Has it really been 30 YEARS since 1980?

Wow.

We're 30.

The big 3-0.

No more swinging twenties for us... LaDIFF is officially OLD.

Here's the tricky part... we're THIRTY, and yet we were born in 1980.
Doesn't that just sound WEIRD???
Wasn't 1980 only a few years ago?

Well... to show you just how long ago 1980 was, here's a quick summary of some of the 'stuff' that happened in 1980. You can decide if it reads like history or is part of your short term memory...

• The underdog U.S. hockey team surprises everyone - themselves included - with their gold medal win over the U.S.S.R. team (psst... that's "Russia" now) at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
• "Blues Brothers" movie with Dan Akwoyd and John Belushi opens
• U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation (proving that history really does repeat itself).
• Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage (hey! I remember studying about that in 8th grade science class when it happened!).
• In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Ayers Rock, reportedly taken by a dingo, (thereafter burning into our psyche's the phrase "The Dingo ate my baby." spoken in a thick Australian accent)
• Marlo Thomas (aka That Girl) and Phil Donohue get married.
• 21-year-old John McEnroe beat Bjorn Borg to win his 2nd straight US Open title. (many years before he was doing Amex commercials)
• IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a new PC. The pair buy the rights to a simple operating system manufactured by Seattle Computer Products and use it as a template. IBM allows the two to keep the marketing rights to the operating system, called DOS.
• Atari becomes the first company to register a Copyright for two computer games "Asteroids" and "Lunar Landar" on June 17, 1980.
• Now 2-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks makes his television acting debut on a little show called Bosom Buddies, where he dresses in drag every night just to keep his apartment.
  
• Former governor of California and former actor & president of the Screen Actor's Guild Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Jimmy Carter in the presidential election.
• Blondie's Call Me edges out Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall to top the Billboard charts. Olivia Newton-John, Michael Jackson, and Captain & Tennille rounded out the top 5 (no, it wasn't Muskrat Love... although I loved that song when I was a tween).
• A gallon of gas (on average) is $1.19; average income is $19,170, and a new house costs $68,714. More importantly, most cars on the Price is Right still needed only 4 digits to guess the price (average was $7,200).
• Beatle John Lennon is shot & killed by deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, outside of his NYC apartment building, leaving millions of fans to mourn his talent.

And, to be fair, here's what had NOT happened (yet) by 1980...

• We all typed our papers on typewriters. If we made a mistake we either started the page over or used Wite-Out. Yes, there were a few word processors out there (that's what we called computers that let you hit a delete button to erase your mistakes!), but they were expensive! If we needed a copy of the paper, we used carbon paper between the sheets on the typewriter or our teacher let us borrow the 'mimeograph' machine (ah... smell the blue ink.....) "Xerox machines" were available at the library and the post office if you wanted to pay for a copy.
  
• When we called each other on the phone, we used phones connected to cords that went into the wall. Sometimes you had more than one line in the house if mom & dad didn't want to have to share with their kids. Car phones? only for the rich and famous.
• Want to walk around while listening to music? Simply record your favorite songs onto a Memorex cassette, pop it into your Sony Walkman, put on the headphones, and off you go... for about 45-60 minutes. (p.s. most of the time you recorded the songs directly off the radio, during Casey Kasem's Top 40)
• We had 4 television stations... including PBS (Shown on the UHF- Ultra High Frequency - channel). While Tuesdays belonged to ABC and Gary Marshall's hit shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, Friday night was all CBS: The Incredible Hulk (loved me some Bill Bixby), Dukes of Hazzard, and Dallas

Oh... and there was no LaDIFF in Richmond!
LaDiff was 'born' in Charlottesville in 1980. It wasn't until 1992 that we opened a store in Richmond!

Hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane.
If it's made you feel OLD, well, I can't say I'm that sorry, since I've been feeling that way for a long time now.

We'd love to hear what YOU remember about 1980 or about LaDiff when we were 'young'. Drop us a line or post a comment.

... and let the anniversary year celebrations begin!