Eighties Trivia

It was the decade of decadence. It was about glitz and glamour as well as baubles, bangles, and beads.

Elizabeth Taylor dropped in for Luke and Laura's wedding. Lady Diana Spencer joined the Royal Family. Nighttime soaps like Falcon Crest and Dynasty ruled television. Margaret Thatcher ruled the United Kingdom. Kevin Bacon danced his way across the screen in Footloose. Gordon Gekko taught Wall Street whiz kids that greed was good. Material Girl Madonna made her musical debut.

When did all this take place?

We can only be talking about that terrific time period – the unforgettable eighties.

Here are twenty-one ways for you to verify that you belong to (or belong in) the 1980's.


1. You tried breakdancing. Now you're trying to figure out how you didn't break any bones doing it.

2. You can still recite dialogue from any movie starring Molly Ringwald.

3. You remember paying by the minute for long distance telephone service and you can still hear the tune from the phone company commercial when they encouraged you to "reach out – reach out and touch someone."

4. You had at least one of the following: a Cabbage Patch Kid, My Little Buddy, a Rubik's Cube, or something with a Star Wars logo on it.

5. You first heard about the Human Genome Project in the science newsletter your teacher would pass out on Friday afternoons. You also remember how this was supposed to lead to the eradication of disease.

6. You were tuned in the exact moment that thousands of radio stations across the world played "We Are The World" at the exact same time. (Now, you're singing it!)

7. You call CD's records or albums and you still have a diamond needle record player. You also know what a Cassingle is. Bonus points if you still have one.

8. You remember who Bernard Goetz is and why he made headlines.

9. Someone on your street or neighborhood sent his or her life savings to a later discredited televangelist.

10. You hung out with your friends at the mall, especially in the video arcade where you exchanged those hard-earned quarters for tokens.

11. You remember when Reagan met Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland for a summit.

12. You and your friends made fun of the "Where's the beef?" commercials for Wendy's starring Clara Peller.

13. You think the word "like" in an integral part of every sentence and should be used as often as possible. Like this, "She was like, like why would I say that, that's not like me at all. Like who does she think she is, you know? Like, really!"

14. You know there was only one way Dorothy on the Golden Girls could make Sophia behave. She simply said, "Shady Pines, Ma, Shady Pines."

15. You joined a protest or gave an interview to a local media station demanding that New Coke be shelved and original Coca-Cola be brought back.

16. You remember when there was no such thing as CNN, E!, or MTV.

17. Your parents were afraid you'd cut yourself putting on a snap bracelet.

18. You were inspired by Geraldine Ferraro, the first (and as of this writing only in a major political party) female Vice Presidential candidate.

19. Renting horror movie sequels about Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers took up a lot of your time.

20. If someone says, "I don’t know," you automatically cringe expecting the green slime to mysteriously fall from the ceiling.

21. You played Atari, Intellivision, Sega, Nintendo, and Coleco until your hands went numb.

Are you still a Duran Duran fan? Do you still know all the words to Time After Time? Then you better get right over to the 80's music, fashion, and television list at (http://www.comprehensiveadvice.com/80s.html) to quench your thirst for more 80's info at Matthew W. Grant's 80's Trivia pages.