Leave it to me

There’s a new song out called “19 Something.” It’s by Mark Wills and it recalls events from the 70s and 80s that have shaped today for us. It seems like everyone who has heard this song loves it because we can all relate to it.

Now most of us don’t remember that much about the 70s, mainly because we hadn’t been born yet, but by the time the 80s rolled around we were starting to figure a few things out.

Every time I hear that song I think about the things that have shaped our generation, even the silliest little details. In the song, Wills talks about all the popular fads during that time. I think our generation has seen its share of fads itself. He talks about “big hair and parachute pants.”

But there are a few others. Does anyone remember friendship necklaces, tight rolled jeans or converse shoes? What about those Air Nike pump ups? And what about all the different variations of watches we used to have? We’ve lived through the phase where everybody just had to have a Mickey Mouse watch, the moon watch and of course the eight different Swatch watches on one arm.

It seems like some of the toys we used to play with might be making their way back. I keep seeing transformers and care bears everywhere I go. Now if we could just get Saturday morning cartoons back.

Then there were the entertainers. Our generation has lived through M.C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice and New Kids on the Block. Did anyone else have a huge Jordan pin on their book bag?

We’ve survived dance crazes like the roger rabbit, the Macarena and yes, I believe we are still doing the electric slide.

Wills said his first love was Daisy Duke. I think mine would have to be Mike Seaver from “Growing Pains.” We had enough magazines to help us keep up with all of our crushes. I believe there was “Teen Beat,” “Tiger Beat” and “Bob,” just to name a few.

I bet anyone that grew up during our time can sing the themes to “Saved By the Bell,” “Full House” and “Who’s the Boss?” And don’t even get me started on Beverly Hills, 90210.

But in real life, it’s not the fads or crazes that shape tomorrow. It’s the events. There’s a line in the song that says, “Space shuttle fell out of the sky, and the whole world cried.” This line, of course, was referring to The Challenger. We were very young when this happened, but it still played a huge role in our generation. Sadly, we saw a similar event take place this weekend. The tragic end of the space shuttle Columbia’s flight will forever have a place in our history.

Other tragedies like the Oklahoma City Bombing and Sept. 11 have become defining factors for our generation. Events like these really do change our course in life.

But we’ve also lived through some very positive events. We saw The Berlin Wall come down, we’ve seen medical advancements that many never thought possible and we’ve seen, often through the tragic events, how strong our nation truly is.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve now been alive during three decades. We’ve seen a little bit of everything. But in the song Wills said he “wouldn’t trade those days for nothing.”

I wouldn’t either.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 7 2003. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry