The ParachutePants Award Your recollection of the 1980s. 80s culture, 80s politics, 80s hair, how you had that big crush on John Taylor from Duran Duran ...it's up to you.
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the 80s weren't the best time for me. i did, however, believe that i would marry John Cougar Mellencamp, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, John Bon Jovi, and Madonna (in no certain order). i had big hair and even bigger pants (tight rolled at the ankle, no less).

a special memory of the 80s is that it was the decade i both lost my virginity and was introduced to porn - though the two really aren't connected. i am glad i am on a first name basis with the porn industry. i'm not one of those feminists who decry sex as revolutionary. i do have certain reservations, but as a consenting adult i like to partake of nude sex fests every once in a while. anyway, my grandmother first introduced it to us via her semi-hidden collection of nude postcards.

now, my grandmother is in a league all her own. from a young woman she was fascinated with the female body and began collecting these "nudie cards" (as she calls them). she has tons of them and my sisters and i, being great snoops, stumbled upon them while rifling through her things during the summer of '86.

woah! i was only ten at the time, but damn if i didn't like what i saw. from then on my sister and i would stay up late to watch skin flicks on cable. we'd sneak into the bathroom at my aunt's house to bury ourselves in my uncle's playboy collection. anything and everything we could see, we found a way to. it was a supremely visual experience. my younger sister, only six at the time of that first encounter, has carried her love for the industry much further than i. this includes boxes of tapes and sexual aides.

i guess for most the 80s were a time of innocence and bad fashion sense. i had those too. i had an 'off the wall' poster, alternating layers of socks, la gear with two different color laces, stonewashed jeans. i watched growing pains, the cosby show, and the facts of life. i did all those things. but, when the lights were out, i turned it to cinemax, put the volume on low, and immersed myself in the world of sexual abandon.