The 80s
So, without further adieu, I present to you, my 1980s:
I remember 1979 turning to 1980. At the time, the time zone I was living in was still three hours behind the West Coast. It was 9pm on Dec. 31, 1979 and we were watching partiers in Seattle on TV celebrate the dawning of a new decade. Ho hum...I was nine years old.
I turned 10 in 1980. That fall, I started 5th grade. My teacher was Mrs. Trainor. It was her first year as a teacher, and boy did it show. There were some things we were supposed to learn that year, but didn't, and some things she was trying to teach us that should be taught to a 6th grader. There were a couple trouble students that took up a lot of her energy. That may be why she quit teaching after that year. That fall, my parents divorced.
Sixth grade...we ruled the elementary school. LOL. Dances in our classrooms was a popular thing to do. "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett was a popular song. Rubik's cubes were the popular toy to have. I could get only as many as two sides. I remember my gifted sister and all her gifted friends could get all six. To this day, I still can't do the whole thing. I think I got four sides once some years later.
7th grade meant Jr. High and going to the Jr.-Sr. High School. Instead of one classroom, we had six. I ran for student body secretary and lost to Christine Ford.
I still remember the combination to my locker of my 8th grade year, 17-39-11. Don't ask me why I remember it, I just do. Weird. Was it that year that parachute pants were all the rage? I had a pair, they were boys' size 20. I was a basketball cheerleader that year.
9th grade meant High School and Freshman Initiation, a.k.a. "slave day." It was a fundraiser for the Sophomore class. I was "bought" for $10 by a 1/2 black guy named Uly Hall, a Sophomore, and made to wear a dog collar, shoe polish on my face, and boxers, which I found out were the science teacher's! The previous year, Uly had been made to dress like Aunt Jemima. Us freshmen were made to do pencil races where we pushed a pencil along the floor with our noses, kiss other students' feet, and do other such things, all in the name of school spirit and fun. I remember one of my classmates went for more than $200!
Sophomore year, I was 15. I was inducted into the National Honor Society. I was now a Varsity cheerleader. We got to travel to other towns for games and tournaments, which was exciting.
That January was when the space shuttle exploded. It was 7:something a.m. where I was. I was in the bathroom, curling my hair, getting ready for school and listening to the radio. The announcer said the shuttle just blew up and he'd be back with details and went to commercial break. At first I thought he was joking because he was a joking kinda guy. Then I thought, "he wouldn't joke about something like that," and went to the living room to turn on the TV to CNN. Sure enough, there it was. When I got to school, they had a TV in the library for students to watch the news coverage. My math teacher cried because he had always wanted to be an astronaut so he felt sad because of the situation.
That was the year I started dating the guy whom I would later marry. He is 2 1/2 years older than me, but one grade ahead (his parents had held him back a year, partly due to a bad stutter).
The summer after my sophomore year, just before I turned 16, we lost our virginities together. I'd like to say it was a romantic moment and all, but as anyone who's lost theirs knows, there's nothing romantic about losing your virginity. It was a bloody, painful ordeal. We didn't try again before I left a month or so later to live in The Netherlands for a year as an exchange student for a year.
I lived with the Kiel family in Apeldoorn. My host-father, Max, was odd. I adored my host-mother, Mennie. My host-sister, Greetje, was a couple years older, and my host-brother, Hans, was a couple years younger. The family didn't have a car, so we went around town on bicycles, even in the winter. If we had to go out of town, we went by train. Mennie taught me how to knit.
While I was overseas, my boyfriend back in Alaska and his family moved to Kansas. Before I went back to the US though, they moved back to Alaska, this time to Anchorage.
I returned to Nome in 1987 as a 17-year old and ready to start my senior year of high school. The new principal almost didn't let me continue with my class because I was gone for a year, but I fought his decision and won. I was captain of the cheerleading squad, secretary of the Office Education Association, and still a member of the Natl. Honor Society. My boyfriend and his family moved back to Nome and we reunited.
I hadn't had a period in over a year and a half (no, I wasn't pregnant!) and finally went to see a gyno about it. She diagnosed Secondary Amenorrhea and gave me meds to jumpstart my system again and put me on the pill for three months to regulate my cycle. She said I could stay on it if I wanted to. I decided to, seeing as how I had a boyfriend and all... Mom didn't like the idea of me being on the pill. Doctor's orders, though. :o)
In the spring of 1988, in the middle of my senior year, my mom decided to move to Anchorage and expected me to go with her. I refused, as I wanted to graduate with my class. She relented. I moved in with my dad and mom moved to Anchorage.
I turned 18 that summer and became an adult. My parents, though divorced, took me out to dinner at the only fancy restaurant in town. Boyfriend came with too.
That summer, three friends and I moved into an apartment together. It was fun.
That fall, I went to Ft. Collins, Colorado to start my freshman year of college at Colorado State University. Boyfriend went to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Long distance relationships suck, he became suspicious, people were telling him lies about me, and it was more or less over between us. The final breakup came the following summer.
I returned to CSU the next fall.
And that's the 80s, ladies and gentlemen. There are holes, I'm sure, that I'll fill later, just as there are still holes in my entry about the 70s.
Stay tuned!
since 2/25/2001
Hair
Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2004
Hair
Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2004
JFC!
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004
Fuck!
Monday, Sept. 13, 2004
Moving In
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004
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