To be a teenager in the 1980s! What a great time it was. The 80s Metal bands, the shopping malls, the arcades, video stores, and even the big hair. The 1980s were big, over the top, and glorious! And then one day we realized that it was all gone.
As a teenager I gave little thought as to what the future could be like. I had no reason to believe that many of the places and pastimes of my youth would become almost obsolete. In my young mind, life as an adult would continue on with little change to the places and life that I so enjoyed.
But I was wrong. Progress, moving forward, advancing, whatever one wishes to call it, the 1980s did not just disappear as a group of numbers. The places and activities which they encompassed also began to fall into the abyss of time.
But time brings other changes to our lives as well. Such as the loss of loved ones. As we get older we learn what time is capable of taking from us. The places and people of our youth who were once filled with love and life, succumb to the grip of time. But what it cannot take away from us, is the incredible memories, friendships, and family love that become engraved in our minds and hearts with a crystal purity that time will never be able to rob from us.
This is my story of how time moves forward leaving only memories in its wake. But this is also my story of what it was like to be a teenager in the 1980s. Stories of activities and culture that many youth today may find difficult to believe really happened. What was it like to be a mall rat? What was it like to see video stores on every corner? What was it like to go out and purchase a physical vinyl record instead of downloading one?
Come back in time with me and reminisce about the life of a teenager in the 1980s, and how the future decades came to change so much of what was once an easier time.
