How did you survive the frustration of the Reagan years?

Beats me. I was still too young to know any better. I was 13 When Reagan left office. I cursed my way through the Clinton presidency, though.

I tried to solve the Rubik's Cube while wearing parachute pants and watching Diff'rent Strokes!

No, but seriously, it was a crazy time...but we as a nation were breakdancing against Reaganomics. It was a "Thriller" of an era. Oh my god...like, Reagan! Gag me with a spoon! Luckily Alex P. Keaton taught us all how to laugh at the absurdity of the administration. And it's a good thing, because we were all terrified with visions of "The Day After." But of course, we knew that "The Russians love their children, too."

I just reread the Clinton chapter in People's History. My blood is still boiling, so I understand.

Sounds like a symptom of Pac-Man Fever!

I spent most of the Reagan years taking magical trips with my friends Baxter, Fran, Roy and Danny.

and memorizing the locations of all the fallout shelters within a 10 mile radius of my house. It's a good thing we don't hafta worry about all those intercontinental ballistic missiles anymore.

I made a bunch of zines that everyone hated, listened to a lot of really great local bands, hung out constantly, read everything I could, and listened to blistering metal records in my room, alone, mostly.

Generally, I was either

a) riding around on my skateboard
b) getting thrown around like a rag doll in the pit at shows
c) (narrowly avoiding) fighting

It wasn't until the late 80's early 90's that I had any sort of political awakening. Nevertheless, a lot of punk records laid the foundation for beliefs that I still hold to this day.

I'm not that much older than you so, similarly, I was a wee tike when it was goin' down.

However, I hear people did alot of drugs, so I'm thinking that might be the way to go.

but unfortunately i have an answer that won't help for shit: i was the VP of the campus greens in the small town where i went to college and spent all day every day organizing protests or having sex with my secretary instead of going to class. also i had a pet rat named Hallelujiah and that seemed to help quite a bit.

i don't mean to make it worse, miranda, but i do sometimes think of them as the good old days. helpful now, though: Joan Didion's POLITICAL FICTIONS.

I spent the 1980s being an angry young man; organizing protests against the apartheid regime and the Contras, playing in shitty bands, making crappier zines than R.John did, blasting punk rock and rap, and usually not having any sex ever. And those were the good old days, mainly because I believed I was actually making a difference. Now I have a better understanding of the limitations of political activism (but I still try just as hard).

I spent the majority of the Reagan years hiding under a desk in gradeschool, waiting for the dreaded red menace to launch wave after wave of nukes and Godless commie warriors in my direction. By the time Bush the elder got behind the electoral pulpit, I was helping people make gift bags to send off naval officers stationed on an aircraft carrier in the gulf. By the time slick Willy was being impeached, I was rife with all of the anger and rage against the machine a high school kid could want. Then I realized that the entire system is completely corrupt, and no matter who the top dog is, everything in electoral politics will be a steaming dung heap.

The best thing to do is to read, learn, and teach others, and pick your battles when you can fight them. Putting all your money behind a well groomed politician will just leave your wallet empty.