I remember when… (A Poem dedicated to the 80s)

I remember when NASCAR didn’t have Truck Races,
Dale Earnhardt was still Intimidating,
Jeff Gordon had Rainbow Warriors,
And Jimmy Johnson had no championships.

I remember when dial up modem tones were a sign of opulence and progress,
When printers were dot matrix
And 3 1/2″ floppy disks were new.
When people had to use a CD from AOL to “download” the internet into their computer (because it didn’t come with a web browser).

I remember when you had to call collect,
And left a message as your name to save the recipient charges,
Waiting next to a payphone for a call back,
Because my parents were running late to pick me up from school.
Their secretary would patch me through to their desks to remind them it was time to clock out and enjoy me.

I remember when videogame characters died after three lives,
The levels got harder as the story progressed,
And you had to take turns to play Super Mario Bros.
We dreamed of the day we could have 3+ players on the same screen.

I remember Jem, The Thundercats, She-Ra, The Jetsons,
Silverhawks, Rainbow Brite and the Care Bears.

I remember LPs, 8 tracks, CRTs,
Pentium computers and RPGs with no walkthroughs.

I remember the world before cell phones and Harry Potter,
When Star Wars and Star Trek were all there was,
And when the world wasn’t a click away.

There are so many memories as a child of the 80s,
Too many to write and ignore.
If I ever could get my hands on a time machine I’d revisit those simpler days,
And the youth that saw technology explode!

Proud to remember it,
Prouder to have lived it all.