For whatever reason, I feel like 2011 was the year that the 90s became the decade to look back on warmly as the "the best." Apparently, people have not sat down to watch VH1's
I Love the 80s back-to-back with
I Love the 90s, because after viewing that, it's no contest about which decade was far more fun, pop-culture wise. But then I realized a lot of it has to do with what age you were
when. Like, I obviously remember more of the 90s, but the 80s will almost always be the halcyon days for me.
It probably seems strange because the most pivotal decade in my life thus far was the 90s. I started and graduated high school. I got my drivers' license. I started and graduated college. I got my first real job. I went from merely liking the Yankees to knowing almost everything you need to know about them (don't laugh - there really is so much about that that's shaped my life). Yet I don't get nearly as nostalgic for, say, 1994, as I would for 1984 (sidebar: No songs can ever do wrong for me from that year, no matter how cheesy. Amiright, "Oh, Sherrie," "All Night Long" and the entire
Footloose soundtrack?) Maybe because the 90s was when I hit 13 and started becoming self-aware. As important as it is in your adult life to have as much self-awareness as humanly possible, I think it all starts going downhill from there in terms of your innocence and ability to enjoy things unabashedly. And I don't mean that to sound all "put away childish things" or something depressing like that - it's more like, you're focused on other stuff (good stuff, even, like being able to turn the oven on by yourself and bake cookies) that doesn't get in the way when you're 7.
What I think it comes down to is this: in the 80s, all I had to do was be a kid. I had no real concerns (except one not-so-nice teacher whom I'd had the pleasure of having twice, but that's another topic for another day) - it was basically 10 years of playing with my friends (either riding bikes outside or being inside with Barbies or the Intellivision), looking forward to/enjoying summer vacation/Christmas/my birthday/the incredible awesomeness of snow days. And it was all going on in a time when anything pop-culture related was cranked to 11. So of course I associate
The A-Team or Wham!
or Rubik's Cubes with good times. I mean, I still associate the 80s version of American Bandstand with getting a Smurf bigwheel for my birthday because that's what I was watching before my birthday party that year and I'd gotten it the night before. I'm sure Culture Club or Madonna or whoever was playing that day, so of course I'll never, ever dislike them (sidebar: I still associate Madonna's "Borderline" playing on the radio while I was doing a Donald Duck math workbook - a subject I still loathe - with good times because it was like two days before summer vacation started and I was really amped for it at 7. For real). Still, a Smurf bigwheel was all I needed to be really, really happy back then, so
anything associated with that is awesome for me as well. Even the giant scar on my ankle, a direct result of that bigwheel. Oh, yes.
My precioussssss
Which is why I laugh when I see all these lists on websites where the writer is nostalgic for the 90s (this has been happening more often than not lately, as it seems most blog writers on big pop-y sites are like 25-26 and getting to the age where you've been commisterating with your friends over "Remember XYZ? That ruled" enough to feel the need to speak for a generation). Not that there's anything wrong with looking back fondly at old stuff (see this entire post), but when it's like a broad, not-broken-down-by-decade list of the "best ever" of kids' shows or commercials or one-hit wonders, and said list is populated entirely by things like
The Secret World of Alex Mack or "Tubthumping" with a complete disregard for anything that came before it because the writer doesn't remember anything pre-1993... well, I guess I start to feel a little old or something at 34.
Like, for me,
Punky Brewster >>> any kid main-character-based show Nickelodeon can churn out in any decade. It will always be better because I was at the exact age that show was supposed to be appreciated in 1985. It was a show for me, for kids my age, something that inspires the first version of watercooler talk a kid can have (although, weirdly, a bunch of us felt the same way about
North and South in the 3rd grade and that was clearly not geared toward our demographic). Someone born earlier than me would probably feel the same about, like,
The Brady Bunch. Or
Leave it to Beaver (which, sidebar, are shows I watched as a kid, too, thanks to Channel 9 and Channel 11. Are kids today watching
The Facts of Life or
Who's the Boss somewhere? God, I hope so.). Which is why I'd never assume I can name something the "best ever" for everyone because, well, I haven't been alive as long as pop-culture has. Though, I get it: "The best EVER" is more sexy and likely to get hits than "Things that
I think are the best".
So, yes,
personally speaking, I think the 80s were a really effing fantastic time to be a kid. For me, "the best." And no amount of "Remember Crystal Pepsi and Hammer Pants?!?!" or "OMG, I was in the first grade when this Color Me Badd song came out!" or lists of 90s child stars then and now (Like, do I care? They're all younger than me, so they still
look young and are therefore always youthful) is going to make me think differently.
Although, I'm betting that in about 6-7 years from now, when all these "the 2000s were the best!" posts start rolling in, 80s and 90s kids are going to be most definitely united in being all "Oh, hell no," over that. Because, come on now.
