It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I was listening to some music from the eighties a few days ago and found myself feeling a little sad. Not a lot … just a little. I started missing the decade that style forgot and I wondered why. I hear a lot of eighties music but now and then I hear a song from that period that I haven’t heard for so many years that it just transports me back there. This time it was Lost Weekend by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions.
A lot happened in that 10 years. In 1980 I turned 17, got my ’72 TC Cortina and the license to drive it. The eighties took me from my teen years into my mid-twenties.
I completed my apprenticeship and became a qualified chef. I then left cooking behind and went looking for a real job.
I learnt what George Harrison meant in his song Teardrops, when he said, “In the heart of the lonely man, in and out of love more often where most others can.” Unrequited love is never easy.
I hung out with some great friends and shared houses with some good mates. I discovered some excellent music and went to dozens of concerts.
Later in the eighties my mother died. I cycled across Australia for the first and second time. The girl who’d held my heart for many years finally decided she wanted to be more than friends. Eleven months later we went back to being friends.
The eighties was also the decade that I finally organised myself to get into the radio industry, which is where my heart was all along.
A lot happened in the eighties. It was a decade of discovering a little bit more about who I was and who I was becoming.
So why was I sad? Did I want to go back there? No thanks.
I realised that it was more about the fact that I didn’t meet Pauline until January 1992. We married in December the same year.
It would have been so wonderful to have shared those times with Pauline. They were amazing years with some incredible highs and lows but all that time the real love of my life was living just 20 or so kilometres away. I wish our paths could have merged so much sooner. Maybe the connection wouldn’t have worked if we’d met earlier – I don’t know – but I really do wish that we could have had those years together.
What were the eighties for you? A time of happiness or regrets? Highs, lows or both?
Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Remembering the Eighties? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing. Go the Eighties!
I must admit I remember very little of it due to being six when the eighties ended. It’s actually a lot of fun years later hearing about what was big back then. The music was great….the fashion terrible.
Some things I do remember…stepping on a bee at kindy in 88, moving to Albany that same year, starting school in 89 and having a haircut that made me look like one of The Beatles and watching The Wizard of Oz cartoon on TV every morning….that was brilliant.
mmm, the 80s. There were some good times, but I have to admit, I’m like you Rodney, to have shared them with my husband would have made them even more special. We kept crossing paths throughout the 80s, even working for the same organisation but we weren’t destined to get together till December 1989. Mind you, the timing wouldn’t have been right prior to that, so God knows what He’s doing 🙂
I spent my teens in the eighties. It was a good decade, but very dislocative for me. The 80’s started in Bunbury WA, where I’d grown up, then: Northam WA, Ballarat Vic, Mt Hagen PNG, Bendigo, Alice Springs NT. It didn’t really stop until the mid 90’s.
There was some good music, but seriously – Boy George? I also remember a lot of bad music and worse fashion.
Wow! Weren’t those some crazy days? When the 80s started I was at high school… which I dropped out of in ’81 and went to work at Coles to save money to go for a holiday over East with a guy called Rodney Olsen – who I’d become mates with at a Baptist Youth Camp…
Then just as my parents dispaired at what I was doing with my life: I studied at TAFE for 2 years; then worked at the University of WA for 2 years! Maybe I was looking ok after all…? Until I started working for Jesus at Youth For Christ.
Burnt out after working for them for just a year… But unlike you Rodney (and Kathie too) I managed to hook-up with “the one for me”. Our whirlwind just breaking Rodney and Pauline’s record. My wife & I met in June 86 and were married in May 87. But we were on opposite sides of the country from June86 to Jan87. I moved to Brisbane in January 87! So we just got to share the end of that era. Yes, we were married looking like flaming Sharleen and what’s he from Neighbours. She had the ‘big hair’ and I had the ultra thin pink tie!
Alex is right: Boy George probably should stay in the 80s (I heard today that he’s been denied a Visa to the USA). But there were some really great artists. The Cure, The Church, Violent Femmes (do I have recurring theme here?). Also Def Leppard, glam rock, etc. I think maybe I went off the rails a bit…
I also think that some of them were from earlier but got better in the 80s (Joe Jackson, David Bowie, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, even Elton John really produced some good stuff in those days). Hey Rodney, do you remember being ‘poo-pooed’ by the Youth Group because you didn’t burn all your records. The classic line after they burnt all their records was when they decided to go off to the movies to see some horror thing and you said (to great shocked gasps), “Not for me, I’m going home to listen to David Bowie…” I think they were all praying for your soul! 🙂
Sure there were lows – but generally I think I skipped from high to high during that time (in more ways than one). Thank God I made it through!
i was just talking about the 80s with people yesterday (my work’s annual action dinner fundraiser is going to be 80s themed and we were trying to remember some of the horrible clothing styles).
i was only 11 when the 80s ended so i don’t remember a whole lot (other than the horrible fluro spandex i wore). i think it was kind of the last decade where kids got to play outside for hours on end without parents or gardians closely watching (we would go off into the woods behind our house a lot and our parents would just yell out when the wanted us home)
It’s so great to know more about you Rodney; well, i did not know that you have been through so many many things in life….. Well, if you ask me about my 80s; it’s really hard to tell; cause i think i was just born at that time…… but i know my family had been through a really tough time then….. so we don’t want to look back…..
Sarah, I was thinking when I wrote this post that there’d be many readers who were very young – or not even born – back in the eighties. I guess it just reminds me that I’m getting older. 🙂
God’s timing is always right, Kathie, but the waiting can sure be hard. 🙂
That’s some serious moving around, Alex. I guess I’m a rare specimen in that I lived in one house for the first 16 years of my life, went to just one primary school and just one high school.
Peter, we certainly had some good times in the eighties. I still have all those albums that I should have burned. 🙂
As for Joe Jackson, I still remember well walking around the city at some ridiculous hour of the morning while waiting for the box office to open for tickets to his first Perth concert. As I remember it we met some young girls (also waiting for tickets) who I piggybacked down Hay Street at about 3:00 a.m. As it turned out they were students at the school where my brother was teaching.
Shawna, the most frightening thing about the clothing styles of the eighties is that I’ve seen a lot of them back in shops recently. I understand that it’s fun to go retro with fashion but why would anyone choose to revisit the eighties?
Thai, there was a lot happening in my life back in the eighties. I could write many more posts about some of the stuff I did. Maybe that’d be a good topis for some extra posts now and then.