Doesn’t mean they had an easy life … I grew up surrounded by all my older relatives who looked like this when they were teenagers in the 80s. The thing was … they all had rough lives and basically childhood (if they had any) lasted about two or three years. Childhood was just never ending terror with rampant alcoholism, abuse at every corner and violent adults making your life miserable. Mix in there that you were expected to work, run errands, stay quiet or get slapped around for even existing. Most of the boys I knew had really rough fathers who beat them for even looking the wrong way … then they hit 12 years of age and almost by necessity, they had to grow up immediately. They had to grow old, tough, strong, fast and rough because they had to stand up to a previous generation that took it out on them. I remember my older cousin turning 13 and standing up to his dad in a fist fight. It was ugly but he stood his ground … neither won but he never got beat again.
Funny you should mention that movie … I just finished watching ‘War Games’ with Matthew Broderick … those films just take me back to the 80s. It was a great time because everything was so simple … but like I said in my previous comment, it was also a rough period because the adults still lived in this world where they weren’t so easy on the kids. You could wander around town and if you did something … anything wrong, chances were high that you could run into an adult that could slap you around and if you told your parents, they’d ask YOU what you did wrong.
Doesn’t mean they had an easy life … I grew up surrounded by all my older relatives who looked like this when they were teenagers in the 80s. The thing was … they all had rough lives and basically childhood (if they had any) lasted about two or three years. Childhood was just never ending terror with rampant alcoholism, abuse at every corner and violent adults making your life miserable. Mix in there that you were expected to work, run errands, stay quiet or get slapped around for even existing. Most of the boys I knew had really rough fathers who beat them for even looking the wrong way … then they hit 12 years of age and almost by necessity, they had to grow up immediately. They had to grow old, tough, strong, fast and rough because they had to stand up to a previous generation that took it out on them. I remember my older cousin turning 13 and standing up to his dad in a fist fight. It was ugly but he stood his ground … neither won but he never got beat again.
The Breakfast Club. I was a cross between the nerd and the stoner.
Funny you should mention that movie … I just finished watching ‘War Games’ with Matthew Broderick … those films just take me back to the 80s. It was a great time because everything was so simple … but like I said in my previous comment, it was also a rough period because the adults still lived in this world where they weren’t so easy on the kids. You could wander around town and if you did something … anything wrong, chances were high that you could run into an adult that could slap you around and if you told your parents, they’d ask YOU what you did wrong.