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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 we speak. We were born between 1975-83 and we are the ones who played with Lego Building Blocks when they were just building blocks and gave Malibu Barbie crewcuts 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 Stringsteen 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 T.V. 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 TheMuppets 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 Pokka 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 Reebox - 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 colored rubberbands 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.

         We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without us. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer. When we got home from school, we played with my Atari 2600s. We spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then we watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and we thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.

         We would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and we set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.

         We got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")

          On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. We all watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."

         Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and collected "Muppet Movie" glasses along the way. (I had the whole set.) My sister and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air conditioning unit.

         We listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.

         We drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.  Our mothers put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did you? Instead I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.

         We went to school and had recess. We went to the same classes everyday. Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music and plants. They just loved Beethoven. we also played freeze tag, chinese freeze tag, candlestick freeze tag, and tv freeze tag. Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la a," was just a song. Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher/baby sitter was a marked woman. Nobody deserved that.

           We went to Cub Scouts and Brownies. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't remember ever doing anything. My sister sold a lot of cookies.

           Don't you remember playing with My Little Pony? - braiding their tails and dying their hair in water? Or how about Care Bears? I think I had the entire collection of Care Bears. I remember watching the cartoon on Saturday morning, too. Right after I watched Muppet Babies.

          We fell asleep with Glow Worms and Popples. The simple fact that Gem never fit into any of Barbie's clothes made us lose sleep. The Barbie and the Rockers stage, complete with microphones and guitars was a necessity. Wuzzles and Teddy Ruxspin were our best friends. I even had the teddy that talked with the tapes and the books, that is until my brother killed him - it was a very sad day in my house. Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake were a girl's best friends, while the care bears and their cousins were the ones that we woke up at 6 in the morning to watch. Skip-its were the coolest thing in the world, and once we figured out that if you hit it against the wall, your score would increase dramatically, we were set - until we hit it so hard that it busted - that was the worst. Thunder Cats was a favorite saturday morning cartoon and Lite-Brites were amazing. Shows like Alf, Out of this World and Small Wonder were my personal favorites.

         In the 80's i was the wizkid, the little guy that everybody looked up to. We were color-blind and had no prejudices. We argued over who team captains cuz kickball was all we cared about. Thunderkats kicked and I never could find the right G.I. JOE. The nineties moved in and we were forced into the real world under supervision of principles with cat-wigs, we never did find out if that was her hair. The eight ball told u sour fortune and still does but you might have to ask again later. Now we're in today and can't go back no matter how much we wish.

         In our nine-teen eighties, life was simple. We were all amused by Chinese Checkers and Chinese jump rope. We had crushes on each other and showed it by chasing each other or annoying that one special person. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was one of the greatest shows of all time to us then ("mecca-lecca-high-mecca highny-ho!") We begged our parents to let us stay up all night, only to fall asleep by 10 o'clock in front of the TV if they did. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all the rage and each one of us pretended to be our favorite turtle at times. And of course Thundercats was the best cartoon ever! And who can forget Rick Shrodder from the tv show "Silver Spoons" and what about Nell Carter from "The facts of life" or better yet "Threes Company". And let's not forget book series like "The Babysitters' Club" and "Sweet Valley High".

         Remember when plastic shorts were all the rage? and Keds? remember taking two different colored shirts and rolling up the sleeves so the bottom shirt color would show?And colored slouch socks to match our colored Keds? And the coordinated shirts and shorts that matched the colored slouch socks and Keds? Or- my personal favorite- jellies!! And wearing scrunchies on top of scrunchies to match the whole color theme for the outfit.

        Every shirt I owned went into those plastic loops that hung from the front of the shirt. Metallic was a color-and it was COOL! Remember hotpants? Or, worse-those mix-n-match outfits made out of tube spandex? When you snuck into your sister's room to borrow her blue mascara and eye liner? Game shows on USA like $25,000 Pyramid and Press Your Luck. Wink Martindale was a God. What about Family Feud and Double Dare on Nick?

         I remember when we could swim in creeks and ponds in our neighborhoods- before they got too polluted and nasty, the way they are now.

       What about hair crimpers?and the shapes you could make in your hair with them? Perms (especially the spiral kind) were Awesome! Hairspraying your bangs as high as you could get them were too cool! The world stopped when the Challenger exploded. Did a teacher come in and tell your class?

Half of your friends' parents got divorced.

People did not just say no to drugs.

AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from cancer.

Somebody in your school died before they graduated.

When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood and yours. If this stuff sounds familiar,then I bet you are one, too.

We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.

             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.