Growing Up in the 80's

If you can remember the 80's, I'm sure you think of big hair, blue eye shadow and mullets. Other than hair styles and clothing, there was also 80's music and television shows. Now with the death of Michael Jackson, I am thinking back to a time when Michael was the most popular artist. That was the 80's. I remember dancing around the house with my Michael Jackson button pinned onto my jean jacket. I remember trying to master the moonwalk while listening to "Billie Jean."

When people think of the 80's, they almost always think of the music first. Some other popular artists from the 80's that I can remember listening to as a child were Madonna, Guns N' Roses, Rod Stewart, Robert Palmer, Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, Pat Benetar, Milli Vanilli, Bon Jovi, MC Hammer, Phil Collins, Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Gibson. There were also many one hit wonders that came about such as Soft Cell with "Tainted Love", Taco "Puttin on the Ritz", Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take it", Bobby McFerrin "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and much more.

I am now wanting to listen to some 80's music so I will throw on some "Everybody wants to Rule the World" from Tears for Fears. It will give me a more nostalgic feeling while I'm writing.

I remember some of the words I used as a child of the 80's when I was hanging out with my friends. Words like bogus, radical, for sure, awesome and gag me with a spoon. I'm sure I heard most of these words from the television shows I used to watch. Speaking of television, the 80's had some pretty cool shows out. I remember watching 227, A Different World, Facts of Life, Family Ties, Full House, the Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes, Three's Company, Small Wonder, Silver Spoons, Perfect Strangers, Punky Brewster, Married with Children, Mr. Belvedere, Kate and Allie and Charles in Charge. There were so many shows to watch on television. Now we have hundreds of channels and can never find anything good to watch! I even had to get up to change the channel on my television set instead of using a remote! How bogus is that?

Since I was still a young child in the early 80's, I remember watching 80's cartoons and childrens shows. Those cartoons were Care Bears, Gummi Bears, Heathcliff, The Jetsons, Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Inspector Gadget, Rainbow Brite, Thundercats and He-Man. They also had other shows that were not animated such as Eureeka's Castle, The Elephant Show, Zoobile Zoo, Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs.

A few movies I remember watching in the 80's were Sixteen Candles, Can't Buy Me Love, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to the Future, Stand by Me, Ghostbusters, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Dirty Dancing.

I remember wearing sweaters with bright bold colors. I could never get my socks scrunched enough so I would wear two or three pairs of socks and scrunch them down. I remember people wearing legwarmers, spandex, leather, parachute pants and corduroy.

Some popular kid's toys from the 80's were Cabbage Patch dolls, click-clacks, Easy Bake Oven, Etch a Sketch Animator, Teddy Ruxpin, Glo Worms, He-Man action figures, G.I. Joe, Transformers and Pillow People.

These are just some of the things that I can remember from the 80's. I hope it brought back some good memories for you.