Were you a rich teen in LA in the 80s?
-
Snoopy353 — 15 years ago(February 15, 2011 01:38 PM)
I was a lower-middle class teenager in the 80's, growing up in the midwest. There were plenty of parties, cigarettes and wine coolers, but I never even saw cocaine growing up. Most kids I knew had to pool all their fast food money together just to get an older sibling to get the wine coolers.
"They were grabby, candescent douchebags. Good Night!" -Dean Winchester -
missbrightside06 — 15 years ago(March 13, 2011 10:35 PM)
The key words in the above post being "in the midwest". I never saw cocaine growing up there either. But now I live in LA and have seen the more decadent lifestyles of the young generation out here, and by comparison they are two different worlds. I just saw Less Than Zero tonight and couldn't tear my eyes away because I thought its depiction of the party scenethe clubs, the mansions, the Palm Springs escapadeswas so eerily accurate.
That scene with the group of girls laughing at the one who'd done so much coke blood was running down her nose.I've been there. Creepy. -
hexrei — 13 years ago(October 08, 2012 08:31 AM)
Cocaine is an expensive drug. I didn't really see it until I was old enough to have a decent job, and then I suddenly realized that it's actually all over the place, but it has a strong stigma so a lot of people don't talk about it unless they know you're alright with it. I think today meth has taken over a lot of the rural areas, but its ubiquitous in cities big enough to have a significant club scene.
-
giz2000 — 14 years ago(April 19, 2011 08:34 PM)
I wasn't a rich teen by any stretchand I didn't live in LA (I lived in Miami) but my high school boyfriend ran in circles exactly like the ones in the film. Miami was the cocaine capital of the world, and while I never touched the stuff, everyone I knew did. It was common place for these little rich kids to have their parents jet off to God-knows-where and leave them alone in their huge houses. They'd have mega-parties with trays full of cocaine on the dining room table. Every time I watch this movie, it reminds of those days.
-
SFNative — 14 years ago(June 03, 2011 01:23 PM)
Not LA here either, but West Coast (San Francisco) and graduated from high school in the 80s. I also wasn't rich but hung around with rich kids and that's one way it was different (and this could just be a San Francisco thing). Although the social structure existed, we didn't have the separatism. Rich and poor kids hung out together.
It is accurate in the amount booze, drugs and sex and how available it all was. But at least in our circle it wasn't as sordid and melodramatic. Nobody teetered on the edge of oblivion. We got high and had sex.
We got a lot of the drugs from our parents. Parents who weren't sharing with their kids were getting their stashes stolen by their kids.
It got old, though. I do miss it every so often, but I wouldn't go back. -
azumahh — 14 years ago(July 17, 2011 03:37 PM)
Danny Bonaduce, who does fit into this category, says in his book, "Random Acts of Badness," that this was very accurate. He said they were all pissed off not because of the accuracy of what was described, but the fact that none of them got any royalties.
If you read Imperial Bedrooms, it starts off with a description of why the movie was changed so much when it was adapted to the big screen. -
Limeginger — 14 years ago(December 13, 2011 02:48 AM)
Not in LA, but NY. Yes, it was accurate but exaggerated. What you don't see in this movie is the leftover "cool" vibe of the '60s and '70s, cool meaning, hip, not hipSTER, knowing good music, a keen/sharp sense of humor, lots of witty banter, and a sense of light-hearted PARTY. This film and many other set in the 80s, even made in the 80s, makes everyone look venal and stupid, and that wasn't the case. Parents "absent" is hilarious to me. Parents weren't "absent," parents were living their adult lives with their adult friends, at their own parties (that generation very much enjoyed cocktail parties etc), doing their own things, taking trips and vacations, and "kids" were regarded more like independent human beings than they are now. There weren't these overly-enmeshed family units. Parents did their stuff, their offspring had their lives, and YET there was more interaction like, dinners together every week night, and the best TV in the house, the one with cable, would be in one room and everyone would watch, and it wasn't like "Oh, let's put on the least offensive children's programming or let Jenny and James watch MTV it was whatever the adults wanted to watch unless the kids could lobby them otherwise. But when the weekend came, from the time you were 14 or so, you were more or less on your own, if you wanted to be. Being a good parent didn't mean crawling up your kids' asses or knowing every goddamned detail about their lives. Kids went to school, fought their battles on their own, had their friends, cut school, smoked pot, popped pillsand MOST wanted NOT to get caught because then they WOULD have parents crawling up their assso people weren't like they were in the movie being THAT obviously beep up. Also drinking age on the east coast at least was 18 in many states, and 19 in others. And yes there was tons of coke, but most people didn't get into trouble with it because it was too expensive and more of a special occasion type of party fun, tho a special occasion would often materialize most weekendssomeone would have some and if you were lucky they would share. I know 3 people got messed up on coke2 in the small wealthy preppy private liberal arts college I went to; and 1 from high school. One in college was so much like Julian (and looked like RBJr) - I wonder what happened to himhis father owned a major NY sports teamhe used and dealt and owed money to shady characters and ended up forging checks. I think he is an investment broker now. A girl who overdid it seemed like someone with mental health issues anyway, and the guy in HS also was a ne'er do well. Wealthy and good looking but always did everything to excess, even as a little kid he was just too much. So, yourlist is accurate. Oh, the boys with boys thing? Don't know about that. I mean, some prep school/boarding school guys sometimes even now,I believe, have some slightly odd aristo-homoerotic thing going on, but not public school guys. And girls with girls? that was later, more '90s. "Promiscuity" wasn't termed that, btw. There was very little AIDS among straight wealthy/uppermiddle people until the late '80s/early 90s, so it was just a matter of sleeping with your friends or people you liked if you felt like itnot grotesque or degrading or guys seducing girlsgirls were far more influenced by feminism in a good way, so if they felt like being sexual with someone, they would do so. If you met someone and were connecting you might sleep with them if you both felt like it.
-
WileyDairyGnome — 13 years ago(July 19, 2012 11:19 PM)
Is it sad that life is kind of like that now in LA? Within in some circles, obviously not all teenagers are living that kind of life butyeah I'd say that this film is pretty damn accurate.
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been -
SCY385-1 — 12 years ago(June 25, 2013 01:27 PM)
I didn't live in L.A. But I can tell you that the big 80's is pretty accurately portrayed in the film. It was a very decadent period of time. The rich were rich and they lived like it. The parenting was not that great because mom was out there earning money just like dad was. To compensate they would buy expensive gifts for the kids which is why so many of us had it so good so to speak. It was a crazy decade. But by 1988 the party was over and we all knew it. AIDS, drugs, stock market crashes, Reagan leaving the White House, crack cocaine, and just plain reality had set in. The bill for all of it came in and we're still paying for it to this day.
-
ChrisCuda — 12 years ago(July 05, 2013 01:48 AM)
I graduated in '85 & lived in a rich neighborhood on the west coast (not LA). Yes, the movie is accuratetons of parties, booze-pot-coke. You have to realize that cocaine was very expensive, so it was more a once-in-a-while, recreational drug. In my opinion, the hard drugs were in the '70's, & were being consumed by everyday kids. Back then, kids were smoking angel dust, popping pills like crazy and dropping acideven shooting heroin. None of that was going on in my circles, the 80's vibe was all about fun. It was mostly drinking & hitting all the hip clubs to hang with friends.
