullet and a rat tail.

I wore suspenders with jeans.

And net T-shirts.

Paisleys were cool. So were Ninjas, clear sodas, and Gummi Bears.

I lusted after Samantha Fox, Ginger Lynn and Vanity.

Don Johnson was the Alpha Male.

Just sayin'

Ah, yes...The Don Johnson wife-beater tank and the blazer with the sleeves shoved halfway up the arms. Let's not forget shaker sweaters, worn off the shoulder with lacy camisoles or men's undershirts underneath, or pleated pants. Flower print jeans, worn skin tight to show off the assets. Madonna roots on big hair. The mall bang.

It was all about the accessories and everyone was a material girl.

 

[jeninflorida]

ET - HBO has been playing this movie again
The Brat Pack - just watched most of the movies again!
MTV - do they ever play music videos?
Jane Fonda's workout videos - loved the skit from "Man TV"
The War on Drugs - never ending

oh the 80's...being so young and not having to worry about paying any bills. I want to go back

Just doing a little research... thought it would be fun to list all those distinctive things we remember from the 80's...

Like...


Who shot JR?
Rubik’s cube
ET
Farm Aid
The Brat Pack
MTV
Jane Fonda's workout videos
The War on Drugs
Miniskirts
Calvin Kleins
Polo (the cologne, not the game )

.....


what else?

 

[jeninflorida]

Will society ever get freaky with fashion like it did in the 80’s? I was too young, missed it

Ah, yes...The Don Johnson wife-beater tank and the blazer with the sleeves shoved halfway up the arms. Let's not forget shaker sweaters, worn off the shoulder with lacy camisoles or men's undershirts underneath, or pleated pants. Flower print jeans, worn skin tight to show off the assets. Madonna roots on big hair. The mall bang.

It was all about the accessories and everyone was a material girl.

 

[jomar]

Will society ever get freaky with fashion like it did in the 80’s? I was too young, missed it

Hope not - the 80s was a fashion disaster.

 

[Belegon]

I suppose it says something that I keep seeing names of bands posted as "one hit wonders" and want to argue the point, right?

I graduated high school in 1984, so I am on the front end of the "eighties" in that sense...

I was working at Sears in the stockroom when one of our guys who had a rep for making bad jokes came into to tell us about Challenger. I remember us telling him that joke wasn't funny. If we'd actually looked at his eyes we would have known better.

KROQ and 91X in SoCal brought the "New Wave." Bands I haven't seen mentioned yet, although they might have been,..

Oingo Boingo
The Plimsouls
Stray Cats
Adam and the Ants
Echo and the Bunneymen
Romeo Void
Missing Persons
Gene Loves Jezebel
Bauhaus
Roman Holliday
Haircut 100
The Specials
The English Beat
A Flock of Seagulls

For me, I went through fashions like crazy. I had a pompadour for awhile, wore my hair like Adam... then in the mid eighties went glam since I used to travel up to the Sunset Strip with buddies and see bands at Gazzaris or hang out in the parking lot of the Rainbow. Dokken, Ratt, WASP, Keel, Warrant, Rough Cutt were all a part of that scene although Ratt and Warrant followed Crue to national attention.

I was in school at the decades beginning, worked in the middle and then went to collegel so I was in school again at the end.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I suppose it says something that I keep seeing names of bands posted as "one hit wonders" and want to argue the point, right?

Right. I know for a fact, some of those so-called one hit wonders were only one hit wonders in this country. Either that or they had hits no one's heard because they're not on 80's compilations right now.

 

[Belegon]

Right. I know for a fact, some of those so-called one hit wonders were only one hit wonders in this country. Either that or they had hits no one's heard because they're not on 80's compilations right now.

Well, the two that jumped out the most were Berlin and The Cars.

Excuse me?

And the song mentioned for Berlin wasn't even their number one hit that won a Grammy and an Oscar....

But to me, who has a taste for independent labels anyway, a one-hit wonder is a very different thing, too...

 

[cloudy]

Anybody remember this song?

It's Spidey's favorite song right now to dance to.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Hope not - the 80s was a fashion disaster.

The 80's were better in the sense that anything went. Personally, I think the looks were a lot easier to pull off for most people than the skinny looks of the 90's and today. It was definitely cheaper for me to cut up a t-shirt and buy a vintage blazer back in the day.

*sigh* God, I miss the 80's.