Mike, Jen, and The Stoned Age

I had asked in the last week what I should write about, as far as blog post topics should go.

Apart from some rather wonderful compliments that amounted to 'write anything!' which were terribly heartwarming, but not terribly e lightening, I'm afraid, there was a couple of helpful suggestions! (and please, suggest more).

One did intrigue me.

⸸⸸⸸𝕶𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖌𝖆𝐳𝖒𝖔𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖓⸸⸸⸸ asked that since I'm old, and all, what were the 80s 'really' like.

That's a hard question as it can be too big or too small depending how you look at it, and I'm having trouble deciding what to write about.

After all, not everyone had the 'same' 80s. I had a friend ... Straight edge skater punk who moved to Ohio around 1990. He wrote to us (np cell phones, and using the landline long distance was costly so it better be dang important!) and told us that the trend of bright neon colors was only just reaching there 😅 

So it's hard to write about the topic. I mean, maybe BECAUSE I 'lived' through it, it doesn't seem particularly worth remembering unless I trot out how O felt about the historic events of the day, or one of those endless nostalgia type posts about toys, music, and TV that no one really cares about when old people drone on and on about the 'good old days' or whenever an old person thought they were cool.

Well, I guess the first thing to remember is that every guy I went to school with was named "Mike".

Every dang one.

Additionally, every other girl was named "Jen".

All of them. Literally. 

Anyway, PART of what Killy asked referred to his curiosity about if films 'get it right' when looking back on the 80s.

I dunno ...

No.

Not really.

Like most films - even serious ones - that are period pieces look 'off'. One thing I always notice is the cars. In a film set in - say - 1955. They are very good at filling the background with cars from 1955.

Trouble is, they all look brand new. Perfectly all restored, and all precisely 1955. In 'real' 1955, people drove hulking rusted wrecks just as much as the proud new vehicles of the day. 

When I was young in the 80s, I never had a vehicle actually MADE in the 80s.

So did any films get it right?

Okay, maybe.

Being a kid in the 70s was perfectly well captured by the Bad News Bears (the original one. The 1970s one). It was supposed to be a shocking comedy the way the kids spoke and acted. These days, it's probably just shocking. But of you LIVED through it, damn. If you're really watching, and not just out of nostalgia, damn.

The kids seemingly have no parents. They fight, face bullies, play, swear, and sort out their lives with one another by raw 'working it out'. And with each kid, you get a pretty good idea just what their home lives are like, and for many of them, not great. Even for kids like me, with loving parents and a great upbringing, my parents never hovered over me, curated my time, interests, or social life. They loved me enough to let me figure it out!

So, we fast forward a few years to the 80s.

It's cheesy, it's often cited, but "The Breakfast Club" get the bullshit high school factions right.

And every high school age dirtbag like Bender in the age before security cameras, recordings, and fell phones were everywhere literally had some teacher physically threaten them at one point or another.

The film even gets right that sometimes odd friendships would develop between faction members if stuck in an isolating situation.

Of course, they seldom lasted. 

The last film I'd like to cite is the one 'retrospective' movie.

Released in 1993, "Dazed and Confused" was set in 1976 and heralded as a great look back at teen life from that time.

I don't know. Maybe. It struck me as a contrived nostalgia piece. Watchable film. Had its enjoyments, but ... contrived.

I think the better film, and perhaps the one that more accurately captures the times was a 1994 film called "The Stoned Age" set in 1980. 

Saturday night. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. You and your friend cruise around like dirtbags in your dirtbag car listening to your favorite music (and arguing over it) and stopping by the regular dirtbag hangouts hoping that something is going on.

I know all of that sounds bitter, but you know what?

It was GLORIOUS! Whether you were little in the 70s with no parental supervision or wandering aimlessly through the pre-videogame wastelands of suburbia hoping someone was throwing a party somewhere, hoping to meet a potential romantic interest, and having no particular place to go or to be. 

Although it may seem directionless, that space ... that circumstantial boredom it was led to big dreams, big talks until the sun came up, big jams, and big stories.

Maybe I'll tackle the news events of the times in some other blog post.