Why Are You A Child Of The 80s?

This is one page of many, check out the intro at Child of the 80s where you can add your own memories as well.

This page currently edited by: RetroGuyDK. Past editor: MereBear22, Banasy


I'm 23 years old and I still have a fetish for Transformers. Even though my younger brother was the Transformers collector I was almost bent out of shape when my grandmother wanted to give a Airealbot toy to my cousin's oldest son. I just grabbed it and said: "You don't give stuff like that to a ten year old kid!" It's still on display on my filing cabinet and I haven't let it out of my sight since! I don't know who it is but I wanted to keep it because Transformers will forever be a part of my childhood and I don't really care who knows that I still like it.
From: Celeste Keenan

I was born in 1983 so I was a late 80's kid! But God was I obssessed! My friends laugh at me because I'm still stuck in the 80's! Who wouldn't be!! A time when every Saturday morning you woke up early and snuck into the den to watch the GOOD cartoons! When EVERYONE wanted to be a Toys 'R Us Kid! "I don't want to grow up!" Remember that! I swear I used to beg just to go to Toys 'R Us, not to even buy something! It was enough fun just looking! I remeber when Nick and the Disney Channel were all I watched! I cant belive anyone would forget David the Gnome, the Little Koala, and Paddington! And of course there was the Care Bears! God, they rocked! I can name everyone, I love them so much! And of course ther was the Gummi Bears! Sunni was my favorite although she was a little self-centered! I remember my favorite movie was the Rainbow Brite movie, and the highlite of my life was my Barbie stuff. I collected it and had two big bags of it in fact! The Barbie bathtub, airplane, and motorhome! Every girl wanted that Barbie motorhome! And then I had to fight with my cousins over whose Little Pony was better! Mine was pink with a purple mane! After that we had to run and sit in front of the t.v. to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks, I loved Theodore and Eleanor. Then we each had to dress up like material girls! And there was still 2217, Amen, and Small Wonder!!! God, the 80's were the best! Everything was just so wonderful! I miss it sooooo much!! Never forget!!
From: Omoniyi A.K.A. CheerBear

I was born in 84, so i caught the last half of the 80's but i can tell ya 4 sure that it sucked ass! *NOT!* hehehe the 80's rocked. Cartoons++ HE-MAN just can't be toped "I have the power!" god i can remember saying that ever morning when i woke up! "the power thats insid" Transformers, cannot be matched. rainbow brite, strawberry shortcake, pound puppies, popples, smurf,... I can just go on and on. 80's thankx for the memories~!
From: Chu-Chu Nezbie

Yeah some 80's music was alot better than some of todays stuff like limp bizkit and korn needs to die.in the 80's there was no ambercrombie or old navy(ugly clothes at expensive prices}.Some of the clothes in the 80's were a little chezzy but hey ambercrombe will look bad in 10 years too.8-bit nintendo was cool.If you think about long enough the clothes in the 80's compared the 90's are way differant like 90's stuff is all baggy looking but in the 80's everything was too short or too tight.I remeber rebooks were really in style where now it's adias.alot of guys now where sandals during the summer but back in the 80's I remember guys wearing boat shoes without socks during the summer,I can't tell you the last time I saw a teenager wearing boat shoes. I think they are way more comfortable then sandals myself. Hopefully the 2000's will be better than the 90's
From: chevy

Cool Site. Where do I begin. So many of the things all you guys say are true. The 80's rocked. How can you compete with Ferris Beuler's Day Off, or Fast Times at Ridgemont, Porky's, Stripes, Animal House. What about Top Gun, Rambo, and Better Off Dead "I want my two dollars" (Classic). St. Elmo's fire was great too. How can you forget classics like Jason, and Freddy Kreuger. Those guy's ruled. What about the TV shows. My favorites were Family Ties, Who's the boss. I thought the mom was hot. The "Dukes". Daisy did rock. Im still looking for a girl that looks like she did. Just kidding. I even had a pet duck that was named "Daisy". Daisy Duck. How gay, but who cares. What about Fantasy Island & Gilligans Island. Ginger or Mary Ann? I dug Mary Ann. I would have got off that Island! I think the professor likes men. You cant beat the 80's for anything. The 80's signified good times. I wish to god I could go back. That was the best decade ever. It was a time when people could act stupid and not care. It was a time when musicians could actually play their instruments. Bands like Ratt, Poison, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Britney Fox, Guns & Roses, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Whitesnake, Tesla & Ozzy ruled the earth. Can you remember staying up till 3:00 AM to watch the headbangers ball. It was my religion. Now what do you have on MTV. You throw a bunch of dysfunctional losers into an apartment and see which ones are fighting on each day. How stupid. What a waste of time. If anybody knows anybody at MTV Please give them a big F U for me. That station really sucks now. They made way for losers like Nirvana. Oh I get it, Lets become famous, have lots of money & then feel sorry for ourselves, and then kill ourselves. The 90's is full of cowards. MTV killed Rock & Roll, the music of good times. They gave us hip hop & gang glorification. YEEAA BOOOYYS. WHAAZZ UUUUP. What the hell is that. Get real. I want the good times back. I try to at least keep the music alive. I have a local band and we play alot of 80's metal. People just rock to it. Does anybody know if time machines really work. I dont know. It seemed to work for Michael J. Fox in back to the future. Somebody take me back to the past. Here's an idea that I had. If you wanted to have a theme party, you could make it an 80's party and make everybody wear 80's clothes & hair. Now that's funny. I saw a retro store in Atlanta that has a selection of clothes from the 70's & 80's. I walked in there and they had clothes like the sleeveless breakin shirts, parachute pants & even the leather jackets with the zippers and flaps. They had clothes like that dick in Karate Kid. It was sooo funny. Anyway, I enjoyed this website & will visit it in the future. Stay gold & dont be afraid to geek & freak a little in your every day life. Rock On.
From: Jon

I am definitely a child of the 80's! I grew up on EVERYTHING that has been talked about and MAN do I miss it!! I used to sit an wonder why todays kids seemed so different from me when I was a kid and then it hit me...different decade, different technology and different expectations of them! I used to LOVE watching scooby doo, snorks, smurfs, monchhichi's, the great space coaster, electric company, 123 contact, THE BLOODHOUND GANG (my personal favorite), MTV when they actually showed videos and Nikelodeon when they had cartoons on that were worth watching! Oh man, I MISS the 80's! I am glad that I was a kid then, not now because I don't think that I would like this decade...school expectations are through the roof and cartoons just aren't what they used to be. Video games ROCKED when they were just moving squares on the screen and didn't we all know what they were anyway!? I miss my original Nintendo system and my atari! Man, atari...at least I can buy the old atari games for my gameboy...reminisce a bit!
From: Kat H.

Oh man, I miss that decade!!! The other day someone said to me, "You know, you're stuk in the 80s.. I don't think you're ever gonna get out!" He meant it as a kind of insult, but I said thank you! What a compliment!! All the stuff I love, which is now laughed at by this 90s generation, is still held close to me, and I still love the 80s music/movies/actors and fashions to bits!! What about tying a bandana around your ankle? It's cool! Judd Nelson did it. I still follow the careers of Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe. I love to watch The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire, The Outsiders and Stand By Me to make me feel purely 80s again. I remember the time when Cabbage Patch Dolls are what little girls asked for for Christmas, teenagers were in love with Anthony Michael Hall, River Phoenix and the Two Coreys. I remember Transformers, Micro Machines, and oh wow, I still have my big cuddly Ewok. But one little thing I have to confess: I was born in 1982, which makes me 17 and a half years old.. Maybe I'm not qualified to be a true child of the Eighties since I only remember about five or six years of it. So I missed a few years then, so what?? ... I'm living the 80s now. ~Stay Gold~
From: Angela

i am a child of the 80's !!! lady lovely locks, rainbow brite. smurfs,popples, my little pony filled my mind. Endless afternoons with my neighbor playing search and rescue missions w/ barbie and gi joe!!! madonna jem and the holograms thundercats yup that was the life!!!! the 80's rule, nothing will ever compare!!!!
From: Birgitta

For TV, I grew up on the Care Bears, Gummie Bears, Full House, Punky Brewster, Rainbow Bright, SOMETIMES Charles In Charge, SOMETIMES Growing Pains, Mathnet, 321 Countdown, Sesame Street, SOMETIMES Life Goes On, SOMETIMES Family Ties and 5 Mile Creek (Disney Channel with Nicole Kidman) and Avonlea. I also watched some show with a kid who used to hide in his clock and would go up and down in his dumb waiter haha I don't remember the name oh and that cartoon Fat Albert (was that Bill Cosby). I had Pea Pod dolls, Paper dolls, Cabbage Patch dolls, Strawberry Shortcake dolls, and the Care Bears :) That was my life I am a Child of the Eighties haha (81) :)
From: :)

Hey...I just have one thing to say...SMURFS RULE!!! There has never been and never will be (with exception of the Pound Puppies) a cooler cartoon. I can't wait untill the year 2000...my prediction...the return of the smurfs! YES. With the new playstation game, and the talk of the N64 game, smurfs are going to be bigger than ever. This of course makes me VERY happy. Now we just have to work on getting REAL pound puppies back. None of those stupid little miniture things with out the hearts on their butts...I want the real thing!!! ~smuRfs~ForEVeR~
From: Tonya

the eighties rock.. I mean if I could choose to live my life in any decade for eternity, it would definitely be the eighties. The fashion was a little out there, I mean maybe a little bit much on the neon and denim, but hey, the music was RAD! MTV used to actually play MUSIC videos! Jelly bracelets and shoes were the best! I never really thought that I would miss the eighties, but maybe that is because I that was the only way of life I knew! All I have to say is the eighties were punk rock! MOTLEY CRUE!
From: Josh

Oh man. I never really realized until I read everyone else's memories here, how great the 80's really were. I was laughing so hard about all the great things we had growing up then. I was born in 1979 so I got the chance to appreciate all the awsome toys of the 80's. We really did have the best cartoons and toy figures back then...The Get-a-Long gang where all the animals wore roller skates, the Snorkles (I saw them at the Ice Capades), the Wuzzles, She-Ra and He-Man (my little brother and I would play with them for hours), My Little Pony, Charmkins (those little figurines that had a perfume scent to them), Glo Worms, Care Bears, Gummi Bears (I wanted to bounce everywhere like them). We had THE best selction of barbies and they were cheap then: Magic Moves, Peaches N Cream...I could go on forever. I remember when SNL was actually so funny that I would have tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard...Mike Myers as one of the Sprokets, Adam Sandler as Opera Man. TGIF was actually GOOD in the 80's: Full House and Just the Ten of Us...I wanted to be as pretty as Wendy. Trading stickers and going to the roller skating rink were the COOLEST things to do. My best friend and I had every single Sweet Valley Twins book and the same with the Babysitters Club. We would watch Annie everyday adn act out scenes from the movie. The Bangles, Madonna and Debbie Gibson were the basis of our Saturday night dance skits for her parents. NKOTB was THE hottest thing and I bawled when I saw them in concert. I thought for sure I was the one Joey sang all his songs about. As for fashion and fads, although there were some wild one's, I was up to par with every one of them...tons of bracelets on one arm, slap bracelets, especially those plastic ones that Madonna wore...neon colors were the only way to go! Oh I could go on for days about all the fun I had. I love the nineties for the most part, especially the music, but I have to agree, the innocence is gone. Now you have to worry about whether or not the person you look at is gonna pull a gun on you because they thought you were giving them a dirty look. I guess being young is always the best time. Now I am in college having to deal with the real world. I liked it much better when I could fantasize about being Wonder Woman or Madonna when I grew up. Reality has hit and now I have to choose: Lawyer, Doctor or Accountant. I miss the good ol' days!!
From: Kelly

After reading all of these comments from all of you I feel a lot better!!! I just listen to a lot of 80's music and watch a lot of 80's flicks over and over again to cope! There is no doubt of the confusion we have to deal with in the 90's!!! You know what I mean about the 90's decade being so ridiculously bad in styles,President,music,culture,attitudes,clothing,schools,etc. People say oh the 80's was cheesy we whould never like to repeat that...but the 90'lovers people are the cheesy ones...with bad music and their materialistic and immoral attitudes...the 80's were actually the decade of having "CLASS"!!!! There is no class today~has any "child of the eighties" noticed that?!? I can't even find a girl in their 20's that wants to talk about good times! Some people just think if they have money in thier pockets and they can buy things to keep them busy the decade is fine with them...well I think not!!! Times were really great in the 80's reguardless if your dad was downsized or laid off or if you family wasnt rich...you had fun with all of the finer things in life such as hang out with people with some class or go to Back to Future with your whole family and a friend. We had a future and dreams and aspirations of the 90's ahead! Remember when you would say "When I grow up I will" well i have grown up into a fine young man and the 90's were a big let down....My one eyed willy treasure was never found in the 90's...I have fun with all the memories and am thankful to have been a kid in the 80's with no worries and everyday was new and exciting with very little ups and downs compared to the outlook on our future today.... But we can still hope we will find the treasure....it will be there someday...if you know what i mean!!!!!! See you later all you GOONIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: Chris

Great web site!!! I, too, am a child of the 80's. The 90's music sucks,the clothing designs are getting worse, and I will not even comment about how worried I am regarding today's youth!!The 80's was definitely the happiest time of my life so far.....
From: Kristi Brewster

Therri: You guessed it! Until the early eighties, I don't think Americans had any idea there was such a thing as vegemite. Australia's band "Men At Work" introduced the product that is (MY best guess...I've never tried any) is the Australian equivalent of peanut butter, an African contribution that is distinctive of American heritage. By 1983, everyone (including me, a rather fanatical fan of MAW at the time! :D) in America was singing about the Land Down Under, vegemite sandwiches, etc because of the title song. Australia competed with Great Britain for the number of bands to make it big in the US and if you weren't imitating the slick dos of Duran Duran, you were pretending to be charting the Outback. Music influenced fashion and vice versa. I have hard time seeing the same ebullience and variety in today's music/fashion. It all looks like cookie-cut, paperdoll, retro-lameness to me. But then, I'm just an eighties child! ;D
From: Sharon Ferguson

Is it only Australians who know what vegemite is?? let alone a vegemite sandwich. AN AUSTRALIAN ICON. That is vegemite. (unfortunately not an 80's icon) Mr John Kilduff. I am a child of the eighties, and maybe one day I can write my own "child of the eighties" the Australian version. Congratulations on an excellent site.
From: Therri Homonnay

I found myself spending the last several hours reminiscing about my 80s days because of an email a cousin sent. She is of the "younger set" of 80s children, the ones who started noticing the decade AFTER 1985. I couldn't resist. I had to compose a list of my own to represent what I remember of the first half. You are an 80's child if: You dyed your Mohawk haircut neon blue or red (then teased your balding teacher for having a Mohawk in reverse - in my humble experience, not the right thing to do before final exams!) You thought the light sabre duel in "Return of the Jedi" was really really AWESOME. You also separated yourself from the younger 80s children by vehemently hating the Ewoks. (But after Jar-Jar Binks, Ewoks don't look so bad!) You knew what Willis was "talkin' 'bout." You can name at least half of the members of the elite "Brat Pack." (you're a die-hard 80s child if you have kept up with the careers of each one!) You hold a special place in your heart for "Back to the Future." (and identify with Alex Keaton in "Family Ties") You ident was to cover your jacket with every favorite rock group button you could find. You emulated Mad Max in your fashion wardrobe. You knew who the anti-heroes were and scared everyone with constant references to nihilism. You remember Molly Ringwald's first movie after "The Facts of Life." (hint: it was a 3-D science fiction movie that BOMBED.) You sympathized with the singer who sang "I think I'm turning Japanese." You remember Sean Cassidy and Leif Garret. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was your anthem and Cyndi Lauper your idol. Your ambition was to become a "Magnum P.I." with all its perks (Fire-engine red Lamborghini, bi-level apartments, friends with helicopters, damsels in distress, etc.) You plagued your parents with the cry "I want my M-TV!" You were considered uncool if you hadn't spent the Whole Weekend watching M-TV. You thought New Wave would never die. You know what is meant by the Second British Invasion. Are among those who remember what the Cold War was about. Are among those who cheered when Reagan called the USSR "the evil empire." Remember Reagan's words after having been shot ("Sorry, honey, I forgot to duck!" and "I hope you all are Republican!") You wanted to be a Goonie ("Goonies never say die.") You knew "The Artist" when he was humbly called "Prince." You know who Max Headroom is. Poltergeist freaked you out. You ever had a Swatch Watch. (having more than one on your wrist was the fashion statement.) Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away. And, the all defining characteristic of an 80s child: ***You mourn and LONG for the 80s after the return of disco!!!***
From: Sharon Ferguson

The eighties! Even now as I write this, I'm listening to the Footloose soundtrack! I will always be a child of the 80s in my heart! My best friend and I were feeling nostalgic about it just the other day! Crimped hair, neon clothes, denim, side ponytails, slap bracelets, high tops. I used to watch Miami Vice every night it was on---I loved Don Johnson! And Moonlighting---that was another one of my favorite shows. Plus we have to remember all the cartoons! They were great in the eighties and there haven't been any that great since---and have you noticed that a lot of the eighties cartoons you can't find anymore? He-Man and She-Ra, Scooby-Doo, Where are You? And I'm a member of the Anti-Scrappy club! My Little Ponies, the Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, and of course Strawberry Shortcake! Michael Jackson was the king and Madonna was the queen and they always will be! Every time I went to my aunt's I had to play her "Thriller" record. Pound Puppies and Cabbage Patch Kids and Garbage Pail Kids. Punky Brewster and Full House and Alf and Gimme Me a Break and Facts of Life and how could you not love Michael J. Fox in Family Ties and Kirk Cameron in Growing Pains? Some of the best movies ever made came out in the eighties---Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller (Matthew Boderick will always be my favorite!), Dirty Dancing, Ghostbusters, Footloose, Top Gun, and E.T., which will always be my favorite movie. And I'm a fan of fantasy movies and some of the best ones came out then---Legend, Labyrinth, The NeverEnding Story, Willow. They don't make fantasy movies like that anymore! The Muppets reigned supreme---Kermit the Frog will always be my hero! The Eighties had their ups and downs such as the outbreak of AIDS and who can forget the Chod innocent shows like Different Strokes, Gimme a Break and Charles in Charge. You spent saturday morning watching some of the greatest cartoons ever made: G-Force, GI Joe,and He-man to name a few. Back in those days, the police on tv never had family problems like they have in NYPD Blue. The bad guys always looked evil, and the cops looked good firing guns. Anyone who wasn't a cop always fought with fists like the Fall Guy, or blew up everything but humans like the A-Team. We all hoped that we could goof off in school like Ferris Bueller and Zak Morris, but still be driving a Ferrari like Don Johnson, ten years later. Magic Johnson & Kareem Abdul Jabbars' Lakers still played Larry Bird's Celtics every week on NBA on NBC, while John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova were still young and in their prime. Noone cared who the Chicago Bulls were. Atari was a household name, until Nintendo, Amiga and Commodore 64 took their place. PC's were known as IBMs. Guys folded the bottoms of their pant legs, and wore 'jams', not to mention the long-sleeve shirt over the t-shirt look as well. Girls wore the brightest, most luminscent colors they could find. And 'condom' was some word you heard in sex-ed. I guess each generation loves the decade they grew up in, mainly because they were kids, and the only worries we have then were stuff like would we be able to get that Garbage Pail Kid card we needed for the collection. But i don't think i'll ever convince myself that there was or ever will be a time as good as the eighties. I guess Springsteen was right: glory days do pass in a wink of a young girl's eye.
From: Kris

Ah the beloved 80s, where there were mobs to buy bald headed cabbage patch kids, jelly bracelets, legwarmers....in the middle of july, teen clubs that played top 40 music not this dance crap of today, where violence was fought with fists not guns, where the strap meant something in schools, where corporal punishment was allowed, where shows of innocence such as Family Ties, Growing Pains, Whos the Boss and The Facts of Life reigned supreme. Sometimes they call this era the LOst 80s, and think back...think of all those actors who are actually lost in the 80s, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Phillips, Andrew Macarthy.......salutes to u all brat packers may we see all of u again someday ........
From: Kathryn Gilpin

My birth date is May 16, 1972. I have really enjoyed this site. The site reminded me that I am also a child of the eighties. How funny it is that the other day I was talking to someone about setting up an 80's club, where the members would dress like they did in the 80's, do the things they did in the 80's and re-live the 80's...it bothers me that I can't go back to the good ol'days, when we made beaded friendship bracelets in middle school and high school, and wore the bracelets around our wrists. Or, when wearing thick, neon colored socks was cool even for guys, even wearing penny-loafers or pants that were tight at the bottom of the legs. I can remember wearing plaid shirts to school, with another shirt underneat the unbuttoned plaid shirt. Wasn't it fun to play Atari or Pacman? What about watching "Dungeons and Dragons" or "Smurfs" or "Scooby Doo" cartoons? What about those Punky Brewster or Silver Spoon television episodes? I remember when I got my "Green Machine" and rode that plastic three-wheeler until the front wheel cracked, or fishing for perch on the shallow river bed late at night...ah, the good ol' days...if there were ever an 80's community that was shut out from the rest of the world, where the residents lived as if they were in the 80's, I would move there in a heartbeat... Please email me at "daisydoo@dtgnet.com" about anything you want to talk about...I am thinking, when I get enough time away from my collegiate studies (Information Technology), about working some more on my website...I hope to set up a section that concerns only the 80's...I will post the URL of the website, as soon as the site is presentable...take care everyone...
From: Tom Whalen

This is one page of many, check out the intro at Child of the 80s where you can add your own memories as well.