The Year 1980

Brian's Life

Nineteen hundred eighty.  It's strange even typing that out.  Now that we are in the two thousands, the 80's seem like such a long time ago.  At Five years of age, my life was just getting good.  Not that my previous four years were not, but you know what I mean.  Walking, talking, eating yummie food, and some not so delicious stuff.  I'm wondering.... do you think our lifespans between five years and let's say, maybe twelve years of age, are the best years of our lives?  What do you think?

Being Five meant that I began my first year of public school.  This meant kindergarten at the Ojai Unified Campus on Montgomery Street. I'm assuming it was part of the Ojai Unified District, but it could have been some other organization.  Either way, the campus was close enough to walk to from the house my parents rented.  This particular house would become one of my favorites.  Many good memories came out of this home.  You'll read about them in the months to come.  A medium sized house, it had three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a decent sized yard, for being basically right in town.  You could literally walk to main street and Bayless Market in under fifteen minutes.  There was no fence at the street, and we had a decent lawn to play on.  A dirt driveway led up to a single car carport.  There were a few steps up to a porch of small proportions.  On one side of the house there was a storm water barranca that was about nine feet deep, made entirely out of concrete.   There were medal rungs that formed a ladder about every fifty yards or so, that you could climb down and in to the barranca.  All of this was enclosed by a chain link fence at the top.  I'm sure there were probably signs saying to stay out.  I can't visualize them, nor did we adhere to them!  In the back yard, there was a guest house.  Up until the age of maybe twelve, it housed another renter whom we did not know.  The one person I do remember went by the name of Don Towe.  I remember him for two reasons.  He had a big furry black dog in which he would drive around with in the back of his light blue Toyota pick-up truck.  On one such trip, this fluffy black dog would jump out of said truck.  Well, the dog didn't survive this ordeal, and I recall Mr. Towe being very sad about it when talking to my parents about the incident.  The second reason being Mr Towe somehow managed to hook his own hand with a barbed fishhook.  I think it was maybe my mom who tried helping him pull it out.  I seem to remember it hurt him quite a bit.  I also remember someone putting ice on it to "dull" the area.  On the other side of our yard, opposite the barranca, there was about a four-foot-tall cinder block fence.  On the other side of this lived our neighbors.  These neighbors would come and go over the years, and they were all very nice people if I recall.  Across the barranca, there was a retirement home for the elderly.  My mom actually worked there for a few years.  Across the street from us there was what I believe to be a sort of townhome.  We knew the people who lived on one side of the townhome.  I don't believe I ever met the neighbors from the other side.

It wasn't the first day of kindergarten, somewhere within the school year, that the family cat decided to follow me to school.  Actually, it made its way to my school on its own because my mother had already dropped me off and I had been on campus for maybe an hour when we made the discovery.  Instead of calling my mom.  My teacher decided that the entire class would walk my cat back to my home.  So we all lined up, me with cat in hand, and we walked all the way to my house and back.  Pretty cool of the teacher now that I think about it!  What was that cats name?  Maybe it was Stripey....

The kindergarten I attended had a pretty sweet playground.  With many play structures and this sort of half a sphere thing, made out of metal I'm guessing.  Sure enough, the kids figured out that with this half sphere play item, you could flip it over and it created a form of a cup.  Like placing a cup over a peanut in a magic trick.  Only in the play yard, the peanut was another kindergartener!  It was pure fun for those placing the cup.  Not quite as much fun for the nut.  I was the nut at least once!  One good thing about this time in my life is that I do not have any bad memories from this place.  Even being trapped by the metal sphere wasn't anything traumatic.  We were just being kids.

All in all, my fifth year on this planet was an awesome one.  Not a care in the world.  Wouldn't it be nice to have that again as an adult!  Alas, being of the adult age, we all seem to make our lives ultra busy.  Having jobs means having bills to pay.  Having kids means having something to worry about for the remainder of our lives.  It can never really be the same, can it.

Home prices in 1980 were around $47,000.00.  A Buick Regal ran you about $8000.00.  Gasoline per gallon was around $1.19.  Milk, two dollars per gallon.  A Kenmore clothes dryer would cost you roughly $229.00.  Average annual income was around $19,500.00.  Rubik's Cube cost ten bucks.  It was very popular in the 80's.  Americas student loan debt crisis would begin, and 1980 was a time of the biggest economic downturn since the great depression.  The prime rate reached 21.50%.  Inflation hovered between 7 and 14 %.  Unemployment was around 7.5 %.  On T.V. we were watching shows such as The Dukes of Hazzard, M.A.S.H. and The Love Boat.  Ronald Reagan was elected POTUS in November of 1980.  Reagan would serve two terms.

What do you remember from the year 1980?

- "Surely you can't be serious."

- "I am serious.  And don't call me Shirley."

- "You ever been in a cockpit before?"

- "No Sir, I've never been in a plane before."

- "You ever seen a grown man naked?"

Airplane (1980)