We just finished watching the series finale of Halt and Catch Fire, which spent its first few seasons in the ‘80s, so I suppose I have a thought or three.
- The clothes were embarrassing. The music was mostly shitty. The movies were mediocre. Television was literally the worst it has ever been.
- Everyone was worried about being nuked or contracting AIDS.
- Everyone was also worried about the devil, for some reason. He was backward-masking messages into our rock-n-roll records, he was molesting kids in daycare, he made Jim Bakker trip and fall into Jessica Hahn’s vagina… you name it, the dude was everywhere in the ‘80s.
- Adult supervision was scarce and half-hearted, so we largely raised ourselves. Phil Donahue and Oprah helped.
- Bush. Lots and lots of bush.
- I voted for Walter Mondale in my school’s mock election. He received a total of three votes.
- I was sitting in my friend’s pickup in the school parking lot —listening to Hall & Oates, I believe— when they announced that Challenger had exploded. It was heartbreaking; “astronaut” was still a common aspiration back then. (Years later, after Challenger and Columbia, I cried like a little bitch when visiting NASA’s memorial at Cape Canaveral.)
- Half my time as a teenager in the ‘80s was spent listening to adults talk about being a teenager in the ‘60s. Motherfuckers wouldn’t shut up about it.