Woke up, put on clothes, went to work.

Today at work, someone called me to complain about ME.

I heard that pop song "1985" on the radio this morning, about a woman who is stuck in 1985. That was 20 years ago...wow. When I was little, I used to hear grandparents and great-aunts talk about the commercials and trends of the '50s and think how cool and old-fashioned it was. I don't think I can quite adjust to doing that about the '80s yet. But some day, when my kids or nieces or nephews ask me what the '80s were like, what will I say?

I will say it was a wonderful, exciting time.

Even though some people my age complain that the '80s were cheesy, and even though there were some quite sucky aspects of my childhood, I think back on the first half of the decade as a wonderful era...

We were on the cutting edge of the computer revolution. Not actually "We," but the kids, not the adults. It was we who got so into video games that we begged our parents to bring computers into our homes. And those Apple IIe's and Vic-20s and TRS-80s allowed us merely to write BASIC programs like

10 REM "Hi"
20 GOTO 10

but we ushered in a revolution. Kids as young as 13 and 14 were hired by Atari. Sociologist Margaret Mead theorized that in the past, society was a "postfigurative" culture in which the young learned from the old and from tradition. Now we are a "prefigurative" where the old actually learn from the young. Those of us in Generation X helped a whole revolution sweep under our doors and onto our desks.

And the pop culture was wonderful, too. Waiting for your block to get cable; staying up on a Friday night because David Lee Roth was going to host Friday night videos; watching the "Thriller" video for the first time in your best friend's house; being bored and going to play outside because all the cartoons went off the air at noon on Saturday (well, actually that sucked); waiting for the new NBC or ABC fall lineup to see what else Stephen J. Cannell had in store; holding a tape recorder up to the speakers during American Top 40 on Sunday because it was the best way to tape the new Duran Duran song without springing for the record. Finding out the name of your friend's Cabbage Patch Kid. Being able to trick-or-treat to strangers' homes.

Was it all gravy? Of course not. But for some reason, I remember it fondly, and I "pity the fool" who doesn't appreciate it.