[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Class of 1985 - Sound Off... (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 8/2/2004 10:28:04 AM EDT
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I was truly blessed to be born in the critical point of the last half of the 20th century. 10 years earlier or later could have meant I'd be terribly deprived of many experiences. First I did not have to suffer the 1970s as a teenager, I turned 13 in 1980. This meant I was spared bell bottoms and saying things like "groovy" to girls who were trying to be Marcia Brady. Since I was a little dirtball kid in the 1970s I just played with some cool ass toy guns and watched TV shows like S.W.A.T., Baa Baa Black Sheep, Battlestar Galactica and stuff like that. I listened to some really crappy music on the radio but I was just a kid so who cares. I also watched Happy Days so what did I know? In the early 1980s Eddie Murphy was making movies that were actually funny. We had a VCR and incredibly all 3 premium cable (Cable had about 35 channels total) channels (HBO, Showtime AND The Movie Channel). Mtv was born and played NOTHING but music videos around the clock. Bout the worst thing girl wise was that thankfully short "Valley Girl" phase. TV gave us Miami Vice and thankfully Traci Lords was making movies. My Apple II computer never crashed, not even once. Ronald Reagan was the ONLY President I had during my teenage years. I listened to rap when it was new and interesting (groups like Run DMC and LL Cool J had their first records out) And when I was 16 I bought my first HK rifles (a 91 and a 93) for $400 each. Toward the end of the 1980s fashion for girls included spandex dresses and thongs. It really was a great time. Girls of the 80s had a definite wild streak and were nothing like the hippie feminazis of the 70s or the grunge feminazis of the 90s. In 1985 girls dressed like Madonna and the Prince girls, it's as though it was all done for me. Then came the 1990s and it was a pretty lame time to be a teenager. Grunge (dressing like a bag lady) was the fashion (followed by Heroin Chic) and Beavis and Butthead were the high point of teen culture. Bill Clinton was the only President most 1990s teens ever knew. The 1980s were kinda like the 1950s in that it was one of those rare "golden age' decades when it was truly fun to have been alive and if you weren't there you probably wouldn't understand. I am so fortunate to have been part of it. |
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LOL Good post. I feel the same way. I'm class of 89. I think our generation was the last to play with truly cool toys (that weren't made to be collected). The little GI Joes, transformers, the influence of Japanese animation in US comics, etc. Way cool TV shows (don't forget Airwolf in your list)... WAY cool cartoons. 'twas a good time to be a kid. |
I think the only thing that competes with it would be being a kid in the 1950s and early 60s. |
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In the 1980's I was crushing the NYC subway lines. We had the City Hall Layups on Lock! The bridge was another favorite graffiti spot of ours. If we were in the layups painting trains, any rival crew from Brooklyn to the Bronx would get their asses handed to them. We took your paint, your money, your drugs, what ever you had and basically kicked you up the ass and told you never to come back here. We were deranged lunatics with spraypaint running the system. One of the ALL TIME BAD ASS CREW EVER! Style of the Ghetto. Sheep Skin coats with LEE jeans, Le Tigre or Izods shirts, along with Adidas, a gold chain and 4 finger rings. Cant forget the Cazelles! I would never trade the 80's. We lived. Rock The World |
BTW We were the last ones to be able to play with real Lawn Darts. You know, the weighted spikes with fins that you threw at your family members.  Good times, good times. (Well, almost all good times... Funny how long ago it seems that the Cold War ended... it really wasn't that long ago) |
Don't forget the Hooded OP sweatshirts, Jams, and Vans. |
And Seen & Duster could school you with fingerpaint. 
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I still have my set, minus one of the target rings. Happily, that is the easiest part to replace or live without. We lost that one honestly in the '80s. One of the darts hit it perfectly, and split it. |
You watch Chushingura yet? Ever feel like you are part of a "Boys From Brazil" experiment? 
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kids get jail time for that these days 
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Richie had the IRT's, but he was no where on the BMT's or IND's. SEEN is over glorified. He's a good artist, no question, but even in those days, he wasn't coming down to the Lower East Side to hit our yards. He would have been robbed instantly. as for Duster, he got his ass handed to him on the back of a train one day plus his paint was taken. All those graffiti movies thats out and available, are fucking jokes. They make SEEN like he's the all time king. NOT! Truth be known....KB was the ALL TIME KING. |
+2  Ah, the memories... The 80's were great it before all the panty waisted PC crap and you could really see things for what they are. These days everything is washed out and watered down, everything is shades of grey and there's no wrong or right answer for simple questions, at least for those who don't want to offend anyone... 
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SEEN is Richie. He is a Bronx graffit artist. So of course the IRT's which maily ran thru the Bronx and Manhattan you would be seeing a lot of his work. But then you have the IND's and BMT. IRT Interbourough Rapid Transit (Number Lines) Mostly Bronx/Manhattan and some of Brooklyn BMT Brooklyn Mass Transit (Letter Lines) Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and some of the Bronx IND Independent Lines (Letter Lines) Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and some of the Bronx Thats the funny thing about people who put out Graffit books. Its all about the BRONX, but nothing about the other boros. Its too one sided. |
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Steyr, 84' here, what great times indeed. I truly feel sorry for the kiddies that did not have the gipper for pres. Times were just so much more simple. I can remember being on the cutting edge of video games, and having to go to the arcade to play the really cool ones. There used to be a cool arcade in Florida where we would spend Christmans and Easter for 2 weeks every year at our place in Hobe Sound, it was called the Barrel of Fun arcade. Great games, getting wired on caffeine and playing for hours. Same thing at home with the Atari, Colecovision, and others. Still riding bikes to your friends house to hang out. Yeah, what great days indeed. I refuse to even start a comparison to today and what youth are faced with and have to listen to for music.... Memories indeed : ) Dram |
| I think you are more under the influence of nostalgia of your youth. I can look back on the 80's as a lad in my 20's and remember many good things that I don't see now but I can also back into the 60- 70's and see things I am glad to have experienced such as playing little league with wooden bats and roaming through empty fields and orange groves that are long gone. Musically I remember when Dark Side of the Moon came out and when punk rock exploded. I saw Van Halen in Pasadena before they skyrocketed to fame. I remember watching the body counts from Viet Nam on the news, the apollo landings, and the bicentinal activities of 1976. I remember before all the 7-11's came we had little corner stores that some 60 year old half blind guy ran in which you could exchange empty soda bottles for money. As a teenager in the 70's I surely don't ever remember saying "groovy", must have been an early 70 saying. I do remember having a tall sissy bar on my bike with a banana seat and having a pair of those boots with a buckle on the sides and a squared toe point. I don't think either of those are any worse than the member's only jackets or parachute pants of the 80's. |
I don't get my knowledge from movies. I knew who Phase Too was before the documentary Style Wars dropped. Also I don't consider robbing other artists and racking up to be admirable traits of an artist but more indicative of assholes and gang bangers. It is nothing to be proud of, you guys were a major part of what was wrong with graffiti. You are like rappers who think being in a gang and "being real" is a necessary part of rap. In reality you both discredit that which you profess to represent. |
I never did drugs, don't miss them thank you. As for AIDS as long as you weren't fucking Haitian immigrants, homos or IV drug users you were pretty safe during most of the 80s. |
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Class of '85 here……….actually I graduated College in 85, high school was 81. The 80's were very cool growing up in "The Valley". "Valley Girls" galore! Parties every weekend "South of the Blvd" (guys from LA will know). Yes, I admit it, I had a "Members Only" jacket and drank Lowenbrau beer because we thought it was "Imported". The girlfriend who would cum in a stiff breeze was pretty cool too! (damn, I miss her. Got a pic somewhere around here) The cars were cool too. While all my friends were driving around their new Z28's, Trans Am's and "Beemers" with their Blau's "cranked", I was driving them crazy with my ride…………..  Those were the days! I can't type anymore, my quotation mark key just broke |
The beating people up part didn't start until toys started "going over masterpieces". I remember when it was kool to piece and it would be up for a long time. Then some asshole would come by and destroy it. Thats how all the turf wars started. You had toys coming into the spots and ragging everything. We were never violent until that shit started happening. To remain "King"in the 80's graffiti became one beat down session for those who chose to oppose. And thats how it was. Funny thing is now, when there is a graffiti exhibition going on, all the old timers get together and talk about the good old days. We're all friends now including former foes and victims. The Savage |
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Kids nowadays just aren't cool. They no longer have their thing, they seem to steal from everyone elses past. I also miss the days when shit was written in english only and everything didn't have www.something on it. Ohh and when you called someone you got them. No voice mail or automated systems, well very few anyway. Ok I shut up now, too much stuff to bitch about anyway. Maybe I will go gag myself with a spoon or something.
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