Memories of the 1980s

When researching through oral history, a historian is able to derive a biased and personal opinion on how historical events occurred. Oral history is normally used to obtain insight on an individual’s personal take on a point in their history, but a historian can derive more information about the time period and people the individual interacted with from their oral history. By focusing on why someone would mention or not mention a specific part of the history can allow historians to learn more than just what the individual tells them. To obtain the information for my oral history research I had a conversation with one parent at a time, prompting them with topics like pop culture, politics, music and recording our conversation. By recording our conversations, I was able to capture everything my parents had to say about the time period without the possibility of leaving anything that may be important out. I also made sure I had a conversation with each parent separately in order to avoid one from influencing the other's memories of the 80s.

My mother was born in September of 1962 making her between the ages of 18-27 years old from 1980-1989. At this point in her life, she was attending school at Trenton State College in the School of Education. Once out of college she began working, and toward the end of the decade she met and married her husband. When hearing her oral history of the 1980s, I noticed many of her memories were tied into her attendance at Trenton State. Although she was in school for only the first four years of the decade, that point in her life was very memorable and influential to her. Some popular culture that she picked up from being a college student at Trenton State included the rising popularity of “Slimnastics” and racquetball. These seemed to be quite specific to the campus. She made sure to mention that a racquetball court in the recreation center needed to be reserved weeks in advance. This may not apply to all of America during this period of time, but it does back up the idea that a single person’s memory can give hints to a broader feeling during the decade. The generation that lived during the 1980s could come to a general consensus that it was all about staying fit and looking good, something my mother’s memory of “Slimnastics and racquetball could have hinted to. Another memory that seemed to be influenced by her time at Trenton State was the music she mentioned to me as being popular. She remembered seeing The Ramones on campus in concert, so this influenced how she felt about them being a stand out musical group.

Some more pop culture aspects my mom mentioned were the popularity of the royal wedding and soap operas. These were things just mentioned by my mother and not my father. From this, I can make the assumption these were events more catered toward females of the time. My mother pointed out the fact that the whole world fell in love with Princess Diana. She claimed that she just seemed like a kind and relatable figure. She was born on 1 July 1961 in Sandringham, Norfolk. She was relatable to many people because she worked as a nanny and a cook and also worked with kindergarteners. The couple got married in 1981, and the wedding was broadcast around the world and accumulated about 750 million viewers. Soap operas also played a big role in her experience during the 1980s. There were generally 15 daytime soaps a week including "General Hospital", "All My Children," and "One Life to Live”. Each episode was averaging 14 million viewers, which compared to today, is a very large amount. My mother focused on the Luke and Laura Wedding of “General Hospital” in 1981. The episode had 30 million viewers across America, and Elizabeth Taylor made a cameo. Even though it was just a TV show, the couple’s picture appeared on newspapers and magazines. Since my mother was so invested in watching “General Hospital” this is a memory that stood out to her especially since the news featured the couple.

The bands and people my mother mentioned as being “popular” at the time seem to be consistent with what I originally assumed. Generally, she described that many Rock bands from the 70s bleed into the 80s. She mentioned artists like Van Halen, Boston, Bruce Springsteen. In addition to the rock, she believed the new “hot” genre of the ’80s was the New Wave and Punk Rock music. The New Wave genre was more of a commercial sound compared to Rock, and she noticed there were many new groups from England in that genre. From the reading I Want My My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, I found that the reason for the British artists becoming popular was because contrary to American Artists they had music videos and were willing to submit them to MTV. The one artist that she emphasized the most was Michael Jackson. This came as no surprise to me because to this day she still talks about how much she loves his music. Michael Jackson had a large influence on most of America. He had the voice skills and dancing skills that made him stand out, especially in an era where you could be exposed to artists through music videos for the first time.

When I prompted my mom to speak about the politics and political issues of the times, I found her response very interesting. She did not mention anything about the cold war or the fall of the Berlin Wall. She did mention Reagan but not in the context of his involvement in the Cold War; she focused on the fact that he was an actor that became president. Like we talked about in class, the matters around the Soviet Union were not often covered on the news and did not seem like much of a threat to the general public. Although, she did talk about the Iranian hostage crisis. She described this event as being a very suspenseful issue. From this, I take that the crisis was maybe covered more the news, meaning more exposure to America, ingraining a memory in her mind. Another factor that may have influenced her political memories was that she was on the Trenton State campus for the first four years of the ’80s. From experience, I know that college students have less involvement with the outside world while they're living on campus. The fact that it may have been difficult to involve herself in such issues may have been an influencer.

Overall, while interviewing my mother, I was able to capture the essence of what she perceived life to be in the ’80s. I do realize there may be some fault to her memory. While speaking with her, she expressed she had difficulty differentiating between the decade in which some celebrities really made it big, that it was all “blending together”. Because she was uncertain, I was required to in a way “fact check” her memories. This forced me to further analyze my mother’s memory compared to research. My mother also reached out to me post-interview to throw in some more tidbits of information she remembered, which was interesting.

My father was born in January of 1957. This makes him between the ages of 23 and 32 years old during the 1980s. At this point in his life, he had recently come back from the University of Southern California to live in New Jersey. He was beginning his adult life and beginning to work. Prior to interviewing him, I expected he would mostly speak about the politics of the time. This is partly because of his older age at the time and partly because he is a particularly political person. Contrary to what I expected, he was able to talk a little about what was popular at the time in addition to the extra political information he provided.

When looking back on the decade, my father began mentioning movies that influenced the public. The first movie he mentioned was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. E.T came out in 1982 and became one of the highest-grossing films. The movie became so popular that it was re-released in 1985 and in 2002 for its 20th anniversary. When my dad reflected on his personal memory of the film, he told me that it sparked a trend of looking for extraterrestrials. “A lot of people were looking up to the sky at night and who said they saw a spacecraft or whatever. I think they determined that it was these stealth bombers that were being tested”(Aurilio, Alessio). He then continued to say that he believed that the “UFOs” people were seeing were government aircraft. The fact that he mentions that backs up my idea that he would connect most of his memories to his involvement in politics.

When prompting my dad to speak about music and music videos of the time, he began listing the artists and bands he remembered as being popular. Similar to my mother, during this process, he was unsure whether these arts were specifically from the 1980s or if they were from the surrounding decades. Since my father was older during this decade, he admitted to maybe not knowing what the most popular among youth was. He admitted that he would only watch MTV every once and a while, but he did enjoy listening to music. An artist he made sure to mention was Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen was definitely a very popular artist at the time, especially with his release of Born in the U.S.A. Seven of his singles hit the top of the Billboard Charts. That album became one of the best-selling records of all time. With being born in the same town as and growing up in the same area as Bruce Springsteen, I assumed that Bruce would be an artist my dad would be sure to mention. Although my dad admitted to not watching MTV, a music video he mentioned as being very popular was “Take On Me” by a-ha that came out in 1984. He justified why he thought this music video was popular by describing it was intricate but also mostly hand drawn. I believe he was also drawn to this music video because he was involved in the animation business, allowing him to really appreciate the hand-drawn animations.

When talking about the politics of the time, my father really focused on Reagan. Rather than talking about how Reagan switched careers from actor to president, something that stuck with my mother, he focused on how he impacted the country. He made sure he mentioned how Reagan affected the cold war and took down the Berlin Wall. Since he is someone who goes out of their way to involve themselves with politics, it makes sense that he would talk about the cold war while my mom did not. I also took into consideration that his bias toward Regan may have influenced how or when the thought the Berlin Wall was taken down. Because of his bias and Reagan’s involvement in the years leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, he believed that Reagan was president when it occurred, but George H.W. Bush was president at the time. I also realized that him focusing on politics may be attributed to his involvement in them now. In the 80s he may not have been so involved in politics, but since he is now involved his memory may be influenced by that.

Overall, my dad’s perspective on the decade gave me an idea of how he felt about the decade. He believed it was a very prosperous decade from the mindset of being active to the presidency of Reagan. His perspective is also interesting because of his age at the time. At a time of his life where he is beginning his adult life, his life was directly affected by the economic and political events of the time.

After listening to both of my conversations with my parents, I found that there were some similarities between their memories. They both made it very clear to me that the 1980s were a time of excess. “Everything was big, big, big; not just the hair was big. Everybody went big. Weddings were big; parties were big. Everything was kind of over the top”(Aurilio, Cynthia). Her mentioning weddings may also be because she had her wedding in the 80s. My dad mentioned how the successful economy was; he attributed it to Reaganomics. My mother also went out of her way to mention that cocaine was the drug of choice of the decade. Fro her mentioning this without any prompt it tells me that it was something that really defined what people were doing at that time. “Between 1985 and 1989, the number of regular cocaine users jumped from 4.2 million to 5.8 million people”(History.com Editors). I definitely did not expect my mother to mention cocaine, but it brought up a very common illegal activity that defined the decade. Another fad of the decade both of my parents mentioned was staying active. My mom was never a person to go out of her way to participate in any sports, but she made sure to mention slimnastics and racquetball. Both of these activities were things to keep people active and in shape, and she noticed that. When I asked my dad some things, he remembers doing in his free time his response was skiing. He said it was part of the always wanting to be active trend. “You were always active. You were always out. You worked out. You looked good. You wanted to be seen in places that were the place to be seen, whether it was the beach or in the snow. You wanted people to notice you”(Aurilio, Alessio). They both mentioned that the neon clothes that made you stand out were part of this fad.

Listening to my parent’s perspective on the 1980s proved to be a very interesting subject. Through oral history, I was able to understand certain aspects of the 1980s that were specific to my parents along with aspects that covered average Americans. By listening to our conversations over and over again through a historian's mindset, I was able to pick up on nuances that embodied the essences of the decade itself. Along with the parts of our conversations that taught me about the decade, I realized that there are definitely inaccuracies in oral history. Both of my parents were unsure about exactly which decade something happened. By applying my parent’s specific memory to a general attitude of the time, I was able to learn more than I expected.

Works Cited

Aurilio, Cynthia. Personal interview. 29 October 2018

Aurilio, Alessio. Personal interview. 29 October 2018

“E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Released.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-released.

“The Best '80s Daytime Soap Operas.” Ranker, www.ranker.com/list/best-80s-daytime-soap-operas/ranker-tv.

“Luke & Laura: GENERAL HOSPITAL's Ratings Windfall (1978 -1981).” Film Goblin, 8 Mar. 2018, filmgoblin.com/tv/general-hospitals-ratings-windfall-1978-1981/.

“History - Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's Wedding (Pictures, Video, Facts & News).” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/prince_charles_and_lady_diana_spencers_wedding. “Bruce Springsteen.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 12 Sept. 2018,

www.biography.com/people/bruce-springsteen-9491214.

History.com Editors. “Cocaine.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 31 May 2017, www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-cocaine#section_7.