Memory Lane
Last week, since I had ever-so-delicately sliced my finger open with the blade of a food processer, (and because, OK, you’ve got me, I didn’t actually sit down to write a post until 7:30 AM Friday and thought, I just can’t deal with this right now) my typing was impaired and you were treated to a video of Adam Sandler circa 1984.
I know a lot of us youngsters who born in the eighties like to think that we’re the crème de la crème of the century, simply because we emerged from a decade infamous for its bad-assery and tight stretch pants. We heart eighties movies, we sing along to eighties songs when they come on VH1 because admit it, you still watch VH1.
Although some of us may feel a special kinship with Poison, the harsh truth is that most of us were but a twinkle in our parents eyes when Video Killed the Radio Star and Bruce Springsteen was Dancing in the Dark.
I’ll be completely up front with you in admitting that I’ve purchased the Heart Greatest Hits 2-Disc Special not once, but twice, once in college when my roommate Sarah and I used to rock out to “What About Love” in our apartment while we got ready for nights out and then again, recently, after a breakup, about two glasses of wine…and well, we can end that story there.
The truth is, I don’t remember much of the eighties. I remember tidbits, like visiting my mom and newborn brother in the hospital when he was born (and truth be told, the most vivid part of that day is stopping at the toy store with my dad on the way so I could pick out the two presents he’d promised me).
I remember when my grandmother died in 1989 and I remember my first sleepover with my friend Alicia – which honestly, might even have been in 1990. I remember that my family had a housekeeper who came once a week from a cleaning service owned by a tall, black man named Jimmy. I remember the blue comforter adorned with big pink tulips that draped my bed - my cousin in Massachusetts had the same one.
The act of writing all of these things down has made me smile, because so seldom do I think about my Cabbage Patch Doll named Homer or the stuffed Pound Puppy that I named Toby, to which I was quite attached. The eighties, however charming some of my memories may be, were the earliest early years of my childhood, years where I certainly wasn’t paying attention to the music on the radio or the miniskirts decorating the pages of Cosmo or Mademoiselle.
The eighties might have claim on The Breakfast Club, all things neon, acid-wash jeans and it even Whip It, but despite my 1984 birthday, I’m a child of the nineties, the decade that for me, meant Limited Too, Doc Martens and Gap Kids. And not necessarily in that order.
I listened to Ace of Base. I watched Saved by The Bell. In 1995, I saw The Lion King in a theater. In elementary school, my Friday nights usually consisted of back-to-back episodes of Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters and Step-by-Step. I rollerbladed. I had sleepover parties with girls from my seventh grade classes and donned a cotton-candy pink poodle skirt in the junior-high production of Grease in 1998.
In the 1990’s I had my first slow dance, played spin the bottle for the first (and last) time and I cried to Titanic in eighth grade because everyone else did. In second grade I had to get glasses and I chose big, pink frames, and I know, that had nothing to do with the decade but you know what, seven year-olds today are way cooler than I was so I’d be willing to bet those frames are extinct.
I owned a New Kids on the Block nightgown (and sleeping bag and beach towel…OK and the Jordan Knight doll, can this post GET any more humiliating?) and it doesn’t get any more nineties than that. In a nutshell, the eighties might be legendary but my childhood happened in the next decade and now that we’re encroaching on 2010 (SCARY) I can’t help but feel a little posessive of my decade.
Do you feel more connected to the eighties or the nineties? Do you align yourself with Like a Virgin Madonna or Ray of Light Madonna? Tell me some of your favorite 80’s/90’s memories!
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Definitely feeling you on this one. I was born in 1985 but don’t remember much from the 80s, does anyone remember much before they were 5 or so?
The 90s were when I had my childhood. TMNT kites, New Kids On the Block tapes, skip it, elastics, snap bands, and all the shows you listed. Even Hanson, Aqua, Spice Girls (I was a huge Spice Girls fan), and Backstreet Boys in the late 90s.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 am
As I wasn’t born until 1988, I have no memory of the 80’s.
However I was a child of all generations.
When I was a kid, I mostly listened to jazz, motown, rap, classic rock, and some country. Pretty much everything I heard was older than my parents, much less me.
I remember going to see Beauty & The Beast in theatres when I was in Pre-K. I remember the Skip It commercial. I remember Family Matters, classic Nickelodeon, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
I remember when Britney Spears jumpstarted puberty for a generation of boys. I remember when The Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls were at their height.
Before Dora, Spongebob, and Bratz hit the scene.
Ah, those were the days.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 am
I was born in ‘85, so I don’t remember too much of the 80s, the 90s feels much more like my decade.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:22 am
I’ve never thought of myself as an eighties child, mainly cos strictly speaking I was born in the seventies (albeit the last couple of months and don’t therefore remember any of it!) but I feel far more connected to the 90s anyway. Most of the eighties was a blur to me!
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:08 am
Heart is the bee’s knees. I love that greatest hits album.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:52 am
This post was absolute glory!!!!
I was born in 82. Like a virgin is where I align myself.
My favorites? Hypercolor t-shirts, slap bracelets and spandex. Most guys wore shorts with spandex underneath, or maybe that was just a Denver thing, I dont know.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
Fraggle Rock. That’s all I have to say.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
Born in 1980…..so it was all about GI Joe (animated series), M.A.S.K., He-Man, Super Mario Bros, etc. NKotB and Vanilla Ice were both horrible….though I was more of a G n’ R fan. I still remember when my mom let me buy Use Your Illusion II. Rage Against The Machine was HS, and DMB was HS / College (at least his best years).
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
I like to think I fit into both. I was born in 83 so I have part of the 80s and 90s. Hair bands (Motley Crue is still my favorite band EVER), slap bracelets, carebears, popples, NKOTB, both versions of Madonna, it goes on and on…
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
born in 1986, so i claim the early-mid nineties as my childhood.
Spice girls, TLC, Goosebumps (a book series by R.L. Stine), babysitter’s club (the disney tv show, book series AND movie thankyouverymuch), BARNEY!!!, the TGIF shows (family matters, step by step, etc), disney movies (beauty&the beast, little mermaid) and tons more.
the early 90s were good times.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I was 10 in 1980 and my memory/nightmare was painter pants and Corey heart & that fucking stupid rubix cube. I hated that thing.
April 5th, 2009 at 2:21 am
ahhh memories… weekends filled with sweet valley high, duck hunt (so high tech after those years of Frogger on the Atari), and the original sim city…
April 8th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I was born in 81, so my childhood is all about the 80s, and my Little Ponies and Jem, whereas my adolescence is all about the 90s, like Smashing Pumpkins and associated angst. Oh, and really bad plaid suspender skirts. Ugh.
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January 26th, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I wake up in the morning feeling like kesha i throw some cloths on and i walk to school