“Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world…” — so says the Journey song. But Steve Perry wasn’t really talking about the country kid who knew how to catch a greased pig and muck out a horse stall before the rest of America had tuned into David Hartman and Joan Lunden talking about Prince Charles and Lady Di’s wedding on Good Morning America.
This was a different kind of lonely — and it wasn’t all bad.
The 1980s were the last decade where true isolation was still possible (we’re talking rural isolation), and the kids who had the opportunity to live it didn’t know how lucky they were.
What Did Growing Up in the Country in the ’80s Actually Look Like?
Mom With Sons in Back of Pick-Up Truck in the 1980s
You can’t open social media today without stumbling across a meme that says, “We didn’t come inside until the street lights came on…” and ’80s kids who grew up in the country laugh hardest of all. Street lights? What street lights?
READ MORE: Photos Show Life in Small-Town America During the ’70s
There was no internet. No cell phones. No AOL chatrooms. A pair of rabbit ears that only picked up the local PBS station, and a transistor radio, if you were lucky. If you grew up on or near a farm in the ’80s, your world was often as big as your property line, the route your school bus took, or however far you were brave enough to bike after dark — without hitting a rogue cow. It happened.
Keep scrolling for a look at what growing up in the country in the ’80s was really all about.
LOOK: 29 Things That Will Make ’80s Country Kids Say, “Yep, That Was Me!”
From back-of-the-truck rides into town to learning that cute things can become dinner, ’80s country kids were a unique generation that the internet will never fully understand.
Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz
