80s
-Waking up to the sounds of Madonna, Michael and NKOTB on local radio every morning before school.
-Listening to the radio on Winter mornings for Snow Days. They were a godsend when you were a kid.
-Scraping together $0.25 for a twin pop from the ice cream truck. You were rich if you could afford the $1 Bomb Pops or chocolate eclairs.
-Long Summer days and cool Summer nights.
-True innocence and big dreams.
-Selling nuts for school fundraisers.
-Book fairs at school. Poor kids like me can always dream.
-Best. Love. Ballads. Ever.
90s
-Starter Jackets (New Era was for kids who couldn't afford Starter).
-Hmong gang violence.
-Young teenagers getting married.
-You started to notice the opposite sex.
-AOL, Netscape and Dial-up. I can still hear that damn screech. And my mom telling me to get off the phone line because she was expecting a call. Only wealthy families could afford 2 LAN lines.
-Asian Avenue and HOL. Damn if this wasn't the golden era of social media and internet chat for my generation.
-Crush on my friend. She, a cheerleader and popular. Myself, the kid who wore green Adidas (Larry Johson's Celtics gear) to school and was nicknamed The Gremlin for an entire high school day. Which was an eternity back than, pre-cell phone era.
-Alanis Morisette, TLC, Bone-Thugs & Harmony and Selena.
-Best. Pop. Songs. Ever.
-Best. Rap. Songs. Ever.
2000s
-First cars. Civics, Integras and turbos. You had to learn to talk the talk. Or have a loud exhaust that gave you an additional 5hp.
-First dates. Meeting girls/guys. Avoid getting caught. Some of us experienced our first kiss, first love and first heartbreak.
-Porn. Some of us saw the often talked about naked bits for the first time, irl or on the internet.
-College for many, first jobs for some and then we started drinking. Beers, Southern Comfort, Rumple Minze and Everclear. Some memories remain a little fuzzy.
-Sex. Many of us finally tried it. Always awkward and strange at first. And of course the universal "is that what it looks like?" singular thought in our heads when we first saw our partners, naked for the very first time.
-Apartments. Living at school or abroad. Who hated or loved their roommates?
-Wild parties and best friends. They go hand in hand.
-We broke out of our comfort zones, we broke rules and we broke ourselves down. Life is meant to be lived.
-Best. Pop. Love. Songs. Ever.
2010s
-We're old.
-The systems broken.
-We want to go back to any of the previous decades.