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This may not be everyone's experience, but imagine regular -30 and lower temperatures during the winter. Snow banks four to five feet high.

Hot summer days going down a dusty gravel highway in the back of a pickup truck with icecream. Listening to Bon Jovi, Guns n' Roses, and Motley Crue.

2 tv stations, and one that was always static-y.

Playgrounds weren't as safe as they are these days with exposed metal bars, 10 foot high slides, swings with heavy chains instead of rope, that deathtrap they called a merry-go-round that kids either spun so fast that it flung the other kids off, or got their feet caught under, and sand so compacted it may as well be stone.

And most importantly.

Playing outside.


<3

I remember it vividly but as an adult, some of the things I didn't understand then, I do now.

The economy was kind of rough, at least locally.

I remember watching a black and white tv(yeah...try explaining that concept to kids now days) and having to adjust the antennas. But it worked perfect for my toons!

I remember all of the previously mentioned cartoons and I seem to recall toys being made to last. The toys in my generation were not necessarily safe but they sure could withstand heavy play/use and they generally seem to be thought out better as far as design. Not everything was cheap plastic(Loved the big metal Tonka dump truck..that thing was a boss!).

The mall was "the place to go/be". They were always busy and there was always a billion stores and kiosks open. If you were gonna hang out with friends, this was the place!

Everything imaginable had a trading card set. From Alf to Ghostbusters, everything had cards. This trend did carry through to the early 90's. Even Operation Desert Storm had a card set.

The clothes and hair were loud to say the least. And anything neon was a big deal.

I actually had to remember phone numbers. Rotary telephones were still in use as were pay phones. No cell phones.

Your bicycle or skateboard was your freedom. Even if you were told to stay within a 2 block radius of your house(which you never did anyways).

I fondly remember Atari and then Nintendo. Teddy Ruxpin and My Pet Monster were hard to find around the holidays as they were pretty high on a lot of kid's wish lists. Slap Bracelets and the Simpsons were a big deal as well.

And believe it or not, at least with the kids I grew up around, He-Man and Thundercats were far more coveted than Transformers. This eventually transitioned into Ninja Turtles being the most popular around the end of the decade.

I would say kids in the 80's weren't necessarily smarter than kids now days. Just different. Being entertained required much more creativity on our part. Not out of choice but out of necessity.

Reading though this post was really interesting, it was cool to hear ppl's thoughts on an era I wasn't alive in, since I was born in 93, my questions ppl who where kids in the 80's was it better or worse than the 90's? just curious.

Stealth Claw wrote:Reading though this post was really interesting, it was cool to hear ppl's thoughts on an era I wasn't alive in, since I was born in 93, my questions ppl who where kids in the 80's was it better or worse than the 90's? just curious.

I wouldn't really say it was better or worse. Just different.

I'd say the 90's had more innovation. Video games became the thing to have although by the mid-late 80's with Atari and Nintendo, it was already getting that way anyways. But the little Tiger handheld stuff and gameboy was becoming a big deal. And then SNES. Toys started to take a bit of a back seat.

The '80s gets a lot of nostalgia due to the primary "breadwinners" and tax payers being from that era. However, it was just a lot more than neat pop culture properties. I, personally, feel that the 1980s marked a transitive period for the American national psyche.

I was born in '82 myself.

The idea of not being able to trust your fellow American was emerging. I remember my parents having a very bitter argument when I was about five or six. My father was supposed to be watching me in the store, and he let me wander off by myself to the toy section. My mother found me by myself and was pissed at my dad. I remember my dad trying to defend himself by stating that his parents had allowed him to do the same, and my mother bringing up the Adam Walsh kidnapping and murder. The '80s were also the era where John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy were still on a lot of people's minds, so her fears were not unfounded.

Secondly, the war in Vietnam was still recent in a lot of American's minds. Although Nixon and the politicians had described it as "peace with honor," it still felt like a loss to a lot people. We hadn't stopped the Communists. We hadn't even contained the Communists. They had taken Saigon in '75, and that was a bitter fact into the 1980s. I remember having the knowledge that there had been a pretty recent war, and it was kind of a taboo topic for a lot of people. I think, in some ways, Vietnam changed American priorities. I don't know if Reaganomics and the concept of the "Me Decade" could have been possible without it.

As a part of that, we saw a national re-alignment of priorities--and, perhaps, the new search for a national "boogieman." We had dealt with the Nazis and Imperial Japan, and then we had dealt with Communism--what was next? The War on Drugs, once the 90's came around. There was general excitement and euphoria when Communism began its collapse in Europe, but growing suspicion of the Middle East. I remember my mother gently explaining to me why we were invading Panama, and why Germany was reuniting, and the concerns in Iraq and Israel. I remember James Bond and Rambo telling us why should support the Mujahideen in The Living Daylights and Rambo III, respectively. I remember NARC arcade games extolling us that "Winners Don't Use Drugs!" and Transformer cartoons incorporating the country of "Carbombya" into its plots.

All told, I think the 80s were a good time to experience your formative years. Sure, the styles were a little bonkers, and the politics were too far to the right for my personal preference, but it marked an important time in human history. Personally, I felt that the '80s represented a period of genuine passion and compassion, although occasionally misguided. But it also was an era of changing priorities and suspicion.

TL;DR: 1980s were OK to live in, but maybe not the best. Rate 7/10, would live through again if I had to.

Here's what I remember:

Well, before the berlin wall fell most people in the 80s believed nuclear war was still a possibility. It still is, but people were still worried after the cuban missle crisis. There was still concern that the russians might try something.

Rules regarding cartoons were laxed for the first time, allowing them to be commercials, have violence and actual conflict (in the 70s they were strict AF.) Which is why we have shows like Transformers at all.

Punk Rock and heavy metal was coming into the music scene, offering an edge that the hippies were offering. (yeah metal was alive in teh 70s but it was getting louder and more common).

Credit cards were becoming common, and combined with the fear of nuclear war there was a sense of 'eh, screw it' and 'buy things to forget the fear' leading to a nationwide malaise of consumerism.

It was a great time for TV, sure it was just 4 channels but we had arcades to go to, or stay at home and play atari or the NES.

The fashion vomit produced at the time was partly a mutation of the hippie tie dye psychedelic colors. A complete rejection of norms. The other things like leg warmers and V-necks were just fads that came and went like bell bottoms and mullets.

Psycho Warrior wrote:The other things like leg warmers and V-necks were just fads that came and went like bell bottoms and mullets.

I always thought leg warmers were hot.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:

Psycho Warrior wrote:The other things like leg warmers and V-necks were just fads that came and went like bell bottoms and mullets.

I always thought leg warmers were hot.

I remember that there was a little girl who lived across the street from me. Her mother would wear stirrup pants around the house.

I didn't mind seeing that particular fad go away . . . stirrup pants are stupid.

Eh, the hair styles from the 80's were the most unforgivable thing from that decade. I mean, the 50's, 60's, 70's, 90's-present I get. The 80's not so much.

80's were better than the crap we have today, better government, better music, better transformers(well...sometimes), better simpler times basically


Oh and Seibertron.com wasn't around in the 80's! but I don't think much in the way of the internet was around back then

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:

Psycho Warrior wrote:The other things like leg warmers and V-necks were just fads that came and went like bell bottoms and mullets.

I always thought leg warmers were hot.

Oh no argument there.

I was born in 70 so I hit the most impressionable years of a kids life in the 80's, my teen years.
I remember when the clock struck midnight on Dec 31st 1979 to transition into the 80's, there was an honest feeling of change in the air. Politically in the early 80's I experienced a lot of fear due to the cold war escalating and the looming "threat" of a nuclear holocaust. This fear was apparent by so many TV movies and shows that dealt with it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nuclear ... irefox-b-1

The big one was the Day After, even the 80's version of the Twilight Zone had a nuclear part to it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Znqt2b8CKQ

In school we had nuclear drills (New Orleans was one of the places that were targeted due to it being a major port city) where they sounded the siren, we all got out of our desks and crouched on the floor with our hands over the back of our heads.

Personally I thought the clothes were great (skinny ties. the wild colors and styles of clothing and Topsiders https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/dkscdn ... T_Brown_is) There was a ton of fashion-ability in the clothes of the 80's as I was a kid in the 70's and the clothes were abysmal then so anything was better than ugly blue (just one color example) reversible suits with bell bottoms.

I remember in the 70's only having 5 television stations to watch (ABC, CBS, NBC and two local affiliates) and they were all through antenna so the reception was crap, then in the late 70's early 80's cable TV really got the heavy push (before this it was only available in certain areas of the country) and we were now exposed to 45 channels (what Cox cable offered with the old school box) from all over the place including 3 movie channels, HBO, Spotlight and Cinemax Spotlight (the latter was short lived when it was bought out and replaced with Showtime) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(TV_channel)
A history about cable TV and a pix of a box similar to the first one we had
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_tel ... ted_States

Then on August 1, 1981 the channel would debut that would change the industry and viewing habits.. MTV.. I was a MTV junkie and it was almost always on with the sound cranked up when I was home alone (which was a lot).
One thing I miss dearly is Saturday morning cartoons.. Aaaah the thrill of getting up at 6am and binge watching cartoons all morning until 11:30 (a couple stations ran them till 12), and you had 3 stations to chose from (ABC, NBC, CBS) so I would put the 3 tv's in my house at the time (living room, parents room and my room) on a different station and bounce back and forth depending on what was on.. Yes I was a cartoon junkie on Saturday mornings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday-morning_cartoon
This ended in then 90's as some stations did continue Like Fox and the WB but the "golden days" were long over with and it was never the same as when the "big 3" ran them.

The local stations (not main broadcast ABC, NBC, CBS) would play cartoons each weekday morning from 7 - 9 then in the afternoons from 2 - 5 they would play all the cartoons that changed the landscape for we gen Xers, Transformers, GI Joe, M.A.S.K, Robotech, inspector gadget, Jem, Inhumanoids, Thundercats, He-Man, Silverhawks, Bravestarr, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, etc.. etc.. This ended in then 90's (some did continue but the "golden days" were long over with)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekday_cartoon

There were no cellphones or beepers (unless you were rich), only pay phones everywhere which led to everyone always carrying change on them.
Playground equipment was pretty much unsafe considered to today's standards but going to them was safer (the amount of child stalkers seemed to be a lot less) .
I remember my summer schedule would be like this
Get up, eat breakfast, watch cartoons until 10, get dressed and walk outside and wait for the neighbor kids to come out so we could all organize our "play" for that day. We would play until around noon and either eat by someone else's house or go home for lunch. After lunch if we separated we would all walk out again and wait for the others to come out then we would play until about 5 or 6 and come in for supper (unless there was cartoons on that were good).
To me my life was somewhat carefree and I have tons of great memories from the 80's.

The holidays were cool too as the network shows would get preempted for the holiday shows. I used to get goose bumps when I would see these come on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4_d_6A8nE0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDlLR_iewkw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HCYw2_riEM

Also I used to look forward to reading TV guide and all it's articles as back then there was no guide telling you what came on TV like the stations offer now, if you wanted to find something you had to search and read it (I still have some old TV guides in storage too)

The 80's seemed simpler to me most likely because I became a full adult in the 90's and responsibility of life hit me.

I'm from '77 so I grew up in the 80's in Europe. Oh man. I LOVE the 80's. Best decade.

Music: 10/10. I still love all 80's music. The best music was made in the 80's. Closely followed by the 70's. There's good music in all decades, but not as much as then.

TV shows: cheesy, but awesome back then. The A-Team, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Magnum P.I., Airwolf, Thundercats, Master of the Universe, Transformers of course, G.I. Joe, MASK, Inspector Gadget, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Visionairies, Inhumanoids, Star Trek TNG (was that already on in the 80's?), Ulysses 31... I can go on and on. Saturday mornings were filled with cartoons.
And I love all those theme songs!!
Sometimes we'd get anime, and I loved that stuff. It was rare here, but I sometimes caught a glimpse of stuff like Gundam Wing, and I was like: WTH is THAT!? SWEET! But I could never remember what channel had them and at what time, so they mostly went by unnoticed.

Movies: oh hell yes. I'm a huge movie buff, and the 80's were amazing. Terminator, Robocop, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Rambo, Lethal Weapon, Star Wars, all those great classics with cool actors and actresses.
Movies nowadays are deeper, more/better stories sometimes, faster, more special effects etc. We're getting spoiled and 80's movies look old and dated and cheesy now, but man were they cool.
The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, I can write a book about all that stuff.

The 80's were also an era of consumerism, decadence, materialism, just watch Miami Vice, but we had cool stuff as kids. A walkman! Mixtapes! Commodore 64 games! No cellphones, internet, facebook etc. You had actual friends and played outside.

Clothing was.... well... pretty bad. Hairstyles were big. So yeah, fashionwise the 80's weren't the best of times, but it's sure funny to see that now. I did love the bright colours.

Listen to the lyrics of this song ,Pay good attention to the opening lines It will give you an atmospheric impression of New York City in the early 80s as does most of the song

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PobrSpMwKk4

CastletonSnob wrote:From someone who was born in 1992, what were the 80s like for those who lived during that decade?

It's a different experience for everyone.

If you were poor it was just as miserable as the 70s and 90s were.
If you were a Wall Street yuppie you were probably living a life of great excess.
If you were living in another country other than the USA it would be different.

There was some great things from the 80s and things that were horrible in the 80s but again that is a different experience for everyone.

I believe the best era, best style, home deco, music, toylines - the list goes on. Shame about certain world affairs, but aside from that - the best!