The Children Of The 1980s


	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 New Edition 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?  I actually remember waiting for the Dukes of
Hazard to come on...did you ever wonder why they didn't use the door?  I
always did?

	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?  Thunder
cats Thunder cats....Hooooo!  We are the ones who still read Nancy Drew
and the Hardy Boys, the Bobsey Twins, Beverly Clearly and Judy Blume,
Richard Scary and the Electric Company.

	Seaseme Street was the bomb and not even a purple dinosaur could top
the BIG BIRD.  Then of course there was the man the taught me how to tie
my shoes and introduced me to his neighborhood, Mr Rogers.  Do you even
remember 3-2-1 contact.  We were the PBS generation.

	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 just 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 - 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 Double
Dutch never failed to trip someone.  In your Underoos you were Wonder Woman
or Spider Man or R2D2 and in your treehouse you were king.

	Do you even recall the cheese movies that held our attention for the
entire movie, and we truly believed that they were quality films: Breaking,
Breaking II Electric Boogaloo (which I am proud to say I have on tape), the
Muppets take Manhattan, Splash......ET!!!!!

	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 in the United
States.

	We didn't start the fire, Billy Joel.

	In the Eighties, we redefined the American 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...