While listening to a podcast, one of the guys hosting the show, suggested that ideal age, would to be 35 and up.

What does everyone else, here think that the age would be?

???

I'm 33. I'm not too sure... It would mainly depend on your earliest memories as a kid.

I can't remember anything before the age of 4, so 81 was the earliest for me(not that I knew back then).

If you were alive from Jan 1/80 to Dec 31/89 ...

When the 80's began, I was only 2 years old.  At that age, one can't possibly remember what went on in the world, but what is heard around you can make a lasting memory.

Alot of my 80's fave songs I grew up with came from 1980.  Remember 'Life Begins At the Hop' by XTC?  I do, and I was barely out of diapers lol

I think 35 also, considering that someone born in 1975 would remember the entire decade.

Well as for me,I most certainly do! Step-chan,while you were only in in pre-school I started highschool that year lol! About other early memories, do you remember seeing alot of people wearing western-wear? Wanglers,western style boots and shirts ,hats (seemed almost everyone owned one)etc. and recall hearing country/western music almost everywhere? Well thats because thats the year ('80-81)you might say that country/western music made it's biggest mark as a fad/trend outside of it's usual fan circle,so was the dancing,people were into learning to two-step, and doing the "Cotton Eye Joe",like the "Makarena" in '95. In fashion anything that looked/resembled "Texan",southwestern,or southern was cool even up north. If you do remember,you were seeing the influence of the craze of that time.Pretty neat huh?

I would also have to say that the age range, would have to be from 35 and up.  Even though, it's my favorite decade, I'm 34ish, so I am more of a 90's kid, more than anything else.

I was 17 in 1980, so I consider myself as someone who experienced the 80s, through my university years, club time, dating, etc...

I had just turned 2 in 1980 was 12 by December 31, 1989, and so in my opinion experienced the best of the 80s, as far as a child's pure delight goes. I enjoyed the best of 1980s candy, toys & pastimes, without the added stress of pre-teen peer pressure and struggling to fit in, Just Saying No to Drugs, etc. I was too little for all that and spent the best of my childhood fully within the 80s. My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, clapping games, jelly bracelets, junk necklaces and trips to the ORIGINAL Chuck E. Cheese came together with sugar-laden breakfast cereals, Tangy Taffy, Blueberry Hubba Bubba and tan M&Ms to create a beautiful childhood worth treasuring!!!!!

I was 17 in 1980, so I consider myself as someone who experienced the 80s, through my university years, club time, dating, etc...


You're the same as my sister.  You are old enough to vividly remember how life was in the 1970s.  This varied from region to region but Ronald Reagan was a distinguishing sharp turn.  At 41, I remember the 1970s but only in an experiential nature -- not in a conceptual or political way.  I knew some basic values ranging from "don't litter" to "it is wrong to dislike somebody simply because of his race."  I understood these things -- understanding why could be a life time study.  People write doctorates on this stuff all the time.

I think Reagan led us down a path of materialism and self-righteousness, neither of which will ever bring true happiness.  They have increasingly pushed vanity, gluttony, and greed all of which every faith and every belief system rejects -- except a few out-there creeps like Ayn Rand, L. Ron Hubbard, Werner Erhadt, and Milton Friedman.  Boy, those were the days!

You learn your first politics hearing your old man bitch about stuff.  When I was eleven years old, I was pretty sure Ronald Reagan was stark-raving nuts.  Nixon was just a malevolent creep (NPI), but at least he knew how to keep the real wingnuts in line.  Guys like Al Hague.  

Al Hague resigned as secretary of state because nobody could stand the sonofabitch.  James Watt, Secretary of the Interior, once declared "If you've seen one tree, you've seen 'em all"  and there was no need for conservation because Jesus was coming at any moment.  These people were pariahs because they embarrassed the machinations of the ruling class.  Dubya did the same thing.  He came across as crude and insolent to the plight of other people.  Reagan himself didn't do that.  He couldn't have cared less about the Ethiopians, but he and Peggy Noonan always made it seem like he was compassionate.  That's just something a gentleman does.  It's good PR.  Daddy Bush wasn't as good at PR as Reagan, but he got it done.  Clinton is a man most folks always liked no matter how hard the opposition tried to stop them.  Then there was Bush/Cheney.  When they went back and opened that same can of Milton Friedman dumbass on the American public, it was ugly and embarrassing!
:o

Wow, I think I may be the oldest to respond to this thread.  I was 16 years old when the 80s started...26 when they ended. (Im 47 now) I got my first car, first girlfriend, first "time", graduated high school and college..all in the 80s.  And attended many concerts and shows...from arenas to small clubs.  At age 47 now, I still remember sooo much of the 80s.  And in many ways, the 80s havent left me yet!

Wow, I think I may be the oldest to respond to this thread.  I was 16 years old when the 80s started...26 when they ended. (Im 47 now) I got my first car, first girlfriend, first "time", graduated high school and college..all in the 80s.  And attended many concerts and shows...from arenas to small clubs.  At age 47 now, I still remember sooo much of the 80s.  And in many ways, the 80s havent left me yet!


Yes.  You really need to be in your middle teens at the start of the decade to experience it fully. 

When we refer to "the sixties" we're really referring to the countercultural activities of the second half of the decade.  There's a who other sixties we overlook.  Eisenhower was still president in 1960.  The JFK years we're really much more like the 1952 than 1972.  The early '60s were the height of postwar prosperity.  Then there was Vietnam.  There was a Civil Rights bill with promises unfulfilled.  Riots. Mass arson in poverty stricken neighborhoods.  The suburban kids, knowing nothing but prosperity all their lives, were not content.  They wanted utopia.  Tune in, turn on, and drop out...

Things got complicated!
:o

I was 3 in 1980 and I certainly remember all of the 80s from 1980 to 1989. However I think most people would have their earliest memories at 4-6 on average correct? That would mean virtually all 1975 borns would remember all of the 80s.

I was 3 in 1980 and I certainly remember all of the 80s from 1980 to 1989. However I think most people would have their earliest memories at 4-6 on average correct? That would mean virtually all 1975 borns would remember all of the 80s.


If you remember the death of John Lennon on December 8, you remember 1980!
:P