During preparation for an upcoming vacation with my husband and children, I was taking mental notes about everything that will need to be “charged up” for our 13 hour drive.  It got me reminiscing on all of the car rides and trips my parents and I made across this country. The ones with no hand-held games, and most definitely no DVD players to watch movies.  I am not sure what it was that kept us entertained for long drives; maybe it was my father and his road atlas games or the license plate games we played as rode in our Ford Truck with my mom’s arm as my seat belt.  Ah, the “Good Old Days.”

Thinking back about the era I refer to as the good old days, the era I grew up in, I realized I was TOTALLY a kid of the ’80s! In my opinion, I grew up in a decade of pure fun! We were learning new things while still hanging on to our past. I remember when the neighborhood watch was the little old ladies that sat on their porch reminding you to get inside when the lights came on. Our playgrounds weren’t made of recyclable tires for soft falls. If you fell off the swing set, you fell into gravel! I still have the scar to prove it. Under no circumstances were you able to slide down the slide on a hot day in shorts, ever…unless you were triple-dog dared.

The decade where you could play outside or go down to Bobby’s house – he had all the cool cassette tapes, Atari games and VHS movies; not to mention he had cutest skater-boy haircut.  How awesome was it just to walk around the neighborhood with your Walkman until you had to stop and turn the tape over to side 2 where there was only one good song!

When men’s hair was bigger than women’s and they all wanted to be members of Van Halen and Poison! We were the Rubik’s cube, E.T. Kids!  Speaking of kids, how many kids of the ’80s wanted to be on Kids Incorporated!  Saturday was so awesome. Cartoons until 11:00 am, then outside all day until we had to come in: 1. Because it was getting dark and 2. HEEHAW, Facts of Life & The Wonderful World of Disney were all about to come on TV (the floor model TV-with no remote). The music was phenomenal: Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Whitney Houston, all legends from the 80s!

Recalling all of this makes me want to hop in my flying DeLorean and travel back in time where Huey Lewis seemed to be everywhere. We had our problems, but as kids we thought if we looked to Mr. Cosby or Roseanne, we would be able to work it all out.  The era that I grew up in may not have been the best to some people, but to me it rocked.

What fond memories do you have of the era you grew up in? If you grew up in the ’80s with me, what was your fondest memory?

For more fun and nostalgic ’80s stuff you can like totally go to National Geographic’s  page: The ’80s: The Decade that Made Us

 

Brought to you by Mills Apartments

Photos courtesy of Fan Pop