Life In El Paso In The 80’s Was Very Different

Unless you lived through the 80's, you won't believe what you could get away with in El Paso during the 80's.

The 80's were a crazy and fun decade. The national economy was pretty strong, there weren't wars waging all over the planet, political candidates ... gasp ... acted like responsible adults who really wanted to lead properly, MTV was still cool and Heavy Metal ruled the airwaves.

Young peeps could do some things then that you won't ever see them do now. The first one being good old J - Town. Yes people routinely go back and forth to Juarez now but not like back then.

Back in the 80's, young people crossed ... and partied ... regularly in Juarez. It didn't really matter how old you were as long as you 1) had money and 2) didn't act like a total a-hole.

It was usually a good idea to have a few spare bucks on hand for the cops. You never knew when someone might question the fake ID you bought from some guy in an alley that made you 91 years old.

The bridges were wide open and the border guards rarely ever questioned drunk/stoned teenagers abut where they'd been. It was like Vegas but for everybody, not just the 21 and up crowd.

Speaking of vices, you could buy alcohol, for about half the decade, once you turned 18. If you at least looked 18, you'd probably get away with it. Convenience stores, especially Mpm 'n Pop shops, were pretty hit and miss about checking ID.

Cigarettes were even easier as laws for their sale were much looser. A child could buy a pack and they often did, sent to get them by a parent or other relative too lazy to go themselves. You could also have one just about everywhere. Restaurants, airplanes, movie theaters ... even freakin' hospitals allowed it.

Holidays stayed on time too. You didn't see Halloween stuff until October 1st, all the  thanksgiving stuff didn't pop up until November 1st and all the Christmas decorations didn't go up in stores until after Thanksgiving. Nobody was camping out in front of Best Buy to get a $5 toaster on "Black Friday" either.

When folks needed to google something, they didn't type "whatever" and then read everything there was to know on the subject. Unless you had a friend who's folks had an encyclopedia set you could access, the process went like this:

1. Find a way to get to a place called a library.
2. Weed through hundreds of drawers, filled with zillions of cards ... they actually had classes and library visits during school that taught you all this ... to find the book you needed.
3. Assuming someone else didn't already have the book, you took notes and then put it back. If you had multiple questions, you did all this multiple times.

Trying to answer 3 or 4 simple questions could take hours ...