Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes

I would like to think of myself as a fairly evolved person. At the ripe old age of 37, I am who I am. My years of self-discovery and soul-searching have made me into this individual blogging before you: it could be worse. Yet, no matter how old I get there is one thing that remains constant: I love the ‘80’s. So jump into your DeLorean, strap on your Reeboks, tease your hair, pop in a cassette, and join me on this flashback journey.

In 1986, I was a freshman in high school: a total dork. And not JUST a dork; a chunky, bucktoothed, fashionably challenged one. Am I painting a vivid picture? I just want to convey that I was not the cool, popular kid in school: that was my older brother Ron who cast quite a large shadow at ole Saugus High. Ron is thankfully five years older than me, so I didn’t have to endure our being in high school at the same time. What a relief! He was and still is charming, engaging, intelligent, funny, well spoke, and an ectomorph. (See previous entry.) And in high school, he was cute, lean, trendy, and fashionable: the girls loved him. He was well liked by students and faculty alike: Everyone knew Ron. Try following that legacy. No pressure right? My point is high school was by no means my “glory days.” Not by any stretch of the imagination. I would never want to relive those years of my life. However, the world was a much different place at that time.

Life truly was simpler back then. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true. Most people did not have cell phones: they were huge, heavy, and clunky. Can you imagine carrying a giant battery pack in a shoulder bag everywhere you went? Computers were just starting to become affordable home electronics. CD’s were a brand new fad. DVDs…what’s a DVD? And a Walkman was the hot “must have” item: a cassette Walkman. War was more of a concept than a reality. Sitcoms ruled television. In film, John Hughes spoke for our angst ridden teenage souls. We walked like an Egyptian, danced with ourselves, and partied like it was 1999. 1999?? The mere idea of 1999 seemed a million years away. We had no idea then that the Aqua Net we used on our teased-to-oblivion hair would contribute to global warming. Or that the regular leaded gas we pumped into our first ‘hand me down’ cars was hurting the ozone. Yes, we were a little in the dark on some things, but in a way, it made life less stressful. All we had to worry about was pegging our pants, finishing term papers, and “Just Say(ing) No.” Ahh, the good old days.

I am definitely a product of my generation. Can you tell? I did use hairspray and mousse. Of course back then I had the hair to put it in. I couldn’t peg my pants because my legs were too fat. But, I did say “No” to drugs. I can honestly admit that I have never tried any sort of drug. No lie. Did I have the opportunity? Of course I did. It just never appealed to me. Maybe it was because I was afraid of becoming addicted. Remember that after school special with Helen Hunt, “Angel Dusted?” There is this one pivotal scene where she tries angel dust (PCP), falls out of a two-story window at her school, picks herself up completely unharmed, and runs around screaming like a lunatic. Who the hell wants that? Perhaps it was because I was afraid of my parents’ wrath if they found out. Or it could have been that I was simply scared of being the one in a gazillion people who dies just from trying a drug. Whatever the reason, the thought never attracted me.

Term papers: do students even do these anymore? For those of you not aware of these torturous tasks, consider yourself lucky. I can imagine today, what with computer programs to format and the web to surf for research, a term paper would be a breeze. Not so in the ‘80’s. First, we actually had to go into a library building and look up things in books, magazines, encyclopedias, etc. We couldn’t just “Google” search a topic and have a thousand choices at our immediate disposal. A card catalogue and the Dewey Decimal System were our search engines. I once had to do a term paper based almost solely on magazine articles. Can you imagine? It was truly agonizing. Once we had researched, taken notes, and written our rough drafts by hand, it was time to type them. We typed these term papers on typewriters and if you were lucky, an electric one. Does anyone still use typewriters? There was much more legwork involved. We had to measure our paper with a ruler and mark the spots where to stop typing so we could add footnotes. Footnotes: a specific hell all to themselves. And if you messed up a page, you had to re-type the entire page, you couldn’t just delete, cut, and paste. No, no my friend. Typing a term paper was an ‘80’s’ teen equivalent to Chinese water torture. It took all night. If you were lucky, one of your parents would tag team the typewriter with you so you could sleep for a few hours. My mom did her generous share of helping type mine and my three brothers term papers through our high school years. Regardless of this excruciating task, once it was completed you had a real sense of accomplishment. It taught my generation patience, persistence, and perseverance towards a goal: something that seems to be lacking in our youth today.

Patience seems to have left the building in the 21^st Century. Although our advances in technology are brilliant, it’s left in its wake a generation of Veruca Salts: “I want it NOW!” The pulse of the world is literally at our fingertips. We can find almost anything in 2.5 seconds: directions, phone numbers, music, information, etc. Growing up with the web, wireless everything, cell phones; the list is endless, the upcoming generations don’t have to wait for anything. I think this is going to be a downfall in our society. I’m not saying my generation was perfect, but it seemed more grounded in a true reality instead of a virtual one. Not being able to have everything at the push of a button or the click of a mouse made us have to go out and discover things: explore the world hands on. Ferris Bueller did it and so did we.

Recently, I re-watched the 80’s classic “Footloose.” It was genius. Kenny Loggins’ soundtrack, the young and cute Kevin Bacon, the awful yet wonderful 80’s fashions: pure cinematic magic. But it was the theme of the movie that struck a chord with me. Here is this conservative, close-minded town that is so stuck in its own stagnant microcosm, it has forgotten what it means to find the joy in life’s simple pleasures: in the case of this film, dancing. It seemed very poetic for today’s society. Even though our technological advances have given us many liberties, they have also encapsulated us into our own pods of existence. Instead of writing people letters, we send emails. We don’t always call our friends, we text them. We no longer talk with our voices, we instant message. Technology is enabling us to abandon the need for human contact. Can we resuscitate this trend? I think so. As a society, we need to learn from our past and re-embrace the forgotten simple things in life that make it all worthwhile: it is time to dance again.