For me, the 1980s era was one of new beginnings. I graduated college in 1981, finished grad school in 1983, got my first professional job in 1984 and quit that for a stint in Yugoslavia in 1989. I remember jean jackets and shoulder pads, classic rock hits, dirty dancing, Alice Walker and The Color Purple, Olivia Newton-John, Paul Simon and Amy Grant.
Here in the Tri-Lakes, we remember the 1980 winter Olympics, the Miracle on Ice and Eric Heiden’s speed skating triumphs. Weather was not cooperative, with lack of snow and temps varying between 50 degrees that made snowmaking on Whiteface a challenge, to frigid days when biathlon athletes had trouble shooting and more than 100 people were treated for frostbite.
Around the world, the 1980s brought the end of the Cold War. Beginning with Lech Walesa and Poland’s Solidarity movement, protests spread through other Eastern-bloc countries, culminating in 1989 with the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania, the Tiananmen Square protests in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The collapse of Soviet-style communism led to a trend toward laissez-faire capitalism. President Reagan’s policies reduced taxes on the wealthy and corporations, deregulated stock markets, and promoted unrestricted free-markets with less government intervention. Labor was cheap in other parts of the world, so many corporations sent jobs overseas.
The ’80s also brought huge advances in technology. Computers and computer networks led to the internet and World Wide Web. Microsoft released MS-DOS in 1981, followed by the first Windows operating system in 1982. Other firsts were disposable cameras and computer games.
