The ’80s were a fun time to grow up, right? Jelly shoes, Trapper Keepers, Lisa Frank stickers, looser restrictions on fireworks…good times. If you were a kid in Nebraska at that time, you may not have understood what all of these events meant, but you probably remember them nonetheless.
1. It was the golden age of NU football.
We loved Tom Osborne and he loved us back.
2. Our favorite treat was blowing up...and it even started appearing inside Memorial Stadium.
Runza was the first outside food company allowed to operate within the stadium, and it has since become a staple of game day.
3. The farm bust affected us all.
Plummeting crop prices and climbing debt saw the family farm run into serious trouble in the '80s. Many families lost their property and the generations of history that went along with it.
4. For the first time, two women ran against each other for the office of governor.
Kay Orr and Helen Boosalis made history when they campaigned against one another in 1986. Orr won, taking office in 1987.
5. Bruce Springsteen released an album all about how great Nebraska is.
Ok, that's not what the album is about. But that's what we all hoped for at the time.
6. An outbreak of tornadoes in Grand Island caused massive destruction and killed five people.
The Night of the Twisters occurred on June 3, 1980. No one could have been prepared for the wreckage caused by this unprecedented storm system.
7. Terms of Endearment was filmed in Lincoln.
Much of the movie was shot around UNL. You can bet that most Nebraskans watched that movie when it came out to see how many locations they could identify.
8. This little marvel of community togetherness happened.
9. Peony Park was the place to be.
This was almost exclusively an eastern Nebraska experience, but it had to be mentioned. It was such an important part of so many of our lives.
10. The Franklin Scandal shocked us all.
The Washington Times
Reports of a child prostitution ring that reached all the way up to the upper echelons of our government rocked the state - and the country - to its core. To this day, the details of the coverup remain mostly cloaked in mystery.
11. The Rulo cult killings became a horrid part of our state's history.
Google Maps
A small group of survivalists took over a pig farm northwest of Rulo, led by Michael W. Ryan. The cult was involved in crimes both large and small, but the most heinous of these were the torture and murder of two cult members, one of them five-year-old boy.
12. Gordon Howard saved Chimney Rock
When the area of land that contained Chimney Rock came up for sale in the 1980s, developers planned to swoop in and build houses near the monument. Local man Gordon Howard decided that he couldn't let that happen, so with some creative negotiating he got the local bank to finance the purchase. He saved the monument from the interests of modern man, later donating an eight-acre parcel to the Nebraska State Historical Society for the visitors center.
What other purely Nebraska events do you remember from the 1980s? Share with us in our Facebook comments!
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