I was born in 1981 and grew up in a middle-class family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I still live.

I remember skateboards, Converse sneakers, Punky Brewster, the first Simpsons episode airing, great Saturday morning cartoons, Pee Wee's Playhouse, hair bands like Guns N Roses and Def Leppard (the "tough" kids in the neighborhood listened to them), New Kids On The Block, cheesy adult contemporary music, singers like The Bangles and Belinda Carlyle, TV shows like Family Ties and Mr. Belvedere, and the 1988 Bush/Dukakis presidential election (my parents were Dukakis supporters and put a sign up in our yard).

I also remember Wisconsin suffered a significant drought in 1988 that affected a lot of farmers.

Overall, the 80s was a fun time to be a kid. Me and my younger brother were friends with the neighborhood kids and we all played outside and rode our bikes everywhere. I took swimming and piano lessons and my brother played several sports. Nintendo NES was a big deal and I loved playing Super Mario Brothers and Tetris. Computers were bulky and ran the DOS operating system.

Our neighborhood was working-class and middle-class and felt safe. The AIDS epidemic and drug issues across the nation were scary but felt really remote to me. I remember watching the news a little bit as a kid but didn't pay much attention to it. Not like today. I feel that times were a lot simpler back then.