The Awesome 80's

It was the decade decadence. It was about glitz and glamour and balls, bangles and beads.

All loved Luke and Laura in the afternoon. Lady Diane became People's Princess when she married Prince Charles. Nighttime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty ruled the airwaves. President Ronald Reagan said the United States. Tom Cruise felt the need for speed. Michael Milliken was the Junk Bond King. Gordon Gecko taught Wall Street whiz kids that greed was good. Material Girl Madonna made her musical debut.

What decade was it?

We can only talk about that amazing period - the excellent eighties.

Here are twenty-one ways for you to check that you belong to (or belong to) from the 1980's.

1st Break-dance on the sidewalk looked like fun. Now it just looks like you might break something.

2nd You can still recite dialogue from any movie starring Molly Ringwood.

3rd "Mobile phones" meant phone use people when they got their "one phone call in prison.

4th You had at least one of the following: a Cabbage Patch Kid, He-Man action figures, a Rubik's Cube or something with a Pac-Man logo on it.

5th You remember a lot of headlines on the Human Genome Project, which was a complete mapping of human DNA. You also remember how this should lead to eradication of the disease.

6th You remember the day that thousands of radio stations worldwide played "We Are The World" at the exact same time. (Now you sing it!)

7th Your first album was a vinyl 33 and you laughed at your parents because they wanted to play 45's and 8-track tapes.

8th You know who Oliver North is and why he was in the news.

9th Someone on your street or neighborhood sent his or her life savings to a later discredited telecommunications van list.

10th You hung out with friends at the mall, especially in the video arcade where you exchanged the hard earned quarters for tokens.

11th You know that "glasnost" means openness and transparency, and "perestroika": an economic restructuring.

12th You and your friends made fun of "I've fallen and I can not get up" lady. (The fictional woman named Mrs. Fletcher and the product was Life Call ambulance.)

13th You have inserted "as" generous and unnecessarily throughout your sentences. As is the case, "Like, it was like, the toughest test we've ever had. So after class, I was all like asking the teacher, and she was like it would not have been hard if you had studied. Then I just have to suffer evil rude or what? "

14th You know there was only one way Dorothy on Golden Girls Sophia could do behave. She simply said: "Shady Pines, Ma, and Shady Pines."

15th You have actually tasted New Coke. Extra points if you wrote to Coca-Cola and insisted they bring back the original formula.

16th You remember when there was no such thing as CNN, E! Or MTV.

17th Your parents were afraid you would cut you make a snap bracelet.

18th You were inspired by Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court judge, Sally Ride, the first female astronaut and Geraldine Ferraro, the first (and as of this writing only) female running mate.

19th Bike horror movie sequels on Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers took a lot of your time.

20th You loved the opposite sketches and green slime on you can not do it on television.

21st You played Atari, Intellivision, Sega, Nintendo and Calico until your hands went numb.