On Saturday we attended a good mates 80’s themed Birthday. Being a child of that era I was very excited because I actually remember how we dressed way back then. However I was also pretty irked that the 80’s fashion is now old and odd enough to be used for fancy dress.

 

On Friday I dragged my better half to the mall to look for outfits. This was easy enough because for some ungodly reason the fashion is back in. Seriously people, what are the fashion powers that be thinking? I guess they have run out of ideas so they dressing people in horrid clothing once again so whatever is in fashion in the next decade will look fabulous.

 

My mother spent the afternoon digging up her ancient hair crimping machine. The thing must be a day younger than God. It took an hour to heat up. In hind sight I should have planned an extra hour for preparation because it took about an hour and a half to do a rush job crimp. As a child I remember my mom crimping my hair for special occasions like Birthdays and dance recitals, (yes I danced. I was pretty good actually, I have no idea what happened between then and now), I just forgot how freaking long it took. It must have been a comical sight to behold: my boyfriend holding up a mirror while trying to watch the rugby and myself trying to do my hair and keep the mirror in sight as his hand slowly moved in the direction of the TV.

 

Once I applied enough make-up to cover a small building and Rich enough gel to do the same we set off to the party and arrived late. That was the crimper’s fault.

 

There were loads of people, some more 80’s looking than others, and we were all seated at different tables. We were lucky enough to share ours with some awesome people with similar interests. One gent at the end of the table started discussing why the 80’s cartoons were so much better than what kids are exposed to today. This opened a whole can of worms.

 

We began to reminisce about our favorite shows and why were so much better off than the kids today. The entire conversation got me so excited I just had to blog on why the 80’s were awesome. Shows like He-Man and The Gummi Bears taught us moral lessons and had proper story lines. We grew up watching the A-Team and Night Rider with our folks in the evenings. We spent more time playing outside because TV only came on after lunch and the few shows that we did see were great.

 

 

We had Wielie Wielie Walie. We had Die Swart Kat. We had Zed. We had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We had Care Bears. We had Glow Worms. We Had Fraggle Rock. We had Smurfs. We had Rubik’s Cubes. We had Scooby Wire. We had Pet Monsters. We had Pac Man and Space Invaders. We had Atari and Commodore 64’s. We had awesome action figures. Oh the action figures. My folks only ever got me girls toys, although My Little Pony still rocks, the boys toys were so much better. Remember The Masters Of The Universe toys? How about The Thunder Cats? Remember the castles and cars and carry cases that came with the sets?

 

 

What do the kids have today? Dolls that look like prostitutes! LEGO that you need take a loan out to afford! Cheap Chinese toys with toxic paint!

 

Remember the music. The rock! Now many of you may disagree with me here but some of the best vibes came outta the 80’s. Cyndi Lauper, Ah Ha, Madonna,  A Flock Of Seagulls, Eurythmics, Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Air Supply, Bananarama, Billy Idol, Chaka Kahn, Crowded House, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Franki Goes To Hollywood, INXS, Michael Jackson, Kate Bush, Los Lobos, Men At Work, Mötley Crüe, Pat Benatar, Boy George, Paula Abdul, Poisen, Alphaville, Queen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, R.E.M, Run DMC, Sade, Simple Minds, Simply Red, Spandau Ballet, Toto, U2, Van Halen, Roxette, Yazoo, ZZ Top and Falco! ROCK ME AMADEUS!

 

 

What were your favorite movies from the era? Two of my favorites are Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. Both were made in the 80’s. Did you ever watch Back To The Future, Beetlejuice, The Goonies, Revenge Of The Nerds, Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Breakfast Club, The Princess Bride, Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Temple Of Doom, Caddyshack, Stand By Me, E.T, Platoon, Blade Runner, The Empire Strikes Back, The Shining, The Terminator, Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, A Fish Called Wanda, Field Of Dreams, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Flight Of The Navigator, The Last Starfighter, Teen Wolf, Robo Cop, Short Circuit, Karate Kid, Crocodile Dundee, Inner Space, Mad Max, Weekend At Bernies and Dirty Dancing?

 

 

Lets not forget the comic books. At that stage I was too young to read most of the popular titles around then but I did have a few Archie, Hot Stuff and Scrooge comics. The important things about comics in the 80’s is that the Bronze Age ended in 1985, Dark Horse Comics (the largest indie publisher of comics and manga) was founded and the graphic novel format came into vogue.

 

 

Comic books were darker than ever before, creating an exclusive adult market. There was a lot more violence in the books then there were in the 1950s partially because of the rising crime rate. The comic books reflected the issues of that period. Villains were shown using drugs. No longer did we seen villains bent on World domination, they were too high.

 

 

 

The world was introduced to classic titles like Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Sandman. And old characters, like Batman, were re-invented into titles like Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

 

 

There were so many great TV shows and movies that did and still do appeal to Geeks the world over. We had cool toys, awesome music and epic comics. The hair was huge and neon was all the rage. The fashion was bad and the make up was plentiful. We used words and phrases like cowabanga, gnarly, tubular, totally, no duh, bitching, radical, what’s your damage, eat my shorts, righteous, take a chill pill, gag me with a spoon and bodacious. The 80’s was an awesome era to grow up in…I just can’t get over how long ago it was.