Filling in the gaps of missing '80s

My husband says I need to apologize for something here.

No, I didn't yell at somebody for no reason or even yell at somebody for a good reason. But I did something equally as bad - at least, according to my husband: I apparently completely ignored the entire 1980s.

You all know my husband and I met in college in 1976 and then went our separate ways until getting back together a few years ago. We've been married five years now and sometimes we have to fill in the gaps for those missing years.

Such as, it seems, the 1980s. This deficit in my cultural education came to light recently as my husband and I were discussing pop-music icon Michael Jackson, and I asked the question that had been bugging me ever since I'd heard of Jackson's death.

Maybe you had the same problem: I couldn't exactly pinpoint when Jackson had gotten so famous.

"Of course I remember the Jackson Five and how cute they were on the 'Ed Sullivan Show,' " I said to my husband. "Then I remember that creepy stuff about Michael Jackson and the criminal trial, but I don't remember the part in between when he got to be a superstar and everybody loved him."

One of the things I love about my husband is that he takes me seriously almost always, and I could see him begin to formulate a serious and grown-up answer so we could have a serious and grown-up discussion.

"Well, you remember watching MTV when it first started in the 1980s and it was all music videos, right?" he said. "Michael Jackson was made for MTV."

That's as serious and grown-up as we got, because I had to admit I'd never watched MTV in the 1980s.

My husband stared at me, shocked.

"You mean you never watched MTV?" he said, incredulously. "I cannot believe that. Everybody watched MTV. What were you doing during the '80s, anyway?"

Ah, that one's easy. I was busy birthing babies.

As the 1970s segued into the 1980s and beyond and Michael Jackson was making chart-topping records and taking over MTV, I was graduating from college, finding a job, getting married (to my first husband) and having children. And the children part meant hours and hours of watching "Sesame Street," Disney movies and "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" instead of "Thriller" music videos.

But you know, I came out of the '80s with two wonderful daughters - and, with all due respect, I'll trade that for memories of Michael Jackson any day.

Cathy Wood is a freelance writer living in the Shoals. For more from her, visit TimesDaily.com.