What was life like in the 1980's?

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Never seen anyone pump gas for a customer at a station. Here, you either did it yourself - or you never get out of the gas station.

Credit card payment systems became more common in the 90s, but in the 80s i remember dad going in to the station to pay for gas, having to stand in line with other people buying soda, crisps and newspapers.

Felt like forever every time.

I have a vague recollection of my mom going to full-service stations when I was little, but I'm not sure. We do have a lot of stations with "SELF SERVICE" signs, but I don't think I've seen any that weren't.

I can understand their reasoning for wanting you to pay first, because it makes it much harder to steal gas, but it's annoying for me. I only pay with cash, so I have to guess how much gas I might need, and then pre-pay and hope that I didn't over-estimate. I know my tank is 13 gallons, so $30 into an empty tank is usually fine, but my indicator is kind of busted, so I get nervous and I've just been putting in $25 instead, since my gas station started enforcing "pay first". </rant>

It seems to be required for people to have their gas pumped in New Jersey by a gas station attendant. I heard it was for "insurance reasons" or something like that.

Almost all New York State gas stations are "self-serve."

People were at least as cynical in the 1980s as they are in the 2010s. They don't call it the "Me Decade" for nothing. See the movie "Wall Street," from 1987. It brings this cynicism to focus.

Saying this, it does seem like people are nostalgic for the times when they were children. I didn't have such a great childhood---but I still have fond memories of the 1960s, and some of the 1970s (even though Watergate ended the "idealism" of the 1960s-1970s).

I am, it was the time when family held together and didn't fight, we met with our peers for large family sized events like birthdays and Christmas, having a large pile of presents under the tree, and me hoping that everyone of them were for me. We used to visit relatives far away and drive for hours, the grownups talking and having a good time with wine and food, us kids playing around with toys or computers (like C64s).

I had a great childhood, it was overly protective living in a socialist democracy, looking back at it it feels a bit scary, almost communist, but we did have democracy with free elections and could voice our opinions. It felt like living in a very comfortable closet while gasping for fresh air.

Later on i found out about how "socialist" we really were, Olof Palme, the great social democrat leader as he was perceived to be by many who liked waving a red flag around, was secretly extremely USA friendly and had worked in the intelligence community. There were even contingency plans for the Swedish government to continue to operate from Washington in the event of a war. We were socialists, yes, but we were not idiots who saw Soviet (Russia) as a peaceful force of salvation.

People were much more positive about the economy and America in the 80’s then they are today. Technology was considered new and exciting not ubiquitous and invasive.

Like today there was fear of a trigger happy president vaporizing the world. A nuclear freeze demonstration in New York drew 1 million people way bigger then any anti vietnam war demonstration and possibly with the exception of the womens march the largest political demonstration in US history. Despite the 80s image as YUPPIE and you had Live Aid, Farm Aid, Hands Across America demos. Dispite the image of the 80s as a backlash against the “perversion” of the prevoius two decades “gender bending” pop acts topped the charts.

Sure, there were things like Live-Aid, Band-Aid, etc. These sort of things happen in the 2010's, too.

Sure, there began to be more toleration of alternative sexuality. One could talk about homosexuality at the dinner table in the 1980s, but not in the 1970s.

Sure, the United States had a much better image amongst ourselves, and internationally, in the 1980s.

Perhaps, I feel the 1980s were cynical because the 1970s were not so cynical.

However, I see many parallels between what people said then, and what people say now as pertains the view of their futures, and their view of other people.

The Movie list forgot War Games I think. Also the TV show Max Headroom is considered an 80s icon.

There were still places where you pumped gas, then paid, even around 2000.

This happened on an episode of COPS when somebody pumped, then didn’t pay.

peoples still ordered stuff from paper catalogs back then.

I graduated high school in ‘89. I lived in a really small town an hour outside of Philly that was its own universe in many ways. I remember:

We could tune in three FM radio stations - thankfully one was pretty good, because the other two were all Madonna and Duran Duran all the time.

We didn’t have a remote for the TV until I was in high school. Dad would yell out for one of us kids to come stand next to the set and push the twelve channel buttons one at a time until he picked a show.

The local public channel showed Doctor Who late, late Saturday nights. David Tennant is my Doctor, but I have fond memories of watching Tom Baker with my brother.

The only fast food chain restaurants in the area were the downtown Pizza Hut, and the McDs two towns over.

There were multiple bookstores in the mall, and no coffee shops. Only old men drank coffee.

Lord of the Rings was so obscure, you had to be introduced to the series by another fan. Same with Dune.

Fashion trends were regimental for girls, we all had to have the same poufy hair with the claw bangs and a scrungie or banana clip.

Politics... sigh. I still have my Dukakis for pres sign packed away somewhere in my garage. The left side of the spectrum kind of went underground during the Reagan years. It was definitely not widely socially acceptable to be a liberal, or to follow the news in any detail (especially if you’re a girl!)

The atmosphere was weird. Society as a whole seemed so cofident and optimistic and relentlessly happy, while at the same time we were fully aware because of local industry we were a second-strike nuclear target. All of the public buildings including schools contained fallout shelters.

What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

Lorna Wing translated Hans Asperger's paperwork into English in 1985. She would then diagnose me in 1987.

Took until 1991 for it to get into American diagnostic manuals...

I’m sure people in the big city were offered a bigger selection than me, but our two pop music stations played only top 40 hits, usually the same ones 7-8 times a day. (Bless WZZO, for they played classic rock!) Lots of Madonna songs, Prince, Michael Jackson, and the hair bands like Poison. There were many one-hit wonders that would get extemely overplayed then disappear forever, like Rock Me Amadeus or Hungry Eyes. I remember I was at an intersection once with my car windows down, and heard all of the cars around me playing the same station.

There was a college music station within range, but reception was iffy and they only played REM and the B52s.

There is a radio station where I live called KONO, and on Sunday mornings it plays Top 40 broadcasts from the 1980's!

This side of the pond, the main kit were 8-bit home computers - the Sinclair Spectrum, BBC Micro, and others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28 - Hey Hey 16K.

And Micro Men - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM