Let's Go Back to Fourth of July 1983

Just take a moment to step back in time with me.

Hop into my minivan. Aren't the wood panels cool? Don't spill your beer, please use the window cup holders.
Let's run into Walmart for some food before we hit the firework show. First let's get some gas, we can fill up for .95 cents a gallon.
Don't forget to get a bottle of pop from the machine. They are in glass and made with pure healthy sugar.

Isn't Walmart amazing, almost everything is Made in the USA, so tired of seeing made in Hong Kong or Taiwan! Sam Walton is my hero. I'm going to pick up a pair of Jelly shoes, they are only $3 bucks. Don't get eggs on this trip, the government says they are bad for our health. Don't get the generic chips in black in white either, everyone will think we are poor.

Let's hurry to the fireworks show to get a good spot. It's so fun to see everyone. I have chills running down my spine as the National Anthem is playing and everyone is singing it and has their hand over their heart. We are all one people. Two guys got into a pretty big arguement over a girl. They beat each other up pretty good and the coppers just looked the other way as usual. When will they do something about these troublemakers?

On the way home let's stop at pizza hut. I am craving some good pizza and it's so cozy there. Then let's light off our fireworks with the neighbors.
God I love this country.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Isn't Walmart amazing, almost everything is Made in the USA, so tired of seeing made in Hong Kong or Taiwan! Sam Walton is my hero.

He shouldn't be, he opened a buying office in Hong Kong 2 years before your thread date. He also personally oversaw the sourcing of cheap imported garbage during the 80's that is now ubiquitous throughout the chain.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

He shouldn't be, he opened a buying office in Hong Kong 2 years before your thread date. He also personally oversaw the sourcing of cheap imported garbage during the 80's that is now ubiquitous throughout the chain.

Get out of my bubble, i'm telling it just like I remember and in 1983 almost everything in there was Made in the USA.
Maybe he did have plans to change that but at that moment in time it had not reached the stores. Also this is from the point of view of that time only, not knowing what we know now, duh!

Are you not old..........enough to remember?

a reply to: JAGStorm

I was stationed in England then.

Probably partying in London.

Ironic, eh

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: JAGStorm

I was stationed in England then.

Probably partying in London.

Ironic, eh

We were stationed in Germany and had just came back to the US. That is why this image is burnt in my memory.
I remember my family walking through Walmart and being blown away by the "Made in USA" tags on almost everything.
We were shocked how cheap everything was too.

Ps.. Partying in Soho?

a reply to: JAGStorm

Nah.

Hippodrome downtown or the local pubs I grew up with.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I was 13 and over in the UK were I live, but it was pretty much the same here, cheaper, better quality and healthier.

It was the decade that good food died, it has been downhill since then, the wheat in the bread does not taste the same, the chocolate bars are smaller and made with nasty ingredients and much more greasy (Back then we still had REAL English chocolate and REAL Mars Bars and Marathons - Snickers to you in the US but they were different and more than twice the size - or maybe that is just my hands were half as large haha).

Everything was mostly made here as it was there, Electronic good's from Japan were beginning to make big inroads though and many of our own brand's were starting to compete, The Tory Government of the time in the UK under Margarette Thatcher started to erode food standards and took away protectionism from our nation so that our company's could ditch there well paid UK employees more easily and relocate to Asia like happened with the US.

A great time and a bad time.

But happy fourth o July to you all, just gone into the fifth of July over here in Blighty about 5 minutes ago now though.


Same with the pop (fizzy drink's Pop in the UK is slang) was in glass bottles, so was milk and it tasted a whole world better, the plastic has tainted the taste but what is worse we got used to it and now look at all the microplastics in nature.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Maybe he did have plans to change that but at that moment in time it had not reached the stores.

They were importing cheap garbage in 1981.

a reply to: JAGStorm

America 1980's

Real America Baby!

a reply to: JAGStorm

I want to go back here:

The Living God had just spoken to me for the first time in my life. He gave me a command. To remove partying and sin from my life. I was with my fiancée, and we weren't drinking or on any drugs when he spoke to me. He spoke over the top of my thoughts at the same time as I was thinking about Him. He spoke over my thoughts in a booming voice. I couldn't hear my own thoughts. He gave a command. I was amazed. My fiancée could see a glow in my face. I zoomed to my parents home and told them. My dad is like Mr. Spock on Star Trek, without emotion ever. This time I saw a tear in his eye. My mom was very happy. As we stood there rejoicing, there was a knock on the door. It was the pastor of their church. He had walked for miles from his home. My dad answered the door, and the Pastor said " I don't know why I'm here, I just know that I was to come here now". It was the Living God that sent him. No one else knew. He came in and we all held hands in the kitchen, and he prayed, and thanked God for this special miracle in my life. He baptized me and my fiancée shortly there after.

Thanks for the memories Hon!

MJ - Billie Jean (Maxi Extended Rework Finest House Club Edit) [1983 HQ]

Tangerine Dream Love On A Real Train (1983)

Blue Oyster Cult - Take Me Away (1983)

a reply to: XtheMadnessNow



That’s right can’t forget the music.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Just take a moment to step back in time with me.

Hop into my minivan. Aren't the wood panels cool? Don't spill your beer, please use the window cup holders.
Let's run into Walmart for some food before we hit the firework show. First let's get some gas, we can fill up for .95 cents a gallon.
Don't forget to get a bottle of pop from the machine. They are in glass and made with pure healthy sugar.

Isn't Walmart amazing, almost everything is Made in the USA, so tired of seeing made in Hong Kong or Taiwan! Sam Walton is my hero. I'm going to pick up a pair of Jelly shoes, they are only $3 bucks. Don't get eggs on this trip, the government says they are bad for our health. Don't get the generic chips in black in white either, everyone will think we are poor.

Let's hurry to the fireworks show to get a good spot. It's so fun to see everyone. I have chills running down my spine as the National Anthem is playing and everyone is singing it and has their hand over their heart. We are all one people. Two guys got into a pretty big arguement over a girl. They beat each other up pretty good and the coppers just looked the other way as usual. When will they do something about these troublemakers?

On the way home let's stop at pizza hut. I am craving some good pizza and it's so cozy there. Then let's light off our fireworks with the neighbors.
God I love this country.

July 4th, 1983...



YDFC

Hell JAGStorm great thread, thinking about that makes me a bit melancholy, for a number of reasons.

Makes me wonder?

knowing what you know now, what would each of us change about your life's trajectory that could make more of a difference?

would you even make a change?

I don't know what we could change? had the die already been cast?

Even if we knew then how would one go about making a change?

I'm not sure if every member of ATS knew and agreed we needed to keep our manufacturing here way back in 1983, there could have been anything we could have done collectively to change it. The US textile and apparel industry was already headed that way.

I always thought there were plenty of people that believe our downfall was Nixon visiting China.

Back then I was 8 years old and I didn't care where my ABA bed sheets were made? but even the adults in the 70's in it's infancy how could they have foreseen all that's happened.

We can see the connections now, but no telling what then seemed like no big deal, morphed into the mess we have now.

It's okay to buy stuff from China, but certain politicians seem to have sold our souls over the years, but even then remember the excess of the 80s we seemed invincible

a reply to: JAGStorm

1983.
I was 8 years old, living in a town close to the biggest GM factory in Europe . Almost all men in town worked there. There, or at the docks, as my dad. I remember my dad taking me there to go look at the ships. Big American ships loading and unloading goods from the US. Like my Mattel dream Barbie. I used to take it with me everywhere, play with it in the back of my dads car: a big white Mustang. Everyone was jealous at that car, everyone wanted one. I just wanted the Barbie Dream house and Cadillac. I remember for my birthday, I asked my mom if we could go to Disney land. America! My friends dad went to America that year, over there the doctors cured his cancer. They couldn't do that over here yet.
Back then, for us kids America was the land where dreams came true, where Mickey and Mini lived and Barbie came from... and my dads car. I promised myself that when I grew up I was going to visit America and bring back a pair of All Stars!!
(I never got there)
The 4th of July was something we only knew from the movies and the stars and stripes sparked our imagination.


It used to be great over there, watching from this side of the ocean

a reply to: putnam6

It's okay to buy stuff from China, but certain politicians seem to have sold our souls over the years, but even then remember the excess of the 80s we seemed invincible

One thing you have to say though the 80's were definitely the best decade of them all though the people who lived through the 50's and 60's will argue about that.

The 80's were made by the decisions in government, by the people and by the corporations in the 70's, the 90's were made in the 80's and the 2000's were made in the 90's etc.

We can see each decades government in our nations by what happened to our nations in the following decade.

So whatever problems existed in the 70's it was the decisions of policy makers during that decade that gave rise to the 80's, it is really them warts and all that we have to thank for the 80's and the policy makers of the 80's that we really should be blaming for anything that went wrong in the 90's and on from there.

The US of A was definitely the place to be, to dream of being and were the future was being made in the 80's.

Some of the best movies, some of the best actors and back then the PC crowd was not a thing, actress were still beautiful instead of plain (awful) actors were still handsome (instead of effeminate) and singers could still sing instead of needing a full digital mixing studio to make there voices sound good.


Bring back the 80's, the early 80's.

Of course other parts of the world may not have had it so good back then.

a reply to: LABTECH767

The US of A was definitely the place to be, to dream of being and were the future was being made in the 80's.

I fogot the most important part, come over to my house and let's play Atari on a COLOR Tv.

a reply to: LABTECH767

RE the chocolate. I haven't checked the ingredients but that makes sense now.... Growing up in Europe in the 80s the Cadbury and Mars tasted so good. Now when I go to an import shop and buy them on occasion they do not have the rich flavour I remember. Yeah, there's the part where I don't like sweets really now as an adult, but I am sure the taste is truly much less 'consistent'

a reply to: JAGStorm

Atari 800, it was the decade though over in the UK most dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum home computers that were really just game consoles that loaded from cassette (took ages but I remember watching the loading screen on my mates I sadly never had one at that time - it was like magic but too so very long to load) but I was very sad to see those old mark's die out, Atari should still be around and I am sure someone ran that into the ground deliberately, that or they were idiot's, Commodore as well but Sinclair's computers were an oddity, they were great because they were cheap but while they were big in the UK failed to gain as much global appeal and other company's outpaced them.

chris_stibrany

I blame the switch in Sugar types and of course the use of hydrogenated vegetable oils that became ever more prevalent (especially Palm Oil).

Basically it was once quality that ruled now it is cost of production and making as much profit as possible for the parent company.

They used to taste so much better back in the 70's, even as a Kid I noticed in the 80's how the taste changed when they moved from paper wrapping to plastic wrapping and had it on good authority from my mother whom was born in 1933 that when she was young they were even better than when I was a small child.

I was never really a Cadbury's fan but they have suffered even more since that brand was sold off to the Kraft.

So it is not just one type of bar, you know the US never had the same Mars Bars as we did there has almonds in them, ours had a soft nougat which was harder than it is now back then, a salted caramel layer on top of that and was coated in a once far nicer and cocoa rich milk chocolate.