Nostalgia - 1984

I woke up this morning singing the theme song to "To Sir With Love"...Do you remember this movie? It was one of my favorites growing up...Sidney Poitier plays a teacher who goes to work in a rough London school...great clothes, music, etc - today's hipsters would die over the mod dresses, skinny pants and ankle boots...but, you're asking yourself - what does this have to do with 1984?  Well, we moved to Japan in 1984 for a few years...my Dad is a pilot and at that time he was Top Gunning it for the navy so it was just another stop in my nomadic military childhood.  He was off on a ship for a large portion of our time there and would record VHS and Beta (!!) tapes from the ship's library and send them home...To sir with Love was one, Swiss Family Robinson, Bond movies, 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, all made quite an impression...My brother and I had a huge amount of independence for a 9 and 6 yr old and we took full advantage...riding the subway to Yokohama for school we were probably not the best American ambassadors...

we were discovering Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper and Wham who were all huge at the time...this led to some embarrasing conversations - "Mom, what's a virgin?"..."Hmm, well, uhh, it's a woman who's never been touched by a man."  and that's all a 9 yr old needs to know...We were experimenting with our wardrobes - 2 different, huge dangling earrings made it into my 5th grade picture, loading up our arms with black rubber bracelets...stealing from mom's closet - giant belts over her oversized tees...seeing my first "dirty" movie - Purple Rain at a sleepover, and discovering the John Hughes Oeuvre...sneaking in see Desperately Seeking Susan - Heady times...for a girl who had spent a few years at Christian schools it was an eyeopening couple of years...Domo Arigato Japan!