[YOU KNOW YOU WERE BORN IN THE 80'S WHEN...]

You were upset when She-ra, Princess of Power, and He-Man got cancelled.
Snap bracelets were always getting you in trouble at school.
You played with "My Little Ponies".
Friendship bracelets were ties that couldn't be broken.
You've ever read Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Babysitters Club, or Sweet Valley High.
You know all the words to "Ice Ice Baby".
You had a crush on one of the New Kids On The Block members.
You wanted to be on Star Search.
You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before he had plastic surgery.
You wore one of those t-shirt rings or a scrunchie on one side of your shirt.
You were styling with your French rolled pants.
You wore multiple pairs of socks in the middle of the summer just so you could be "hip" .
You had puff painted your own shirt at least once.
Cabbage Patch Kids!
You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off".
You can remember watching Full House and Saved by the Bell for endless hours, back when they were new episodes.
You have seen at least 10 episodes of Fraggle Rock.
You hold a special place in your heart for "Back to the Future."
You always brought your sticker book to school.
You know where to go if you "wanna go where everybody knows your name."
You wanted to be a Goonie.
You remember Madonna in her cone stage.
You knew "The Artist" when he was humbly called "Prince."
You even wore fluorescent-neon clothing...
You remember when ATARI was a state of the art video game system.
You remember M.C. Hammer.
You can still sing the rap to "Fresh Prince of Bel Air".
How many of you can recite the theme to Duck Tales?
You own any cassettes.
You owned a pair of L.A. Gear, Keds, or Converse shoes.
You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins or an ET lunchbox.
You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the ONLY female smurf. (And how come Baby Smurf never grew up...).
My Little Pony, Gummy Bears, Transformers, You Can't Do That On Television, Noozles, KIDS Incorporated, Captain Kangaroo, Double Dare, Hey Dude, and Punkie Brewster are familiar to you.
You ever had a Swatch Watch or a Doonie and Burke.
You actually spent countless hours trying to perfect the "Care Bear stare".
You had Wonder Woman or Superman underwear.
You thought that Transformers were more than meets the eye.
You spent hours in the basement building and re-building Lego cities.
Do Polly Pockets or Popples ring a bell?
Big wheels and bicycles with streamers were the way to go.
With your playschool record player you sang back up to Debbie Gibson.
"Party like it's 1999" seemed SO far away!!
Can we say Trapper Keeper?
"Can you tell you how to get to Sesame Street?"
You wanted to be on the American GLADIATORS!!!
You still have a crimper in your bathroom drawer.
If you remember singing Amy Grants "Baby, Baby".
You had more than one Star Wars action figure.
You loved your pink jeans and black stretch pants.
Big hoop earrings.
If you remember when roller blades were the new thing.
If you learned how to spell 'mouse' from the Mickey Mouse Club theme song.
You used to wear bright pink slip-ons and jelly shoes.
You used to compare your little brother to Ferguson.
You were scared of the Gremlins.
You remember when Ren and Stimpy was a new show.
When MTV was all about Rock Hard videos and BIG hair
Pee Wee's Play House...
Rainbow Brite.
Bum bags.
If you knew Alvin, Simon and Theodore, their song, and the colors they wore.
If the A-Team was prime time viewing each week.
If every colour you wore was in some fashion related to "hot" i.e. pink, green, or blue.
If you remember the Challenger explosion.
If you loved the Thundercats.
Can we say: "Hungry Hungry Hippos"?
If you had a Glo-Worm.
The Snorks were a Saturday morning specialty.
Your stripey socks practically came up past your knees.
The Bernstein Bears was a new book.
Apple Computers ran the schools and IBM was just getting its roots.
Looking cool involved a jean jacket, torn jeans, a t-shirt and very large sunglasses.

Children Of The Eighties

We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first "lost generation" nor today's lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as was we go.

We are the ones who played with Lego Building Blocks when they were just building blocks and gave Malibu Barbie crew cuts with safety scissors that never really cut. We collected Garbage Pail Kids and Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Ponies and Hot Wheels and He-Man action figures and thought She-Ra looked just a little bit like I would when I was a woman. Big Wheels and bicycles with streamers were the way to go, and sidewalk chalk was all you needed to build a city.

Imagination was the key. It made the Ewok Treehouse big enough for you to be Luke and the kitchen table and an old sheet dark enough to be a tent in the forest. Your world was the backyard and it was all you needed. With your pink portable tape player, Debbie Gibson sang back up to you and everyone wanted a skirt like the Material Girl and a glove like Michael Jackson's.

Today, we are the ones who sing along with Bruce Springsteen and The Bangles perfectly and have no idea why. We recite lines with the Ghostbusters and still look to The Goonies for a great adventure. We flip through TV stations and stop at The A Team and Knight Rider and Fame and laugh with The Cosby Show and Family Ties and Punky Brewster and what you talkin' 'bout Willis? We hold strong affections for The Muppets and The Gummy Bears and why did they take the Smurfs off the air?
After school specials were only about cigarettes and step-families, the Polka Dot Door was nothing like Barney, and aren't the Power Rangers just Voltron reincarnated? We are the ones who still read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Beverly Clearly and Judy Blume, Richard Scary and the Electric Company.
Friendship bracelets were ties you couldn't break and friendship pins went on shoes - preferably hightop Velcro Reeboks and pegged jeans were in, as were Units belts and layered socks and jean jackets and jams and charm necklaces and side pony tails and just tails. Rave was a girl's best friend; braces with coloured rubber bands made you cool. The backdoor was always open and Mom served only red Kool-Aid to the neighborhood kids - never drank New Coke.

Entertainment was cheap and lasted for hours. All you needed to be a princess was high heels and an apron; the Sit'n'Spin always made you dizzy but never made you stop; Pogoballs were dangerous weapons and Chinese Jump Ropes never failed to trip someone. In your Underoos you were Wonder Woman or Spider Man or R2D2 and in your treehouse you were king.

In the Eighties, nothing was wrong. Did you know the president was shot? Star Wars was not only a movie. Did you ever play in a bomb shelter? Did you see the Challenger explode or feed the homeless man?

We forgot Vietnam and watched Tiananman's Square on CNN and bought pieces of the Berlin Wall at the store. AIDS was not the number one killer in the United States. We didn't start the fire, Billy Joel. In the Eighties, we redefined the American Dream, and those years defined us. We are the generation in between strife and facing strife and not turning our backs.

The Eighties may have made us idealistic, but it's that idealism that will push us and be passed on to our children - the first children of the twenty-first century. Never forget: We are the children of the Eighties.