Need some fitting music for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNAOeU1sqZEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tuzHUuukhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meaV9jH2_B4 (ponified video
)
I was born in 78' so pretty much my entire childhood was the 80's. My family had cable so in addition to the 3 networks for cartoons on Saturdays, we had the Disney Channel also. The list of cartoons I watched is huge. Wildfire (the #1 fav'), Rude Dog and the Dweebs, Muppet Babies, Shirt Tales, Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show, Pole Position, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Saturday Supercade, Bravestarr, Garfield and Friends, Popples, The Littles, Foofur, Get A Long Gang, The Real Ghostbusters, MLP (of course), Transformers, Go Bots, and a few others.
When Oliver and Company came out, I wanted to see it, but we never went to theaters, and Disney never released it on VHS or put it on their channel so I didn't get to see it until they finally released it in the 2000's. Other animated movies I liked were both Unicos, The Last Unicorn, Secret of NIMH, Mr. Rossi (2 movies), I Go Pogo, Animalolympics, and The Brave Little Toaster.
As for other TV shows: Fav's included Hey Vern it's Ernest (sat. morning), A-Team, Night Rider, Airwolf, The Fall Guy, BJ and the Bear, Dukes of Hazard, and The Highwayman. Movies included Top Gun, Smokey and the Bandit 2, Cannonball Run, Maximum Overdrive, Iron Eagle (though I didn't find that one until the mid 90's), Six Pack, and Stroker Ace.
For Music: My family was country, so that's pretty much all I listened to back then. REAL country unlike today's junk. Alabama, Sawyer Brown, Highway 101, Restless Heart, Baillie and the Boys, Earl Thomas Conley, Keith Whitley, George Strait, Mel McDaniel, O' Kanes, Steve Earle, Foster and Lloyd, on and on. I did hear some 80's songs in music class in grade school (was only in public for 4 years but that's a different story). The Bangles, Starship, Madonna (was never really a fan of her though), Kenny Loggins. I also liked songs I occasionally heard on TV or radio like Dire Straits Walk of Life, Paula's Opposites Attract (loved the video), and We Didn't Start the Fire (today I like tons of 80's rock and metal a bit of pop. Boy was I missing out on stuff being country only).
We lived (and I still live here with my older brother) right next to our town's fairgrounds, so to watch fireworks on the 4th we just sat at the end of the driveway to watch them, and at fair time just walked over to it. I never went on any of the big rides. I stuck to the smaller ones like a mini carousel (me being nuts about horses), and a small roller coaster called the Go Gator. I also remember one year they had a little rink for those Roller Wheels things (where you moved the handlebar left and right to move). Always wanted one of those back then but never got one. Amazingly the last couple of years the fair has had the same company come that was around back then (they quit using them in the early 2000's), and they still have some of the same rides including the carousel (no I'm got going to ride it for old times sake
).
The fair also had quality entertainment. Often they had a demolition derby, and later on modified midget and outlaw quad races. More importantly was country music talent thanks to our local radio station. In 1987 they got The Girls Next Door (another of my favorite groups). We went to see them, but the concert got cut short by a severe thunderstorm. After we got home we turned on the radio and it was announced the group was signing autographs at our local motel to make up for it. I got my picture taken with them (my mom also took one for another kid). The next year they had kind of a comedy show by Shotgun Red. He was a puppet who hosted the country music video show Country Clips on The Nashville Network (now Spike TV). It was pretty funny. Then in 1989 they got Becky Hobbs, whom I also met (I have a VHS clip of Country Clips where Shotgun interviews her, and he announces she'll be at our county fair).
To play music my mom had a Zenith console stereo with record and 8 track players. Still have it, though the 8 track squeals through the speakers when you place a tape in it (it's currently a video game system table). The only cassette player we had was a clock radio one and one of those portable "brick" ones. Didn't have any cassettes though. We got records and 8 track tapes (which were still available in the 80's).
As for hanging out with friends: Didn't really do much of that.
Spent most of my time playing with my toys, model trains, or outside. On weekends my dad would often take me on drives out in the country (usually following railroad tracks). At first in a big 4 dr green car (don't remember what it was), then around 1986 he got a 1965 Chevy pickup from his dad. Kind of miss it now.
Speaking of toys: In addition to my G1's, I had many others. First off was large metal tractors, trucks, and construction equipment by Ertl, Nylint, and Tonka. LOTS of them. Unfortunately none survived past the early 90's (I cringe when I see how much some of those tractors go for at auctions now). Also had copious amounts of Hot Wheels and other diecast and plastic cars, most of which I still have in varying conditions. Had tons of Lego sets, and still have most of them (though they're not sets anymore, just a big box full
).
Battery powered "Stomper" cars and trucks were another thing. I had 2 types: the main ones that bounced through large plastic tracks, and car ones that followed a yellow plastic rope called "Speedsters". If I cringe at what the metal tractors go for now, what the Stompers go for nowadays makes me want to curl into a ball. Only a couple of shells are left of them (I did get one truck one working again recently). As I type this, I'm looking at the cab of a semi that, if it was intact with it's chassis, and tanker trailer, would be worth $800.
Another of my favorites was my Tyco US-1 trucking slot car set. Tyco made these from around 1981 to 1987 and were like slot cars, but were trucks you could load and unload without touching them. My brother had a set too I later wound up with. The only thing left is a single truck cab. However in 2007 I started buying these off Ebay, and pretty much have everything again and then some. I have them set up on my model train layout at the RR museum here, and kids love them. They need to be brought back (Tyco died in the late 90's though). Here's a video of the set I had that I assembled with what I bought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RHLMPl9CIMAlso had a couple other slot car sets including a Dukes of Hazard one and a Tyco A-Team one, which has cars that can do a U turn (got another set of it at the same time as the US-1 stuff).
Was also into Transformers, but only had one during my childhood. Instead I had a ton (and still have many, though their rubber tires are missing) of Go Bots, and an even lower tier brand called Mega Moto Bots. Also had the Wheeled Warriors toys.
Others I had 1 or 2 of included The Animal (a car that had claws extend from the tires), Lincoln Logs, Record Breakers (which were super fast cars that ran through channel tracks, and even had competitions at malls. There was a show for them on Saturdays hosted by Jessie Ventura. Only had one and no track, but have the track and several more now), and R/C cars.
Though not really toys, I had the Radio shack electronics lab sets because I was in to electronics. Still have one.
Malls. We often went to the one in Emporia, KS (Flint Hills Mall) which had Walmart, Montgomery Ward, and JC Penney (got some of my model trains from Wards). I remember going to an arcade there a couple times also. Then there was White Lakes Mall, and later West Ridge Mall in Topeka. Before the latter was built, white Lakes was the place. The edges of the ceilings were mirrored. I remember going to the Kay Bee Toys there. They moved out to West Ridge when it was built in the late 80's, and it wasn't long before WL died. Here's a video of it someone took 4 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uAhyrHmm8I There was talk of revitalizing it. Right now there's one restaurant (I think), and some manufacturing business in it. Some think West Ridge is dying too, but I hope not. They have the only Hot Topic in this part of Kansas.
Also shopped at the Montgomery Ward up there, which had a separate building downtown. After Wards croaked in the mid 90's, the building became the Topeka Police Dept. headquarters.
Speaking of arcades: That's something I really miss. The Stop 2 Shop in town (now a BP station) had some games including pinball, and later our (soon to be gone) video store had several at one point. Now you're lucky to find a single game somewhere (haven't played pinball in years). another thing the S2S had was a Bear Claw: AKA a claw machine. Me and my mom became masters of them. She would stand on the side of the machine and guide me with the claw or vice versa. Sometimes we'd go home with bags of stuffed toys, even cleaning it out once. Not long after that the company that owned the games took it out, and one of the clerks actually started a petition to get one back, that worked. Still have bags and totes of those plushies, but the most prized thing I still have is a cup that says "I conquered the crane" on it, which was pretty much our trophy. That was back when claw machines were all electro mechanical. Today's claws are nothing more than slot machines that only pay out after a certain amount of money has been put in. Would like to get one of those older ones.
Video games. We started with a Tandy Color Computer 3 in the mid 80's, which had many games for it. Needless to say a calculator had more memory capacity than it did. We did get a 5" floppy drive addon. Wound up selling it after my mom won a 386 PC in a grocery store contest in 1993. Still have the games though, and a couple of TRS-80's (one was my brother's from when he took an ICS home class on computer programming, which got him nowhere). My mom like a demo derby game we got. In the late 80's she had carpal tunnel problems, and oddly playing the game (joystick was like an Atari with a stick and one button) helped cure it.
We then got an Atari 7800 and a few games from the new Toys R Us in Topeka in 1987. Dig Dug, Choplifter, and Robotron 2084 were my mom's fav's
. It wasn't long before it messed up though, so we took it back and got another, which also messed up (looking back: It may have just been dirty contacts), so we took it back and got an NES. And later got several games from Montgomery Ward. The ones my mom liked the most (and she played it into her 60's) was the first Zelda game (gold case too), Super Mario 2, and Bubble Bobble, plus a few others we rented, and later owned. My fav's were R/C Pro Am, Excitebike, Jackal, and Top Gun.
We also got a Sega Master System in the late 80's and a few games. Still have them all (except for my R/C Pro Am which I loaned out, and never got back. Got another though).
We didn't get a VCR until 1988. It was a Zenith we got a deal on at Wards because it's manual was missing. It had one of those jump through hoops to set clocks, though I picked up on it pretty fast. Never used the timer function. Recorded a lot of country music videos, performances, and Disney cartoons with it. The first movie we got with it was Lady and the Tramp. Still have the videos and I think the VCR too, but it quit working ages ago.
that was also the age of TV's that could be repaired. The first I remember us having was a Quazar console one. When it croaked we got a Zenith console from Wards (bought a lot of stuff from them) around 1986 (the box it came in became my indoor clubhouse). On the same night of the Girls Next Door concert lightning zapped it, but we got it repaired. I remember turning it on one morning, and soon there was smoke in the room! I shut everything off and unplugged everything because I didn't know what it was from. It turned out a circuit board in the TV overheated of something. We got it fixed, and that thing lasted until around 2003 before it croaked. It sat in the living room as a stand for the new TV until a few years ago, when I cleared out everything inside, and turned it into a cabinet for tapes and DVD's (kept the channel display which I can turn on with a 9V battery and a switch
). Fat chance getting a new TV to last that long.
I really miss those times, and if given the opportunity, would gladly dump the present to go back then. See stuff I missed out on. Guess that's why the Neigh Anything arc of the IDW G4 comic was my favorite, and which is why I made an 80' Shining Armor cosplay (which I'll be wearing again at the 2016 Midwest Brony Fest Friday). I also requested this commission from Andy Price (who did that arc) of 80's Luna at last year's Planet Comicon in Kansas City:
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loginhttps://twitter.com/AndyPriceArt/status/576559357694849025/photo/1And of course my Ponies at the Mall and "Quarterhorse" album drawings (have another 80's themed one involving Luna and Celestia in the planning stages):
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