This month marks 40 years since I graduated from high school. How is that even possible? So in honor of the occasion, I thought I’d show all the young ones out there what the mid-1980s were really like, at least in Texas! (Forgive the photo quality. It was a long time ago and they’ve been in photo albums for 40 years!)
Big Hair
Yep. Big hair was even bigger in Texas! And when your hair is naturally wavy and there are not yet straightening irons, it’s even bigger on many days. Now my hair wasn’t long, mind you, becuase I’d done a crazy thing a couple of years earlier and cut it all off. But it was finally growing out some by graduation!
Graduation Teas
Are these still a thing? Most of the girls I ran with had one or sometimes two! It was a dress up affair, only girls, sometimes at a restaurant, sometimes at a home. Usually hosted by aunts or grandmothers or even close friends of the girl’s mom. Two of my friends had an Aloha party just for the girls.
But life in the 1980s wasn’t just different in clothing, hair, and traditions. It amazes me to think back on technology—or lack therof!
Phones in the house with cords
No cell phones. Not even cordless phones. And only in the house! (Except for my aunt, who did have a phone in her Cadillac! But even that was built in withe a cord!) We did, however, have an answering machine. (Like voicemail, but you could only get the message when you were at home and pushed the button to hear it, in case you don’t know.) This was becoming crucial in our lives—leaving a message if we called someone who wasn’t home, because, of course, there was no caller id, either.
Mapsco
I was a horror with directions in high school. (I’m not great with directions now, to be honest.) My only hope was someone in the passenger seat of my car with a Mapsco of our city. What was Mapsco? A grided map spiral bound. You could find the street number and name in the index.It would tell you what page and grid coordinates to go to. Of course, to find your current location, you might have to navigate several pages back or ahead. Needless to say, I’m so thankful for GPS on my phone!
Pay phones
No cell phones meant you always needed to carry change in your purse or call in case you had trouble and needed to make a phone call. I remember the cost went up sometime between when I started driving and when I graduated from twenty cents to a quarter.
Cash
See above! I don’t ever remember carrying a credit card or debit card (was there even such a thing?). What I did have was an ATM card so I could get cash. We even paid cash (or check) for gas in those days.
Typewriters
No laptops. Few computers for home use. Although we did have one at our house for my dad’s business. (Texas Instruments brand, I believe.) So I was very lucky to receive from my parents a portable electric typewriter to take to college. That meant I could write my papers in my room instead of going to a typing lab. There was a computer labs on campus, but few people used them for word processing at that point.
I can’t believe how much of life has changed in forty years. Of course, when I crossed the stage and accepted my high school diploma, I had no idea that the biggest change in my life would happen a couple weeks later when I went to Washgington D.C. to do a summer internship. There I met Jeff. Our summer romance is still going strong 40 years later.
What has changed in the world since you graduated from high schoool?
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My daughter and I were just talking this morning about the differences between my high school experience and hers. I can relate to everything you mentioned (except the graduation teas–we didn’t have those out in California). I loved this post!Oh, how things have changed.
Crazy how much change we’ve seen! So many things my kids don’t have any clue what I mean, let alone my grandkids!
I love this! Although I’m a’77 grad myself, I grew up just north of you so you’d think we’d have a few high school traditions in common, especially something as festive as an Aloha party. My mom hosted a graduation lunch for me and my close friends, but sadly, no leis were present.
Yes, those were my “fun” friends. Mine was a more sedate “tea/luncheon.”
I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s and remember some of those electronics in later versions/models! Electronic typewriters were on their way out in the 1990s as more desktop PCs came on the market. Answering machines got smaller and didn’t need cassettes then were gone by the 2000s.
It’s crazy how quickly answering machines came, changed, and left!
Oh, my! You’re making me feel OLD, D’Ann! (And I’m 10 years older than you!) 🙂
Sorry about that, Deb! 😂