Through the Past Dorkily: Trouble in Paradise

Editor's note: Through the Past Dorkily is a recurring feature that looks back at the embarrassingly dorky diary I kept as a 16-year-old in 1984.

Monday, January 16, 1984

WAAF Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. Sister Christian - Night Ranger
3. Looks That Kill - Motley Crue
4. 99 Red Balloons - Nena
5. I Want a New Drug - Huey Lewis and the News

I wore those "Cyclops" glasses today in every class except Geography. I had 'em on but hosebag [redacted] made me take 'em off. The glasses cracked everybody up.

Mom's threatening to leave Dad because of his drinking. She keeps on asking me if I want to go with her to Toronto or Richland. I don't know! This screws everything up. Right when I get back on track here, this has to happen! Talk about a massive bummer. I'll just have to wait and see.

Later.

P.S. I got a friggin' C+ on my Geography paper. Forgot footnotes and bibliography.

- The Barbarian

Postscript: This entry marks the first signs of trouble on the homefront, at least that I documented. I honestly don't remember a lot of stuff happening this early, but it definitely got worse as time went on. My father was never a huge drinker until we got to NH. Job stress got to him, I guess. By the mid-'80s, nuclear plants weren't exactly popular with the public, so my dad was constantly worried about losing his job. The two years in Washington state were even more stressful right from the start. The drinking got really bad a few years after this when I was in college and he lost his job. My mom threatened to leave constantly, but she never did. Meanwhile, I just tried to live the life of a normal teenager, whatever that was.