yesterwire.comBack to search

On the date

Tuesday, August 11, 1981

From the day

Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound

The radio is blaring Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s "Endless Love" yet again, but it can’t drown out the static of the morning news: Weinberger is talking about neutron bombs, and I’m terrified we’re all going to be toast while the gas station clerk stares at me for struggling to pay a buck-twenty a gallon. Between the screaming sirens on the street and the humming of those clunky new IBM computers they're touting, the world feels louder and much more expensive than it did last summer. I'm def going to see *Raiders of the Lost Ark* for a third time tonight just to escape the dread, even if five bucks for a ticket is absolute highway robbery. It’s better than sitting in the dark, thinking about weapons being built while I bite into a dry fifty-cent loaf of bread.

Memories from that day

No memories yet. Add yours if you remember this day.

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100

Endless Love

Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

#1 at the box office

Raiders of the Lost Ark

$5,157,432

The must-have

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

awesomebodaciouscheesychill

Valley Girl

as ifbarf me outgag me with a spoongrodytotally

Hip Hop

baddefdopeflyfreshword

Yuppie

greed is goodpower lunchnetworking

Catchphrases of 1981

  • Take a chill pill

Tech Check

IBM PC, MS-DOS & Space Shuttle.

Cost of Living (1980)

Loaf of Bread

$0.50

Gallon of Gas

$1.19

Average Home

$47,200

New Car

$7,200

Time Elapsed

16,369 days ago

(44 years, 309 days)