I was very young for the 80s- the Stranger Things kids would have been "the big kids" to me- so a great deal of it happened- in some cases literally- way above my head. I was mature enough to be aware of Reagan's presidency, and processed the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union in the 90s as a teen through the very vague lens of what the Cold War had been.
Long after the fact, I studied his presidency and his performance thereof quite a bit, and hung a lot more facts on the memories of a guy talking on TV. He is one of my most-respected and liked former Presidents.
I remembered my parents talking about Iran Contra, and I remember the pop culture that was able to filter down to a preteen kid: Star Wars, the video game revolution, the advent of home computers, the incredible pride and success in our space program (and with it, watching the Challenger disaster live in school).
It was unquestionably a tumultuous time for the world, but I don't remember a sense that it was a tumultuous time for the future of the US. There was no sense in the air, to me, that any sort of apocalypse loomed beyond war with the Soviets or that we were impossibly divided in any clearly visible way.
Anyway, those were my thoughts when I watched that. I see it now through adult eyes, and it all weighs very differently than it did.
Was in the military stationed in Germany when Reagan said, "Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!". We were all cheering and some of us had tears in our eyes. I still get chills when I think about it to this very day. Yes, Reagan was a flawed human just like all of them are, but even if it was in rhetoric only, I never felt like he wanted to destroy America like most of the other so-called "leaders" we've had since.
I was very young for the 80s- the Stranger Things kids would have been "the big kids" to me- so a great deal of it happened- in some cases literally- way above my head. I was mature enough to be aware of Reagan's presidency, and processed the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union in the 90s as a teen through the very vague lens of what the Cold War had been.
Long after the fact, I studied his presidency and his performance thereof quite a bit, and hung a lot more facts on the memories of a guy talking on TV. He is one of my most-respected and liked former Presidents.
I remembered my parents talking about Iran Contra, and I remember the pop culture that was able to filter down to a preteen kid: Star Wars, the video game revolution, the advent of home computers, the incredible pride and success in our space program (and with it, watching the Challenger disaster live in school).
It was unquestionably a tumultuous time for the world, but I don't remember a sense that it was a tumultuous time for the future of the US. There was no sense in the air, to me, that any sort of apocalypse loomed beyond war with the Soviets or that we were impossibly divided in any clearly visible way.
Anyway, those were my thoughts when I watched that. I see it now through adult eyes, and it all weighs very differently than it did.
Was in the military stationed in Germany when Reagan said, "Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!". We were all cheering and some of us had tears in our eyes. I still get chills when I think about it to this very day. Yes, Reagan was a flawed human just like all of them are, but even if it was in rhetoric only, I never felt like he wanted to destroy America like most of the other so-called "leaders" we've had since.