Today I spent a few hours in the afternoon at the home of a sweet older lady who attends our church. She is teaching me to crochet.
She is actually "reteaching" me to crochet. I have done some crochet, but only minimal projects like edging borders to blankets. But that was years ago.
She is teaching me a granny square initially.
I've got a ways to go.
I would share a picture of my progress, but it's just plain messy.
So today I am going to hit you with some memories. Keep in mind that life in the 80's looked different for everybody. I grew up in the hills...much further south than north. I was born in 1972 so my teenage years were consumed by 80's pop culture and historical events.
Some of you probably remember the same kinds of things.
First. We must discuss hair. It was vital that the 80's teenage girl's bangs be as high as possible. This was achieved with a whole lot of teasing and Aqua-Net. My fine hair never fully reached the level as some of my peer's bangs. You've seen the pictures.
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| A group of friends and I at a church youth group dinner. I am sitting in the chair. You can see my hair doesn't quite reach the heights as some of my friends. Bummer. |
Just google 80's hair and you will be treated to all kinds of do's that best not ever see the light of day again.
The Mullet.
Need I say more?
I saw my first purple mohawk in San Fransisco when I was 12 (or there abouts). It was AWESOME. It made the young man wearing the mullet at least eight feet tall. At least, that is what it seemed to me.
I grew up in the hills of North Central Arkansas and then moved when I was 14 to Southwest Missouri. Basically, we were all hillbillies. But despite stereotypes everywhere we did try and keep up with the fashions of the day.
For example, parachute pants. I had a purple pair when I was in Junior High. In High School, we moved on to more sophisticated forms of pant-ware. We always cinched our jeans at the ankle and rolled them up to give them a stylish cuff.
I was appalled with the large pant leg styles came out in the 90's. Really? This is fashion?
Music was a big deal to 80's kids. I know I am not the only one who used to use a tape recorder to tape my favorite songs off the radio. All you would need to do was place the tape recorder right next to your radio and wait until you heard what you wanted to record. You would just need to hope that there weren't any loud interruptions around your house.
In my house, we were only allowed to watch one television show a night. We could watch more on the weekends if we had our chores done. We only had one TV. Unless you count the little black and white TV my brother had in his room. It only got PBS. We were big PBS nerds. I can remember watching an entire series on PBS on that little black and white TV. It was the Six Wives of Henry VIII. It actually was created in the 70's, but our little PBS station would run it every once in a while.
Other TV shows included Night Rider, The A-Team, Doctor Who (best show ever), Hee Haw (yes, we did), The Barbara Mandrel Show, Family Ties...and I adored Growing Pains. Kurt Cameron was dreamy. Yes, he was.
We also did not have a remote. The children in the house WERE the remote.
On Friday nights, my mom would take us to the movie rental store. Before time began there was the Betamax Player. There wasn't a Redbox or Digital Download. And there certainly wasn't digital streaming. We rented some strange movies from the movie rental store on Friday nights.
But it also was where we rented The Last Starfighter, Goonies, The Dark Crystal, and E.T.
There were a few movies I saw in the actual theater. We went and saw the Star Wars Movies, a couple of the Indiana Jones movies and Supergirl. I saw a few others, but it was on those Friday nights that my movie education took place.
Keep in mind that there wasn't as easy access to current events and news as there is today. And certainly, not as many opinions about the news given on television. It wasn't an easy time in the world. Vietnam had just ended in the '70s. We still were in the middle of a cold war. The Middle East was in constant turmoil. But most of the time, you didn't care if your neighbor was a Republican or a Democrat. And you certainly didn't know how the anchor on the evening news voted.
I remember the day that President Reagan was shot. I remember being incredibly sad and worried. I also remember the day The Challenger exploded. I was sick at home from school. I believe space launches were still being shown live on TV in those days. I do remember seeing it and the camera moving away from the scene.
I remember the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. It is sad, really. When you think about how that fairytale turned out. At the time, however, the world was obsessed with Princess Diana. Even when I got married in 91 the first wedding dress I tried on was very Princess Diana inspired.
I think the best thing about the '80s was that social media didn't have to watch me grow up. I was able to do my bad choice-making and awkward living in private...without the internet evidence. As an adult, I have been able to put a more reasoned and maturer (literally) face to the world.
There are things that I do love about today's world. The ability to watch an entire season of a television show in just a couple of days is awesome. I can check out books on the library on my phone and then READ the books on the same phone without ever leaving the house. I can shop for almost anything and get it in two days. I can call my Mom in Missouri when I'm at the grocery store and ask her what spices go in her French Chicken.
Not to mention that I get a whole platform (called a blog) to write about my hopes, dreams, and recipes for random coffee cakes all to myself. That is pretty neat.
That's all I have for today. I'll talk to you tomorrow.
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