Memoir Monday #20 (7/22-7/28) - Which fads did you embrace growing up?

in #memoirmonday4 months ago


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Memoir

/ˈmemˌwär/ noun. a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. Usually memoirs. an account of one's personal life and experiences; autobiography. the published record of the proceedings of a group or organization, as of a learned society.


Week twenty is nearly here! Yo, yo! Fads…each generation has them. When we’re in the midst of these fads we we're making a statement, we're projecting our individuality, we're feel like we're a part of a revolution. They make us feel like we’re helping to shape a new world. The ironic thing about fads is that they sometimes teach us the most lessons about our character and identities in hindsight. I’m looking very forward to learning more about yours!

Memoir Monday has grown so much that I won’t be able to comment on everyone’s posts anymore (and get my own work done) but I’ll still be supporting your posts with reblogs, votes, and shares on my other social media accounts (X, Facebook, etc.).

For all of those who’ve regularly participated in Memoir Monday - keep going, you’re making great progress in chronicling your very own life story for future generations to enjoy.

For those who missed the inaugural post explaining what the Memoir Monday initiative is all about you can find it here.


Now for next week’s Memoir Monday prompt:

Which fads did you embrace growing up?


My answer:


As much as some of us don’t like to admit it, most of us follow trends during our teenage years and I was no exception. Thankfully for me, I was a teen during the 1980’s before everyone had a hi-resolution camera in their pockets. There was very little photographic evidence of our shenanigans.

Fads, for the most part, are a harmless right of passage. They're all about discovering your true individuality.

The eighties were a strange time, there were a multitude of underground movements converging at once — punk, metal, hip-hop, synth-pop. Disco was in the middle of dying a painful death in the early 1980’s and rap was poised to take it’s place in popular culture.

Growing up in the inner city of a medium sized Midwestern city, hip-hop was the fad that I embraced the most as a teen. The mullet hairstyle (business in the front and party in the back) was the epitome of boys hairstyles from around 1983 to 1986. My sophomore yearbook picture below is proof. I kept that mullet until early 1987. At its best (or maybe worst?) my hair fell down to the middle of my back.

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Earlier in my high school days we wore gold chains, Adidas track suits, shell-toe Adidas shoes with colorful fat laces, Kangol hats, and the ultra-square Cazal glasses like DMC from Run DMC.

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Rap was still very much underground in the early 80’s in the midwest. Back then there was no gansta rap, aside from The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, rap music was pure party music.

No major radio stations played rap in the early 1980's outside of New York City. There was one, low-powered station in Columbus, CTNT, that broadcasted from deep inside one of the most downtrodden neighborhoods of the city. We had to hook up a coaxial cable wire to our radio to listen, which added to the attraction. A DJ would mix the latest rap records from New York City and scratch live on the air for a few hours once a week, I think it was on Tuesday afternoon. We’d all gather around the boom box to listen. It was so new and different that it felt like a cultural revolution in that particular moment in time.

Little did we know that hip-hop would eventually grow to become a multi-billion dollar industry and would influence mainstream culture for many generations to come.

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My friends and I embraced all aspects of hip-hop - graffiti, break dancing, rap music. I was an introvert so standing behind turntables and drawing graffiti was what I was most comfortable with. I bought two turntables, a mixer, and digital reverb from Radio Shack with money I earned from my paper route and made my own mixtapes, none of which survived. Above and below are a couple pieces of graffiti that I drew and still have. Back then I apparently thought that, “graftionists of hip hop ruled”, I can barely read my own tags anymore.

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No one quite captured our attention like the Beastie Boys. I think it was mainly because we felt we could identify with them. My friends and I went to a predominantly black high school and sometimes felt like outcasts.

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What our underdeveloped pubescent brains didn’t fully comprehend was the Beastie Boys were just playing a role, cartoonish personas developed by there label to sell records. Nevertheless, when their album Licensed to Ill was released, it became the soundtrack of our sophomore and junior years of high school.

My friend Matt and I dressed like the Beastie Boys (him Ad Rock, me MCA), sometimes acted like them, and that year and a half was an unforgettable party. We would show up at the dances of some of the wealthier private schools in our area dressed in full B-Boy attire to try to meet girls. It must’ve seemed like we came from another planet to many of them. We would also crash college parties on The Ohio State University campus, sometimes climbing into windows so they wouldn’t turn us away at the door. There was alway so much beer.

Around the middle of my junior year of high school it all came to an abrupt end. Our hip-hop era began to fade into oblivion. My friends and I were starting to grow up. I honestly think it was our girlfriends who saved us. Many of us started settling down in "serious" relationships, getting part-time jobs, and feeling the pressures of adulthood already knocking on our doors. But for a couple of carefree years we were like celebrities (in our own minds) and probably left a trail of confusion wherever we went. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up during any other era. It's weird to think we were right there on the front lines when the cultural phenomena of hip-hop was born. Whether they make us smile or make us cringe, fads are a part of our individual stories and we wouldn’t be the people we are today without them.


Rules of Engagement

  1. Please reblog this first post and share on other social platforms so we cast the widest net possible for this initiative;
  2. Pictures paint a thousand words. Include pictures in your posts if you have them;
  3. Answer each Memoir Monday prompt question in your own post. If possible, the prompt question will be published in the week prior so you'll have the entire week to answer and publish your own post;
  4. Have fun with it, don't worry about getting behind, or jumping into the project at any point after we've begun; and
  5. Lastly, be sure to include the tag #memoirmonday.

It's that simple.

At the end of the next twelve months we'll have created something immensely valuable together. It's so important to know our "whys" in life and there's no better way to do that than this.

Someday all that will be left of our existence are memories of us, our deeds, and words. It's up to you to leave as rich of a heritage as possible for future generations to learn from. So, go ahead, tell your stories. I can't wait to read them.

Be well and make the most of this day. I want to sincerely thank all of the participants thus far. I've really enjoyed reading your posts!

~Eric Vance Walton~


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It is fortunate to have been able to enjoy the changes that were generated by fashion. Musical groups greatly influenced styles of dressing or hair styling as well. They are good memories

Oh dear, thanks for the chuckle Eric ;)

The mullet hairstyle (business in the front and party in the back)

I remember that hairstyle! I agree, thank goodness there were no cellphones around to collect evidence.
All boys gate-crashed parties at some stage back in my days as well. Hubby came from a different area, and if they gate-crashed 'sessions' in our midst, there would always be a fight as

There was alway so much beer.

Your graffiti is very good, another talent to still explore!

#memoirmonday is growing!
Looking forward to responding to this one.

No doubt brother, embracing trends can be such a vivid part of growing up. I got into the whole Pokemon thing though heheheh

Childhood experience is always and have always been fun

Rap song started so long ago I didn't think, now I know. beautiful childhood You really have a lot of childhood memories and photos

The music started in the early 1970's but pretty much stayed local to NYC until the early 1980's. We were lucky that my parents saved so much. I have almost no pictures of my teenage years, I wish I had more of those.

Greetings, I see that it was a time with many changes, the music was different from today, a lot of talent and it was a fashion that many young people like you imitated but everything was healthy,

I had a knock off members only jacket. I loved that thing. I also had spikey hair at one point. I guess the fact that I had hair at all is impressive these days!

I remember the Member's Only jacket and Izod polo shirts too. Those were popular just before the rap craze hit. Big hair was definitely a thing back then!

We shouldn't forget IOU, Hypercolor, and Starter Jackets as well! I actually never owned any of them, but we were happy and content.

Haha, I didn't have any of those either. Our budget was so limited that we had to choose wisely. : )

Same!

I grew up in the seventies when rock music was coming with great force to my country, since then I have been stuck with that music. Of the groups you mention I know very little, I still listen to Led Zeppelin and the Stones. Thanks for the call, dear @ericvancewalton . A big hug from Maracay.

Yeah, rap or hip hop weren't and aren't really my thing. Back in the eighties, well, early eighties it was NDW time in Germany, oh, and ELO but then I was totally into the synth pop, electronic Brit music - Depeche Mode, New Order, Duran Duran ... way too many to name all of them. And I still like a lot of them, definitely the songs. Haircuts in the 80s, I remember a) asymmetric b) Kim Wilde style (spiky on top, long underneath) and - ugggh - c) perm 🤑. When that music phased out I got into the grunge phase of the early nineties, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, even Guns 'n Roses and Bon Jovi - LOL. Music gives such a great memory.

Those British bands were so popular, I remember them well. I remember the song 99 Luftballons too, that was huge in America. So true about music! For me the different styles of music are almost like growth rings on a tree trunk.

You made me remember a lot of anecdotes that have to do with fashion and music. I can tell you that I am a very good dancer and that I imitated in the discotheques the choreographies of the 80's: Cyndi Lauper, Madonna,
jajajajaja. I would like to see if my mother keeps pictures of that time, because I also imitated Madonna in her way of dressing with crosses and hair with hairspray. This will be another fun Monday Memory of Mondays. A nice Monday, my friend

Madonna was super popular! There were a few girls in my high school who dressed like her. Pop culture was definitely one of America's biggest exports. Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, I can't think of many artists who have that kind of fame anymore. I hope you can find those photos! Have a good week my friend!

Good afternoon my brother. Looking back at the displays the wrong article shows is truly extraordinary. Greetings to you and also to the family there.

Someday all that will be left of our existence are memories of us, our deeds, and words. It's up to you to leave as rich of a heritage as possible for future generations to learn from. So, go ahead, tell your stories. I can't wait to read them.

I couldn't agree less, it's important to start living than merely existing.

I wasn't meaning that we shouldn't live, just that someday our memories will be all that's left.

You really enjoyed your teenage years and followed your idols at that time. What a perfect life. God bless you, Eric.

Thanks Eliana! Bless you too. I hope you're having a good week.

Oh my, Eric with a mullet? :O Never thought I'd live to see that. It suited you, though not sure if that's good or bad :P

To be fair, it seems the rap and graffiti tagging scene is a rite of passage for all generations. Mine did it too. I tried my hand at it, though mostly to fit in at the new school and hang with da boys. Now it seems the new kids are doing it too. Does it ever end? :))

Always love how you approach these Memoir Monday prompts, it really feels like a glimpse into a life. So thank you for that :)

It's so strange to see them come back into style these past few years in America. I'm convinced if we live long enough we see the trends from our teenage years be recycled at least three times. : )

Yes, they started doing this in NYC in the early seventies. It took almost ten years to reach the city I grew up in and then it spread throughout the world. I think it's a permanent part of our culture now.

You're welcome my friend! I'm glad you're enjoying these. I try to write them for future generations of my family, at least this is what I have in mind when I'm working on them.

What you say is very true, I think that at some point we all follow fashion trends, I loved this week's slogan, it's going to be very interesting, talk about it
Have a lovely afternoon dear friend @ericvancewalton

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I'm abouty your age I think. Gah, I love - and still love - the Beasties. I saw them twice in Melbourne. American hip h ds op music filtered it's way down under as well and the groups you mention were also part of my '80s.

That mullet wouldn't look out of place in Australia now. Mullets and moustaches seem to be a thing at the moment. Some people can pull it off, many can't.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/the-cut-thats-conquering-australian-hair-salons-heres-why-the-trending-wave-of-mullets-is-high/5k71vil3t

At its best (or maybe worst?) my hair fell down to the middle of my back.

It was not just popular in the USA, it was equally popular in India during the 1990s. And in the Bollywood movies, I could still see this was the trend during that period. But the passage of time, the new trends replaced this fashion.

By the way, you look so handsome in this style Sir.