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MEMORY TESTED

Australia has been forced to follow on in the Fourth Test against England, the first time since 1988 such shame has been visited on the national team. In 1988:

* Bob Hawke was into his fifth year as Australian Prime Minister

* Australians recoiled from the hideous anthem (“celebration of a nation!”) coined to mark our bicentennial

* Allan Border was Australia’s cricket captain

* Ronald Reagan was US President

* Pan-Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland

* Hawthorn defeated Melbourne to win the AFL Grand Final (Note: corrected)

* And I was in my first year of journalism. That’s how long ago was 1988, youngsters! Please list, in order to distract from the awful cricket, your personal 1988 memories.

UPDATE. Hit comments to read the many fascinating recollections. This “remember when?” deal might become a regular feature.

Posted by Tim B. on 08/27/2005 at 06:39 AM
  1. i started school…its a memory i’m trying to repress

    Posted by peecee on 2005 08 27 at 07:48 AM • permalink

  2. That was the year I got my first real job, as a political staffer (for a moonbat MP, since I was a moonbat at the time).

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 08 27 at 08:02 AM • permalink

  3. Starting school and Expo 88. What a year.

    Posted by AnthonyC on 2005 08 27 at 08:13 AM • permalink

  4. I won a scholarship to my high school.  Nothing I’ve ever done, before or since, legal or illegal, has given me such a high.

    Posted by PJ on 2005 08 27 at 08:19 AM • permalink

  5. If you can remember 1988, you weren’t there.

    Hawthorn defeated Melbourne in the Grand Final, not Geelong.

    Posted by ilibcc on 2005 08 27 at 08:20 AM • permalink

  6. I was an intern.

    Posted by captain on 2005 08 27 at 08:22 AM • permalink

  7. I was only 4. I think I remember eating a mandarin. Or it could have been an Orange.

    Posted by Gruntled on 2005 08 27 at 08:49 AM • permalink

  8. The Chamberlains were aquitted.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 08 27 at 08:51 AM • permalink

  9. Some passengers had a flight they’d rather forget:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Flight_243

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 08 27 at 08:56 AM • permalink

  10. 1988? I’d started full time employment at a Kmart. An ignoble career start for someone who has gone on to achieve the dizzy heights of professional time waster and nay-sayer.

    In 1988, Matthew Hayden was playing better schoolboy cricket than he is today as a highly paid professional sportsman representing Australia.

    Posted by CB on 2005 08 27 at 08:58 AM • permalink

  11. USS Missouri visted Sydney as part of the Bicentennial celebrations.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 08 27 at 09:04 AM • permalink

  12. I played in a losing Grand Final in Kalgoorlie in 1988. Also, during half-time in the VFL Grand Final, Ben Johnson won the 100 meters at Seoul.

    Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 08 27 at 09:19 AM • permalink

  13. Halabja…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

    Posted by Forester on 2005 08 27 at 09:23 AM • permalink

  14. ‘88?

    I turned 8 that year.

    On the 8th day of the 8th month

    Posted by RhikoR on 2005 08 27 at 09:33 AM • permalink

  15. ‘88 It was a very bad year for me personally..

    Winter olympics in Calgary (where I was living at the time) , but I had to take a temp. job working on a pipeline up north and missed the whole thing. Damn it all to hell , I also missed out on all those eurochicks.

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 09:50 AM • permalink

  16. Ben Johnson caught cheating was also very disappointing.

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 09:57 AM • permalink

  17. Please ,let us not speak of “1988” ever again!

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 10:00 AM • permalink

  18. In fact lets wipe the “80’s” out of our collective memories.

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 10:02 AM • permalink

  19. A bad divorce, crap music, plus other unspeakable things. Thanks Tim for the flood of memories.

    Yea thanks a hell of a lot.

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 10:05 AM • permalink

  20. Oh well back to the therapist’s couch.

    Posted by Quidnunc Savant on 2005 08 27 at 10:06 AM • permalink

  21. My wife and I married. We bought our first house together. I had two knee surgeries.

    Posted by swassociates on 2005 08 27 at 10:13 AM • permalink

  22. In ‘88 we finally got the PAL releases of Metroid and Castlevania, in Japan, Super Mario Bros 3 and Final Fantasy 2 came out, the golden age of gaming had truly begun.

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 08 27 at 10:28 AM • permalink

  23. Kylie Minogue hit the the top 10 with “I Should be So Lucky”, thereby confirming Australia as the Philistine capital of the entire world.
    Barnesy was screeching something, but we could always claim he came from Glasgow, and dodge the pointing fingers and giggles.

    All was saved in the early days of 1989 when AB (Alan Border) took 7/46 off the West Indies with his left arm orthodox spinners (including Viv Richards) thus initiating the push for his Sainthood.
    The bloody Pope refused for some reason, probably a Windies supporter.

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2005 08 27 at 10:37 AM • permalink

  24. Osama bin Laden founded Al-Qaida.

    We got mortgaged and pregnant to make the most of the ‘recession we had to have’.

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2005 08 27 at 10:59 AM • permalink

  25. acquired a house without a mortgage sort of by accident, & spent hard earned cash misered away to put a deposit on a flat on a monstrous rampaging tour of europe instead

    one of the best years ever

    Posted by KK on 2005 08 27 at 11:20 AM • permalink

  26. Reagan was President, the economy was booming, the Soviet Empire was commencing upon its trip to the “dustbin of history”, the tropical fruit trees I had planted three years before (I lived in Miami at the time) brought forth a bountiful crop, and I bought the mighty Chevy Suburban which is still going strong. A great year (though, yeah, the music stunk, but as a big band aficionado, ‘80’s pop music didn’t concern me).

    Posted by paco on 2005 08 27 at 11:33 AM • permalink

  27. Thanks for the memories…still ill from a chlordane poisoning by a scumlord, my weakened immune system succumbed to chicken pox from my five yr old and a relapse a few months later brought about my resignation from law school…. ah, ‘88, I remember…..

    Posted by duh on 2005 08 27 at 11:44 AM • permalink

  28. Bought the house I presently live in, my daughter who graduated college this past May started Kindergarten, my younger daughter, presently in college, was two years old. My hair, now Executive Silver, was dark brown. In 1988 I still wore a Saddam moustache (shaved in ‘96). And in 1988 I was a leftist who believed everything I read in the New York Times and hated Reagan. It just shows there is always a possibility of redemption and illumination.

    Posted by Latino on 2005 08 27 at 11:46 AM • permalink

  29. - Metallica.
    - Guns ‘n’ Roses.
    - The egg-farm shop painting all their eggs blue and yellow whenever the Parramatta Eels made the semis.
    - Stealing music still involved dodging store-security.
    - Unbelievably awe-inspiring skills at handball.
    - Decent skills at Tackle Bullrush.
    - Puberty kicking in.

    - And my strangest memory is that of Steve Carfeno (then captain of the Sydney Kings basketball team) visiting my school.  He was the first African person I’d ever seen in the flesh, and due to a steady diet of Hollywood films, the whole grade assumed that he would be approximately 6’9” (he’s not - by a long shot).  I raised my hand, and earnestly asked him why he was shorter than my dad!

    - That last point naturally reminds me of getting Lunchtime Detentions….

    Posted by ekb87 on 2005 08 27 at 12:14 PM • permalink

  30. Got married for the 4th time. That was the start of a 6 year roller coaster ride I will never forget… or regret. I have a tendency to remember the good stuff more than the bad. “May you live in interesting times.”

    Posted by Franklin on 2005 08 27 at 12:23 PM • permalink

  31. I raced in a triathlon against Lance Armstrong… and lost by 29 minutes (but by only 4 minutes on the bike leg!). I was not alone, however: I finished 43rd out of 650 starters.

    Oh, yeah. I also lost my virginity that year.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 27 at 12:32 PM • permalink

  32. Lived in -Mexico City Beach, FL-to get away from the paper mill smells-{paper mills smell like that Camp Crazy Hippie Tent…}

    Had two Bouvier des Flandres dogs-on a beach where it was illegal to walk dogs-was pregnant-the condo was on peers and some cracker police officer would sit in his car all night eating donuts-wait for me to sneek out at night to walk the dogs-and flash his headlights on me-every frappin’ night-no joke.

    The ex-was in the AF-and off driving his vet…

    Moved that year to Mid-West City OK-he lost me in Biloxi, Mississippi and had all the money, the diapers, the dogs, and the key to my gas cap….

    I stopped by the Louisiana State Troopers office to ask for help locating him-and they said-

    “Honey he has done left yoooouuuuuuu!!!!”-

    “Earl come hear this stooooorrrrryy- right here!”

    And Earl said-

    “Ma’m he has dooooone leeeeefffffttt you.”

    Well -eighteen years later they are right-

    Shat Tim-“thanks for the memories”-really.

    Posted by madawaskan on 2005 08 27 at 12:35 PM • permalink

  33. Spiny, if you spent more time training and less time losing your virginity, maybe you would have beat him!  Just kidding.  ;-)

    Posted by ekb87 on 2005 08 27 at 12:36 PM • permalink

  34. PS-

    Please list, in order to distract from the awful cricket.

    And your all scared of some ugly grasshopper…

    Posted by madawaskan on 2005 08 27 at 12:39 PM • permalink

  35. OH PIMF
    bad memories-lead to bad grammar

    You’re all scared of some “awful” insect.

    Posted by madawaskan on 2005 08 27 at 12:40 PM • permalink

  36. Funny you should say that, ekb87, because the reason I got in shape for that stuff was to impress the girls! And it worked to some extent…

    ;^)

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 27 at 12:43 PM • permalink

  37. I for some reason created a short list of compound nouns on the model of ``wrongdoing’‘

    $ ls -l wrongdoing
    -rw-r—r—  1 rhh       1226 Mar 17 1988 wrongdoing

    $ cat wrongdoing
    lovemaking watchmaking faultfinding shipbuilding warmongering wrongdoing photoengraving lawmaking thanksgiving housekeeping housecleaning joyriding waygoing brainwashing drumbeating speedboating sleepwalking glassblowing stockjobbing ropedancing haircutting typewriting bookmaking streetwalking woolgathering headhunting homemaking wildfowling breadwinning logrolling woodcutting skywriting mudslinging bearbaiting housewarming outcrossing featherbedding lifesaving foldboating bloodletting seafaring glassmaking soapmaking wainscoting paperhanging peacemaking stonecutting billposting beekeeping shadowboxing theatergoing hairdressing sharpshooting shoplifting minesweeping dressmaking wiredrawing linebreeding fellmongering typefounding lipreading matchmaking timekeeping strikebreaking goldbeating trapshooting bookbinding rainmaking safekeeping diesinking sheepshearing prizefighting gaingiving moonlighting toolmaking housebreaking landholding bushwhacking gunslinging almsgiving cheeseparing painstaking evildoing
    childbearing stargazing pacemaking soothsaying waterproofing metalworking homecoming bookkeeping cabinetmaking upbringing woodworking gunrunning playacting baserunning heartburning sheepherding cornhusking

    An unsatisfactory list; ``wrongdoing’’ strikes me as an amusing word, and most of these don’t.  Morphology is not enough!

    Can the project be continued now?  Why is ``wrongdoing’’ amusing where these are not?  The secret of being an amusing word is to be found

    Posted by rhhardin on 2005 08 27 at 01:06 PM • permalink

  38. In January of ‘88 I was in the middle of bootcamp and wanting my mommy and daddy.

    Posted by Donnah on 2005 08 27 at 02:05 PM • permalink

  39. -I got married to my 1st wife
    -I finished my 1st enlistment in the Army
    -I started my 1st year of college
    -I beagn to 1st ponder how I ended up married to that THING!
    Arrrrrghhhhh…...

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2005 08 27 at 02:13 PM • permalink

  40. As a long time English reader of this web log, I thought I would register and make my first comment.

    England 477 v Australia 218 & 222-4 (f-o)

    Posted by fatcat on 2005 08 27 at 02:15 PM • permalink

  41. I turned 6 that year.

    Posted by chrisbg99 on 2005 08 27 at 02:25 PM • permalink

  42. Where’s Andrea when you need her?

    1988 I finished school, officially. Unofficially I had been finished for a long time before that.

    Posted by Scott W on 2005 08 27 at 02:35 PM • permalink

  43. Hmmm, 1988.  I remember seeing Warren Zevon at the Bayou in D.C.

    Damn, wish the fool had had the common sense to give up the cancer sticks.

    Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2005 08 27 at 02:52 PM • permalink

  44. - The media was trying to convince me to vote for Michael Dukakis in my first Presidental election.

    Posted by Andrew on 2005 08 27 at 03:39 PM • permalink

  45. I was 36 in 1988; I’d just had my fourth child in January of that year.  That summer was one of the most hellishly hot I’d experienced up until that time and we had no air-conditioning, just a few window fans.  The kids and I spent a lot of time singing ``Good King Wenceslas’’ - it’s all about snow and ice and freezing temperatures, and that seemed to help somewhat.

    That was also the year the Chicago Cubs played their first night games at home.  If I remember correctly the first game under the lights was on August 8, and it was washed out by torrential rains.  They put down a tarp on the field and a couple of the younger players (Doug Dascenzo was one) got in some trouble for using the tarp as a giant Slip-n-slide. 

    And Andrew, thanks for reminding us:  1988 was the year for Michael Dukakis in a tank.  Priceless.

    Posted by Sonetka's Mom on 2005 08 27 at 03:48 PM • permalink

  46. The first Presidential election I was old enough to remember following.  Lloyd Bentsen telling Dan Quayle “You’re no Jack Kennedy” in the VP debate.  Ann Richards drawling “Poor George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth” at the Democratic convention.  Wille Horton, the criminal allowed to commit murder (or was it rape?) by Michael Dukakis’s revolving-door prison policies (and the charges that the attack ad was somehow racist).  Dukakis, a helmet strapped to his head, looking like the goofiest idiot ever to attempt to look natural in a military vehicle—and the “America can’t afford that risk” ad that used the footage.

    Dukakis overwhelmingly triumphed in our third grade class poll.  Then on election night I experienced, at age 8, my first alcoholic buzz—my parents opened a bottle of champagne when Bush won.  The next day at school we handful of young Republicans gloated.

    Meanwhile, my sister averted tragedy by scheduling her flight home from England early; she was in the same study-abroad program as the students killed on Pan Am 103.

    Posted by John Tabin on 2005 08 27 at 03:59 PM • permalink

  47. 1988?

    I just seem to remember spending to much time in a strip….umm, I mean Gentleman’s Club!

    Nicole. Best butt, ever.

    Posted by rinardman on 2005 08 27 at 05:06 PM • permalink

  48. I was in 6th grade and 1988 was possibly the worst year of my life.

    Posted by Sortelli on 2005 08 27 at 05:17 PM • permalink

  49. Bought my first CD player… a Sony portable.

    First CD? YES “90125”... still awesome. Second CD? RUSH “Moving Pictures”... ditto.

    Posted by der FRED on 2005 08 27 at 05:20 PM • permalink

  50. I acquired my FIRST computer, a PC clone, second-hand for $5,000 AUD, with no hard drive at all, just two floppy (and I mean FLOPPY) drives, one for MsDOS 1.3 I think, and the other for whatever programme you were attempting to run.

    A green on black monitor, a dot matrix printer, and 256 Kb of RAM (yes, that’s Kb, not Mb).

    That was it, I was hooked forever.

    Posted by Kaboom on 2005 08 27 at 05:42 PM • permalink

  51. In 1988, living in Seattle.  1988, the last year that Seattle was a great place to live.  Soon came the swarm, mostly from California, but also the East Coast.  Needless to say that Seattle promptly started to go downhill.

    Posted by David Crawford on 2005 08 27 at 05:45 PM • permalink

  52. I had a ball in 1988. I turned 21, and my parents gave me a choice: I could have a present or a party.

    Needless to say I chose the party. Of 72 people expected to turn up, there were two no-shows. They got lost somewhere between The Basin and Melton. For those of you who are unaware of suburban Melbourne, in those days before freeways, that’s about a 2 hour journey. Each way.

    I had the dodgiest perm ever. I cringe just thinking about it, and my dad was horrified when he saw my party dress. Unfortunately, I’ve still got all the photos.

    I do remember Lockerbie, but the rest of the year was pretty much an alcohol-induced blur.

    I spent money on flights to Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville, drove to Adelaide, Mildura and Canberra for the hell of it. Bought lots of clothes and shoes, too.

    That was the year before meeting Idiot Features aka the Neanderthal in Shining Armour (aka a lot of other unprintable names), which led onto the worst 5 years of my life. lol The calm before the storm.


    Oh, and I’ve never had a perm since. It is verboten in my world.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 08 27 at 05:54 PM • permalink

  53. fatcat

    This is one ‘Staylyin who’s pleased about the resurgence of English cricket; if only because I’m sick of hating people who are essentially pathetic.

    Posted by murph on 2005 08 27 at 06:02 PM • permalink

  54. Re #40
    That hurt Fatcat.

    Posted by Harold on 2005 08 27 at 06:10 PM • permalink

  55. Nilknarf,
    Nick still has my provisional driver’s licence picture with my dodgy 1988 perm too.

    He won’t let me get rid of it (the licence that is, not the perm…)

    —Nora

    1988:
    - Nora and I started dating
    - A ‘good’ friend died in an accident in January and by August his circle of acquaintances were having an extended ‘Big Chill’ experience as they compared notes and suddenly realised what a Machiavellian shit he’d actually been.
    - Yes, Expo 88 in Brisbane. Anyone who remembers the way people used to run through the gates when they opened in the morning will be amused to know that at least one Expo-goer, fixated by the thought of being first in line for the NZ Pavilion, ran straight into the reflecting pool which was flush with the floor of the extrance concourse.

    Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 08 27 at 06:12 PM • permalink

  56. Memories of 1988?

    I can’t even remember what I ate for breakfast.

    Posted by guinsPen on 2005 08 27 at 06:29 PM • permalink

  57. I was nine. I don’t remember much about it except that it was election year, which I heard about entirely from my classmates, so I didn’t know about “silver foot in his mouth” or Dukakis in a tank until years later. There was one especially obnoxious girl in my class who kept insisting that she was TOO going to be able to vote, even though she was nine years under the age limit, and on the day after the election brought in a Dukakis campaign flier to prove to us that she had voted. Nobody bought it, but she screamed and insisted that she had voted, much to everyone’s boredom. Ahh, wonder what she’s up to these days? Probably working for moveon.org, if I had to guess.

    Posted by Sonetka on 2005 08 27 at 07:03 PM • permalink

  58. 1988 - picked up a yacht delivery - Perth to Sydney - 60’ catamaran - no wind for a long time then way too much - got clobbered by the biggest nastiest line squall from the southern ocean - dragged anchors, tyres behind to slow down - then a rogue wave on the beam - survival mode - boat handled it well (pity about the crew)

    Posted by rog2 on 2005 08 27 at 07:04 PM • permalink

  59. It was my 1st presidential election too.  I voted for Papa Bush, and made the mistake of telling two idiot guys a friend and I met cruising (remember cruising?)  Of course, neither of them had voted at all, but they were sure I should have voted for Dukakis.  All I remember about him was something about needles washing up on the shore in Massachusetts.

    Posted by RK on 2005 08 27 at 07:11 PM • permalink

  60. I remember Expo 88. The only reason I went to it was for the drinking. I was up in Brissie for a fancy dress party and the Expo was on.

    About all I remember of it was the beer hall and that bloody birdy dance playing every 15 minutes.

    Sometimes, I look at what I’ve gotten up to the last 10-20 years of my life and I feel like all I’ve done is party. I know it’s not, but it sure seems that way when I go through the photos.

    Interestingly enough, people that have known me through that time feel the same way.

    I wonder if there’s a message there?

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 08 27 at 07:24 PM • permalink

  61. I remember being in Year 1 and having the teacher give us this gold coin that all the kiddies were getting as part of the Bicentenary.

    Damn if I know what I did with the bloody thing.

    Posted by Quentin George on 2005 08 27 at 07:34 PM • permalink

  62. Oh, let’s see.  I bought a 386-16 with VGA (everyone was in awe of the latter) for $3300.  I was down to the final year on paying off the Chevy Citation (besides all the repairs for that POS, of course).  My CD collection had reached 30.  I was halfway to getting My MSEE.  My car insurance went down by 2/3 because I was over 25.  I started a string of 4 elections in which I voted for a third party.

    Posted by Gary and the Samoyeds on 2005 08 27 at 07:51 PM • permalink

  63. Left a crap job, bought my first sports car with the pay increase, slurred “Under The Boardwalk” while wrapped around Nikki Nicholls at my 30th.  IT people were gods then.  John Howard was a joke then.  Paul Keating had sense and decorum then.  The perils of Memphis were still fresh in Malcolm Fraser’s mind.  Carlton still had a great side, Hawthon’s even better.

    Posted by Craig Mc on 2005 08 27 at 08:09 PM • permalink

  64. Teachers made the entire student body of Balranald Central school walk from the school several kilometres out of town as part of the bicentennial celebrations. I’ve no idea why.

    Posted by TimT on 2005 08 27 at 09:03 PM • permalink

  65. We had been in business for two years and I was lying awake at night wondering how on earth we were ever going to afford to buy a house.
    Had a fight with the landlord and ended up buying the cheapest house in town with interest rates heading for 18 percent and no idea how we were going to pay for anything.
    In one month we retire with heaps of dough, all from our own efforts. My antithesis to left wing chatterers has grown in direct correlation to my wealth and the amount of work I’ve done to achieve it while those clowns still sit around demanding handouts.

    Posted by Harold on 2005 08 27 at 09:11 PM • permalink

  66. I’m surprised by the number of those who have revealed themselves to be quite a bit younger than me.  Note to self: Time to grow up.

    Posted by murph on 2005 08 27 at 09:17 PM • permalink

  67. I had to write radio ads promoting new records by Mel & Kim, the Chantoozies, Heart and some more execrable productions I can’t remember.

    The record company let me keep the sample CDs.

    Thanks for nothing, record company.

    Posted by ilibcc on 2005 08 27 at 09:47 PM • permalink

  68. Oh yeah, how can I forget:

    Kirk Gibson hit a home run off of Dennis Eckersley that almost guarantees him a ticket to the Hall of Fame.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 08 27 at 11:29 PM • permalink

  69. I was recovering from a divorce and bankruptcy.  I had just finished my BS after taking an 18 year break between my final semester and graduation.  I met the wonderful woman who has now been my wife for almost 13 years.

    Was delivering pizzas in a ‘72 Pinto wagon I bought for $50. It had no floorboards on the driver’s side. No door handle on the passenger side, and was an ugly not-quite-lime green.  Everyone called it “the toad.”

    Took the GRE and blew it out, so I decided to go to grad school.  The rest, as they say, is history.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 08 28 at 12:05 AM • permalink

  70. Ah, the year of the junket. After the 87 crash, state tourism departments were desperate to win interstate holidaymakers. Anyone within spitting distance of a travel page was flying first class, staying five star and dining on larks’ tongues in aspic.
    Managed two tours of Tasmania, a visit to Expo, seven days on a luxury Murray River houseboat, an awesome spot of whale-watching from the Great Australian Bight and a weekend in the lighthouse keepers quarters at Cape Otway. Then they changed the rules—no more freebies.

    Posted by slatts on 2005 08 28 at 12:25 AM • permalink

  71. Tim, slightly off topic. Don’t you think right now the time for solidarity with the poms has passed ie the English badge on the front page is a tad confronting in these difficult times.

    Posted by captain on 2005 08 28 at 12:37 AM • permalink

  72. I broke, rotated and displaced my left humerus in a parachute accident, thereby picking up my ability to predict changes in the weather - not neccessarily the superpower you’d actively seek…

    Posted by Harry Buttle on 2005 08 28 at 12:50 AM • permalink

  73. The summer of ‘88 was spent by me and my girlfriend (we went out with each other for the entire four years of our university career having met up in the first term, then we split up when we left, what a shocking bloody waste!) in Wildwood NJ working on the boardwalk. It was our second summer there and I was beginning to realise it was a mistake, but it was too late to do anything about it, if we could get our twenties back I wonder how many of us would change every damn thing?

    Anyway I followed the US election in the Philly newspapers, pro Dukakis to a one. My mates and I couldn’t understand how the American people were so stupid not to see how electing Bush would be a mistake, I mean we terribly clever European students could see it so why couldn’t they?

    On a more parochial note we followed the deteriorating situation back in Northern Ireland, the IRA were embarking on their last great push to end the “Long War”, they had five tons of Semtex and AK47s imported the previous year from Ghadafi’s Libya and were going to use them. They pulled off a couple of spectaculars ok but the Brits sent in the SAS and picked off the top jockeys. This was the time of Maggie at her toughest, she’d whacked three Provies, one a woman on a mission in Gibraltar earlier in the year. She was so unconcerned about the bleatings of the liberal media that she went on to ban Sinn Fein from the airwaves (note to the Right Hon Tony Blair, you actually have to carry through on draconian legislation Tony and not just talk a good fight). By the end of the summer Gerry Adams was in secret talks with John Hume to find a way to end the conflict, 18 years later in summer 2005 the IRA finally laid down arms, it’s a long haul folks in the war against terror.

    Posted by Harry Flashman on 2005 08 28 at 12:50 AM • permalink

  74. Sonetka — If that girl said she was voting Democratic, she probably did…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 28 at 02:01 AM • permalink

  75. In 1988, in a bout of naivety, I tried to counter my nerdy image by playing bass in a Guns & Roses and Poison cover band at school. For some reason, it didn’t work…

    I also saw David Lee Roth in concert and thought that Paul Keating wasn’t doing such a bad job. How things change.

    Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 08 28 at 03:13 AM • permalink

  76. I remember Boy George, Marilyn, Human League, Devo and wasn’t Dynasty on TV then?

    Posted by Arnie on 2005 08 28 at 04:51 AM • permalink

  77. In ‘88 we moved into a house I hand built in the bush, bugger paying rent.  I spent the next 15 years commuting to the big smoke, often 12 hour days.  Despite the vehicle expenses and personal stress it all paid off.

    We eventually sold and upgraded.

    Dont regret a minute.

    Dont ever let anyone deny you your opportunity.

    Posted by rog2 on 2005 08 28 at 04:56 AM • permalink

  78. I see that my wife and daughter (Sonetka’s Mom and Sonetka, respectively) have already posted here. My view is a little different. In 1988, I wrote the manual for a C compiler for the Atari ST (gone but not forgotten); then I went to work at a Chicago teaching hospital to help design and code a clinical information system. I don’t recall much about the music; but being a classical music fan, I concur with P.J. O’Rourke when he says that all music since the 1960s sounds like someone tipped over the china cabinet. I bought my first personal computer, a Kaypro II - 64 kbytes of RAM, 2 MHz Z-80 processor. Oh, and Michael Jordan was NBA MBP for the first time.

    richard mcenroe, given that we live in Chicago, you’re probably right about Sonetka’s classmate voting. Sonetka’s grandmother probably voted too - and she’d died the previous year.

    Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2005 08 28 at 05:45 AM • permalink

  79. 1988…...ugh!  Honestly, not a good year for me.  My father died in May. 

    I worked in Chicago, lived in Des Plaines, and commuted in between by train.  And I had a relatively short commute by the local standards of that time.  I still hated it, although I finished two Army correspondence courses, and started a third, that way.  Voting the cemetary was the least of the stunts I saw pulled there.

    Fortunately, my father lived in Washington State at the time of his death, so I am certain that he has not voted since.  Although with the new Democratic Governor recently elected (a genuine twit), that might change.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 28 at 06:02 AM • permalink

  80. Correction:

    Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland by Libyan terrorists.

    It didn’t explode of it’s own accord.

    Posted by ausdiplomad on 2005 08 28 at 06:36 AM • permalink

  81. Graduated from high school. Whee.

    Posted by Patrick Chester on 2005 08 28 at 07:30 AM • permalink

  82. Something of a hiatus year for me.

    Came back to Sydney in March after 2 1/2 years in Melbourne.

    Finally bought my own skis and boots, and then barely used them.

    On starting new job in Sydney at AMP, was sent on a DB2 course, where I met the lovely Pamela. Coffee progressed to lunch, then date, which went nowhere. I blame the movie - ‘The Milagro Beanfield War’. Bloody Robert Redford and his ‘magical realism’.

    (Ran into her again in 1998 at Telstra, where I was doing Y2K-remediation on a system for which much of the original documentation had been lost - she was brought in to reconstruct it. By then I was going out with the future Mrs Dave.)

    In late 1988 began preparing for going to UK on working holiday in May ‘89. A planned one year overseas turned into nearly three: in London till August ‘90, then in Chicago till February ‘92 before returning to Sydney.

    Posted by David Morgan on 2005 08 28 at 08:00 AM • permalink

  83. What with the heavy dope smoking of the ‘60s and ‘70s - it was the only thing that made uni. tolerable - my memory didn’t return to near normal until the ‘90s so I can’t actually remember 1988. It’s probably just as well.

    Posted by J F Beck on 2005 08 28 at 08:23 AM • permalink

  84. Got a puppy, a husband, and my favorite job ever.

    Quit the job a couple of years ago, the dog died last year, but the husband is still my sweetie. At this very minute he is out foraging for Sunday morning breakfast tacos for me and our son.

    Posted by Stace on 2005 08 28 at 10:15 AM • permalink

  85. A recent Georgia Tech graduate told me one day in 1988 that he was a “fiscally conservative Democrat” and that he was voting for Dukakis. I told him a) he was a political party of one; and b) that the US would never elect an eastern liberal president. Although “co-president” Hillary may or may not disprove my thesis.

    Bought my first house that year, which became a rental and I just sold this year.

    Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 08 28 at 10:36 AM • permalink

  86. Moved back east from LA to go to grad school.  Was judged “stupid” because I wore makeup and bras (the other women flopped about under their baggy t-shirts and oatmeal-colored sweaters).  Was told I was too conservative to get a professorship anywhere in the world, because I voiced the opinion that Marxism made no practical sense.  They were right about that—got the Ph. D., but no teaching job…

    Posted by ushie on 2005 08 28 at 10:46 AM • permalink

  87. Dave Morgan,

    I was actually in New Mexico when Milagro was filming….Redford’s crew came to Taos where I was staying….

    My first clue that I had grown up….passed invites to party because I didn’t want to leave my 3/4 yr old with strangers…..I was already widowed….

    Was living there with wealthy boyfriend who had house there; turned out his oil well were drying up and his family’s bank held notes on his property so a cousin’s law firm had offered him money (forgiveness on past payments interes) to distract me from law suit against scumlord who chlordaned son and me…..
    What a decade come to think of it. Rather not remember it mostly cause of what it cost my son because of my trusting nature…Too depressing.

    He’s doing great now inspite of me so I have now to be greatful for.

    Posted by duh on 2005 08 28 at 12:07 PM • permalink

  88. Ms. Pac-Man struck a blow for women’s rights, and a young Joe Piscopo taught us how to laugh.

    Oh, wait, that was 1983.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 08 28 at 01:07 PM • permalink

  89. Widow1, jeez, I wanna give you a hug. Hang in there, girl.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 08 28 at 01:08 PM • permalink

  90. In 1988, I was banging the girlfriend of a former Buffalo Bills running back.
    There was a back-window exit at one point. 
    Sans pants.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 08 28 at 01:11 PM • permalink

  91. Dave S,

    If her name was Nichole, then you were pretty lucky to not have been caught.  Look what happened in 1995.

    Posted by David Crawford on 2005 08 28 at 02:02 PM • permalink

  92. Dave S.

    Thanks for the thought, wish it hadn’t gotten worse after that, but it did.  No one told me that standing up for your self and your rights could be so dangerous…

    During that time, before everything went straight to hell, one of my father’s RAF buddies from WWII offered to sell me his text book publishing company in London at a good price….I was reluctant to move to London as a single parent of a small child…HA! 

    Am awaiting Katrina’s wrath and hoping it finds some of these “memories”.

    Posted by duh on 2005 08 28 at 04:48 PM • permalink

  93. In 1988, all school students in Australia got a medal from Bob Hawke to celebrate “Every child wins a medal day”, or maybe it was the bicentenary, or maybe it was both?

    Hands up if anyone was a school student in Australia back then and still has their medal…

    Posted by Bleecker on 2005 08 28 at 09:37 PM • permalink

  94. Well, here goes…

    1/1/88 I got out of hospital after minor surgery.
    Worked for Telecom in Bris on LEOPARD, then on DCRIS cutover.
    My brother turned 26 on 8/8/88, I turned 30 in September.
    Nanna (Dad’s Mum) died in May, just before Mothers’ Day. Dad was then an orphan.
    Expo 88, yeah, did that. Had a stream of visitors and family from Sydney up for Expo. It was fun.
    Left alcoholic boyfriend in Brisbane, and moved in, sharing, with girlfriend’s husband’s RAAFie work-mate. (Very embarrassing when he drunkenly professed his undying love when I picked him up from RAAF Amberley mess after some piss-up or other - promply dumped him at previously mentioned girlfriend’s place, still can’t cope with that stuff!)
    Met bloke across the street who became Horace-The-Husband - now Husbastard (marrried in 1991, divorced in 2001).
    I am sure that a lot more happened, but it was soooo long ago.
    Oh, before meeting husbastard whilst single, an acquaintance I met in Sydney contacted me. He’d moved to Qld for his job and wanted to catch up. He visited and we went to the Railway pub on Downs St, Ipswich. He came back to my place, some distance from the Pub in Ippy, and put the hard word on me.
    My girlfriend, previously mentioned, asked later “How’s things going with that fellow?”
    I said “They aren’t - must have been something I said…”
    She said “What?”
    I replied “No.”

    Posted by kae on 2005 08 28 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  95. Oh. My. God.

    Kae, I worked on the DCRIS cutover here in Melbourne. How scary is that.  And when on holiday in Townsville the next year, I met a group of blokes who also worked on the DCRIS cutover. One of them was mates with a workmate of mine in Melbourne.

    Telecom/Telstra was and still is so incestuous!

    Amusingly, when I was in Brisbane during the Expo, it was basically to see a bloke I was involved with who was in the Army. Originally met him the year before at a wedding in Tallangatta of all places. Lukily, that lerv affair died before the end of 88.

    For those not in the know, Tallangatta is the backend of nowhere (most of Oz, I know). Those of us who do know, are aware that the small town is about half an hour or so east of Albury-Wodonga on the NSW-Vic border. That’s about 3 hours north of Melbourne and around 4-5 south of Sydney.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 08 29 at 07:18 AM • permalink

  96. OMG2

    I worked for Telstra, er, Telecom from 1980 to 1992 (package) and then on a few contracts in Bris in 1993, 4 and 5. I started in Bankstown Sydney in 1980 - and was depot clerk and lots of stuff in the Bankstown/Liverpool area; Bris LEOPARD centre in 1986 (moved here with a bloke, an army bloke, the alcoholic), moved to Melb in 1990 (Studley Street Installation Depot and then the part which provided phones and lines for the competition, can’t remember the name of the section, in Russell Exchange) (moved to Melb with another bloke, er, RAFFie, ex husblonde), back to Bris in 1993.

    And no, it’s not “Men in Uniform”, most of them I never saw in uniform, er, let me rephrase that…  being in the ARES I made those types of contacts, and living in that area of Sydney (near Liverpool/Holsworthy/Ingleburn) there were a lot of army blokes around. The (husband) RAFFie was a next door neighbour in Qld!!

    Posted by kae on 2005 08 29 at 06:58 PM • permalink

  97. I reckon prolly one in 5 people had worked for Telstra/Telecom… but that’s changed now.

    Posted by kae on 2005 08 29 at 07:01 PM • permalink

  98. December 14 4:17 am we went in and shut down 4ZZZ thereby setting off a hell of a year in 1989

    Posted by Just Another Bloody Lawyer on 2005 08 30 at 04:48 AM • permalink

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