Every decade has its personality, right? Although it’s tricky because it isn’t as if everything changes on January 1st of that zero year. When exactly did the ’80s become THE ’80s? What historical events mark the period? The election of Reagan perhaps? The beginning of MTV?
I graduated in 1986, the year Ferris Bueller skipped school with his best friend Cameron and his girlfriend Sloane. (I never believed those two would stay together. Funny how in real life he married the girl from Square Pegs. Anyway.)
The first half of the ’80s I wasn’t especially happy. In fact, I don’t understand people who were happy in high school. How can that be? When someone tells me they loved high school, I always wonder, “Can I be friends with this person?” Well, I actually do have friends who were happy in high school. I even married someone who didn’t hate high school. But I don’t claim to understand (or believe) them.
As some of you know, my novel, The Blue Jar, is set in 1985, and to get ready for its publication (Thank you, Plum Tree Books) I’m thinking a lot about the ’80s.
What do the ’80s mean to you?
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
Apart from the music I think my biggest memory is of the short lived Falklands War and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sending troops out to liberate the Island. The memory is especially strong as my nephew was one of the troops sent out there. She may not have been a popular Prime Minister but she acted promptly and decisively to relieve the Islanders who are of British descent and who wanted to remain tied to the UK.
I think she might have been a much more popular person had she not decided to take a strong stance on the Miner’s Strikes that blighted our country.She was a friend and supporter of Ronald Reagan which was perhaps the best relationship between a Prime Minister and President for a long time. Something that started to go South after Tony Blair became Prime Minister.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
As an American, I admit I had little understanding of the Falklands War. I was a teen at the time, and what I remember of it are the Bloom County cartoons that took a dim view of it. I hope your nephew made it home safe! Have you seen that recent biopic about Thatcher? I haven’t yet.
Thank you as always for reading!