The 80s, myth and reality?

[HadleyH1]

ahhh.....those golden 80s !


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[ChiTownScion]

Patton was not considered any kind of a hero by anyone who knew what he did during the Battle of the Anacostia Flats. And a lot of people in the mid-1940s had a long memory.

Second only to one Thomas Jonathan Jackson as the most overrated general in American history. Never prevailed in battle unless he enjoyed the advantage of superior forces.

 

[sheeplady]

My father had a Buick in the 1980s with a knock in the front door/drivers side which started whenever he hit about 45 mph on the highway. Mulitple shop visits, nothing wrong with it. A car backed into his parked car, and he had his driver-side door hammered out... someone had tied a pop can to a string inside the door when the car was made.

The optimism was missing from my community in the 1980s. Employment was sky high and farms went under right and left. Farmers had been encouraged to take on heavy debt for machinery and land in the 1970s (by the experts- often the cooperative extension came around and told you that you'd go under in 5 years without a bigger tractor and land to "stay competitive"). Then they got killed by high interest rates.

We had huge over crowding in the school I was in- 43 kids in my kindergarten class. The teachers in elementary school couldn't walk between the rows of desks, we were packed so tight.

 

[BlueTrain]

Patton was not considered any kind of a hero by anyone who knew what he did during the Battle of the Anacostia Flats. And a lot of people in the mid-1940s had a long memory.

.

According to my father-in-law who was living here at the time, MacArthur should get the blame for that. And that's what Truman remembered.

 

[LizzieMaine]

MacArthur was the primary villain of the piece, but Patton was a willing accomplice and is equally culpable. MacArthur explicitly violated the lawful orders of the President, his commander-in-chief, in pushing into the BEF encampment when he had been commanded to stop at the banks of the river. It was Patton's responsibility to recognize that this violation of orders was taking place and to refuse to press on. Not only did he fully support MacArthur's actions, he was an active participant in the physical brutalization of the BEF, one of whom had actually saved his life in the Argonne forest in 1918.

The only soldier to emerge from the BEF debacle with even a shred of decency or honor intact was Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, who at least had the guts to remind MacArthur of the President's orders, even though he was rebuffed by the arrogant General.

 

[green papaya]

in the 1970's to 1980's "TACO STANDS" were very popular, it was a very common fast food, they even showed people in tv shows going out for a taco, these were the American style TEX MEX crispy fried tacos, like Taco Bell

they didnt really have the "Taquerias" you often see today with the more authentic Mexican street tacos served on a soft corn tortilla (not crispy style)

 

[sheeplady]

Year's ago my husband and I re-watched the 1980 debate. Reagan referred to himself as an "Eisenhower" Republican.

I turned to my husband and said, "yeah, the Eisenhower who built the interstate system and warmed us of the military-industrial complex?"

 

[3fingers]

in the 1970's to 1980's "TACO STANDS" were very popular, it was a very common fast food, they even showed people in tv shows going out for a taco, these were the American style TEX MEX crispy fried tacos, like Taco Bell

they didnt really have the "Taquerias" you often see today with the more authentic Mexican street tacos served on a soft corn tortilla (not crispy style)

We had a Taco Johns here. Most disappeared, but my wife and I ran onto one several years ago that was still in operation. The original ones were all carry out with no inside seating. They now have tables to eat there. The menu is pretty much the same as before. I remember watching the employees at our little walk in store mixing taco meat with an industrial duty Black & Decker drill. I had to admit to my wife that that day was the first time I had eaten at Taco Johns completely sober for many years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have not forgiven, and will not forgive Frito Lay for adding, in the 80s, that noxious sour cream/cheese flavoring to Taco Flavor Doritos. Have some of those "new flavor blend!" chips along with a New Coke and you have the prototypical Taste of the '80s.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, for what it's worth, two things I remember from that decade were the Muppets and Solid Gold. But my son would remember Knight Rider and the A-Team better. We never went to taco stands, although we have them fairly often at home.

 

[sheeplady]

Ah, A-team.

In the 1980s I think for those of us with Vietnam-era parents, Vietnam still looked rather large in it's ripple effects and in popular culture. Movies, homelessness, agent Orange and the cancer epidemic for those that served, the building of the memorial... all that was stuff I remember. My parents were touched personally by the war. I was very aware of it growing up and very aware of how veterans had been mistreated. My husband (who's parents were 5 years younger) has no memory about the memorial being built or any of this stuff, but his family had little connection to the war.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Year's ago my husband and I re-watched the 1980 debate. Reagan referred to himself as an "Eisenhower" Republican.

I turned to my husband and said, "yeah, the Eisenhower who built the interstate system and warmed us of the military-industrial complex?"

Watching those debates, the performance was so smooth and studied it was impossible for me not to see Mr. Reagan as an actor playing a Presidential candidate in a Warner Bros. second feature made in 1940. And then I kept thinking that they had the wrong guy playing his opponent, and that they should have gotten Ralph Bellamy instead. (And I thought Ann Sheridan would have been a better choice to play his wife.)

 

[scotrace]

Jimmy Stewart for President.
Ronald Reagan for Best Friend.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Henry Fonda for Chief Justice.

 

[BlueTrain]

The 1980s ended with the opening of the Berlin Wall. I saw the wall when I was in the army and even visited East Berlin.

 

[LizzieMaine]

True...but a difference that may be academic depending on which side of it you're on.

(Thread, I hate to break it to you, but you may not be long for this world).

Alas. The only wall I cared about in the 80s ran parallel to Landsdowne Street. Where have you gone, Jim Rice?

 

[HadleyH1]

Henry Fonda for Chief Justice.

And Loretta Young as Attorney General?

Nahhhh.....on second thought.....

 

[3fingers]

True...but a difference that may be academic depending on which side of it you're on.

(Thread, I hate to break it to you, but you may not be long for this world).

No reason to kill a good thread. We can drop the subject here and move on. Should be simple enough for us as adults. Nobody is going to change their mind anyway.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, to return for a moment to the idea of THE EIGHTIES -- The Movie, it would be extremely interesting to cast such a film using Warner Brothers stars of equivalent vintage to the Contract Player in Chief. So...

The President of the United States -- Ronald Reagan

G. H. W. Bush, Vice President etc. -- George Raft

Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the House -- Walter Brennan

George Shultz, Sec. of State ------- Grant Mitchell

James Baker, Chief of Staff --------- Guy Kibbee

Michael Deaver, Dep. Chief of Staff -- Dick Powell

Edwin Meese, Attorney General ----- Edward Arnold

Donald Regan, Treasury Sec. -------- George Brent

Caspar Weinberger, Defense Sec. -- Humphrey Bogart

Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Amb. to UN ----- Aline MacMahon

Robert McFarlane, Nat. Sec. Advsr....William Demarest

William Rehnquist, Chief Justice..........Charles Coburn

Sandra Day O'Connor, Assoc. Just....Georgia Caine

James Watt, Sec. of Interior.............Hobart Cavanaugh

Lyn Nofziger, Press Sec'y..................Frank McHugh

Lt. Col. Oliver North..........................Errol Flynn

 

[Paisley]

Maybe we should build walls between the states, too.

Illinois can't afford it, and Indiana is too cheap to pay for it. We don't need no stinking wall, anyway. C'mon down, Chicagoans--even if you have to swim.