In the Days of the Record Player

Dear Banner,
I often write letters to you telling you about yourself at various stages of your development. Each month, I tell you how you are doing, what observations Daddy and I have made about you, and what advances you have made. But, today, for whatever reason, I want to write a letter to you about what MY life was like when I was growing up. While there are plenty of things I could tell you (like what it's like to have an older brother and a younger sister, what it's like to have parents who divorced when I was only 4, what my school days were like, what accidents and emergencies I've encountered, my friendships, my camp days, etc), I want to specifically write about what life was like as a kid in the 80s. Perhaps it's because Daddy is having an 80s themed birthday party in a couple weeks, perhaps it's because I recently listened to a whole bunch of 80s music, or maybe it's just because the 80s were my childhood and the days when life just seemed a whole lot easier and safer - whatever the reason, I thought you should know how totally different things are in this new century.

When I was your age, we didn't have cell phones, satellite radio, a gazillion channels on TV, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, or CD players even. We didn't have games like Wii or X-box. It seems like maybe Mommy and Daddy were deprived or something when you look at all the electronics and the technology available to kids these days. But, that isn't so. I loved being a kid. Here are some things I'd like you to know about from the days when Mommy was very young:

-We listened to music on the radio. We played cassette tapes, and we listened to vinyl records on a record player. Yes, sometimes, if you weren't careful, the needle which ran along the record would scratch the record, but the songs sounded great on those players. You couldn't just buy the songs you liked on a computer, either. You had to purchase them at a music store like Sound Warehouse, one of our favorite stores growing up. There you could buy your cassette or record, or later a CD. You could listen to your tapes on a jam box or a Walkman.

-We didn't have as many toys that talked to us or did the playing FOR us. We were creative and imaginative. We used tennis rackets for guitars and hairbrushes for microphones. We played with Pound Puppies, Rainbow Brite, Teddy Ruxpin, Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake, G.I. Joe, and My Little Ponies. We loved Glow Worms, Popples, and Care Bears. We roller skated outside, pulled wagons, jumped on Pogo Balls, rode real tricycles, jumped rope (or Skip-Its), and spun on sit 'n spins. The toys that did talk to us were robotic sounding like on the Speak & Spell and Smart Starts. We played with Rubik's Cubes, Lite Brite, Viewmasters, Simon, Frogger, PacMan, and Shrinky Dinks. We traded Garbage Pail kids and collected Madballs.We made cakes in an Easy Bake Oven, played Atari with a real joystick, collected Micro Machines and Sweet Secrets, and looked forward to playing Oregon Trail at school on computer days. I wasn't much of a Barbie kind of girl, but I did have my share of favorite dolls including the Hugga Bunch doll I took into surgery with me for a hernia repair at 6 years old. Later that night, my dad brought me a My Child doll, a soft doll with felt skin, beautiful eyes, and dark hair like me. I had a Cabbage Patch doll named Agnes, and I had a life-size doll named Jason when I was very young.

-As a young girl, I wore jelly shoes, slap bracelets, stirrup pants, pegged jeans, and jelly bracelets, collected charms for my plastic charm bracelet, wore my ponytail on the side, and occasionally wore banana clips. I may have owned a couple pairs of high tops, too.

-Our heroes were Punky Brewster, the Jems, Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, Alex P. Keaton, the Incredible Hulk, Ghostbusters, He-Man and She-Ra, and Daddy would tell you MacGyver was one of his heroes.

-When you wanted to talk so someone, you called them. You had to actually know their phone number and dial it. If they weren't home, you left a message on an answering machine. If you wanted to invite them to a party or send them something, you mailed it - with a stamp, which only cost about 20 cents or so. We didn't email or scan things. And, there was no such thing as "texting." We passed notes in school, folded on notebook paper in intricate, fun ways. We actually hand wrote these, just like our homework that was turned in on notebook paper or worksheets - not emailed to a teacher or posted on a virtual wall somewhere.

-We watched movies like Harry & the Hendersons, Dirty Dancing, The Goonies, Annie, ET, Short Circuit, The Karate Kid, Superman, Mr. Mom, Gremlins, Police Academy, Grease, Splash, Footloose, Back to the Future, Big, and The Golden Child on VHS tapes on a VCR. We would actually rent movies at a Blockbuster or the grocery store, and you would obey the reminder to "Be Kind, Rewind."

-We watched awesome TV. Shows were original and unique and family friendly. Shows taught family values. In our house, we loved The Cosby Show every Thursday night (those were Mr. Gatti's pizza nights, too!), Full House, Family Matters, Family Ties, Charles in Charge, Diff'rent Strokes, Who's the Boss, Mr. Belvedere, ALF, Growing Pains, Out of This World, Bosom Buddies, and Head of the Class. Oh, and what I wouldn't give to see a Punky Brewster show again! I also liked Small Wonder, Silver Spoons, and Saved by the Bell. Other popular shows that I enjoyed were Wonder Years, Doogie Howser, The Golden Girls, Night Court, My Two Dads, and Cheers. I know from this list it looks like maybe all we did was watch TV, but that is far from the truth. There were just a lot of great 30 minute shows, and over a span of so many years, we watched some great television. Oh, and I should mention that remote controls were also new, so it wasn't uncommon to still see televisions with knobs and dials. In fact, we had those in the early days, and I especially remember them at my Grandma & Papa and at my Granny & Grandpa's houses. You used to have to actually get off your rear to change the channel. At my house, we only had a few channels anyway, so that wasn't much of a problem. We had channel 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 21, 27, 33, and 39 (and 52 was Spanish). That was it!

-Photos were actually developed back in the 80s. We bought film, took a few pictures, hoped they were good, and dropped them off at a Kodak or Fox photo booth or store. A few days later, you picked up your pictures, with negatives that accompanied the package of pictures. Some of them were okay, some of them were great, some of them were awful, but you had to buy the whole roll of film. I remember loving that I got a camera and film all to myself when I'd go away to camp each summer. I took pictures of everything, and most of my pictures were awful. But, I loved dropping off the rolls of film at the store after each summer and getting to relive my camp time from those pictures - once developed. It wasn't like today where you can see your picture and decide if you want to delete it or not. The only option we had that was even remotely as quick as that was the Polaroid camera which spit out a picture right away, but you had to wait for it to slowly reveal an image a few minutes after you snapped the flashy camera. (Speaking of "flash," we actually had to buy light bulbs for the flash!)

-It was a safer time then. I know people were assassinated and awful, terrible things happened then, too. But, it was nothing compared to the scary times you live in. I'm sad that you won't grow up in a time where you can go to school and not worry about kids bringing weapons to school, where metal detectors aren't everywhere, where airports and movie theaters aren't as anxiety-provoking as they are now. We used to play outside with the kids next door or across the street without parents lurking or worrying. Our parents didn't worry about identify theft or stolen passwords. People didn't use online banking or debit cards, either. I will say, though, that the advances in technology have helped your generation when tragedy does strike. For example, there was no such thing as an "Amber Alert" when a child was abducted in the 80s. Instead, bulletins were posted, it was mentioned on the evening news (which didn't have tickers and scrolls at the bottom distracting you from what the newscaster was saying), and pictures of missing children were posted on milk cartons.

-When you wanted to know how to get somewhere, you used a map. There was no such thing as GPS to locate where you were and tell you step-by-step how to locate your destination. You either pulled over and asked for directions, or you used a Mapsco. Other things used in the 80s (not so much used nowadays): typewriters, carbon copy paper, pagers, wires!

-Speaking of online, 30 years ago, we didn't even have a computer in the house. It was a big event at our house when we got our first computer, an Apple IIGS. I thought we were so lucky to have a printer, too, which printed out on paper with seams and fed through the printer with holed-edges we would have to tear off once finished printing. I loved using The Print Shop software to make banners to hang around the house for holidays. It would take FOREVER to print, and it was a loud machine, but we loved it. We played games on that Apple, too - games like Arkanoid and Tetris, and those were on true floppy disks!

-We sang some great songs back then, too. Madonna, Michael Jackson, Kool & the Gang, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, The Bangles, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Debbie Gibson, Chicago, New Kids on the Block, Billy Joel, Richard Marx, Paula Abdul, the Pointer Sisters, . . . so many amazing singers. And, I cannot forget to mention Lionel Richie because, well, to this day, Uncle Brock and I can still have a mean competition of who can name the most Lionel Richie songs. :) Great music, with a good beat that I still love to listen to now. Kids my age knew the "Thriller" dance, the lyrics to "We Are the World," and how to "Walk Like an Egyptian,"do the Roger Rabbit, or break dance all over the floor.

I know you could easily "Google" the 80s one day or do your own research about the times when Mommy & Daddy were little (again, something we couldn't have done in our childhood... we'd have to go to a library and use a card catalog or consult a real encyclopedia). And, I hope one day you really are interested in knowing more about our generation. But, I thought I should tell you a little about it from my perspective and what we liked at my house. I wonder what your generation will reflect on and miss about being a kid. I hope your generation can make the world safer. I hope you'll look back at your young years and recognize how far we (as a society) have come in science, medicine, technology, and politics. But, I also hope you will look back at your childhood with as much passion and joy as I do of mine.

Love,
Mommy