Oh yeah.  He's that guy that signed the machine gun ban...

I went from 8-18 in the '80s.  It was a fantastic time to be a kid in America.

The best of times..

Not entirely true. He did great things with military spending and out played the Soviets. And he did this with democrat controlled Congress.

I do agree that domesticity his policy sucked. Farmers and Vietnam veterans had it really bad. So too did home buyers. Shutting down government asylums and amnesty are policy mistakes we are still dealing with. He was a cronie capatist for sure.

This.

Absolutely. If I could go back I would go back the 1986 summer of.

In college, in a fraternity. So much fun, so many sorority girls. And then I would ask my wife out - I met her while she was a sorority girl - a year earlier before I ask her out, when we were just friends.



We had a ball I wouldn't change anything but I would like to relive those years over one more time.

Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime
We'll take the best, forget the rest
And someday we'll find these are the best of times

I think the asylums were Court Ordered to be closed.

I turned 20 right at the end of the '80s. It was a GREAT decade. The '90s was pretty good, too, but that might have been partly because I was in my 20s for the entire period.

Several posters in another 80's thread said this didn't happen.

No internet?  That would have been interesting.

I don't think Reagon really did much to hurt farming as much as Carter did.  He kinda inherited that one.

The 80s were by far the best decade of my life.  No other time is comparable.  My friends and I had so much fun it was unbelievable.

You don't miss what you never had.

At least the 55mph national speed limit ended.

Almost as good as the Roaring 20's.

this

The cocaine was on point though! Cocaine everywhere!

not saying I experimented with it or not, I'm just saying it was ubiquitous.

It truly was the best of times.

That's why they wrote this song,

No cell phones either (If you weren't VERY wealthy).  We used up our free time doing stuff with friends and family in person.  It was fun.

Hell no!

rambo, rambo 2, rambo 3

Good god. What'd you do in the basement all day? Watch tv? Knit?

The 80's were awesome. We were lower middle class or top of the rung poverty and me and my brothers had a ton of friends, lived in a great neighborhood, had great parents,  the music was the best, and the girls were girls. We didn't even pay attention to the bs you listed. We were too busy living well.

To all the people calling me a Leftist, I would argue I am farther to the Right than 99% of you here.

Do not get caught up im the revisionism.  Reagan was horrible.  Yeah he spent big on the military and fat lot of good it did.  He did not end the Cold War.  The Soviets knew it was unsustainable since the early 70s.  The few forward thinking people who knew it was going to i.plode were shouted down by academics wanting to keep their Think Tank jobs to justify inane overspending.

An average day in the 80s for me was:
Chores on a farm
No cable
A few guns but bullets scarce
Getting a VCR was a big deal.
Going to town once a month
Everyone working to keep the farm
Taxes being in-freaking-sane
Getting a bicycle was a big deal
Relatives always off in Europe
Vietnam was never, ever discussed. Anything about Vietnam on TV was turned off. To this day, I have never seen a Jane Fonda movie.
Usually ate what we grew or raised or killed.

I'm glad the rest of you got to hang out at the mall, juke and jive with a walkman, and had your glory days of McDLTs and all. And I'm glad your folks had HK93s and Colt AR-15s. And I am happy you had Camaros.

That just wasn't my 80s experience.  Reagan didn't seem to do us any favors. Life was hard but it was real.  Didnt really enjoy the 90s either.

Though tough, I liked my childhood but the 80s are a time I don't care to think about.  I liked the movies and having a city friend record MTV and HBO for 6 hours a tape each month.  And clear night skies.  And all that.

But, otherwise.....I think the 1980s were overrated.

All times, when old, seem good.

lol wut?

The 70's were the best of times and the worst of times for me. The best thing to come out of the 80's for me was meeting and marrying my wife. Still married and it's better than ever.

The White colored Ferrari Testarosa was jokingly called "cocaine white".

Aren't you the guy who got mad at someone because they made fun of some great ancestor of yours?

Kind of a confusing place at times.  You all want to be rugged individualists and mock "Orange Man Bad" NPCs but the second someone goes off script about Reagan or how awesome a shrill and dumb a decade the 80s were none of you can handle it.

I was there.  Again, if your parents had money and you got all kimds of toys; great.  That just wasn't how it was for me.

The good things for me were:
-I got home cooked meals almost every night
-Despite my folks both working they always seemed to be together
-I got to learn how to drive a truck rather young
-I was shown how to shoot a gun at 5 years old
-Had my own well
-Church was a high point of my week
-I had super fresh bacon and eggs
-Antennae TV was hit or miss so I read a lot
-Summer meant the swimming hole

But yeah....my life actually sucked by not caring about Reagan, being a Fashion Victim, buying into fads, nor doing what city kids were doing.

I was stuck most days working outdoors, going to school, and eating dinner with my folks, and helpijg load up to go to Farmer's Market.

Oh no.....what a nightmare!  
It's so fortunate that kids now dont have to endure such a bleak life like I did

Friday and Saturday night:

Try and score beer
Score beer!
Drive around and drink beer
Get pulled over
Cops pour out beer and tell you to go home
Score more beer!
Park out in middle of nowhere farmer's field and drink beer
Go home
Puke

The BEST decade!

I look at the 80s as more of an Indian Summer in America.  It was the last good times before the huge partisan divide that started in the 90s and now affects every aspect of our lives.

Personally, the 80s were the best of times and the worst of times for me.  But overall they were good.

The memory I keep going back to is the summer of 1983.  Its a hot summer Saturday.  Chores are done, and in a couple of hours, I have to take a shower so that we can go pick Dad up at the airport.  Until then, i'm riding my go kart though the fields near my house and having a great time.

I actually want liberals to get abortions.

I can barely remember the 80's, and yet i was at the party.

I didn't give a shit about any of this in the 80s.  I was just getting drunk, getting laid and having fun.  Until I enlisted.

Who can forget?

I was a teen in the 80's.

That decade destroyed music, and MTV destroyed our civilization.
Buncha parachute pants wearing jackasses.

The 80's were the cat's ass. I wish I could live in that time over and over.

He did have his own well.

No. No in that Snowden thread you got all uppity because some dude waa talking Bout some Greek ancestor of yours.

You also didn't appreciate people putting words in your mouth so don't put them in mine.

I never said life was "bleak"  You did that.

My thesis was the 80s weren't some Roman Orgy where our Leader was infallible and everyone was loaded.  I was also pointing out that things weren't so easy as people think.

I am just saying that Reagan wasn't that great of a president and everything wasn't all that glamorous.

All I hear in these threads is people going on about Reagan, getting drunk, or having some toy.

I was merely trying to say what was, both good and bad.  It was 50/50 split.  We had some tough times but we got through it.  I never cared about what city kids had.

I made do.

I dont regret that time of my life but dont want to relive it.  To be fair, Mondale wouldnt have been any better. But it doesnt make Reagan suck any less.

I believe you all are wearing your rose tinted lenses.
The 80s were tough for me and a lot of farm kids and no Republican, especially Reagan, seemed to care. Not many Dems either.

But then again, while I didnt have the latest toys or fashions.  I got to hunt alone with an M1 Carbine wearing my old man's old jungle woodlands while most kids were into Nintendo and I got to learn to drive at age 8 so I could help with the truck.

Not seeimg how Reagan is to thank for it.  And like I said....once a month or so, someone would leave their TV on HBO or MTV all day and give us tapes of it.  TV reception was poor even with a roof mounted antennae. Mostly listened to Radio which admittedly played good stuff.

But some of that was fun just because I was a kid.  But wearing old Nam camo and shooting turkey was fun indeed.  Rolled up legs, rolled up sleeves, felt like silk jammies, cowboy boots, and my Baltimore Colts ballcap.

Again, no thanks to Reagan or even Boy George.

But I like having a smartphone, an M4, and like the 80s best now through a playlist or a movie marathon.

Because again, Tainted blood was out there, Crime was still way worse than now, families suffered, medical technology was nothing that it is today, and McDonalds doesnt have  smoking section anymore.

I just have no desire to relive a time I already lived through once.  It's like 50 year old men still bragging about a touchdown they made in high school.

Sad.

Great time.