My mother is nostalgic, my father is not and I can see both sides of the coin.

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From my father's perspective, he believes constantly looking in the rear view accomplishes nothing, you should be looking forward to the future to live your best life.

My mom is very nostalgic, she loves sharing memories and old pictures. She believes that a look back can help you appreciate where it is you come from. If you can look back at the people and places that helped construct the person you are today. It allows you to take inventory of what you're appreciative of, and what you are better off without.

I'm somewhere in the middle but my nostalgia isn't as productive as my mother's, it's superficial, it's about things, fashion, music and movies. I'm fascinated by what moves an entire society because of the time period. I ask questions like, what is it that made all of us want to be a part of that? What drives an entire culture to adhere to these fashion items or this kind of music?

The 80's is the perfect decade to look back at, and ask these questions? Those of us who lived it, can look back and say wow, or why? Now, I was born in 1979, so I can't remember most of it, but I could not forget the late 80's if I tried.

I am the oldest grandchild of a family that would go on to procreate in a big way. My mom and dad had me, and I was the trial run kid. When you are the first kid out, everyone is excited and involved.

My aunts, uncles and cousins were very actively involved with raising me. I was along for the ride on a lot of things, I probably should not have been. My Uncle Frank, Uncle Chris and my Aunt Ang, were entrenched in the 80's and they involved me in their social lives.

I can remember the smell of hairspray, the bizarre music, the clothes, the music, the movies and the language. I can still smell the hairspray, the sound of a Camaro and see the bracelets, gloves and shoulder pads.

Plus, the 80's produced a lot of memorable fads for kids my age. He-Man, snap bracelets, and movies like the Goonies. Thanks to Tony Hawk, we all had a skateboards, and we used them. As a result of The Karate Kid, everyone was an amateur martial artists. Karate and skateboarding were two of our primary activities as kids.

Anyone who has ever bothered to chronicle the 1980's, calls it a decade of excess and it was. It's not just that everything was bigger (the hair), thanks to the disposable fads that defined the decade, there is so much more to remember. We had the Rubik's cube, Transformers and Bon Jovi.


We all had mullets.
We all said "rad."

  Your Dad, probably looked like this.
EVERYONE did steroids.

Air Jordan


David Lee Roth.


Howard was not yet a star.


Everyone wanted to be Arnold.


The Burbs is my favorite movie of all time.


Science was even weird back then.


Every football player wanted to be "The Boz."


The President ate fried chicken.


Pop had a King.


Hi there.


Sports Illustrated mattered.


The Cube.


Every sitcom had a creepy "special episode." I'll never forget this one and neither will anyone who saw it.


We loved it when a plan came together.

Tech took up space.

It wasn't perfect but everyone had fun.

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