Did everyone skip 80's nostalgia?

[Magna]

Freaks and Geeks was an 80s themed series too. I lived through that time and a lot of is was pretty accurate.

 

[mysterionz]

Everytime I think of Stranger Things, I'm reminded of this video.
(Warning: Flashing Lights)

Miracle of Sound - "Upside Down"

I’ve heard “running up that hill” by Kate bush several times while at work. Lol.

 

[Outdated]

In 1981 I turned 16, I got my first job and I got my first girlfriend. The 80s were one of the best periods of my life. We didn't have mobile phones then either, the world was wonderful.

It was also the end of an era for cars, both in design and manufacture. 1980 was when we started seeing the first cars with electronic engine management systems and that was the beginning of the end of people working on their own cars. Also cars started becoming more aerodynamic and so they started looking more and more like copies of each other.

Australia had it's own cars back then, the Fords were built in the same way as the American land barge but the Holdens had double wishbone front suspension and a limited slip diff as standard. Australian cars were a lot bigger than European cars but still smaller than the Yank Tanks.

These cars are from the 70s, back then cars really were fun.

 

[Rodafina]

^ There we go. There is some genuine, first hand 80s nostalgia!

My turn.

I was born in 1980 so much of the pop culture including music, fashion, media, and social norms I really absorbed in the 90s. My memories of the 80s are of a very pleasant childhood. Sure, I struggled from the beginning and learned early on that I would have to figure out how to cope in the world, but I had a loving family and they did their best.

I am eternally the baby in the family because I have two older siblings and I am the youngest. We got along well and they made time for me in their play and with their attention. One of the most fantastic days of my life was probably in 1985 when I got a quarter for raking the leaves off the lawn and I was allowed to walk 2 blocks away with only my brother and sister to the local candy store. It was my first taste of independence and I loved it!

My other fond memories of the 80s included hopping on my banana seat bike and whirling around the neighborhood every day before school. I actually did enjoy playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids because it gave me a chance to explore all the backyards. The whole neighborhood was opened up as fair game and although I often got forgotten and left to hang out in my spot alone, I rather enjoyed it and I was really good at not being found. But exploring the backyards and seeing how everyone’s distinct property actually was all connected was a really fascinating and memorable experience for me. It seems like where I live, this freedom of children to frolic about in the neighborhood is a thing of the past.

 

[Rodafina]

My bike looked a lot like this. I called her Freedom.

 

[Gerontius]

Honestly, though, I think the love for seveties, eighties, even nineties cars is a figment of people's nostalgic imagination. These things have always been slow and loose with terribly unreliable air conditioning and, compared to today's cars, drive and ride like either a logging truck or a waterbed. They don't keep the outside out and you can smell the dirt and exhaust from other cars and the road. Vacuum tubes everywhere under the hood and catalytic converters that work just the same as if you'd shoved a box of kleenex in the tail pipe. No, nobody remembers these things for what they really are. And in a time where mom's minivan has almost 400hp it boggles my mind anyone can kid themselves about coveting an '85 Country Squire - that trick tailgate gets old fast because it weighs eighty pounds.

I have a '96-model Toyota because it was cheap. I like it, but then again I don't kid myself into thinking it's as "good as a new car." It is "good enough" for me, and it's paid for. It rides like a shopping cart with a crazy wheel, smokes a little bit, has dust blowing up through the floor (no cabin filters back then, so just run with the windows down), has vacuum-operated cruise control that now lights up but no longer works. On the front it has disc brakes; the back has a set of drum brakes that would have looked at home on a '51 Plymouth Cranbrook. Audio is a set of slightly buzzy speakers connected to a radiocassette (remember that word nobody uses any more?) deck, with one knob missing.

I like the car, but then again I was originally wanting a later production Model T Ford because Model T's are nice in an ugly-cute way, and the simple bare-bones design is actually pretty ingenious.

The Corolla is what taught me to view cars as a sort of appliance. I would love to simply put it out somewhere else & use it as a henhouse or a rabbit hutch, and never drive a motor car again in my life. I've gotten to where I don't like the way they smell, or the way they hog the road, or the money they cost, license plates they require, and more.

It's a cute little car but it would be nice to not need a car at all.

 

[YabbaDabba]

Knight Rider was awesome. I pity da fool who didn’t like The A Team. You had to actually get up and walk over to the tv to change the channel. Or the antenna. Transformers made a movie that Bumblebee said a swear word in. It was the first movie I saw without parents. You had to be home when the street lights came on. The world was so much simpler then.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

The book that summarizes the 80s for me is Sleepwalking Through History. So many of the malignant forces that plague us now started in the 80s.

 

[Lysholm]

I have a '96-model Toyota because it was cheap

I daily a '94 Ford pickup. The headers are cracked and leak, the steering has a dead spot in it where it feels like it's not connected, the shocks barely do anything because the springs are so stiff, and it sucks to drive downtown because it's slower than everyone else wants to go. I'm always getting tailgated and passed because it physically cannot accelerate like anything can today. I do like the truck, but it's a handful and I kinda cringe when people compliment me on it. Like, you wouldn't like it if you dailied it for a while - carry on with your hipster fantasy elsewhere.

'51 Plymouth Cranbrook

My dad has one of these - literally that car. It's maroon with a flathead six and a three on the tree. He also has a '66 Dodge Charger small block automatic. Apparently I'm supposed to inherit these, but I can't honestly say I'm excited about that.

Model T's are nice in an ugly-cute way, and the simple bare-bones design is actually pretty ingenious

Have you ever driven one of these? They are more complex than they look and are loud and uncomfortable. They require a lot of effort to drive and can be unruly. They aren't really quaint.

 

[Gerontius]

I daily a '94 Ford pickup. The headers are cracked and leak, the steering has a dead spot in it where it feels like it's not connected, the shocks barely do anything because the springs are so stiff, and it sucks to drive downtown because it's slower than everyone else wants to go. I'm always getting tailgated and passed because it physically cannot accelerate like anything can today. I do like the truck, but it's a handful and I kinda cringe when people compliment me on it. Like, you wouldn't like it if you dailied it for a while - carry on with your hipster fantasy elsewhere.

Most '90s cars are pretty lousy. I agree.
I'm not sure why people are so attached to pickup trucks specifically; however, I begin to think marketing has something to do with it. To me a pickup truck is just a metal box with a cab attached to it, but some folks see them almost as an extension of the self, as much an accessory as a vehicle. (These people are not folks I want to be around because seriously people it's just a truck)

My dad has one of these - literally that car. It's maroon with a flathead six and a three on the tree. He also has a '66 Dodge Charger small block automatic. Apparently I'm supposed to inherit these, but I can't honestly say I'm excited about that.

Those sound like nice cars,. If you don't want one, though, even something like a brand-new car can be a major pain in the butt to have to deal with all of a sudden--even more so when it's two cars, and both of them (presumably) too "nice" to actually use plus all the fussy maintenance. I'd be tempted to mess around with the Plymouth but wouldn't know what to do with them in the end.

Have you ever driven one of these? They are more complex than they look and are loud and uncomfortable. They require a lot of effort to drive and can be unruly. They aren't really quaint.

They are literally one of the world's worst motor vehicles, but significant nonetheless. They are endearingly crap-tastic, dangerous, and of course uncomfortable--I've also been fascinated by them ever since I was about six or seven. Still am.


The '80s equivalent would have been the Trabant two-stroke or (in the west) the Yugo, neither of which seem to be exactly common here. I do not know why Yugos disappeared other than they don't seem to have been super reliable.

 

[Au Naturel]

The fifties, sixties, and seventies all have well defined nostalgic markets. The Victorian era has it's devotees that wander into early Twentieth Century territory. Even Civil War reenacting is still popular.

But the eighties seem to have been skipped over by the mainstream. Actually, it seems the eighties, nineties, and aughts have coalesced into a single idea in society's collective memory. I remember in the nineties popular nostalgia for the seventies was obvious (even to my kid self), and this has never really gone away. But the eighties have never caught on, at least not by themselves. While I'm sure Gen X'ers don't want to relive the existential dread of limitless opportunities they passed up in their childhood, I don't understand why the eighties have not been adopted by these kids today or whatever.

My nostalgia meter usually stops in the 90s.

The 80s had absolutely killer music. MTV ruled! There was still a hint of the counterculture here in SoCal. The economy boomed. The nude beaches and resorts hadn't all been shut down. It was when I got married and got my first (and only) good job. If you liked Reagan, it was great, and if you hated him, that was a lot of fun too.

The 80s rocked!

 

[Uppity Creek]

The 80s was my decade; I find myself sometimes saying, out loud, "come back, 80s, I promise I'll pay more attention next time!" That said, I also can really get into the 70s, or 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s...I really don't feel too much for the 90s yet though some of my favorite memories took place then.

I think today, we are so "everything, all the time", you can practically live like it's 1983 if you want to. Sit in front of a 25" color console and a TV Guide. Use your remote to pull up any show in the book, RIGHT NOW. Ditto the music. (The fellow typing this is sitting here listening to a Joe Jackson album right now.) It's so easy to go back to whatever decade you want, that it loses a little something.

 

[Outdated]

I miss the simplicity of the 80s. No one had computers back then, Well, I did but I'm a bit of a geek. Mobile phones weren't invented and many people didn't even have a landline in the house. To talk to someone you had to go around their place and knock on the door. We were much more social back then.

Boys toys were cars bikes and boats, and everything was simple enough that you could service and repair them yourself at home with ease. I only ever owned beat up old cars, $500 bombs. They were the best value, fix it up enough to run it for at least 6 months, then take it to the wreckers who would pay you for it, go out and buy another one. Our compulsory insurance is billed as part of our yearly registration with the government regulating the price, so if you buy an old car with 6 months rego on it it really is good value.

Cars were more simply made back then, Holden made one base frame that came with a choice of 6 different bodies. A 2 door coupe, a family sedan, a station wagon, a ute, a panel van, and a luxury model that sort of looked like a Cadillac. You also had a choice of many different engines from small 6 cylinders to large V8s.

Panel Vans were popular with surfies, the shaggin' wagon. The Monaro was the coupe, a favourite boy's toy, perfectly poised and balanced for doing circle work on wet grass.

It was a very different social climate to that of the US. We had been a nation of racist religious extremists but that started to break down in the late 60s and by the beginning of the 80s we had completely broken the hold of religion over our politics and our legal system. Australia in the 80s was a wonderful time when being different was celebrated, the fringes were fringes no longer, instead they were the centre of attention.

That changed as we shifted in to the 90s and our society became more conservative again.

 

[LadyS]

Being a kid in the 80s was not bad either

 

[Human Avatar]

What I miss the most about the 1980s

 

[Duncan74]

Being a kid in the 80s was not bad either

You say that, but I've photos of the clothes I wore that dispute your assertion.

I've also still got nerve damage on my hand from holding the atari joystick whilst attempting to outsmart a pacman ghost for about 3 years. Noting that in the early 80s we could create a shuttle that went back and forth to the moon, but no-one had invented ergonomics and we thought a square with sharp edges was the best thing to hold onto for long periods of time.

And forget smartphones, consoles, snaptok, etc. We didn't need any of those as we had an unusably small calculator watch that meant you'd spend 5 hours attemtping to do any sum, and then more than likely give up and find the one person in each class that had a 'space pen' that could write upside down so that you could do the sum by long multiplaction on a bit of paper held on the underside of a desk. Kids today, no idea what fun is as they watch their videos........

Here's another one. I genuinely got a rechargeable battery charger for a combined birthday/xmas gift one year. Was able to charge 4 NiCad batteries at a time in just 12 hours. Slight let down was that it was going to cost me my entire sum of all other gifted cash to be able to buy 4 rechargeable batteries at the time, noting they were about UKP30 a pair back in those days. So as a present it was a bit, umm, hollow.

Pretty sure it was early 80s that the first McDonalds opened in my hometown. Before that we had the travesty of eating food off plates and using cutlery. I remember my mother inexplicably keeping the wrapper and box, then serving home cooked burger and chips in the washed wrappers for the following saturday night family meal.

What about the plastic spoked BMX wheels that apparently if you buckled you just put in the freezer to straighten. I'm sure even today this story was perpetuated by an alliance of chest freezer manufacturers and the wheel manufacturer so more time was spent by kids attempting to stamp on said wheel to make it buckle in the first place, and then sit on the freezer lid trying to force it closed against a largely still perfectly true bike wheel.

 

[Sherlock77]

I was a teenager of the 1980's but had very little connection to popular culture of that decade, mostly due to my upbringing and also some exposure to the music my older brother had... Daniel Amos, 77's, Larry Norman... I believe my first ever concert was Benny Hester (who is that? ), also Randy Stonehill was popular (at least in my world)

I do find that in my vintage photo collection I generally stop at the 1970's

1980's you say? My first car that I actually purchased in 1995, but a 1987 Chev Cavalier, that I owned for another nine years

 

[Au Naturel]

I miss the simplicity of the 80s. No one had computers back then, Well, I did but I'm a bit of a geek. Mobile phones weren't invented and many people didn't even have a landline in the house. To talk to someone you had to go around their place and knock on the door. We were much more social back then.

Boys toys were cars bikes and boats, and everything was simple enough that you could service and repair them yourself at home with ease. I only ever owned beat up old cars, $500 bombs. They were the best value, fix it up enough to run it for at least 6 months, then take it to the wreckers who would pay you for it, go out and buy another one. Our compulsory insurance is billed as part of our yearly registration with the government regulating the price, so if you buy an old car with 6 months rego on it it really is good value.

Cars were more simply made back then, Holden made one base frame that came with a choice of 6 different bodies. A 2 door coupe, a family sedan, a station wagon, a ute, a panel van, and a luxury model that sort of looked like a Cadillac. You also had a choice of many different engines from small 6 cylinders to large V8s.

Panel Vans were popular with surfies, the shaggin' wagon. The Monaro was the coupe, a favourite boy's toy, perfectly poised and balanced for doing circle work on wet grass.

View attachment 95211

It was a very different social climate to that of the US. We had been a nation of racist religious extremists but that started to break down in the late 60s and by the beginning of the 80s we had completely broken the hold of religion over our politics and our legal system. Australia in the 80s was a wonderful time when being different was celebrated, the fringes were fringes no longer, instead they were the centre of attention.

That changed as we shifted in to the 90s and our society became more conservative again.

I got my first PC in 1986. I miss the simplicity of those days. 640K and a CGI graphics card, dual floppy drives, a coprocessor, and a 5-megabyte hard drive, and I was set! Dos 3.1, Wordstar word processing, and GWBasic to do my Basic programming. You bought your games on 360K floppies. Nothing was copy-protected.

Good times!

 

[AGXStarseed]

What I miss the most about the 1980s


View attachment 95213View attachment 95214

I bet "kid you" would have loved it if this toy existed in the 1980s, then:

 

[Human Avatar]

I bet "kid you" would have loved it if this toy existed in the 1980s, then:

That is really cool ! That would have entertained me for hours , actually probably would now as well