1982: What happened in my birth year?

Alti­jd al willen weten wat er gebeurde in het jaar van jouw geboorte? Check dan deze inter­ac­tieve pre­sen­tatie. Zelf ben ik gefab­riceerd in 1982, wat het vol­gende ver­haal oplev­ert.

In 1982, the world was a dif­fer­ent place.

There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo. Or T.co, for that mat­ter.

In 1982, the year of your birth, the top sell­ing movie was E.T. the Extra-Ter­res­tri­al. Peo­ple buy­ing the pop­corn in the cin­e­ma lob­by had glaz­ing eyes when look­ing at the poster.

Remem­ber, that was before there were DVDs. Peo­ple were indeed watch­ing movies in the cin­e­ma, and not down­load­ing them online. Imag­ine the packed seats, the laugh­ter, the excite­ment, the nov­el­ty. And most­ly all of that with­out 3D com­put­er effects.

Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The acad­e­my award for the best movie went to Gand­hi. The Oscar for best for­eign movie that year went to Volver a Empezar. The top actor was Ben Kings­ley for his role as Mohan­das Karam­c­hand Gand­hi in Gand­hi. The top actress was Meryl Streep for her role as Sophie Zaw­is­tows­ki in Sophie’s Choice. The best direc­tor? Richard Atten­bor­ough for Gand­hi.

In the year 1982, the time when you arrived on this plan­et, books were still pop­u­lar­ly read on paper, not on dig­i­tal devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The num­ber one US best­seller of the time wasE.T., The Extrater­res­tri­al by William Kotzwin­kle. Oh, that’s many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cov­er!

In 1982… William Bonin is con­vict­ed of being the Free­way Killer. AT&T agrees to divest itself into 22 sub­di­vi­sions. The low­est ever Unit­ed King­dom tem­per­a­ture of ‑27.2°C is record­ed at Brae­mar, in Aberdeen­shire Argenti­na invades the Falk­land Islands, begin­ning the Falk­land Wars. Mauno Koivis­to is elect­ed Pres­i­dent of Fin­land. Ger­man singer Nicole wins the Euro­vi­sion Song Con­test 1982 for Ger­many, with the song Ein Biss­chen Frieden By Procla­ma­tion of the Queen of Cana­da on Par­lia­ment Hill, Cana­da patri­ates its con­sti­tu­tion, gain­ing full polit­i­cal inde­pen­dence from the Unit­ed King­dom; includ­ed is the country’s first entrenched bill of rights. Israel com­pletes its with­draw­al from the Sinai Penin­su­la in accor­dance with the Egypt­ian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Kield­er Water, an arti­fi­cial lake in Northum­ber­land, is opened. Check­er Motors Cor­po­ra­tion ceas­es pro­duc­tion of auto­mo­biles. In Hong Kong, health warn­ings on cig­a­rette pack­ets are made statu­to­ry. The first com­pact discs are released to the pub­lic in Ger­many. The first emoti­cons are post­ed by Scott Fahlman. Chan­nel 4, the fourth ter­res­tri­al tele­vi­sion chan­nel, is launched in Eng­land, Scot­land and North­ern Ire­land, with the first pro­gram broad­cast being the game show Count­down. 30,000 women hold hands in a peace protest, form­ing a human chain around the 14.5 km perime­ter fence at Green­ham Com­mon. The first Chi­na Cen­tral Tele­vi­sion New Years Gala pro­gram starts The video game of the day was Q‑Bert.

That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and oth­ers have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Lit­er­a­ture that year went to Gabriel Gar­cía Márquez. The Nobel Peace prize went to Alva Myrdal and Alfon­so Gar­cía Rob­les. The Nobel prize for physics went to Ken­neth G. Wil­son from the Unit­ed States for his the­o­ry for crit­i­cal phe­nom­e­na in con­nec­tion with phase tran­si­tions. The sen­sa­tion this cre­at­ed was big. But it didn’t stop the plan­ets from spin­ning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow big­ger, old­er, smarter, and, if you were lucky, some­times wis­er. Years in which you also lost some things. Pos­ses­sions got mis­placed. Mem­o­ries fad­ed. Friends part­ed ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn’t it?

The 1980s were indeed a spe­cial decade. The Sovi­et-Afghan war goes on. East­ern Europe sees the col­lapse of com­mu­nism. Poli­cies like Per­e­stroi­ka and Glas­nost in the Sovi­et Union lead to a wave of reforms. Protests are crushed down on Tianan­men Square in Chi­na. Ethiopa wit­ness­es wide­spread famine. Nico­lae Ceaus­es­cu is over­thrown. The AIDS pan­dem­ic begins. The role of women in the work­place increased great­ly. MTV is launched in the US. There is oppo­si­tion against Apartheid in South Africa as well as world­wide. Heavy Met­al and Hard Rock bands are extreme­ly pop­u­lar. The rise of Tech­no music begins. Orig­i­nal­ly pri­mar­i­ly played on cam­pus radio sta­tions, Col­lege Rock enters the scene with bands like the Pix­ies, REM and Son­ic Youth. The Hip Hop scene con­tin­ues to evolve. Tele­text is intro­duced. Gay rights become more wide­ly accept­ed in the world. Oppo­si­tion to nuclear pow­er plants grows. The A‑Team and Sein­feld are pop­u­lar on TV. US bas­ket­ball play­er Michael Jor­dan bursts on the scene. Super Mario Bros, Zelda’s Link, and Pac-Man gain fame in video games. Peo­ple wear leg­gings, shoul­der pads and Ray-Ban sun­glass­es.

Do you know what was on the cov­er of Life that year?

Do you remem­ber the movie that was all the rage when you were 15?The Fifth Ele­ment. Do you still remem­ber the songs play­ing on the radio when you were 15? Maybe it was Un-Break My Heart by Toni Brax­ton. Were you in love? Who were you in love with, do you remem­ber?

In 1982, 15 years ear­li­er, a long time ago, the year when you were born, the song Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCart­ney and Ste­vie Won­der topped the US charts. Do you know the lyrics? Do you know the tune? Sing along.

Ebony and Ivory
Live togeth­er in per­fect har­mo­ny
Side by side on my piano key­board
Oh Lord, why don’t we?
…

There’s a kid out­side, shout­ing, play­ing. It doesn’t care about time. It doesn’t know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is for­ev­er. You were once that kid.

When you were 9, the movie Hook was play­ing. When you were 8, there was Home Alone. When you were 7, there was a Dis­ney movie out called The Res­cuers Down Under. Does this ring a bell?

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… it’s 1982. There’s TV noise com­ing from the sec­ond floor. Some­one turned up the vol­ume way too high. The sun is burn­ing from above. These were dif­fer­ent times. The show play­ing on TV isTales of the Gold Mon­key. The sun goes down. Some­one switch­es chan­nels. There’s Fam­i­ly Ties on now. That’s the world you were born in.

Progress, year after year. Do you won­der where the world is head­ing towards? The tech­nol­o­gy avail­able today would have blown your mind in 1982. Do you know what was invent­ed in the year you were born? The Com­pact Disc Play­er. The ACE Inhibitor. The Arti­fi­cial Heart.

Oogie knew there’s nev­er ever time
Some of us will always stay behind
Down in space it’s always 1982
The joke we always knew
What’s a mat­ter with you?
C’mon, let’s go slip away
…

That’s from the song Slip Away by David Bowie.

In 1982, a new char­ac­ter entered the world of com­ic books: The Mask. Bang! Boom! But that’s just fic­tion, right? In the real world, in 1982,LeAnn Rimes was born. And Bil­lie Piper. Leelee Sobies­ki, too. And you, of course. Every­one an indi­vid­ual. Every­one spe­cial. Every­one tak­ing a dif­fer­ent path through life.
It’s 2013.

The world is a dif­fer­ent place.

What path have you tak­en?