<p>I wish I had experienced them, but my last memory is when I was 3 and a half in 1999. The era’s seem interesting and I’d like any insight. Thanks =)</p>
<p>In what respect?</p>
<p>In terms of college, UCs and CSUs were much less expensive (after accounting for [CPI</a> inflation](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm]CPI”>http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)):</p>
<p><a href=“http://budget.ucop.edu/fees/documents/history_fees.pdf[/url]”>http://budget.ucop.edu/fees/documents/history_fees.pdf</a></p>
<p>They were also much less selective. It was not that hard to get into Berkeley in the 1980s (except for a few very popular engineering majors). However enrollment in remedial English courses reflected that (over 50% of freshmen then, versus under 10% now). Only about a third of freshmen graduated in four years or less back in the 1980s (versus about 70% now).</p>
<p>Students had to spend more time on course work due to fewer work-reducing aids. For example, writing a paper using pencil and paper was more tedious than using a word processing program. Looking up references meant physically going to the library and searching for the physical book (that might be checked out), instead of searching for things on the web (and possibly ordering books or articles on-line). Taking a photo of something was likewise not something you could do instantly, since you had to get the film developed. Most computer terminals just had one 80x24 screen, not multiple windows so that you can see several things at once. A computer shared by a whole class of CS students had 1/10,000 or less of the CPU power and 1/8,000 to 1/250 of the memory that a cheap personal computer today has (never mind the little computers that everyone carries now, which also make phone calls).</p>
<p>Well, you missed disco; consider yourself lucky.</p>
<p>Also, air quality was worse. More people smoked in more places, and 1970s and earlier cars were still common enough that a passing car often left plenty of emissions smell behind it.</p>
<p>The Internal Revenue Code was much simpler in 1986.</p>
<p>There was a country called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that broke up in 1991. Its top level domain .su (assigned in 1990) lives on, e.g. [Sternberg</a> Astronomical Institute](<a href=“http://www.sai.msu.su/]Sternberg”>http://www.sai.msu.su/) .</p>
<p>In the 1980’s, NYC was much more dirty, polluted, and crime-ridden than it has been since the mid-'90s to the present. </p>
<p>Subways, buses, and many public buildings/streets were covered in graffiti, litter, much more poorly lit, and odors derived from folks who used to urinate right into the subway platforms, underpasses, and anywhere else. </p>
<p>Times Square was a seedy place festooned with shell con counters, beggers, various folks with varying degrees of criminality, and porno peep places. </p>
<p>Cocaine, heroin, and then crack became epidemic across the nation and paraphernalia in the form of used needles and crack vials used to litter streets and even parks where my softball little league used to play every weekend*. Each time we went to the park, the police and adults had to clear the park of all the needles and vials before we could start setting up to play. </p>
<ul>
<li>Played from the age of 6 - 11.</li>
</ul>
<p>Crime in general was much higher in the 1980s than it is now, although New York’s crime decline was one of the largest. New York’s high crime rate then was legendary, resulting in a movie [Escape</a> from New York](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/]Escape”>Escape from New York (1981) - IMDb) based on the premise that New York was walled off into a giant prison. But now, New York is [one</a> of the safest large cities in the US](<a href=“New York City's 20 Years of Declining Crime - Scientific American”>New York City's 20 Years of Declining Crime - Scientific American).</p>
<p>Rates were much higher. When I started in the mortgage industry in 1990, the best rate for a 30 year fixed was 9.75% with 3 points. People were rushing to lock it in.</p>
<p>I remember a friend being happy with his 12.5% mortgage. OTOH I got 9% on my savings account. </p>
<p>Wasn’t disco more a 70’s thing? I associate the 80s with Blondie, The Talking Heads, U2, The Bangles, REM, The Smiths, The Coyboy Junkies, 10,000 Maniacs, 90s with Pearl Jam, Nirvana, The Indigo Girls, Greg Brown, Patty Larkin and other singer-songwriters.</p>
<p>NYC was kind of scary, but it was also the era when gentrification began. I watched it happen in Pasadena, working on one of the first building in its downtown to be transformed into a viable trendy business.</p>
<p>Let’s see… beginning of the 80s I was in college: big hair, mini skirts and leg warmers. Listening to “new wave” on my cassette deck in my car. Then I got my first job: power suits with shoulder pads and a ribbon tie. Got my first “compact disk” recording (XTC) in 1987, I think. </p>
<p>OF course one of the things I remember most about the 80’s was the rise of AIDS and losing a large number of friends to the mysterious disease. Very happy times mixed with very sad times.</p>
<p>The '80s in NYC were indeed more dirty and more dangerous, but they were also much more affordable. I had a decent-sized studio in the West Village that cost $350/mo. The average person could afford a theater, ballet, or concert ticket. And Brooklyn wasn’t trendy.</p>
<p>What was truly called disco ended about 1981, as “Urban Cowboy” with John Travolta came out in '80. Diana Ross’s “Upside Down” hit #1 mainstream chart in 1980, but many consider it the last of the truly disco songs to hit so big. Although some very danceable music soon re-emerged(think: Madonna, Paula Abdul, Cameo), and many others. Bee Gees, Chic, and white suits that go with the era really called disco had gone. So for a while. country music hit the mainstream for many. People that had never been on a horse were wearing cowboy hats and belt buckles as big as a fist and riding mechanical bulls. My experience was that many that didn’t care for the R&B influenced dance music still referred to 80’s dance as disco using the term in a derogatory manner, but mathmom is correct that what really was disco is thought of as 70’s.
Other music that really took hold in early 80’s was punk(think: Clash, Sex Pistols, Bollocks) and early New Wave(think: Blondie, Cars, Police, Missing Persons, B-52s). Soon after came what was known as progressive new wave(think: REM, Human League, the Cure, Depeche Mode). Other later 80’s music was very danceable rock by “hairbands” also known as Mascara Metal(think: Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Ratt). Rap got a start in the 80’s, and back then was intended for all audiences(think: Blondie’s “Rapture”, Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks”, and Sugarhill’s “Rappers Delight”)
Fashion for women in early 80’s was often exercise wear worn as outerwear(think: “Physical”), sometimes flat “jelly” shoes; and skinny jeans were often tucked into tall boots(think: Hanoi Jane Fonda in “Electric Horseman”). Later 80’s were mostly what many would call(traditionally) very feminine, skirt/dress, heels, hose, hair teased out, and such. The exception was stone wash- everything. Jeans, shirts, skirts, suspenders, hats, stone wash was big! Along with this look came Billy Idol inspired fingerless gloves, often leather for males, and lacy for young women(see: “What About Love” by Heart). Mid-late 80’s also had Miami Vice look that inspired many male fashion.
For an old video that makes fun of much of the 80’s, see David Lee Roth’s “Just a Gigolo”. For a more recent video that touches many 80’s trends, see “1985” by Bowling For Soup.</p>
<p>In 1982, Fed Min Wage was $5.25, and In 1982, the US national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.30 - the equivalent of about $2.94 per gallon in 2010. So back then, an hour at min wage bought about 4 gallons of gas.</p>
<p>I had to write computer programs on punch cards in the early to mid-80s. I would take the whole stack to the computing center, give them to the person at the desk, and wait for the results. Inevitably, I would have made one or more typos, so I’d have to find my errors and turn the cards in again. It was agonizing.</p>
<p>College was cheaper. So, so much cheaper. I just looked it up to make sure my memory was accurate. In 1981, Penn State’s yearly tuition was $933. I do remember my total COA being somewhere between $2000-$2500.</p>
<p>No such thing as cell phones. Making a long distance call was expensive.</p>
<p>I am enjoying these posts so much…and yes college was sooo much less expensive!!! Also, not quite as selective. I was just sharing with son that my HS stats from 1983 would not be enough to gain admission to the small LAC that I attended as a freshman.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is easy to romanticize the past. Realistically, though, every decade has had its share of plusses and minuses.</p>
<p>No PCs in the 80’s. Had to type papers on a good old typewriter, with wite-out at the ready - it took forever to dry. I remember going to computer labs in the late 80’s in college to type papers. No cell phones either, just good old dial phones in the dorm rooms.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, many people died of AIDS. </p>
<p>The 80s were the era of glasnost/perestroika in the Soviet Union, during which time people began to stop worrying so much about their being the enemy of the US. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a very big deal.</p>
<p>Before the 80s, there were no laws requiring people to wear seat belts in cars, and as I recall most cars had only lap belts.</p>
<p>In the early 80s, people were just starting to have VCRs at home. Before that, if you missed a movie in the theater you’d have to hope it would show up on TV after a year or two. Certain very popular movies like the Disney animation films were re-released in theaters every few years.</p>
<p>In the early 80s, pocket calculators had only been around for a few years; before that, slide rules were used.</p>
<p>In the early 90s, people were just starting to have personal computers.</p>
<p>All of the computers were hooked to the mainframe. We had to go to the computer center and wait for a terminal to open up. When you printed out a computer project, it might take two hours for the print room to put it out on the rack. In about 1985, my fraternity spent $5000 on a PC that could hook to the mainframe by a modem, one where you put the phone handset in a cradle: maximum speed, 3 kbits/second.</p>
<p>Because of the high price of gas, car companies started making smaller and smaller engines. Some production cars had a top end speed around 70, the police cars could only do about 90, so guys with tubbed out Camaros routinely outran the police. The Japanese crotch rocket motorcycles started to appear.</p>
<p>You didn’t have to show an ID to cross into Canada. A NY driver’s license didn’t have a picture on it, so anyone with your eye color could use it. You could check your bag for a flight half an hour before departure.</p>
<p>Only a couple of people I knew had been to Europe, none to South America. Only about half of the mothers had outside jobs, and many still didn’t drive. A big house was 2000 sq. ft. Engineers still wore a suit and tie to work.</p>
<p>Acid washed jeans made their debut, as did pinstriped, two-tone and leather accented. Izod Lacoste shirts with popped collars, inside-out sweatshirts with the sleeves and neck cut, lots of jeans jackets and Fonzie-type leather bombers. Shorty shorts and high socks on guys, as seen in that Doug Flutie ad. Fake Ray-Bans with neon colored temple pieces, with a matching neon zinc oxide stripe on your nose. Who remembers those super high-cut bikinis?</p>
<p>A 13" tv might cost $300, a 25" $1000. The cable box was tethered to the descrambler by the power cord and had 48 push buttons on it. HBO, Cinemax, and MTV. Magnum PI with Tom Selleck was the coolest show on television.</p>
<p>Thomas Dolby singing “She Blinded Me with Science,” Eddie Grant and “Electric Avenue,” My Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades …</p>
<p>You couldn’t use credit cards at grocery stores. </p>
<p>Each floor in my dorm had a “smoker,” where people could smoke. This was also the room with the TV, so you had to put up with smoke just to watch.</p>
<p>The drinking age was 18.</p>
<p>I had forgotten the fashion trends magnetron mentioned- <em>Rick Springfield</em> influenced Izod collars(earlier 80’s) and the influence of movie Flashdance(1983). Very true.</p>
<p>And 80’s drinking laws in Ohio had many changes. Initially, 21 for wine, booze, and 6% beer, but 18 for 3.2 beer. Changed briefly to 19 for all alcohol with no “grandfathering” for those 18, and no more 3.2. Then changed to 21 for all alcohol(but did grandfather 20 yr olds).</p>