I Lived the 80s

A Gen X Life and the Pop Culture That Defined It

By: B Harrison Smith

Narrated by: B Harrison Smith

Gen X is the “forgotten generation.” We made our own meals after school and Saturday mornings, we got dirty, played miles away from home with no way to reach us, we told offensive jokes, we built and jumped bike ramps, broke bones and drank from garden hoses, we had three network channels, we didn’t “mediate” with bullies—we kicked their asses, we had land lines, house phones and cordless phones that you could beat someone with, MTV showed music videos, Steven Spielberg and Michael Jackson ruled, we knew who we were gonna call, girls had big hair, guys popped their collars, there were clogs, and penny loafers, you chose Beta or VHS at the video store, high school lunch could be hell, we partied like it was 1999, teachers were off the wall, we had nerds, preps, stoners, burners, geeks, jocks, we drank Malt Duck, White Mountain wine coolers and Mickey’s Big Mouths, we got our permits at 15 and learned to drive on stick shift, the malls were our hangouts. There was no Internet or social media.

And we liked it.

(Oh yeah, we also had AIDS, terrorism, crack, racism, homophobia, subway shootings, cocaine, corrupt politicians, pollution, book banning, political correctness, TV preachers, climate change, stranger danger and Can’t Stop the Music.)

©2023 B Harrison Smith (P)2023 BearManor Media

A story that could be from anyone I grew up with

I enjoyed how real and normal this story was in that it could have been written by anyone I knew back then or even myself. Little details that I had forgotten about or reminded and that was fun too.

A Precise Representation of the GenX Experience

He’s done a wonderful job of capturing teenage life in the 80s. He’s a great speaker with a comforting voice. If you, too, lived the 80s you’ll relate to most everything he shares and will appreciate how he represents our experiences.

My only gripe with the performance is that it’s pronounced “new-clear,” not “new-que-lure.” That he uses the word dozens upon dozens of times throughout the book, is a filmmaker & writer, yet cannot properly pronounce a word is irritating and cringing. I’m not aware that this is some regional pronunciation, but even if it were we, the listener, are likely not from that region.

His story evokes many memories from my own experience.

Amazing how much he remembers from that time. Guess I should have kept a journal.
Loved hearing the songs and movies that were the soundtrack back then.
Didn’t know who he was before I read it, but now I have to go watch all his movies!
I also cringed at nucular, and was dumbfounded at the numerous editing mistakes or lack of editing, especially for a movie guy’s book.

An enjoyable trip through time, especially if you loved through it.

I really enjoyed this book. I listened to it over several months traveling back and forth to Iowa during the 6 hour drive from Chicago.
It was a great time capsule from a wonderful time to be alive as well as many heartwarming and heartbreaking stories. Thank you for sharing that window into your life.

Worse than a college production

I really enjoyed the writing in this book and the story was great and nostalgic. However, the performer often trips over, and swallows words And sometimes repeats lines stops and repeats them again. It’s almost as if nobody listened to this before they released it. it really is a shame because it takes away from the story.

another great one

awesome easy listen and can take you back to your own high school days

Fantastic!!

Goddamn, this is a good book. Usually I’ll listen to memoirs of movie stars that hit there peak in the 80s or the making of some classic films of the time, but this offers a unique perspective of an average kid growing up during the period, that being said I can’t wait to revisit this.

A raw, personalized memoir of the 80's, told like it was.

I'm 13 years younger than Smith, but it still resonated strongly with me. As a result, I very much enjoyed it. It delves heavily into what was common for my school experiences in the 80's - dodging authority, chasing girls and popularity.

The performance gets a knock because, despite being read well by the author, there were some takes which should have been edited out and were left in.

His choice to include some of his journal entries was also a little cringey, but that may just be because they are so raw and emotional as to make one uncomfortable.

Overall, this is worth your time.

I have 71 titles in my Audible library. This is the 3rd worst

First and foremost, the recording is abysmal and distracting. Sounds like it was recorded on his phone in a bathroom stall. Very tinny and he keeps swallowing throughout. Not sure how Audible said “ya, this will work”. Really took away from the actual story being told.

As far as the book, it’s really a memoir of the author’s life that just happens to be in the 80’s. It’s less a retrospective of the events of decade and more his personal memories of his middle and high school experience. If he was Michael J Fox, Michael Jackson, or Madonna, that might be interesting, but you’re B. Harrison Smith - boring like the rest of us.

He does drop some movie and music references but it didn’t evoke any real nostalgia of the decade. I mean just reading the top songs of 1983 isn’t interesting, it’s lazy.

In short, this is a book you’d write to pass along to your kids. Outside of that, it’s just a boring, horribly recorded memoir without anything particularly compelling or nostalgic to offer.

Waste of time; possibly the worst book I’ve listened to on Audible

I don’t know what’s worse: listening to the author opine (quite formulaically) about his lack of a moral compass in high school or listened to probably the worst edited narration from a voice actor that I’ve heard. Both were abysmal. If you want to waste around 15 hours of your life on a book with whimsical bouts of irrelevance, than this is the book for you. It’s not sentimental for me and I’m a Xennial so I experienced the same societal and scholastic pressures and situations that the author did. It just made me think of my life growing up (with a lot less chicanery than the author’s) and not care about the author’s. I’m usually pretty lenient with my ratings but this was terrible.