Chicago, Journey, Jackson, & Heart!

I’m a child of the 80’s. I’m not scared to admit it!  The other day I was participating in a little #FlashbackFriday on Pandora while listening to the 80’s Pop Radio channel.  I can’t help but love that music!  I love the feeling that I get when I hear it!  I love the memories it brings flooding when I hear it!  I can almost lose myself in that music!

I was born in 1981.  I don’t hesitate to put that out there…partially because most people doubt me when I say I’m that old (that old being 33 for those of you who are struggling with the math…did you read my post about not being scared to get older?  You can do it HERE!).  I don’t look it and I know it.  M has told me before that I look like a high school student (and then of course, just the other day he told me I was 46), but 24-26 is the average age that most people guess me at.  I guess I’m lucky!  I feel that I was born right before the era of some of the greatest music of all time!  It doesn’t matter whether you were fond of the big hair bands, the pop sensations, or the down home country…everyone could find something from that era that they liked!  I was raised around music!  There was always music playing in our house!

This gem is just to prove to people that I haven’t always been “tiny and cute”.  My dad used to call me (affectionately) his little Michelin girl (like after the tire mascot!)!!!

For me, I love the music, but it’s so much more about the memories I have from the 80’s:

• growing up on a variety of farms…having animals and my brother as my best friends
• the SMURFS!  They were a classic cartoon!
• the color pink!  I wore the color pink a lot…not sure what happened to my girly side because there is very little pink in my closet anymore.  It was lost long before my world of all boys took over!

  

• Sesame Street!  The classic Sesame Street with Bert & Ernie, Grover, Big Bird, & Oscar the Grouch!
• glass pop bottles
• visiting the cafe in the mornings with my Gpa S…he would have coffee, me an Orange Slice!
• Going on the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree regardless of weather conditions
• turning 5, getting my booster shots, and going to preschool
• Care Bears – I still have my Love A Lot and the books that Mom and I used to read, which were a favorite of M’s for a period of time.
• Going to South Dakota on our first real vacation
• Strawberry Shortcake (I still have my doll and she still blows strawberry scented kisses!)
• My first dog, Molly

  

• Get In Shape Girl – workout sets that I loved and had several….working out was obviously something I was fond of early on!
• Cabbage Patch Kids – I have all 5 of mine yet!
• Getting stitches for the first time.  I got 3 in my chin and then got my Cabbage Patch doll’s hair stuck in them and they were promptly removed!

  

• Puffy Paint shirts – I had several and loved them dearly! Oh boy was I styling!
• And to pair with the puffy paint shirts…tight rolled jeans of course!  I’m surprised the circulation to my feet wasn’t cut off a couple of times, but one had to look cool!
• Gymnastics – I really wish I hadn’t quit, but oh well.

  

• Kindergarten and getting to ride the bus with my brother for the first time!
• Lincoln Log towns in the living room with my brother (and ours were homemade Lincoln Logs by my uncle)

I really do have the greatest memories of my childhood and music always seems to bring me back to those memories!  While sometimes my heart aches for those “simpler times”, I’ve learned that my memories are just as good as the real thing because I can always “go back” in my memories! I guess that’s all part of Learning As I Go!