Children of the Eighties (c. 1995)
(I recieved this list via e-mail, so I cannot take credit for
it, but I can relate to it)
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first "lost
generation" nor today's lost generation; in fact, we think we know just
where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak. We are the ones who played
with Lego Building Blocks when they were just building blocks and gave Malibu
Barbie crewcuts with safety scissors that never really cut. We collected
Garbage Pail Kids and Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Ponies and Hot Wheels
and He-Man action figures and thought She-Ra looked just a little bit like I
would when I was a woman. Big Wheels and bicycles with streamers were the
way to go, and sidewalk chalk was all you needed to build a city. Imagination
was the key. It made the Ewok Treehouse big enough for you to be Luke and the
kitchen table and an old sheet dark enough to be a tent in the forest. Your
world was the backyard and it was all you needed. With your pink portable tape
player, Debbie Gibson sang back up to you and everyone wanted a skirt like the
Material Girl and a glove like Michael Jackson's. Today, we are the ones who
sing along with Bruce Stringsteen and The Bangles perfectly and have no idea
why. We recite lines with the Ghostbusters and still look to The Goonies for
a great adventure. We flip through T.V. stations and stop at The A Team and
Knight Rider and Fame and laugh with The Cosby Show and Family Ties and Punky
Brewster and what you talkin' 'bout Willis? We hold strong affections for The
Muppets and The Gummy Bears and why did they take the Smurfs off the air?
After school specials were only about cigarettes and step-families, the Pokka
Dot Door was nothing like Barney, and aren't the Power Rangers just Voltron
reincarnated? We are the ones who still read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys,
the Bobbsey Twins, Beverly Clearly and Judy Blume, Richard Scary and the
Electric Company. Friendship bracelets were ties you couldn't break and
friendship pins went on shoes - preferably hightop Velcro Reebox - and pegged
jeans were in, as were Units belts and layered socks and jean jackets and jams
and charm necklaces and side pony tails and rats' tails. Rave was a girl's
best friend; braces with colored rubberbands made you cool. The backdoor was
always open and Mom served only red Kool-Aid to the neighborhood kids - we
never drank New Coke. Entertainment was cheap and lasted for hours. All you
needed to be a princess was high heels and an apron; the Sit'n'Spin always
made you dizzy but never made you stop; Pogoballs were dangerous weapons and
Chinese Jump Ropes never failed to trip someone. In your Underoos you were
Wonder Woman or Spider Man or R2D2 and in your treehouse you were king. In the
Eighties, nothing was wrong. Did you know the president was shot? Star Wars
was not only a movie. Did you ever play in a bomb shelter? Did you see the
Challenger explode or feed the homeless man? We forgot Vietnam and watched
Tiananman's Square on CNN and bought pieces of the Berlin Wall at the store.
AIDS was not the number one killer. We didn't start the fire, Billy Joel. In
the Eighties, we redefined the Dream, and those years defined us. We are the
generation in between strife and facing strife and not turning our backs. The
Eighties may have made us idealistic, but it's that idealism that will push us
and be passed on to our children - the first children of the twenty-first
century. Never forget: We are the children of the Eighties.
If this is familiar, you are one of us... pass it on to all the others...