For Monday Listicles this week, we had a plethora of choices brought to us by Kate from Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine: 10 tweets, 10 crushes or 10 things totally 80s.
Guess what I picked?
If you are thinking Swatch watches and Bananarama – you are correct!
When I was young, I remember loving the 50s era: the music, dancing, and of course, the poodle skirt. I am certain I dressed as a 50s girl for Halloween more than once.
Remember how that era seemed such a part of the distant past?
That is how the youth of today feel about the 80s.
(Co-Pilot Dad reminds me of that every so often.)
While that thought has the power to be a wee bit depressing, we will focus on brighter things; things that are totally 80s. If you are from my generation – born in the 70s, with teenage years in the 80s – maybe you will have similar memories of the time. If you are not from my generation, let me give you the 411 on some of the things that stand out in my memory of this most excellent era.
(The 80s were, like, totally tubular.)
1. Friday night videos – Before MTV – or Much Music in Canada – we had to wait until Friday night to watch our favourite music videos. I used to stay up and hope for a glimpse of my faves. One of which was:
2. Duran Duran – Yes, I know they are still around, but for me any list of the eighties would not be complete without mention of the Fab 5.
3. The big hair – The wall of bangs, the perm, the hairspray. What would the 80s be without the hair?
4. The VCR – so I could tape my videos and watch rented movies at home.
5. My tape recorder – so I could record my favourite songs from the radio and listen to my tapes in my room.
6. Leg warmers – I loved the TV show ‘Fame.’ I dreamed of going to a school for the performing arts; I needed to look the part.
7. Valley Girl-ese – I grew up nowhere near ‘the Valley’ – but that didn’t stop my friends and I from, like, totally embracing this trend because it was, like, totally cool and like, not at all lame. (Like, gag me.)
8. Kissing Potion lip gloss – strawberry was my favourite.
9. The teen movie – Though done before (Rebel Without a Cause, anyone?) the genre really came into its own in the eighties. Movies like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink recognized the power of teen entertainment.
10. The phone – Yes, people are attached to their phones now. But in the 80s I spent way more time actually talking on the phone. And if someone tried to call, they got a busy signal. Would people born since call waiting even know what a busy signal is?
Time passes, doesn’t it? And with that in mind, I will take this opportunity to say Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2013 begins on a high note… and just keeps going up from there!
Linking up with Monday Listicles today
Our lists are so similar, but I forgot the Kissing Potion! Woot, woot for Duran Duran. Ellen
Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms recently posted..The Like Totally For Real 80s
Our lists were similar! I can’t picture the 80s without Duran Duran. It was a fun trip down memory lane this week.
Oh, gawd, I spent so much time on the phone as a teenager, though mostly in the early 90s. Does that still count?
This is probably due to the fact that I didn’t get a phone in my room until 1990. Hey kids, did you know that we didn’t HAVE cell phones in the 80s or really the 90s? & if you wanted to make a call, it was on a phone that was often ATTACHED to the wall in a common area like the kitchen? (All the better for parents to eavesdrop on you, right?)
Lisa C recently posted..Monday Listicles: 2012 in Tweets
If it was attached to the wall – although mine had one of those super-long cords – it counts! I got a phone in my room eventually, but had many conversations in the kitchen, too!
Love your list!!! Like totally! Kissing potion!! I recently found a pic of it on Pinterest and had to pin it. Friday Night Videos! Sat and waited impatiently every Friday after the football game with my girlfriends huddled around our 13″ TV that we had to manually change the channel on in hopes that our favorite videos would be shown. Ah, the good old days.
Kate Hall recently posted..80′s Fashion Trends I Tried to Rock, But Mostly Didn’t
Yes! Manual TV controls – I forgot about that! The memories!
Thank you for visiting. Great Listicle suggestions for this week!
ahh loved me some kissing potion! i remember renting a vcr and movies for my 13th or 14th bday party!
Robbie recently posted..Not Like Riding a Bike
I did that, too! It was so exciting to be able to watch a movie at home. And I could rewind it and watch it again – such a novelty!
Your list reminded me of so many other ideas!!
Video stores and watching horror videos…Thursday night TV on NBC…and you’re right…hours and hours talking on the phone!!
So many memories of the 80s. I forgot about Thursday night TV!
The 80′s for me were my Richard Marx hair (long live the mullet), coloured panty hose (with white shoes, no less) and earrings of every size, shape and colour… and the music. All those songs (Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, The Bangles, Madonna, Prince – saw Purple Rain 4 times) provided the soundtrack to my carefree youth. My biggest decisions were what clothes to buy with my paycheck from McDonalds and how curly to get my ever-present perm (I figured if I got it extra curly it would last longer). Ahhhh…. the memories! Thanks for bringing them back!
The white shoes! Love what you said about the music; it really is the soundtrack of our lives.
I never even thought about our kids not knowing what a busy signal is! It’s true! I’m loving these 80s lists!
christine recently posted..Monday Listicles – Mullets and More
It’s fun to take a trip down memory lane every so often, isn’t it? I can’t say that I really miss the busy signal, though.
We were definitely on the same page with this list!
Oh my Gosh, THE BUSY SIGNAL…I so remember the complete frustration of getting that sound when you were just dying to talk to your BFF!! Loved this trip down memory lane!-Ashley
thedoseofreality recently posted..Best of the 1980′s Fads
The busy signal was so frustrating! Especially because most of my friends liked to chat as much as I did, so I knew that it would most likely be a while before I got through!
I loved Friday Night Videos, especially of Duran Duran was going to be on, which was basically every week! I also remember begging my parents for call waiting. And remember *69? I bet kids these days don’t even know what that is!
Bee recently posted..10 Things Totally 80s
Yes, I remember *69 – it sure came in handy before answering machines and voice mail!
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Oh my, Kissing Potion lip gloss! I totally (like totally) forgot about that stuff. Too funny!
Bridget recently posted..Monday Listicles
How I loved that lip gloss. (Like, totally! LOL
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LOVEit! I taped videos and radio too! Remember the mixed tapes? Mine always had the sound of me pressing pause button or the first few words of do after the song finished
Stasha recently posted..Monday Listicles
Yes – the mixed tapes! I kept recording just a bit so that I could be sure that I had the entire song. And I had to use the pause button so that it wasn’t a sharp click on the tape, but rather a more gentle transition into the next song. It was science!
Oh yes! The VCR. I remembered when they first came out and you could RENT them, along with videos, from the local video store. I remember for, like, $25 you could rent the VCR and, like, 5 totally rad movies.
So fun!!
Great list.
I remember that well. I used to be so excited to rent movies on the weekends!
I was completely obsessed with recording songs off the radio. On Saturdays when the top 40 was on, I would only go pee during the commercials for fear of missing the latest song. Then there were the rare treasures that hardly ever came on. Woe to my friends and family if I turned on the radio halfway through one of those songs or couldn’t get the tape rewound in time.
Azara recently posted..Like, totally yummy
Yes! I always had to make sure I left the tape queued up perfectly, ready for the next song – just in case. I would get so upset if I accidentally taped over something. Ah, memories!
While I wasn’t a teen in the 80′s but technically born before the 80′s, my sister was a teen. Such great memories (and family photos!). I remember vividly watching my sister spray those bangs to petrified wood status.
Yes, hair was big in the 80s – literally and figuratively. It is definitely one of the things that stands out in my memory, too.
Duran Duran is still around, if only it were socially acceptable to still have a poster of them in my bedroom.
Bridget recently posted..Aisle Nine
If only.
I had posters on pretty much any available wall space.
Like, too funny. I remember sitting for HOURS in front of the radio with my tape recorder ready, hoping the DJ didn’t talk over the beginning of the song!
LOL!
Julia
Julia recently posted..Happy New Year!
I remember that, too. DJs sometimes talked way too long into the song.