Top ten ways you know you were a child of the 80's

[kullen]

Top ten ways you know you were a child of the 80's


10) Child seats meant you were sprawled out in the back seat.

9) Pee Wee Herman was appropiate children's television.

8) Cassette tapes were the greatest thing for recording all your music.

7) The best toys you owned were ones you could have easily swallowed.

6) MTV still played music videos.

5) The only animated shows were on saturday morning.

4) The USSR was the 'Evil Empire'

3) The most radical thing anyone pierced was their ears.

2) Every one of your favorite singers either had big hair, spiked hair, green hair, or a combination of the three.

1) Two words: New Coke

[DinbinFanfoom]

2 more words:

"Nanoo Nanoo"

[Caylor]

lol, I am soooo in that group! :lowlol:

[Aananla]

Couldn't stand New Coke, but all that is me too.

[Lycos]

Hey!?!

Whatever happened to the "Top ten ways you know you were a child of the 70's"???

:D

[Sir Rubi]

They all got too old to remember them...

[Serani]

Erm, that was me. He was logged in to both my computers as him. Blah.

[Yuglooc]

Here's a few of my own answers to Lyco's question (in no particular order):

1. Michael Jackson was black.

2. The only way to watch movies unedited was by going to the theatre, or being one of the lucky few to have HBO on cable.

3. People watched college basketball in March and rooted for teams because they truly liked them, and not because their position in an office pool depended on it.

4. No one had ever heard of rap or hip-hop. It was disco or bubble-gum pop.

5. Yeah, there were chat rooms. We called them "conference rooms". We did quite fine without emoticons and terms like LOL, WTF, and the like.

[Shiz]

#10 is great. My kids are supposed to be in some kind of car seat until they are 8. Seems insane. We used to throw my little brother in the way back and just let him get thrown around by the car physics...

[Yuglooc]

They all got too old to remember them...
Alright.... for us truly old people...

A few ways you knew you were a child of the 60s

1. You could almost fill your gas tank for $5 (and that's with a fairly large car)

2. I had to beg my mom to allow me to stay up until after 11pm to watch Neil Armstrong take his first step on the moon

3. You dreaded reading the papers because of the doomsday stories that the USSR and USA would nuke each other out of existence by 1975

4. Most people watched TV in black and white - a lot of us remember the day when the family finally upgraded to color

5. The most violent shows on TV were Bonanza and Gunsmoke

6. We carried our music around on 8-track tapes

7. You had to stay home from work or school to watch the World Series

8. Computers were all room-sized beasts requiring a separate, equally large room for the air conditioner - your "terminal" had no display, and merely spit out punched cards that you gave the computer operator

[Asharad]

Couldn't stand New Coke, but all that is me too.

Nobody liked New Coke. That, amazingly, was sort of the point. I read this awhile back, I can't remember where but probably in this book on the history of the coke company I read a few years ago.

See, at the time Pepsi was kicking Cokes butt in blind taste test. There was, infact even a ton of commercials by Pepsi about this (remeber "Take the Pepsi Challenge"). Anyway, bascially Pepsi was sweeter cause they used a different type of suger or something.

Anyway, new Coke was a calculated gamble. Coke wanted to change their sugar type. What they did was, they changed the forumal on old coke, and released it. They didn't know how people would react, but they didn't care. New coke was out for a very short amount of time, people hated it, and so Coke released "Coke Classic." Which wasn't. Coke classic (which eventually just became Coke, as the new Coke was phased out) was the old forumal with the new sugar, the more like Pepsi sugar.

People bought the coke classic, and since by that time there wasn't any of the original coke left didn't notice the subtle difference. Coke Classic was actually a new type of Coke.

If New Coke had caught on like gangbusters they would have done the same thing, they just wouldn't have phased out the new coke.

[Sagar]

My dad would throw a few matresses in the back of the pickup (with a camper top), toss in some drinks, snacks, and us kids and down the road we went. It was GREAT!!!

Now, he would be brought up on child abuse charges and we'd have grown up in foster homes.

Things are really getting out of control.

Lets see, for me:

Watergate was local news.
Willard Scott was our local weatherman.
George Allen coined the phrase "The future is now"
The Honda Accord was a teeeny little car.
We had a UHF antenna to try to get the good cartoon stations.
Speed Racer was da BOMB!
We had an 8-track player in the car and in the house.

Oh.. and PONG was the bestest video game imaginable!

[Yuglooc]

New coke was out for a very short amount of time, people hated it, and so Coke released "Coke Classic." Which wasn't. Coke classic (which eventually just became Coke, as the new Coke was phased out) was the old forumal with the new sugar, the more like Pepsi sugar.

People bought the coke classic, and since by that time there wasn't any of the original coke left didn't notice the subtle difference. Coke Classic was actually a new type of Coke.

If New Coke had caught on like gangbusters they would have done the same thing, they just wouldn't have phased out the new coke.
I've heard that the original Coke is still around - you just have to go to Mexico to get it. A little of that stuff does get here (Los Angeles area).

[attriel]

Old Coke is around in a number of places.

Until a few years ago, it was in India, for instance.

Of course, that's b/c when Coke left/was thrown out, the managers at the plant stole the recipe and started their own brand :o

And my family actually had a few 12-packs of real coke when Coke Classic was released, and for people who drank a lot of it it was quite apparent. And since we had the real thing to taste against, we could be sure it was different. But OK.

--attriel

[DirkDarkBlade]

I've heard the Coke conspiracy theory (and agree that it is most likely true or mostly true). But I wanted to mention that coke has changed its formula over the years (usually adjusting/changing the particular sweetener used). They've done it since Coke Classic came out I believe too.

But if I understand what I read from Coke correctly New Coke's formula is still around. We just call it Diet Coke. They just removed the sweetener and put the calorie free sweetener in its place. At least that is my understanding.

Has anyone tried the C2 stuff that came out over the summer? I tried it once but it was way too sweet for me, but I'm used to Diet Coke now.

[Yuglooc]

Has anyone tried the C2 stuff that came out over the summer? I tried it once but it was way too sweet for me, but I'm used to Diet Coke now.
I've tried it. It's OK... one problem with C2 is that it's pricey in these parts (8 pack of C2 sells for the same price a 12 pack of Coke or Diet Coke) and relatively hard to get (not in vending machines).

What I'm looking forward to seeing is Coke Zero (their new cola drink with Splenda).

[Drax]

Has anyone tried the C2 stuff that came out over the summer? I tried it once but it was way too sweet for me, but I'm used to Diet Coke now.
I actually prefer C2 over the normal Coke, thinking it tastes about the same and is "healthier." My wife and pretty much all my friends (except for 1 :roll: ) thinks C2 tastes flat and awful.

Personally, I'm a Coke fan all the way (*expects a comment from Ash any moment now...* ... *hearing no comment, continues*), but this past Christmas season I did try the Holiday Spice Pepsi, and thought it was interesting. Much better than normal pepsi, but still not as good as Coke (I like it), Vanilla Coke (I really like it) or Cherry Coke (mm mm good).

[DirkDarkBlade]

I actually prefer C2 over the normal Coke, thinking it tastes about the same and is "healthier." My wife and pretty much all my friends (except for 1 :roll: ) thinks C2 tastes flat and awful.

Personally, I'm a Coke fan all the way (*expects a comment from Ash any moment now...* ... *hearing no comment, continues*), but this past Christmas season I did try the Holiday Spice Pepsi, and thought it was interesting. Much better than normal pepsi, but still not as good as Coke (I like it), Vanilla Coke (I really like it) or Cherry Coke (mm mm good).
Only Pepsi product I even come close to likeing is Pepsi One. I tried the holiday spice pepsi and didn't like it.

I didn't reall like vanilla diet coke, but really like Diet Cherry Coke and Diet Lime Coke! At this point real Coke is just too sweet (durn weight watchers!:tongue1: ).

[Zyzzyx]

Coke? Pepsi? Bleah...


DrPepper or Mt Dew



Or Lipton BRISK Tea




I thought it interesting when I was going to school in Missouri. You could find DrPepper bottled by Pepsi in one store, and then DrPepper bottled be CocaCola in another store. Depended on the distributor I guess, the town was in between areas bottled by either.

[Biaxin]

Hey,

The 70's:

Stayed up late for the moon landing (I know I've said this before, but, in the film M*A*S*H, all of the shots of the camp speakers during announcements have a full moon in the background - Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon at the time that was filmed, more or less.)

Any car with less than 4 doors was a sports car, and the 4-doored ones were boats.

Everybody under the age of 30 smoked dope, freakin' everybody! 30-40 was the cocaine crowd, over 40 were boozin' it up. In other words, mind-alteration was a big deal.

ANIMAL HOUSE

Saturday Night Live - I wheedled my folks into letting me stay up late on Saturdays from the very beginning of this. To this day I am still stunned that I got to see Andy Kaufman do the Mighty Mouse routine live on TV (it killed me). This was back when they could talk about drugs, but not so much about sex, as vice now, where they talk about sex, but not so much on drugs.

We did expect that at any minute the Soviet army would come tearing through the Fulda gap and 'reunite' Germany. We didn't know what the hell else they might do.

We still don't know what China might do.

People would go to the Middle East on vacation! Trips to the 'Holy Land', fer cryeye.

Oh, yeah - Coca-Cola all the way. In the South, when you went in to the store you said you were getting a Coke, even if you came out with something green - you went in to get a 'Coke'.

[Drax]

when you went in to the store you said you were getting a Coke, even if you came out with something green - you went in to get a 'Coke'.
I think they called that "Surge." :lowlol: Didn't care overly much for it, tho' I liked it better than regular Mountain Dew. (Only Mt Dew I care much for, btw, is the Code Red stuff. The Livewire tastes like cough syrup and the grape one isn't too bad, but I've only had it once.) Big Mello Yello fan, tho'. Can't get enough of that stuff. Tied as my favorite soda, along with Root Beer (A&W, IBC, Fitz, Barq's... anything but Mug. I HATE Mug rootbeer.)


Haha, how's that for a thread co-jack... Or, for this thread, kojak. :lowlol:

[kullen]

Ok, so I decided to try the Coke with Lime today. Since I was used to putting a lemon or lime in my Coke already. Not bad. I could see this being really good with some spiced rum.

[shadowgate]

Ok, so I decided to try the Coke with Lime today. Since I was used to putting a lemon or lime in my Coke already. Not bad. I could see this being really good with some spiced rum.

Kind of liked this at first but now it tastes to me kind of artificial and kind of like someone poured in some lemon cleaner into a coke...

My top three "pops":

Cherry Coke
Coke
Dr Pepper


(I do not do artificial sugar due to taste (to sweet) and it giving me headaches)

[Greebo]

Vanilla Coke (diet) - very good
Cherry Coke (diet) also very good
Regular Diet Coke. Meh.

[Greebo]

Erm, that was me. He was logged in to both my computers as him. Blah.
See what happens when you share your password with strange men????


Yeah, I know you married him - but that doesnt mean you PASSWORD SHARE! ;-)

[Sagar]

Hey,

Oh, yeah - Coca-Cola all the way. In the South, when you went in to the store you said you were getting a Coke, even if you came out with something green - you went in to get a 'Coke'.

You say this like it's past tense. I STILL say coke - no matter what I want to drink. And the "green stuff" around here is Sundrop. I prefer Mountain Dew, but the entire coke machine dedicated to Sundrop is always the first to empty out.

[Sitsonsix]

"5. The most violent shows on TV were Bonanza and Gunsmoke"

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. My aunt, who baby-sat us in the mid-sixties, used to watch it all the time. A dreadful fear of giant tentacles beneath the suds in the bathtub ensued. Terrifying stuff! :eek:

[GravenStone]

"5. The most violent shows on TV were Bonanza and Gunsmoke"

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. My aunt, who baby-sat us in the mid-sixties, used to watch it all the time. A dreadful fear of giant tentacles beneath the suds in the bathtub ensued. Terrifying stuff! :eek:

I sort of remember Land of the Giants in the same way. Awe inspiring, awe inspiringly bad now, but what does a 5 year old know? :lowlol:

[Shiz]

Land of the Lost used to scare me.

[Aananla]

Land of the Lost used to scare me.
Me too, and the Incredible Hulk.

[shadowgate]

Yeah, love all that eras scifi...Land of the Lost, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel and Kolchak The Night Stalker! :)

[Okamekage]

pfft, a couple of times we jsut put lawn chairs in teh abck fo the van and sat in them.. course thenwe had a sudden stop and mine tipped over backwards and I hit my head on a bolt. First time in the emergancy room for me! I had to get 3 stitches!

[GD_]

Things I remember about the 80's

1. Headbangers ball on MTV.

2. The cool HBO lead in cinematic and how it was made.

3. New coke.. ugh totally gag me with a spoon. (although many conspiracy theorists say that new coke was bought up by wal-mart and shipped as Sam's Cola.)

4. Ricky Shroeder(sp?) wasn't a cop on NYPD blue but instead a kid riding a train in a mansion.

5. I spent my future college tuition on arcades 1 quarter at a time playing Pac-Man.

6. Nancy Reagan making guest appearances on different strokes, along with a young hot janet jackson as willis's girlfriend.

7. Gary Coleman was about the right height for his age.

8. Tom Hanks was a goofy comedian on bosom buddies.

9. The Commodore Amiga 500 was "THE" graphics computer to have.

10. Never play tic-tac-toe on a computer because you might start a nuclear war.

[Drax]

Me too, and the Incredible Hulk.
Hulk scared me a bit too, but mostly because even as a kid I knew how bad the show was. :) And the Hulk special that featured Thor was even worse than most. :lowlol:

The show that frightened me the most from the 80's was Dallas or Knot's Landing or Falcon Crest. Not really scary stuff, but I so strongly disliked them that it scared me nonetheless. Especially since one of them came on immediately following Duke's of Hazzard at 8pm. :biggrin:

Oh, I just found out last night that a movie is being made about the Dukes. I'm not a Johnny Knoxville fan, and think Stiffler is okay, and have my doubts about Jessica Simpson pulling off the Daisy Dukes thing. But I have to say, Willie Nelson as Uncle Jessie and Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg certainly has me interested. :mrgreen: Gainey as Rosco isn't overly great, since he usually plays freaky, psycho roles, not comic relief...

[Asharad]

Gainey as Rosco isn't overly great, since he usually plays freaky, psycho roles, not comic relief...

This is an admission that will forever change how some of you look at me but...

I am related to James Best, the original Roscoe.

Distantly, but the linkage is there.

[shadowgate]

This is an admission that will forever change how some of you look at me but...

I am related to James Best, the original Roscoe.

Distantly, but the linkage is there.

:eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!:
:eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :eek!:

We the jury say to put him away!

[Drax]

This is an admission that will forever change how some of you look at me but...

I am related to James Best, the original Roscoe.

Distantly, but the linkage is there.
Wow, complicated life indeed. I'd be interested to see the family tree that links the original Roscoe Peeeee Coltrane to the parent of Snoop Dogg... Pretty wacky world we live in...

So, what, is Best your 5th cousin once removed? :)

On an unrelated but similar note, I too am related to greatness... My great great grandfather's cousin (on my mother's side) was John C. Calhoun, vice president to James Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson in the early 19th century... Pretty cool, huh? :roll: :lowlol:

[DinbinFanfoom]

My mother's sister's ex-husband's cousin is Lee Aaron.

[Asharad]

So, what, is Best your 5th cousin once removed? :)

Something very much like that, yeah.

[Shiz]

That is almost as good as being descended from a man who ordered the slaughter of 1500 indians including women and children, like I am.

[attriel]

you're related to a british Raj, shiz?

wow!

[GravenStone]

Gee, and here all I can claim is (supposedly) having Alonzo Wilder (aka Mr. Laura Ingals Wilder) in the family tree somewhere.

[EricStratton]

I'm related to Mikey the kid from the Life commercials (no, he's not dead). And one of my, IIRC, great-uncles rode w/ Lawrence of Arabia (the real one, not in the movie).

[shadowgate]

I am distantly related to Sam Houston of Alamo fame and also James Houston who was Daniel Boones sidekick.

[kullen]

I've heard tales that the Houstons in my family tree are also related to Sam Houston but i've seen no link thus far.

About the only famous person I know about in my tree is Isadore Moore, the first President-pro-tem of the Missouri State Senate. Some Civil and Revolutionary war vets and alot of average joes.

[shadowgate]

Hey Kullen's my distant relative! Hey can I have some money! :P

Ok, all kidding aside is your last name actually Houston or is from mother side or farther back? My last name IS Houston.

My uncle has been tracking the ancestory for us and has the family trees for our relationship to Sam and James. He even traveled around and found some old family bibles to get info out of...

[Serani]

I'm supposed to be distantly related in some weird way to the Prince of Wales. According to my second cousin, anyway (he did all the research).

Joe, however, is third cousin to James Joyce, the writer. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

[Queed]

I had the He-Man Castle Greyskull set, with the trapdoors and everything.

I remember when guys carried tape-playing boomboxes on their shoulders, and when breakdancing was hot.

And Transformers were the coolest. Toys. Evar.

[kullen]

Hey Kullen's my distant relative! Hey can I have some money! :P

Ok, all kidding aside is your last name actually Houston or is from mother side or farther back? My last name IS Houston.

My uncle has been tracking the ancestory for us and has the family trees for our relationship to Sam and James. He even traveled around and found some old family bibles to get info out of...

Its a little further back than that for me. I have a great grandmother that's a Houston.

I've been doing alot of the research from my family. :D

[Caranthir]

One of my ancestors (grandmother with 9 or 10 greats in front of it, I can never remember exactly which) was Martha Carrier, the last woman to be put to death in Salem, Massachusetts for witchcraft.

I'm also distantly related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Admiral George Dewey, and of course the Manassa Mauler, Jack Dempsey.

[ColonelSanderz]

they tell me I'm related to james k. polk and john paul jones (not the led zeppelin one).