I am a child of the 80's. "That's the best decade ever." I always say to myself. It was the age when my family had no cable TV, no VCR and of course no computer. If you asked me at that time what the internet was, I would have probably thought that you were speaking Greek. However, in spite of the numerous limitations entertainment-wise, I still did manage to have lots of fun. Saturday morning cartoons was one way in which I had fun. Every Saturday I can remember my brother and myself sitting down around the old Philco black & white TV that my dad had bought, to watch cartoons. It was one of those rotary TV's with no remote. So you had to change the channel by going up to it and turning the dial. For the volume control, you did a similar thing by turning the little knob which was also the main control which turned the TV on and off. One thing that I remember about that TV was the length of time the picture took to come on whenever you turned it on. You would just have to pull the main control knob and even though you knew the TV was on because you would hear sounds, the picture didn't come on until about ten or fifteen seconds later. It was kind of annoying for me because if I ever got up late on a weekend I stood a good chance of missing precious seconds of my favorite cartoon.
It never mattered much to me whether or not I didn't know the real colours of TV's most famous cat and mouse duo - Tom & Jerry at the time. All that mattered was that I got a good laugh. In those days cartoons to me were the best. There was Tom & Jerry, He-Man, Superman & Friends, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo just to name a few. I know that some of you who are reading this are probably saying to yourselves that the only TRUE 80's cartoon I mentioned there was He-Man, right? I know. But I can't help it if that was what was shown on TV at the time. So I had the impression at that time that they were all 80's. There were many others of course which might be too much to mention. To me though, the one thing that really made the 80's decade stand out was the music. No other decade can better the 80's in terms of music. Now I don't expect everyone to agree with me. Especially those of you who grew up in the 60's, 70's or even the 90's. 80's music was something special. After the cartoons were over on Saturdays, the other programme that I always looked forward to watching was America's Top 10 which was hosted by none other than Casey Kasem. It was during this show that I learned about those legendary artistes of that time like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince (or whatever he calls himself now), etc. I could remember watching in awe and being mesmerized by the dancing ability of the King of Pop. Almost everyone wanted to imitate the musical and dancing genius in some way. Be it through learning his songs like Beat It or Billie Jean and his other hits, imitating his dance moves like the Moonwalk or copying his style of dress. And then as a young boy, you couldn't help but have a crush on Madonna as you watched her sing and strut her stuff in her latest music video. Be it Like a Virgin or Like a Prayer.
In those days you would be ridiculed by your classmates in school if you didn't know the lyrics to Michael Jackson's latest hit. Or rather what they thought were the lyrics. Apart from the many hits from Michael Jackson and Madonna which dominated the airways, there were also those songs that I truly enjoyed called New Wave Music. Even though frankly speaking, there were times when I didn't know what on earth the artistes were singing about. If it weren't Video Killed The Radio Star from Buggles, it was She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby. Although those songs would appear somewhat 'silly' by today's standards, to me they were something special. It represented the childhood in which I grew up and enjoyed. It entertained me and brought a smile to my face whenever I felt depressed. I may not have known at the time what the Cold War was or what the acronym USSR stood for, but at least I could have recognized a good song when I heard it playing on the radio, and that is why to me the 80's will always be the best decade ever.
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