Skeeter's Retro 80's Page

I distinctly remember when the new decade started. I already had a sense of 70's nostalgia, and must have said something out loud about growing up in the 70's. I mean, it wasn't totally wrong... that was the decaded of disco and Saturday morning cartoons. My older sister, already a teen, looked at me, and said, "No, you will be growing up in the 80's!"

I spent all of middle school and high school in the 80's. It was an odd mix of optimism for the future, and an existential dread so huge, that we had to ignore it. It was escapism in every aspect of pop culture vs. the cold war, simple as that.

It was definitely a colorful era. The 70's pallete of harvest gold, avocado green and burned orange were replaced with everything from primaries to pastels to neons. Color was in our clothes, our music videos, and our computer games. If you were a visual kid like me, this was a very, very ideal time to be young and impressionable.

Eventually, the Berlin Wall came down, and the cold war came to an end. It was around that time that pop culture shifted, almost turning itself inside out. Duran Duran were out and U2 was in. Grunge was on the horizon. Anything that sounded upbeat was about to be over-engineered, overmanufactured, and played to death. In a few short years, the internet would go from dial-up BBS's and Bitnet to... DOS Based AOL. But that's another story for another time.

So what were my favorite memories of the 80's? What was I watching? What was I reading? Here is a personal time capsule, to give you an idea of what one teen was up to.

Music. I lived on a steady diet of britpop and new wave. Duran Duran were my absolute favorites, as were Wham!, Tears for Fears, and Culture Club. Eurythmics were amazing, and I really loved Roxette. Generally speaking, if it was colorful and on MTV, I enjoyed it. Except for hair bands LOL.

Books. I don't know how I came to own my first copy of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but I must have read it and the rest of the trilogy at least 5 times before the books fell apart. I also read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy at least 2 or 3 times. I would occasionally check Carl Sagan's Cosmos out of the local library. My own personal library was well stocked with Golden Guides for reference and I still have them today.

Magazines. I mean, Star Hits was my main goto magazine, especially if the Fab Five were in it. I was also an avid reader of Omni magazine... somehow, I got my dad to get me a subscription to it. And in my college years, I would frequently pinch a copy of International Male off of my bestie.

Video Games. Even though we had an Atari 2600 at home, quarters were never safe in my pocket. Whether it be at a pizza place, or a bowling alley, or god-help-me, a roller skating rink, I would always hunt down a good arcade game. My favorites, in no particular order, were Space Invaders, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and Q*Bert. When the Super Nintendo system arrived with Super Mario Brothers, my arcade days came to a swift end.

Cartoons: I can't mention the 80's without mentioning my favorite cartoons. I was an absolutely huge fan of Voltron, in all incarnations. Robotech soon followed, and again, loved every episode, especially the 3rd Generation. Before long, I was seeking out other media, and eventually found a VHS of Captain Harlock. I have probably spent the rest of my adult life trying to track down the rest of the Lejiverse and the elusive Robotech The Movie, which I finally found.

Movies: Believe it or not, I was not that big of a cinema fan. I think mostly because it involved someone needing to drive you there, so I missed a lot of films. But I can tell you that I made it to see the first run of Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Probably my most favorite film of the decade was Top Gun because I actually saw it three times in the theater.

Shopping: While I don't think I was ever a proper mall rat, I had my favorite stores. You often found me in either B. Dalton or Waldenbooks, KayBee Toys, or Record Town. When I got older, I wished I could afford to shop at Chess King more often. Lunches were often had at Friendly's Ice Cream. Spencer Gifts often saw us browsing but not spending much there! When not at the mall, Caldor and K-Mart were the rule, as was Radio Shack for keyboards!

And here is me and my bestie, in our best Chess King suits!!