Naso what's your infatuation with the 1980's?
It's not an "infatuation" but more a "real envy" would be a better phrase.
I have a strong photographic memory....basically from when I was 2 years old I began remembering things...and by 4 years old I was reading, learning to write, and I loved the type of music my mom and dad would listen to, such as Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, ect. Keep in mind, my mom was born in 1968...so she grew up with the big 80's music...my dad was already past the Air Force, with a daughter and a cop for a decade by the time 80's music was big...so he isn't that fond of it and is a bigger fan of Paul Simon, Johnny Rivers, The Beatles, ect. My mom was more into the 80's, and her 1986 graduation song was the '84 hit "Glory Days".
I can remember her driving with me and my then-baby sister in the backseat listening to Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Amy Grant and that huge Bryan Adams song "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)", which I used to poke fun at while my mom would be singing it. (All were on the charts right around 1990-1991, which confirms my memory)
So...in a way....I feel a sense of semi-anger that I just missed the 80's. I was born in 1988...and I can remember life starting in 1990-1991...but very little until about 1992. I remember I'd go to my one grandmother's house, where my mom's brothers had left stuff in her basement years ago...and I would be so facinated at the turntables, the Bruce Springsteen posters, the old stickers from local Cleveland rock stations, the pens and lighters from different places in the drawers....it was so nostalgic...but in reality at the time...it was only 5-10 years old.
That's why I like October. Not only does my birthday come around...but so does Halloween. Around 1998...my older sister (then 16 years old) began taking me to Haunted Houses...and I began watching the old 80's slasher flicks. Good films, NO. Good actors, NO. But they gave off that classic 80's feeling...and I always get a fantastic sense of nostalgia when I watch a movie like "Halloween" from 1978. (WHICH IS ONE OF THE GREAT HORROR FILMS) There is a haunted house every year, since 1983, that is near Cleveland in an old building my mom used to rollerblade at in the late 70's/early 80's...and when you get outside...it's cool...it's dark...the original "Halloween" theme is playing through the loudspeaker...it gives off a sense of nostalgia.
I love that 1978-1984 feeling...of just good music...people chillin'...smoking cigarettes...just enjoying the moment. Listen to a song like "Because the Night" by Patti Smith or any early Springsteen hit and you can get that feeling. There was no "cell phone" there was no "hip hop" there was no "texting" or "internets".... there was just the moment. Time went slower...and allowed you to live in the moment. 1978 to 1988 was a LONG TIME...10 WHOLE YEARS. Now...in a year and a half...we will be nearing the end of a decade where many (not just me) remember everything from 2000 on. It's hard to live in the moment nowadays.
So, do I live in the "now"? Yes...I try. I don't care for alot of the music...but I find new songs every now and then, and there is no harm in loving the older stuff. I love the internet...and I admire advances in technology, medicine and other things...but it's irrelevent to the past. The past is something that is always there. It's set in stone. I can be 55 years old in the year 2043...and I can hold my women and sway to a soft song from 1981...and nobody can do a damn thing about it. I intend on wearing my Ray-Ban aviators in the military into the next decade and beyond. Nobody can do a damn thing about it.
I envy the past...because it's gone....and when you weren't there...you wonder...what if....
(Sorry about the long post...if I ever become a successful politican...I will be sure to put out many books with this stuff in it...although Bill Clinton stole my title.)