Reflecting on the 80’s

Is it just me, or does everyone’s childhood seem to get better as they get older?

The 1980’s weren’t a perfect time. Children of the eighties grew up acutely aware of the monolithic evil in the east. As we discovered in Red Dawn, the commies were perpetually at our door waiting for the right moment to break in. Nuclear war seemed just a breath away.

I remember being scared in the 1980’s. I remember being in elementary school when Reagan bombed Libya. Today, I find it difficult to conceive of a 4th grader being aware of current events, even though Reagan bombing Libya was all we talked about for weeks when I was that age. Had I been an adult at the time, I probably wouldn’t have thought too much about it. But being a kid with such limited understanding, it made me and my contemporaries paranoid. It makes me wonder how kids feel today about Iraq, Afghanistan, and the “war on terror”. Surely they are just as paranoid. Are their parents as oblivious to their fear and confusion as ours were?

Even so, those are rarely the memories that surface when I think of my childhood.

What I do remember, fondly, are Transformers, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Saturday morning cartoons, Kid’s Country Day Care, A. B. Combs Elementary School (just the good parts), The Reader’s Corner, Foundations Edge, Capital Comics, summer vacation, etc. Christmas used to be exactly what it should have been: family, presents, tradition, grandparents. Halloween rocked. The schools went all-out for Halloween parties and fall festivals. EVERYONE trick or treated

Hrmmm. I think I’ll spend this week delving into the fun I had as a kid here on the old blog.