A FEW GOOD REASONS TO LIKE THE EIGHTIES AS A DECADE
First of all, I have to admit that the Eighties was not my favorite decade. I liked the Eighties, but I didn’t "like- like" the Eighties. We all have to pick a nostalgia zone from our past, and the Eighties was a little outside of that zone for me.
That’s not to say that it wasn’t a fun decade, but it runs behind the Seventies, and well behind the Sixties for me. Most people pick the impressionable decades of their childhood and early youth as favorites because we are still on a steep learning curve during the early stages of life.
But today’s message is a celebration of the best parts of the Eighties for me, so let’s have a look in the rear view mirror.
I liked Ronald Reagan in the Eighties. He was a good motivator for a country that needed a confidence boost during that decade. He was a guy that boosted the morale by good speeches and great military invasion choices like
I liked the Indiana Jones movies in the Eighties. People love action movies and there have been few better action flicks than the Indy movies. The secret was a cliffhanger style that was drawn from an earlier era of matinee serials that left movie-goers in the middle of a crisis- until next weekend- to answer the survival question for the heroes.
I was not a big fan of Eighties syntho-music, but a few songs have stood the test of time. ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears has a timeless quality to it. Anything by Sade from the 80s also works for me. And I liked ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Axel and his buddies. After that, the list gets a little short for me.
TV had some good stuff in the Eighties, but few shows were better than ‘Cheers’. It managed to stay fresh for over a decade as a show designed around the lives of people that really didn’t have interesting lives-with the exception of Sam Malone- a god-like figure for every red-blooded male on the planet.
I liked Jane Fonda in the Eighties. By then she was already a cougar, but one of the fittest felines known to mankind. She inspired an entire generation of women into a serious fitness plan. And Jane didn't just inspire guys-she really inspired guys.
I liked ‘Lonesome Dove’ in the Eighties. It was a mini-series and normally that would be a huge red flag for me. Except that it was a western, it had Robert Duvall in a starring role, and it was the brainchild of Larry McMurtry. It was a guaranteed winner from the git-go.
I like the Chrysler Imperial in the early Eighties. Chrysler needed a flagship for the company and the Imperial was almost hand-built for the role. Then they hired Francis Albert Sinatra to pitch the car. It didn’t get any better than that for a salesman.
Finally, I liked the brashness of the Eighties.
It was a cocky self-indulgent decade, and I say that as a guy who fit in like a glove with that attitude in the Eighties.
COMMENTS
DENNIS:"You were doing just fine till you got here."I liked Jane Fonda in the Eighties. By then she was already a cougar, but one of the fittest felines known to mankind. She inspired an entire generation of women into a serious fitness plan. And Jane didn't just inspire guys-she really inspired guys."
She "really inspired a generation of guy's all right". My generation will never, ever forget her.
