Those 80's Ladies

I don't know what made me think of this song today but I did, so here it is.  It was released in 1987 and being 37 at the the time, I could relate to a lot of what this song is about.  I left off the entry and went straight to the main verses that rang true for so many of us.

   K.T. Oslin's  80's Ladies

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
And more than our names got changed
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried.

We've been educated.
We got liberated.
And had complicating matters with men.
Oh, we've said "I do"
And we've signed "I don't"
And we've sworn we'd never do that again.
Oh, we burned our bras,
And we burned our dinners
And we burned our candles at both ends.
And we've had some children
Who look just like the way we did back then.

Oh, but we're all grown up now.
All grown up,
But none of us could tell you quite how.

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
Hunny, more than our names got changed,
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried

I, too, had been born in the 50's, a rock and roller in the 60's and married, given birth to a daughter, and divorced in the 70's. 

Then I had two more daughters in the 80's so my life track separated from a lot of my old friends.  For my new friends though, my LARC (Life After Red Cross)  friends,  were doing the same thing. New marriages, younger husbands and new babies.  I think us 80's ladies took a look around and decided we were doing things a little different than our Mom's did.  I had old classmates that, at forty, were empty nesters.  I was still taking a daughter to Kindergarten registration.

So flash forward to today and I can say my empty nest and I are still getting acquainted.  Daughter #3 left home for the Grand Teton State Park to work at a lodge as seasonal help when she was 20.  She would work 6 months and be home 6 months, when the lodge was closed.  That went on for 4 years.  Even this past year she had been back and worth between a Michigan sister and us, so the nest was refeathered periodically.  She is now happily working in Michigan, full time with real benefits.  Yay!

With the economy the way it is, there are a lot of young people not able to make it on their own, for any variety of reasons. I have close family members that graduated from colleges thinking they would go out and just "get a job".  They are working, but they are not making the money those degrees should generate and we are all glad they have that job.  This is not the world we had.  I look at my own daughters and wonder what song they will write.

 Daughter # 1 is 37 now  The same age I was then.  hmmmmm  I like to remind her of these things just so she knows that when she thought I was an old fart, I wasn't.   I was still that 60's rock and roller.

Just between you and I,  I am still waiting for 80's Big Hair to make a come back.