Trifter

I was at the mall yesterday with my family and I’ve this tendency to always check out shoe shops. I froze for a moment and my heart stopped for a short while when I saw in the shop’s display a pair of pink Reebok High Tops! It gave me a major nostalgia! The more I got confused when I saw a couple of teenagers checking them out. They’re just wearing those typical trendy tight pants you see these days but then what brought to my attention was this time they are with leg warmers and black jacket and white shirt underneath!

Have I been staying at home too long that my dream shoes when I was a kid has already been re-launched and I’ve missed it? Has this been going on for a while? If so, how long has this been happening? Is the 80’s really making a comeback?!

I was talking with my husband the other day and told him that for me, the 80’s is the best decade I’ve been in. And it’s a pity for those people born after that decade to have not experienced such an eventful decade. I was a kid (as in the first decade of my life!) during the 80’s. In the Philippines, the political scene was very unstable as we’re transitioning from a dictatorial military government to a democratic one. People were angry and very uneasy… but for some odd reason I guess, being the humans that we are, we have found pleasure in simple things.

The entertainment industry was thriving during that time. Back when the Internet was considered a futuristic  technology that were only talked about by sci-fi writers, no one can just simply download some music, movies, heck even photos. You just simply have to buy the record or cassette tape, go to the cinema for your movies and buy magazines to know what’s the latest in both Philippine and foreign show business. Even the copying technology of cassette recorders and video cassette recorders (yes, VCR) were not that good. Often if you buy an obviously pirated cassette tape in a shady place in Manila, the sound is slurry and blurred. You’ll just simply opt for the original.

Even if the Philippines was relatively young culturally compared to its fellow Asian neighbors, I think I’m pretty proud to say that entertainment-wise, the Filipinos are not really behind. We wore leg warmers (yes even when it was 30 degrees (86 F) hot!), we wore leggings, we wore blazers (both the Nike and the coat!), we knew about Madonna, Tears for Fears, Kim Wilde, Michael Jackson, the Brat pack, Spandau Ballet and mind you, Flashdance is the very first full-length film I’ve seen in the cinema (I was 4! My aunt brought me with her.).

They say history sometimes just keeps repeating itself. Perhaps that’s why people have this odd deja vu thing once in awhile. But for some time I thought I’ll never see, hear and feel the 80’s again. I hoped and wished but a couple of decades have passed, soon another one is about to end and as I was about to give up on wishing, I saw that pair of Reebok high-tops. 

Fashion-wise I couldn’t care less. But those high-tops, leg warmers, blazers and black-white outfits were worn by the people I watched and idolized in my youth. The people who made my day just seeing them, who made me dance, sing, laugh and cry. They defined the 80’s in my head. 

Oddly enough now that the world is experiencing economic turmoil, same as back in the 80’s, the fashion, the music, the entire atmosphere seems to be coming back. Those teenagers are lucky, in my opinion, if they get to experience it the way I did. Personally I think it’s time now to forget the turmoil of this crazy recession and let’s start to be hopeful for the best and enjoy what the present offers us. Let’s just simply do it the 80’s way, I guess. So, what do you think did I buy from that shoe shop?!?