I Didn't Love the 80's

I stayed home today because of my brain fog. I've been alternating sleeping with watching episodes of I Love the 80's. I watch this show and I wonder, where the hell was I during those years? I literally came of age in the 80's. I turned 12 in 1980, graduated high school in '85 and was finished with college by 1989. I remember the movies and SOME of the music, mostly the New Wave stuff, but I hardly remember any of the fads.

Oh yeah, I remember now. Most of the fads from the early '80's involved spending tons of money on crap designer clothing with large and obvious labels - money my family just didn't have to waste. Most of my parents money went to giving me musical training on flute and piano, which in retrospect was fine with me, but boy those other girls could be so cruel. I used to get made fun of for not having designer jeans and for being studious and for practicing music. Amazing, isn't it?

The other fad - music videos - was completely lost on us because my parents chose not to spend money on a cable connection for their house. My mother's philosophy was that we were watching enough TV without it - why should she make it more tempting. My parents were ahead of the times. But it would have kind of been nice to fit in just a little bit with the other kids.

I didn't have '80's hair until '85 when I went from ass length hair to a modified Flock of Seagulls haircut above my ears. I missed all that early 80's hair feathering and excessive hair spray use - always disliked hairspray - intensely.

They just a showed a segment from '85 on neon colored clothing. I guess the closest I ever came to jumping on that trend was fluorescent eye shadow in 1986. I recall trying to be very counter culture in the 80's. I never wore shoulder pads because lord knows my shoulders were big enough. But I LOVE wearing army clothes. I used to wear those draw string army pants where you could draw them at the waist AND the ankles. In the late 80's I never shopped in a regular store, it was always thrift stores and army surplus.

But after a couple years of that, I realized that being counterculture was becoming fashionable but that didn't stop me. I continued to dress unconventionally all the way through college. It all came to a crashing halt when I moved to New York and had to find work. At first, I didn't think it mattered because I was working for a caterer and then I worked as a waitress. But when I started moving into retail jobs and then eventually office jobs, I had to improve my wardrobe.

That was no easy thing. I didn't know how to dress at all. Dressing counter culture for five years for me meant dressing in clothes that really stood out. I learned eventually that sometimes it's okay to fit in and that dressing differently from everyone else isn't the be all and end all of self expression.