Who wants in? We can talk about what is was like to write a letter to your grandma or having no other way to ask someone out other than by calling them on the phone. Or checking out movies at Blockbuster or whatever your national equivalent was (we usually checked out videos at the grocery store, actually).
We’re cool because we can actually remember the USSR and “East” Germany. Although not as cool, I can remember when homophobia and transphobia was so much more widely accepted and the “default” position for most Americans. Not as cool.
Here are few old guy memories from the 80s:
My first computer was a Commodore 64, in 1985. I had no interest in learning computing - I just wanted to play games.
The rich kid up the street had a BMX I was in awe of. It was a Haro. I had a Huffy from a discount store.
I think back about how shockingly everything was seemingly it's own component. Like phones or hi-fi stereos or TVs and VCRs. You had a device and it did one thing.
Sears reigned supreme for weekend trips to the mall. We didn't have money so it was a lot of window shopping. Related: I remember when department stores had full out restaurants inside of them. When my mom felt like being fancy she'd eat at one.
For a while in the 80s there was a push to buy American made shit. As if consumer spending could ward off the capitalists off-shoring literally everything.
In school they taught us Russia was bad but never explained why. Like, ever. Teachers would just espouse that the communists wanted to "kill our way of life."
Schools opened at sun up and latch key kids would come and go as they please, outside of core hours. Someone would open the ball shed and everyone would just play soccer or kickball.
Parents seemed to just have kids out of obligation. Some 'rents seemed happy to be involved. But most seemed to just being going through the motions.
Being poor, the next best thing to having something was having a magazine about something. I was a fan of Thrasher and Video Games & Computer Entertainment.