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And a Reagan New Year!

Learning to live with -- and even love -- a retro-'80s fad that just ... won't ... die

A A A Comments By Ben Westhoff Wednesday, Jan 1 2003

"Aww, leave him alone," interrupts Matthew. "I'm a Democrat, but I feel bad for him. I have sympathy that he's sick, for what he's going through."

So that's that. I finish my soda and take account of the situation. I know three things:

Paul Trapani

Randy Maupin at the Cat Club.

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1) This '80s trend has been raging on for years now, and shows no signs of abating.

2) It cuts across boundaries of nationality, hipness, and age.

3) By not liking the '80s, it's me who's weird.

I say goodbye to my friends and have a few moments of reflection on the BART ride home. Were the '80s really as bad as I remember, or am I exaggerating? Come to think of it, I really did enjoy ALF. Maybe I should stop being such a curmudgeon.

And that's how I wound up at the Cat Club. I figured I might as well check out the party that is arguably the epitome of the San Francisco retro-'80s scene.

Since opening four years ago, the Thursday night "1984" show has outlasted countless '80s nights at other clubs. According to Cat Club General Manager Randy Maupin, "1984" draws people from all over the city, from blue collar to white collar, from jelly-braceleted Marina girls to Mission punks in tapered jeans. And of course he mentions Deb and Tiff, a "'1984' phenomenon."

Oh yeah, speaking of Deb and Tiff: They don't care about the evils of Ronald Reagan, either. "I think Reagan's a cool guy," Deb says. "Alzheimer's -- that's pretty weird, and the fact that he was an actor is cool."

"Walk This Way" is playing as they leave, and I remember what I was doing when I heard this Aerosmith/Run-D.M.C. synthesis for the first time. I was winning at ski ball in a St. Paul, Minn., arcade.

Those were happy times. I can't really remember what prize I won; was it a cheap tape Walkman? Or a cool He-Man or Transformer imitation toy? You know what? It doesn't matter. If I've learned anything from my retro-'80s explorations, it is that happiness means making up your memories as you go along. Embellish the fun times, flush the bad.

It's what Ronald Reagan would do.

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