80s Kids Will NEVER Forget
As a kid in the 80s, the news that I remember…what was important to me…was usually very different from what my parents were talking about.
And that’s what today’s video is all about. Hi, my name is Natalie. Welcome to my channel, My So-Called Gen X Life. This is the final video in my three part series: the biggest news stories of the 80s…according to an 80s kid.
Part One
https://youtu.be/2NAxmSp-iH8?si=QPySvikWhLH4kGIl
Part Two
https://youtu.be/Falq2Zo3xFo?si=_8qI4RC4QEcAK58v
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Chuppl DARE Video
https://youtu.be/LzrGCk-F7FY?si=slr6g9SKLhfNw281
Challenger Conspiracy Theory Videos
https://youtu.be/oRJX3xunOtk?si=cm8H8LM2KQO7PZZH
@KP09101
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
This was HORRIBLE
We spent all this time getting to know who would be on the challenger and all excitedly watched as it blew up on a tv on wheels
Teach then quickly wheeled the tv out like it never happened 😭🤣😂
@michaellawrence2512
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Great topic.
Thanks for putting this together.
Awesome
@saelaverdad8183
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Great video. Thanks. the font was kind of hard to read but then again, I have old eyes.
@Looking2Sea
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Challenger: 7th grade, 1st period (in CA) PE. We had just started to do warm ups when they PA System made the announcement. We all just looked at the teacher. He was just as lost as we were. Many years later I had exactly the same feeling as an adult. I was working from home in CA, I fired up my laptop, logged into my home ISDN… and saw the million emails about what just happened in NYC.
@alexandergonzie1200
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Almost forgot how much of a shady grifter Geraldo was.
@aliciasantiago5259
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
There was another story about child abduction that really stuck with me from the 80s. It was I know my name is Stephen.
@aliciasantiago5259
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I’m a bit older than a lot of people making comments. I was born in 66. I remember the fall of the Berlin wall. It was like taking a deep breath because you didn’t have to worry about being killed in a nuclear war, which was a big scare when I was a kid.
@chicksheldon
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
This is very well made. Thanks for putting it together
@jamesfoster7735
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I was home sick from school and watched the Challenger live with my mother and my Aunt. Scary
@brandonallen4442
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I remember baby Jessica and of course the Challenger explosion I was 12, watching in school like everyone else, but baby Jessica stayed with me more because me and my family would all stop what we were doing and watch as a family
@emberToEmpire
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
You weren't offered drugs as a kid – perhaps that strengthens the case for the effectiveness of the anti drug push?
I have to admit – it's nice that we as a nation were united around something positive , calling out some of these societal scurges. Miss that.
@Rubbanutz
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
My brother and I will still break out the I learned it from you!!! Out of nowhere all these years later. Good times 😂
@Rubbanutz
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Just say no!!!! Melania, hold my beer… be best!!! 🤯
@wadesalyer9864
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Kid/adult napping hasn’t stopped or slowed down
@wadesalyer9864
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I was in my elementary school library watching on the tv the challenger
@Nyetrel
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
You didn’t know this was a big hoax? There are other videos on YouTube proving they are all still alive today.
@jeffanderson3962
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Eat Candy and Avoid Humans. Sounds like a solid life goal to me…
@megjacot
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I remember having nightmares about being kidnapped as a young child because of all the stranger danger stuff.
@DZSPKZ
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
17:20 Half of these guys were on coke during the video shoot 😂
@MatthewPringle-s3z
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
1986 I was 8 years old and in the first grade. I still remember to this day,watching the Challenger launch in class and my teacher shutting the television off after the shuttle exploded.
@Ally_Rayne6
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I was born in June of 1996. Ten years after Challenger blew up. Since 2006, I've been doing extensive research about it. Constantly reading about what went wrong, watching documentaries about it. My sophomore year of high school for my Global II class we were to do a test essay on something about the topic we were learning about that week. I couldn't remember for the life of me on how to do it.
So, I was like okay I got one. So I began writing on a US history topic aka Challenger. A couple of weeks go by and our teacher started handing back our test essays. I didn't get mine back during the class period. He held me back before my basketball practice. He said that he could've failed me for it as it was a US History topic. But, he gave me a 65. He was astonished with how much I remembered on Challenger. My US History teacher said it would've been a 5 on our regents exam.
@edwardmcintyre3708
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
That was on my birthday and I remember being in class watching when the challenger exploded
@richw2615
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I was in 6th grade when the Challenger exploded. We weren't watching it on TV, but our principal came over the PA system and told us what had happened. We had been following the Teacher in space program more closely than most because a teacher at our school had made it as far as one of the two finalists from Arizona. Her name was Robin Kline. I remember that I was in Music class when I heard. Later that day I was at the mall with my Mom and we watched it on TV through the window of an electronics store with probably a few hundred other people.
@LilaFowler1982
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Another thing that was big was the airing of The Day After on TV. As an 80s kid, we were all fearful of nuclear war happening and to see the effects of it on TV was traumatizing. I would probably put that in my top five traumatic 80s memories.
@LilaFowler1982
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I made the mistake of watching the Adam movie not too long ago, and was traumatized for days. I remember being terrified of strangers as a child, and watching that as an adult was a whole different experience.
This is a solid list and as somebody who is born in 73 brought back a lot of memories. Challenger, baby Jessica, Thriller, launch of MTV, and I do remember that death of John Lennon. It’s one of the earliest things I remember about my childhood.
@bookspider
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Here in Canada, we had a trickle down effect. We were pretty removed from most of these American issues (it can't happen here!), but would experience a bit of a fallout later (maybe it could happen here?). It would be assemblies where officials tried to scare the bejesus out of us about what "could happen" with drugs or stranger danger. Maybe this did help, but mostly it fell on deaf ears as my classmates made fun of how out of touch these adults were. It was old news by the time any of it launched here.
@truthseeker92011
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I turned 12 in 1980. So my teen years were in the 80's and I remember watching the space shuttle disaster live at school, watching the Berlin Wall coming down on the news, mtv launching, the stock market crash of 87, etc. Reagan was the man back then and the world had its share of f'd up things, but for the most part we were alright.
I can't believe that was 40 years ago.
@michellefarrar7466
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Don’t forget about the whales in Alaska that were trapped under the ice with man trying to get them safely back out to sea by cutting large holes in the ice so they could breathe/ and find their way out…which two of the three did. One perished which was highly unfortunate/extremely sad.🐋🐋🐋
@kenem123ify
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I remember we got a ColecoVision and we almost shit our pants 👖 😂
@Cdubbilly
February 22, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Dear gen x. Sexy time lady. I'm 81'. WHAT AM I???? 😂😂😂😂. JK. Stfu.. jk
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