That's weird. I graduated in '82 and there were quite a foreign brands floating around. My speech teacher had a B210 and so did a couple of other teachers. I had a friend with a late 70s Corolla that I thought was kind of neat. A bunch of Civics. A kid from a weathier family drove a Celica fastback. There were also the captured imports like the Plymoth Scamp and Cricket and the Dodge Colt. There was even a Subaru or two.

However, the vast majority of foreign cars were Bugs. I had a '66 and another friend of mine had a '58 with the small rear window. Maybe these were more common because I was on the west coast, albeit in a small farming town.

I ended trading that Bug during my senior year for a new Le Car, so even the French were represented.. :D

Yes, after Columbine and others they didn't allow this anymore.

I became friends with a guy I worked with the year after I graduated. He had bought a brand new red Datsun 210 (newly restyled so they had dropped the "B") a couple years earlier. It was already fading from the sun and was turning pink. I would always give him shit about driving his pink car and he would reply with a snooty accent "It's not pink; it's salmon". He ended up trading that off on a VW Scirocco because he thought it would help him pick up chicks better (it did not). He ended rolling the VW (with me in it), unfortunately.

Lol, those B210s. I think they were made out of tin and bubble gum.

Where did you live? I think the Japanese invasion started around that time or a bit earlier, so I bet some places had a big presence (e.g., west coast, some larger metros), and other places had little or none (e.g., the Ozarks where I lived).

I think the invasion must have happened fast, because I bought a 1979 Celica in about 1985 and they weren't uncommon by that point.

Plus, I always thought the B210s were ugly.

https://wieck-nissanao-production.s3...ew-928x522.jpg

I thought the 210s were a little better as they looked kind of like the 510, which were cool.

https://barnfinds.com/wp-content/upl...26-630x390.jpg

In '83, the 210 became the Sentra.

There was some weird-ass Japanese cars in the 1970s. I also thought the Datsun F10 and the Honda 600s were the ugliest.

Honda 600 looks like it had a big ol' suction cup on the back hatch.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9a/3b/37/9...047e371d5e.jpg

The F10 was just fugly.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ae/b5/d0/a...1d96d13b82.jpg

I lived near Salem, Oregon at the time. Japanese cars in general just were pretty common, especially after just getting out of the second gas crisis.

[QUOTE=Frosty;17173700]Plus, I always thought the B210s were ugly.

https://wieck-nissanao-production.s3...ew-928x522.jpg



Lol, yep, that was it. just this bronzy shit color. Of course, it probably was a different color brand new. Like midnight blue:D.

I bet that would explain it. You probably got all of those cars 2 or 3 years before they made it east to me.

I'm thinking more about this, and I think the little tiny pickups made to us while I was in high school. I don't remember if they were Toyotas or Datsuns or something else. In big pickup country, people chuckled at them.

My dad loved those little pickups. We had several Ford Couriers (made by Mazda) going back to the early 70s. Then he had a Chevy LUV (made by Isuzu) in the late 70s, which I drove quite a bit after I got my license. Then in the early 80s, he had a diesel 4x4 Isuzu PUP. It got great mileage but was soooo slow. It topped out at 55, iirc. I used it the summer of 84 to move to Spokane and sweated my ass off in the no-AC vinyl interior while I toodled up the highway getting passed by everyone while having it floored the entire way. After that, he had a string of S10s until they stopped making them.

He still gripes that no one makes a small pickup like that in the US anymore. LMAO

I enjoyed growing up during that time frame. I would wander the woods in the late ‘60s all day. Play football in the neighborhood. Ride bikes everywhere. Kids would bring rifles into high school. My college years were among the most fun years of my life. But this idyllic view ignores a ton of reality.

1. The AIDS epidemic that emerged in ‘82-‘84 had far more to do with the end of the sexual revolution than Anita Baker did in 1991. Big Daddy’s experiences aren’t really relevant to 98% of the population because he boasted of his swinging lifestyle on CP well into the 2000s. No judgement, but his experience is an outlier.

2. How many people does our generation know that died from the freedom of being able to drink and drive when it was socially acceptable? A guy in my Boy Scout troop dead at 22. A guy in my wife’s HS class of less than 100 died before graduating. My college roommate killed someone drunk driving. Me and my college roommates had too many stupid moments.

3. How many rape victims do you know from that time period? Considering that 1 in 6 women are raped, it is not hard to know of several.

4. I was on a church youth group camping trip. One of the “older” girls went off with some older guy outside of our group for the night. Titillating gossip at the time. She was probably 15 or 16 years old and the dude she went off with was probably 18-22. I just can’t believe that was a positive experience for her. I’m not a prude but I suspect that ‘70s freedom was not a net positive in her life.

5. I played a game of chess in 8th grade against a kid (excuse the use of gender neutral pronouns) wearing nail polish in a conservative suburban school district in the mid-70s. I didn’t know them well, but I can’t imagine their life was easy and that they decided to wear nail polish on a whim. From their overall demeanor I would take all bets at 10:1 odds they were a trans girl.

6. Why were there not more LGBTQ people from earlier generations, you ask? 1) they were repressed and 2) the died of AIDS in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Don’t act stupid and pretend you didn’t know that you had LGBTQ classmates. I was way outside of any social circle and the rumors still made their way to me. There have always been LGBTQ people, but haters are mad about them not staying in their closet where they belong.

7. Bullying sucked. Personal experience. Smart, socially awkward, skinny, and different opinions filled my bingo card.

8. Middle aged guy in my parent’s neighborhood riding his bike casually, crashes and ends up disabled due to brain injury. But at least he didn’t look like a dork by wearing a helmet.

9. A friend in our early 20s social circle got hit by a car crossing the street. 6 mo recovery and still never the same. He used to be a great guy to hang out with and became paranoid , unapproachable, and unable to lead a normal life. That led me to a life long vow: do whatever I can to reduce risk of a brain injury to me or my loved ones. I’m not living in a bubble but yes, I am extra sensitive to situations where I may get a brain injury.

10. Kid in my high school has a “gun cleaning accident”. Everyone knew it was suicide but no one knew why.

11. I got into music and had a mid-range stereo system ( reciever, speakers, turntable, and tape deck) that I probably had $600 invested in. An equal amount in records. With my phone, a $350 Bluetooth speaker and $11 per month I can access virtually all music in the universe that sounds better. This ignores 45 years of inflation.

Boomers are the last good generation. Our parents were the last great generation.

The 70s and 80s were fantastic.

Wow, that was ….heavy.

Kids still free roam when their parents will let them, and overall, it is a bit safer to allow kids that freedom (based on statistics).

For example, I get to work from home some days a week. Over the summer, my oldest (7) stayed home with me and played with her friends next door (twin boy and girl 11). It didn't seem too much different than when I ran around as a kid.

They would roam from my house to the one next door, make a mess, play outside a lot - tag, kickball, trampoline, playset - go swimming in the lake. Sure, they would spend some time hanging out in the garage playing Nintendo switch, but I can't say I didn't do the same thing in the 90s (game boy/64).

Now granted, I live out in the country on a gravel road that circles the lake. There isn't a lot of traffic, and I can rest easy knowing my seven-year-old can be outside without worrying about traffic. My parents let my brother and I free roam - in the backyard - the front yard was always off limits because of Missouri's famous 60 mph country curvy roads.

There are about a dozen kids around the lake that go to the local school, they all seem to love it. The older ones drive around on their 4 wheelers and hang out on the lake in jet skies.

And one thing that I do know is better than when I grew up is acceptance and kindness. The kindness agendas are paying off on the younger generations. They treat each other a bit more better than I remember kids treating each other growing up.

I don't think kids these days think that their childhood was as bad as you think it was. I know some younger guys that are barely cracking their 20s now and it floors me when they talk about how their first video game console was the ****ing Wii. Was well into adulthood at the time that thing was released. I lamented to them how growing up during a post 9/11 world must've sucked, because from my experience as a teenager/early 20s at the time those years kind of sucked. But no, they all sit there and reminisce and talk about how those years were so much better than now. I personally don't get it, but then again I think the late 80s and 90s were pretty great because that's when I was growing up.