What important milestones do you remember from 1981-91?

I was born. And I learned simple English. It was awesome.

You mean stuff I actually remember happening, or stuff that I know happened between those years? I was born in 1985, so my first memories come from around ‘92, but here are some random things I know happened in the period you mention:

—Fall of the Berlin Wall.
—Reagan Presidency.
—Bunch of World Cups and Olympic Games.
—Hurricane Gilbert hit my city.
—Major earthquake hit Mexico City.

I was born in ‘73. I remember:

Reagan being sworn in.
Challenger explosion.
Iran-Contra.
1984 Olympics.
Reagan beating Mondale.
Mondale having a woman as his running mate.
Dukakkis losing to Bush Sr.
Live Aid.
Hands Across America.
Chernobyl.
Tiananmen Square.
San Francisco earth quake in October 1989.

Very cool, thank you. 82 I was in high school, 87 on the road, out of college.

I was in my teens and early adulthood here so aside from the usual milestones of adolescence, graduation, marriage and parenthood, some of the major things I remember are:

Prince Charles and Lady Diana getting married
Brixton & Toxteth riots
Miner’s strike
Strangeways Prison riot
Assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II
The Falklands conflict
First Gulf war
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Collapse of the USSR
Raising of the Mary Rose
Bradford football disaster (stadium fire)
Hillsborough football disaster (crowd crush)
Space shuttle Challenger explosion
Lockerbie air disaster
Chernobyl
Live Aid
Hungerford Massacre
Tiananmen Square
Release of Nelson Mandela

I was born in 81. I remember my sister Renee being born on 12–26— 84 and my border collie Lacy had puppies on 12–24-84. I was going to keep one of her puppies. The one I was going to keep was named Klown. On 12–29-84 it was cold cold in Tennessee. Klown licked our metal garbage can, got his tongue stuck and ripped it off and died. My poor three year old mind was so sad. I kept another pup named Lucy who was the epitomy of w good dog and lived until I was 17. I remember the Challenger exploding. Hulk Hogan was my god. Junkyard Dog was a god too. WWF baby. Me and Junkyard Dog were both born on Dec. 14th only he was born in 1954 and me in 81. The Iron Sheik and Andre the Giant were the bad guys. I was so stoked when Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Andre the Giant during Wrestlemania. I started playing baseball in 88 or teeball actually. One of my heroes is Ozzie Smith who played most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He did backflips onto the field before every game. Sadly my beloved Cards lost the World Series in 85 to the Kansas City Royals 4 games to 3. In 87 my beloved Cards lost the World Series 4–3 to the Minnesota Twins. It was hard being a Cards fan when my best coach and trainer who is my grandpa dying of alzheimers was a die hard Atlanta Braves fan as are most people around here. Whatever Ozzie Smith is a legend. He won multiple gold gloves and batting titles and Im pretty sure he wasn’t on the juice. I was introduced to skateboarding in 88 by my uncle, neighbors, and a videos at my local video store such as “The Hunt for Animal Chin” by Powell Peralta starring a young Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, and Lance Mountain. I also idolized my uncle who was 6 years older than me in 88 because he skated and had what was known as a skater cut hairdo like a young Tony Hawk. I went to work against my will in 88. My dad worked for my grandpa Poppa Tom since he was old enough to walk. He expected the same from me. My dad builds and remodels house. I went to work during summers and school breaks in 88. I cleaned up construction sites and learned to paint houses. I bought my first skateboard which was a piece of junk from K-Mart with money I made at 8 years old. I have been a skater ever since. I remember the show “Punky Brewster was the shit.” I wore a bandanna around my jeans all during first grade. In 1990 I was in second grade. After lunch our teacher let us listen to cassettes or records we brought from home for 30 minutes or so after lunch. All we ended up listening too was New Kids On The Block. I hated them. I wanted to listen to Slick Rick, Black Sabbath and Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet.” I thought Bon Jovi was fucking hard back then. That song “Bad Medicine” had my boyish mind headbanging. In 89 the Oakland A’s played the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. An earthquake tore Candlestick Park to shreds that year. The A’s won thanks to juice head Jose Canseco. My skater uncle had a baseball card shop when he was like 12 or 13. I sold all my Canseco and Ricky Hendersen cards right then and I thought I was rich when I was 8 and had 40 bucks. Yeah those years were all about baseball, WWF, and the skate video “Hunt for Animal Chin” to me.

Oh yeah my Alphy II robot was the shit too.

The first cases of AIDS were diagnosed and the epidemic was on . . .

Carter sent in a rescue crew for the US Embassy hostages in Iran in 1980. It failed miserably and I’m sure he knew then he wouldn’t be re-elected.

The ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) didn’t pass the Senate and died. Apparently, no one bothered to do anything about it.

CDs, which are now phasing out, were introduced. They were US$25 then, too!

The Bhopal disaster happened.

Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America. Only in 1980s America would a blonde, blue-eyed black woman be the only sort of black woman who could be the first African-American Miss America. :/ Then the sort-of-naughty photos came out. Oops.

Crack, mid-80s. Remember when somehow, there were going to be a billion crack babies and the US would implode from caring for them all as they grew to be useless vegetables sucking at the public teat?

Benigno Aquino’s assassination. Oh, that was awful, and then everyone in the world discovered what horrible people the Marcos’ were.

Tiannemen Square. I’ve always wondered if that brave, poor man was taken out somewhere and shot.

Reagan getting shot on Monday, March 30, 1981 will always stand out for me. ...I was in college at the time and that event shattered my at the time sheltered world!

I was married in 1981 and had my daughter in 1987.

I also made a big move across the state in 1988

1991 was quite memorable.

That was the year when my daughter was 4 that we moved to the mountains, and while I divorced in 2003 I have never left this area I love so much, although I did move into a new home thats mine ALL MINE! lol

Let’s see… I was born the last week of 1985. So here’s what I have as far as real memories:

- Going to the polling place – it was in the dining hall of the local Catholic church. My dad let me pull the lever for Dukakis.
– My favorite song was “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. My dad would tell me stories about everything mentioned in the song.
– The Olympics. I watched Kristi Yamaguchi win the gold. Wait, I think that was 92.

I was six at the end of 1991. I really didn’t know much by way of world events.

The Reagan presidency
Iran Contra
the SF Earthquake
Oakland’s Firestorm
The Oakland A’s domination
Punk rock music
the fall of the Soviets
the Gulf War
Challenger

SF earthquake in 1989 that hit two weeks before my wedding. It destroyed the church, adjoining school/reception banquet hall and most direct bridge for getting in and out of the city. I had very little time to relocate the entire ceremony and after plans to accomadate our guests, most of them coming from out of town and out of state.

81 married.
85, 87 two kids
91 divorced.

First off, there was some great music during those years. I’ll let someone else fill in the blanks there.
some personal milestones
1982 – kindergarten
1988 – 6th grade graduation
1989 – bat mitzvah
1989 – grandpa died
1989 – first summer at “nerd camp” (I loved it!!)
1989 – start of jr. high (first lipgloss, first purse)
also in hellish jr. high era – back brace for scoliosis
Oh, lots of historic stuff: Reagan shot, hostages released, Challenger explosion, Iran-Contra Affair, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and so on.