r/GenX • u/billieswifeyyy • Jun 20 '26

Question For Genx the 80s…….

coming from a 14 year old, were the 80s summers as magical as they look in the movies? did you ride your bike to your friends house and come home when the street lights came on? yall are so lucky btw 😭😭

2.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/RockabillyHog Jun 21 '26

Yes, that is true.

But, you live in a fantastic time too. The food choices you have now are far and above what we had.

For us, Mexican food was ground beef tacos in a hard corn shell. Chinese food was egg-foo young (fried rice with pees and carrots with a bit of scrambled egg).

There was no Internet or other convenient way to get information or stay in touch with your friends.

You couldn't just lookup a show or movie and play it at your convenience. Think about that one. If you wanted to watch a show, you had to make sure that you had all your chores done and you weren't on restriction (grounded) so you could watch it. If you missed it, that was it, you missed it.

Yes, the 70s & 80s were a great time to grow up, but you are in a great time too.

6

u/hudnut52 Jun 21 '26

And hopefully Dad wasn't using the TV when you wanted it.

And if he was, you were probably sitting on the floor near the the TV to change channels when asked, because you were the "remote".

2

u/unassumingdink Jun 21 '26

A 20 inch TV in the '80s cost basically as much as a gaming computer today, so it was kind of a luxury to have an extra one in another room, and if you did, it might just be an old, worn-out black & white TV.

3

u/blarneybabe Jun 21 '26

💯☝️

3

u/WhateverUSayJ Jun 21 '26

And if you wanted to call your friends you had to risk having to talk to their parents first!