The 1980's are known by some as the golden days and by others as a decade of greed. It was the decade of big business, the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan. I Interviewed my mom, Jalene Line, about the 1980's and found out that they really do match up to many of their stereotypes. She was in her teens during the eighties and so she has a good memory for both what was going on in youth culture and in the world of adults. For her, the eighties weren't necessarily a bad or a good time; they were just a "learning time".
My mom wasn't really into punk or hard rock, but she did like a lot of the popular bands of that time. Some of the bands she liked were REO Speedwagon, Journey, Michael Jackson, Prince, U2, and Heart. Some bands she didn't like, but that were popular around that time, were ACDC and Black Sabbath. My mom wasn't one of the punk rockers of the 1980's, but she was definitely still interested in music that was current.
Sports, according to my mom, weren't all too different in the 1980's than they are today. Football, hockey, basketball, and baseball were all popular, but soccer hadn't yet come into play. My mom did cross country running. Going to professional games in the 1980's was a lot less expensive. Parents were also less focused on having their kids in multiple sports the way they are today. Overall, sports were more layed back.
Technology of the 1980's, including TV, movies, and electronics, was far behind present day. There were no slim phones like the ones we have now and computers were just beginning to be personalized. My mom recalls having to dial up for WiFi and having to wait, a foreign concept to our present generation. There were no DVDs or CD's. Instead, people used VHS movies (those big black rectangles from your childhood) and cassette tapes. TV's were very bulky; they were pretty much cubes. The ratings for movies were also different. Pg 13 movies were very sketchy at times and so were pg movies. Computer graphics didn't really exist, so movies weren't as realistic and their special effects required a good deal of creativity. My mom watched a lot of TV because it was always on at her mom's. Her parents were divorced too, so her mom wasn't home very often and she got bored easily with only one brother. These characteristics about my mom are pretty direct parallels to the stereotype generation X.
In 1985, my mom voted for the first time. She voted for Ronald Reagan and hasn't regretted it since. "He was always smiling and positive", she says, "and he had a grandfatherly feel to him." She also agreed with his Star Wars plan to shoot down nuclear weapons from space. The Cold War made my mom afraid of Russia in a distant sort of way, but otherwise, it affected her little. My mom was a nurse, and so she saw a lot of AIDS patients. This affected her much more. She believes AIDS was God's way of punishing our sin, specifically homosexuality.
My mom was half in and half out of youth culture. She recalls mullets and feathering the hair were popular hair styles. Bell bottoms, high rise jeans, puffy sleeved shirts and dresses, satin dresses, and boot cut jeans were all popular types of clothing. She also remembers banana combs being popular, as well as tiger tennis-shoes, star wars merchandise, and star trek merchandise.
My mom was a nurse, a very common job. She recalls employment being hard to get in Duluth, but much easier in the Twin Cities. Houses in the 1980's were often split level houses, ramblers, or same story houses. They were commonly very floral and french country in style. Lot's of blue's and mauve's were used in decorating. Vehicles were much larger than they are today, and some common ones were Cadillacs, Old mobiles, and Volkswagens. There were also more trains in the 1980's and airplane security was very minimal. In fact, people could accompany a family member all the way to their plane. This was because 9/11 hadn't yet occurred.
In the 1980's, Christianity was much more accepted. Bible studies often formed in schools and youth pastors could come visit the kids. My mom remembers being in one such bible study. Their were more christian communities, and other religion were not nearly as common. For example, Muslim communities were not so common. This is to show the increased cultural diversity in the U.S. till now.
Health and Exercise were becoming more and more prevalent in the 1980's. There were lots of health clubs, of which my mom joined a few. People were just getting into low fat foods, wheat germ, eliminating cholesterol, not eating eggs, and lots of low fat dieting.
My generation, the millennials, aren't sure what to think of the 80's, at least I'm not. They aren't old enough to be attractive, and they aren't recent enough to be a source of nostalgia.
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