Child of the 80's

I'm a child of the 80's. I wore leg warmers. I had a jean jacket that I decorated with buttons. I made friendship pins and twisted jelly bracelets around my wrist. I drove around New Jersey with my friends and I dreamed about dating Bruce Springsteen. Born in the USA was the coolest album. We embraced it. We dressed like Bruce. We were children of the blue collar workers and he sang to our souls. Even though some of us, like myself, didn't grow up in a traditional blue collar family, even if dad went to work in a suit and tie we were raised with good ol' down home values. Just like Bruce sang about. I look back and I realize how lucky I was to grow up in a time that was still relatively safe. No one brought a gun to school. Hell, most of the boys hunted and had guns on the rack on the back of their trucks. But that's where they stayed. It never dawned on one of them to bring it out in anger. Kids got their drivers license at 14 for farm use. We hung out in the Acme parking lot. We went to the movies. We double dated. Boys held the door open. And most of them, all the ones I knew or ever heard about knew that no meant no. There was no such thing as a drug that would get put in your drink unknowingly. There was no such thing as "really wanting it". All the girls in my class graduated. No one had a baby. People didn't kill you for your sneakers. They would help a person stranded on the side of the road. You knew all of your neighbors. And you had parties together. You could stay at the lady's house down the street if someone was late getting home. The neighbors came over to help dad chop the wood from a tree that was brought down by lightening. If someone in the neighborhood got sick we all made meals for them. Helped clean the house. Ran errands. We wore dresses that covered more than 20% of our bodies to prom. And it was not cool to wear your pants down around your knees. Footloose and Flash Dance were all the rage not gangster hate music. We said please and thank you. We respected adults. And we listened to them. Our parents would discipline us, but our teachers, our neighbors, clergy, and the guy at the video store were also allowed to. It was okay to correct our behavior. Our parents accepted all accountability for their actions and for ours. And they held us accountable for everything we did. We talked on a phone that had a chord. We wrote letters to one another - by hand. We mailed letters to friends. Sent post cards. Mom would yell from 10 houses away that dinner was ready. We played outside. We used our imagination. We rode our bikes. We did not have to grow up to fast. Or afraid. Family's were more together and focused on being together. Mom and dad worked to feed us, clothe us, and make life better, they didn't work and go into debt to out do the neighbors. No one ever dreamed of buying a new car just because the Smith's down the road did. That would be stupid.
I'm a child of the 80's and sometimes I wish I could go back there. The music was electronic, the hair was bad, and the clothes were strange, but the hearts were truer.