The 80s Blog!
Current mood: wistful
Category: wistful Life

Since I did a survey yesterday which exposed my complete lack of living with trendy toys or trendy clothes, I was asked just what the heck I did in the 80s.

So, what was I doing in the 80s...

Being scared by big kids with Motley Crue on their boomboxes. (this would pass)
Playing with classic plastic army men (some of the scenarios were quite elaborate, and there was a complicated game I set up between the sides).
Exploring outside, where there was lots of undeveloped land.
Programming a VIC-20, sitting on the floor, hooked up to a 12" black & white TV.
Playing a few games on an Atari 2600 on that same TV.
Spending afternoons in KMart playing the computer game demos.
Saving up for toy guns at that same KMart.
Trying to sell Kool Aid in front of said KMart. (it was right by the old apartment)
Galactica 1980.  Knight Rider.  Magnum, P.I.  Old Star Trek every weekend afternoon at 6 pm on channel 50, with PB&J sandwiches and Campbell's chicken noodle soup.
Enjoying a brief bright period in pop music, with Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, Huey Lewis, and a few others [remember Dream Academy?].
Getting that first nudge toward harder rock from Asia.
Doing an early morning paper route, while screeching along to Bon Jovi and Survivor in my headphones.
Fixing up junkyard bicycles.
Riding those bicycles, with big reworked junkyard headphones clamped to my head. [great big over-the-ears ones, needed a chin strap to stay on while riding - they looked ridiculous and I didn't care cuz they were LOUD]
Taking apart old console stereos.
Listening to _lots_ of radio.
Never quite solving The Bard's Tale on my Commodore 128.
Stevie Ray Vaughan. Rudolf Schenker. Gary Moore. Yngwie.
Spending hours and hours with a cheap keyboard and cheap guitar (hacking out trivial little progressions).
Working in a machine shop all summer, saving up for a not-so-cheap keyboard.
Playing lots of Risk and watching trashy old spoof horror movies with a few friends.
Spending far too much time in my mom's church, socializing and making music with a crew of good people that would all move away.
Looking up to Barry Sanders and Stevie Yzerman.
Running track.  Badly.
Taking care of my younger sisters.  Badly.
Watching replays of Letterman the day after.
Learing to drive, and learning to drive a stick at the same time.  It did not go well at first.
Trying to keep a well-used 1980 Chevette running, after running it into a big old station wagon.
1984 Detroit Tigers.  Bless you, boys!
Mondale vs Reagan.  {teehee!}
Aussie Rules Football, back when ESPN was new and cool and showed sports.
MTV, back when MTV was new and cool and showed videos.

Gosh, there's a ton more I could put in there. 

[You might expect the next blog to be "what I did in the 90s", but there's nothing to say.  It's a forgotten decade, and I'm better for not remembering.]

Currently listening : Rocky IV By Original Soundtrack Release date: By 28 February, 2006

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