The 80s are Really Gone....

[SUPERECWFAN1]

For the longest time I never imagined the era I grew up to be so far away. I used to wake up and think , man the 1980s were X years away and things were so fun as a kid. But I get reminders the era continues to drift further....and further away. As I age and get older and more reflective now.




For those who never experienced the 1980s ; it was a glorious time of music , entertainment and more . As a child of 1980s that era to me was one of the best given everything me and friends experienced. We will sit and joke.... we had the best cartoons , the best movies and more. We got Freddy , we got Nintendo for the 1st time and we got awesome things like MTV that launched on this date back in 1981. (Yeah I never thought of it til now...but MTV launched on August 1st , 1981)






Life was just a bit more innocent for me then. No real worries in life then growing up.


As a kid one of the people who made my childhood great was a man named ....Pee Wee Herman. He was funny , he was unique and he didn't care if he was a nerd or outsider to people. In fact Pee Wee was so happy with himself and comfortable as he told Dottie ..."I'm a loner ..." that he was cool.


At the time I didn't know Paul Reubens created this character. I thought he actually existed and had a Playhouse and cool bike. Having bikes to ride in our neighborhood was something us kids did and Pee Wee having one , was cool to us. Plus his Playhouse was epic to us kids watching on Saturday mornings.





Right now a lot of us kids from the 1980s are really taking it hard. We grew up with Pee Wee Herman , we had the dolls and we could say his classic line or two to others. In all growing up in 1980s this one is a hard blow.

In fact if we were told Pee Wee Herman was 70 we'd have said...no way. Reuben's looked youthful and we all thought at least the guy was in his 50's at best. So not only did a lot of us realize just how old he was....we then get the whammy of losing a piece of our childhood too.

So yeah....the 1980s are really sadly going away for us who grew up then. That era is closing and whats left is the realization were all older now....

[babyblob]

I have to say I love your threads man.

And on the toipc. I was born in 1981 so I dont remember a whole lot of the 80s from the first go around. But I feel like I am living them now. I listen to 80s music, I watch 80s tv shows and movies, I collect toys from the 80s. And I like you love Pee Wee.

U do remember some things from the 80s however. Like watching old school wrestling, listening to MTV, Saturday morning cartoons.

But I must admit I am more of a child of the 90s. Now that was a decade!

[bruceleegreyhulk]

I was born in 1983 so I have memories of the late 80s. However, I have watched 80s movies because my late grandparents on my mother's side had this collection of VHS Tapes, My parents rented them from a rental store, and reruns on TV.

[Riv86672]

Born in ‘68 so,

70s-childhood
80s-teens
90s-young adulthood
00s-adulthood
10s-middle age
20s-cranky old man

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Late 80s to mid 90s- childhood

late 90s to the year 2000- teens

Early 2000s( not counting 2000) to mid 2000s not counting ( 2006)Young adult

2006 to 2020s ( 2006 to early-mid year 2023 ) Adulthood

start of Middle age coming late year 2023 ( September)

[CaptainEurope]

Just wait 57 years, you'll get another round of 80s.

[CaptCleghorn]

My age group? These guys. Well, their characters anyway.

[Rzerox21xx]

I love the 80s despite only living through with memory a few years, born in Feb 84. I started remembering things in 87, I romanticized the 80s alot even the overlooking the flaws and bad parts like Ronald Reagan and the Cold war. I love the music, the movies, the games, the pop culture. anime. and comic books. Been reading alot of comics runs from that especially from the Jim Shooter era. love the sitcoms. sometimes I wish I was switch ages with my brother who had lived through it more. but it depends.

[Jim Kelly]

Forgive this side trip down memory lane but, reading the topic title, the first thing I heard in my head was "Gone gone gone she's been gone so long"--that's Chilliwack's song "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" off their 1981 album, WANNA BE A STAR. Raised on Can-Con, I'm never sure how many songs that were solid gold hits here even made it elsewhere in the world. The "Gone, Gone" song was an ear worm for sure.

This followed Chiliwack's big hit with "Arms of Mary" in 1978--on their LIGHTS FROM THE VALLEY album. However, I remember my big brother coming home in 1970 with the first album, self-titled CHILLIWACK.

I laughed. What crazy music was by brother bringing home from the record store this week? I mocked my brother, but he was streets ahead in his music tastes. I laughed at him in 1966 when he brought home this album with a blonde girl on the cover--noting the album was called BLONDE ON BLONDE, I joked, "Who's that supposed to be, Blondie?"

CHILLIWACK was the name of a sleepy town in B.C.--out in the Fraser Valley. Hardly the name you'd expect for a prog rock band. It seemed far too colloquial in my head. The cover also was far-out--showing a colourful First Nations mask. Not sure what indigenous group this mask came from (I've not been able to identify it on the internet). But the name of the town of Chiliwack comes from a word in the Halq’eméylem language of the Sto:lo First Nations, meaning "valley of many streams."

Yet Chilliwack was a Vancouver rock band, made up of guys from The Collectors (minus Howie Vickers). Just why they chose "Chilliwack" for the new group name, I don't know--but in 1970, I figured such a band would fade into obscurity. I was as surprised as anyone (and impressed by my brother), when they emerged as one of Canada's greatest classic rock bands.

[frankiedetroit]

I was a teenager in the first half of the 80s and a twenty-something for the remainder. It was a lot more dangerous than now. My hometown was the nation's murder capital and crack cocaine became rampant, with all the tragedy it carried. AIDS took off. But still, I was young and that was all just life, so didn't imagine it being any other way. I loved the music at the time (though I later thought 90s music was much better) and the challenges of navigating high school and college and entering a tough job market. As you can see, I don't view the era through rose-colored glasses. I had great times and awful times and meh times and fun times, just like I've always had.

For me, the 80s died with Michael Jackson. Pee Wee's death is one more nail in the coffin. I didn't watch Playhouse regularly, but I absolutely loved Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

[Zelena]

What I liked the most from this era, it’s that the dire predicament where humanity is wasn’t so blatant. There was still hope.

Now people are resigned that the best we can do is damage control.

[The Darknight Detective]

I was a teenager in the first half of the 80s and a twenty-something for the remainder.

The same here. Of all the decades I have lived in, the '80s were my favorite.

[nx01a]

I was born in the 80s and really grew up in the 90s. I think humanity peaked in 1999. The world should permanently be September 10th, 2001 forever.
I don't want to live in a world where Nirvana is considered classic rock.