Rob Mineault
Hey, and welcome to another episode of AT banter,
Steve Barclay
Banter, Banter.
Rob Mineault
I feel like that should have been an electronic cowbell.
Ryan Fleury
Insert one there.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, I wonder if there’s such a thing exists. Hey, my name is Rob Mineault. Joining me in the room today. Mr. Ryan Fleury.
Ryan Fleury
Hello,
Rob Mineault
and Mr. Steve Barclay.
Steve Barclay
I deny everything that happened in the 80s.
Rob Mineault
Well, you know, it’s funny, you mentioned that, Ryan?
Ryan Fleury
Yeah?
Rob Mineault
What do we what are we doing today? what’s what’s, what’s the deal with today’s episode?
Ryan Fleury
Well, it’s interesting, you bring this up, because a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the web. And I saw that February 27, was National Retro Day. I didn’t dig any deeper than that. As soon as I heard retro day, my mind started meandering. And so let me ask you some questions. Do you remember when women had big hair, shoulder pads and wore leggings?
Steve Barclay
Maybe you mean they mean they don’t anymore?
Ryan Fleury
They might I don’t know. But do you remember when men wore acid wash jeans?
Rob Mineault
Yeah
Ryan Fleury
Wind breakers and baggy shorts.
Steve Barclay
I still do.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, actually, baggy shorts are still kind of great.
Steve Barclay
Maybe Maybe not acid washed jeans.
Ryan Fleury
Well, that is true. But if you haven’t figured it out yet, those were all fads in the 80s. And so today’s show, we thought we would take a look back at the 1980s and what it was, but we also have a guest host with us. Shawn Marsolais from Blind Beginnings. Welcome.
Shawn Marsolais
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Rob Mineault
Yes, thank you for coming. And you guys. This is my boss. So don’t get me fired.
Steve Barclay
Another another veteran of the 80s
Shawn Marsolais
Well, I don’t know if I should be offended because I was pretty young in the 80s. I just want to make that really clear. Right up.
Rob Mineault
Me too Shawn
Shawn Marsolais
Okay.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, like you said before, Rob, before he said, Hey, we should have Sean on she’s old.
Rob Mineault
Don’t make me come back and work for you, you bastard.
Ryan Fleury
You just lost your vacation time, Rob.
Rob Mineault
That’s right.
Ryan Fleury
So Shawn, since you’re joining us, and we have a few for a little while, might you tell us what is going on with Blind Beginnings?
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah, Blind Beginnings is busier than ever. We’re doing lots and lots of virtual programming. We’ve got parents support groups and kids support groups and baking with Blind Beginnings where families are baking virtually. We also have a trivia night coming up. So it’s a really fun fundraiser that we usually do in person. But we’re gonna try it virtually. So yeah. If anybody likes trivia, I’d love for people to purchase a ticket and join us. We’ll, we’ll have breakout rooms. So you and your team are in a breakout. And then each breakout room has a facilitator that kind of gives you the questions and then you come back into the big room to hear the answers. And, you know, hear a little bit about Blind Beginnings, of course, but should be a fun night. So that’s kind of something we’re working on. But yeah, lots of great programming happening. As always, if I do say so myself.
Ryan Fleury
If people wanted to sign up for the Trivia Night is all the information on the website?
Shawn Marsolais
It is yes, http://www.blindbeginnings.ca. Check it out.
Rob Mineault
Don’t forget the podcast.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, yeah. And our podcast. Actually, this is the first time that I have been a guest on a podcast since starting our own podcast. So if you haven’t checked out Limitless, it’s myself as the host. And then I have different co hosts, which are youth leaders and youth mentors. And we talk about all sorts of blindness related stuff, so Lots of good stuff we have, I think 35 episodes now. So check us out.
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, slow down. You’re threatening me.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, I have a long way to go to catch up to you guys.
Rob Mineault
Okay, well, are you guys ready to do this madness? So okay, so for those people in our audience that maybe are just discovering this for the first time they’ve never heard our show before. And they’re like, Oh, hey, look, it’s it’s a podcast about assistive technology. I’m going to listen to this 80s throwback episode. Just fair warning. We’re not going to talk a heck of a lot about AT today. This is more of a fun episode. But you can check out all our past episodes and where we talk about all kinds of things AT related. Okay, so that disclaimer out of the way. Let’s dive into the 80s. Well, Steve, what were you up to in the 80s?
Steve Barclay
I actually graduated from high school in 1985. So right smack dab in the middle of the 80s. So I went to high school. Yeah, I went to I went through, you know, high school for the beginning of it, I. After high school, I went to control data Institute and got my diploma in computer Maintenance Technology, working on such fine things as cyber 18, mainframe computers and the very early generations of Ad-88 based IBM computers. And then I went from there and I fixed photocopiers for about three years to wind out the 80s.
Rob Mineault
So you were legitimately you were like an 80s nerd.
Steve Barclay
I was totally an 80s. nerd. Wow, this is fascinating. Which reminds me, which reminds me of a memorable quote from the 80s …. “NERD!!!”
yeah. Yeah, I’m gonna throw in movie quotes like that. And you actually have to name in the movie as well. Do you remember the name of the movie?
Rob Mineault
Oh, of course. Was it this revenge of the nerds?
Absolutely.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah. I don’t remember that. Because I’m young.
Ryan Fleury
Well, don’t feel too bad. Because in 1980, I was nine.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, no, I was younger.
Kindergarten.
Ryan Fleury
This will be a fun episode.
Rob Mineault
Well, so I was I was a little bit similar to Steve like I was, you know, I was a I was a young teenager in the 80s. But I feel like you guys might have an advantage over me too. Because I grew up in a little town called Mackenzie. Up north, 5000 people we didn’t even have like cable we didn’t even have access to like ABC, NBC or CBS until like, I was in grade I think like 10 so a lot of these pop culture stuff, like I didn’t get to experience in real time. So some of this stuff like I feel a little bit disconnected from but it’s kind of weird when we did get cable Okay, get this. Here’s a funny story. It’s not really 80s related, but it’s it’s my childhood related in the 80s. But when we got cable, we were so far out of the way that there was a two day delay. Like we got all the programming but it was two days delayed. So we got all the Mondays shows on Wednesday, Saturday morning cartoons were on Monday morning. I was so excited that we’re gonna finally get Saturday morning cartoons and yet Monday. So
Shawn Marsolais
So what’s your TV Guide? What would you have to add two days to everything in the TV Guide?
Rob Mineault
Yep, absolutely had to do math for everything. It was terrible.
Steve Barclay
So you’re probably really really good at programming the VCR.
Ryan Fleury
Betamax?
Rob Mineault
Well, we have Betamax which I got we got screwed with that too. Fell into that trap. Like Beta … It’s the way the future, they’re smaller, they’re better quality. Okay, well buy one. Oh, sorry. Womp womp. So yeah, that’s an that’s something else that pisses me off about the 80s. In any case, what about you, Ryan? What was what was going on with you in the 80s?
Ryan Fleury
Well, like I said, you know, 1980 I was nine years old. And so I was busy playing Atari 2600 playing asteroids “pew pew” I was out riding bikes and climbing trees, and just having a good old time.
Steve Barclay
Did you play joust?
Ryan Fleury
I don’t think I did play Joust
Steve Barclay
No, that was my favorite. Was it game? Oh, yeah. Joust, you had a little ostrich on it. And the ostrich would fly around and you’d have to battle other guys on ostriches.
Rob Mineault
And Shawn?
Shawn Marsolais
Well, yeah, I will was sort of kindergarten to grade nine through the 80s. So it was definitely my childhood. Cabbage Patch Kids were pretty big. Yeah. I did modern dance. I remember. We did a dance to Thriller, Michael Jackson. rollerskating riding bikes, but my bike had the big flag on the back and the basket on the front. That was totally cool. Yeah. So yeah, I like to read a lot as a kid. I read a lot of Sweet Valley High. Teen Beat magazine.
Ryan Fleury
Hardy Boys
Shawn Marsolais
Right? Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, roller skates when they had like four wheels. Yep.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, my roller skates, were not the cool roller skates. They were the kind that you wore your shoes and then you put them into these metal things and you had to tighten them. If you fell, you like would really hurt yourself because you kind of twist your ankle out of the rollers. And I was not good.
Rob Mineault
Yes, safety wasn’t a priority in the 80s.
Ryan Fleury
No, there was no helmets either. No helmets.
Steve Barclay
What are we talking about lawn darts the other day?
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, fire in the air and then running
Rob Mineault
The 80s – the decade of compound fractures.
Shawn Marsolais
I didn’t break anything in the 80s though. I waited till I was a grown up to start breaking bones.
Rob Mineault
I was thinking about this the other night. I think overall, if I removed the nostalgia factor from the 80s and removed like the whole, you know, growing up in the 80s it was a little bit of a silly decade. It feels cartoony when you look back at it. Right. Which I think is part of the fun. That’s that’s the appeal of the 80s that none of it seems it just seems so … I don’t know, crazy. Like the fashions were really, really nutty. And let’s talk a little bit about the fashion because yeah, you look back at that hair. And like I don’t like legitimately don’t know how people did that. Like, how did you get that hair like that?
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, I just tell you jump in real quick and say for people who may or may not be familiar with the trends of the 80s one of my favorite shows on TV is The Goldbergs and it’s all 80s based. Mom has big hair, leggings, Adam’s a young kid with a video camera going around filming all this stuff, he wants to be Spielberg. It’s all flashback to the 80s or based in the 80s. It’s a fun show to watch.
Steve Barclay
What’s it called?
Ryan Fleury
The Goldbergs. The Goldbergs. Okay. everyday. It’s on at four o’clock here in Vancouver on CTV channel one.
Rob Mineault
Wait, you have you you watch cable live? You watch live TV??
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah, you know what time things are on??
Rob Mineault
Yep.
Shawn Marsolais
Don’t you just go to the PVR?
Rob Mineault
Wow. Okay, wait, we both Okay, we got to go back to the hair. Cuz Shawn was just about to reveal the secret.
Shawn Marsolais
So this was my hairstyle involved. Okay, a blow dryer. So you’d have to blow dry the side of your hair and hair sprayed at the same time. Both sides and then your bangs same thing. So that you’d have the like whoosing up bangs and your hair like wings out to the side.
Steve Barclay
Isn’t that incredibly dangerous What if a spark hit?
Shawn Marsolais
Guess so. It was also take took some like serious coordination and I wasn’t very good at it. So my one side wouldn’t necessarily match the other. It was so stressful. Like the straightener is the greatest invention of all time. Just let’s just straighten our hair everybody. Just so much easier.
Ryan Fleury
Did you crimp your hair as well?
Shawn Marsolais
I got I had perms in the 80s. Oh my god.
Rob Mineault
Man that sounds that sounds brutal. Oh, I can imagine like trying to blow dry and comb. Like you literally need like three hands.
Steve Barclay
Those hair dryers work by heating up like like they heat up a coil. That coil is like red hot. So if you’ve got any of that hairspray in the mouth of that thing, you can turn it into a flame thrower.
Rob Mineault
I wonder I wonder how many people I wonder how many people were injured in accidents. Hair accidents. Can you imagine that? Like I wonder what the stats are?
Steve Barclay
Well remember, Richard Pryor set his hair on fire in 1980.
Rob Mineault
That’s right. And Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson had that Pepsi commercial thing where he he had the greased hair and a pyrotechnic got in his hair and it caught fire.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, that was a that was a thriller.
Rob Mineault
I have not heard have anybody else injured in a hair accident since the 80s? So that must have been a thing.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, I think at one point in the 80s I had a mullet.
Unknown Speaker
No, of course. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yep. Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
I don’t picture you with hair.
Steve Barclay
I also have it. I also had a ponytail at one point.
Rob Mineault
You? Yeah.
Ryan Fleury
How long have you had no hair? As long as I’ve known you almost.
Steve Barclay
Oh, yeah, I started losing it …. when did I start losing it? Probably around the mid 90s.
Ryan Fleury
Okay.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, you were smart. You gave up, you’ve just surrendered. I’m still fighting the battle. Pretending.
Steve Barclay
Well, the problem is, you know, once once you start losing your hair, you can you can do all kinds of stuff. You can grow it out. You can, you know, try and try and look like a you know, a hippie professor or something with with, you know, long hair but missing spots in the front. Or you can shave it off. But once you shave it off, there’s no going back.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, right.
Steve Barclay
Because as soon as about a week, maybe two goes by you start looking like a chia pet. Do you guys remember chia pets? Yeah, yeah, that was totally an 80s thing.
Rob Mineault
That was a thing. For sure.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, chia pet. So you get this little little clay critter and you spread chia seeds on the outside of it and you soak it first, I think and then you put the chia seeds on the outside of it and then the chia seeds sprout and it makes it all furry looking. Was was pet rocks, 80s, or was that 70s.
Rob Mineault
I think that was a 70s thing. I think it was a 70s thing. We evolved into the chia pet from because we were just like “a pet rock, That’s stupid. Here. Let’s Let’s spread seeds onto a clay sheep and make it grow for like that’s way cooler.”
Steve Barclay
Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. It was 1975 … was pet rock.
Rob Mineault
We were so much more evolved. I feel like chia pets are still a thing. I feel like I know. There was a couple Christmases ago that I saw some.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, yeah, they crop up every now and then.
Shawn Marsolais
Chi – chi – chi chia
Rob Mineault
What was that when the lava lamps became big?
Shawn Marsolais
Wasn’t that 70s?
Steve Barclay
I think that’s 60s or 70s
Rob Mineault
Okay, fair enough. I’m mixing up the decades.
Shawn Marsolais
Maybe they came to Mackenzie in the 80s.
Rob Mineault
That’s right. 20 years behind!
Shawn Marsolais
leg warmers and fluorescent colors in the 80s, remeber that?
Steve Barclay
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
I loved fluorescent colors. They were so blind friendly.
Steve Barclay
Pink shirts for guys.
Rob Mineault
Pink shirts are still a thing though. Or they came back? Yeah. You still see the odd guy in a pink shirt?
Steve Barclay
Which famous famous pink shirt scene. “Say hello to my little friend.” You guys remember that? Scarface? Scarface. 1983 Tony Montana in his black black suit with his pink shirt firing a machine gun.
Rob Mineault
Well, you know, that was Miami Vice and I will So since we’re talking about fashion, and I think I revealed this in a past episode. But Shawn hasn’t heard it. So. But I yeah, I actually for my grad. I rented a tux — A Miami Vice tux that had a pink jacket. It was sorry, it was salmon. It was salmon. Remember the specifically salmon colored sport jacket and a white shirt, white pants, white shoes.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, wow.
Rob Mineault
Yeah. I know.
Ryan Fleury
And we asked him for a picture and we’re still waiting
Shawn Marsolais
For a Halloween costume. I feel like that needs to make a comeback.
Steve Barclay
And you got to demand that he wears that to the Blind Beginnings Gala.
Rob Mineault
Oh man
Shawn Marsolais
80s themed Gala.
Ryan Fleury
There you go there
Rob Mineault
Now we’re now we’re workshopping some ideas. But yeah, that was the fashion was bonkers. That’s why that’s why like when I look back and I call it almost like a cartoon decade because it was crazy. Like the fluorescent colors like I don’t how does how did that happen? What was that a reaction to like, just it seems weird. It was like the 70s were like bell bottoms. And like long hippie hair and then they just everybody like lost their mind and like was like all of a sudden. Yeah, fluorescent colors were in and parachute pants. Well, what was the deal there?
Shawn Marsolais
And pointy shoes. My dad used to call them nose pickers. I love those pointed shoes.
Rob Mineault
Everything was like, had to be big and colorful and over the top.
Shawn Marsolais
Mm hmm. Big baggy sweaters Like really baggy, really unflattering
Steve Barclay
Guys had to wear polo shirts with the color turned up so they look. Total douchebags. Now, now you walk around like that. It’s like, okay, you’re a douchebag it’s just, it’s recognized immediately everybody would wear their collar like that. That’s clearly a douchebag. Back then we thought it was fashion.
Rob Mineault
I know, you know, Okay, I’m gonna have another revelation here. Oh, yeah, I know. So there is there is still time to time when I will walk by a mirror with my with like a collared shirt on and with, like, I haven’t like actually adjusted it yet. And my collar will be up. And I’ll look at myself and be like, yeah, like that. Like the collar up — I don’t know, there is part of that I just – and maybe that’s just instinct from the 80s – from that time when it was cool, but I just I don’t know, like I still, I would go back to that. I would I would totally embrace the age of upturned collars on jackets and shirts. Just –
Steve Barclay
Okay, so So now I have this picture of you doing the Tom Cruise sliding in your socks in front of the mirror with your collar turned up to “Old Time Rock and Roll”.
Rob Mineault
As long as that doesn’t damage your sanity picturing that, then that’s fine. But I could do that. That’s a good transition. Steve. So movies. Let’s talk a little bit about movies. Because of course, you’re talking about a scene from — this is way back. This is like one of Tom Cruise’s, I think I think this was his breakout movie. It was Yeah. But it was called “Risky Business”.
Steve Barclay
Oh, yeah. I was trying to remember it was killing me there.
Rob Mineault
And it really it made that song by Bob Seger really big the old time rock and roll song.
Steve Barclay
That’s right.
Let me let me actually throw a few quotes at you see if you can see if you can get the okay get the movie. Okay. You get it this. “They drew First Blood not me.”
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, no idea. No.
Steve Barclay
First Blood, the 1982 original Rambo movie.
Shawn Marsolais
Never seen Rambo.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, it was. It was filmed right here in Hope. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Okay, give us another one.
Steve Barclay
Okay, okay. “Nobody puts baby in a corner”.
Shawn Marsolais
I was gonna do that one!
Rob Mineault
As soon as you said that, Steve. I was just like I knew Shawn was just going to get it
Shawn Marsolais
I love that movie.
Steve Barclay
Okay, “There can be only one.”
Rob Mineault
Okay, I know that one because it’s a geeky one. That’s Highlander. That’s right, with Christopher Lambert, where they were immortal people and they had to chop each other’s heads off.
Steve Barclay
That’s right. The Immortal said every every so often had to battle themselves down to a single immortal being alive.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, but it is true. There was so many good movies, I mean, that I will give the 80s like they they knocked it out of the park, movie-wise.
Steve Barclay
And and some of them are still you know, their franchises that are still coming back. So that’s another great quote. “He slimed me.”
Rob Mineault
Well, that’s Ghostbusters. Of course.
Steve Barclay
Absolutely. “Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?”
Ryan Fleury
Die hard?
Rob Mineault
Die hard? There’s no snakes in Die Hard. That’s a good guess though. Although, it’d be cool if there were. That was Raiders of Lost Ark.
Steve Barclay
That’s right.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, really?
Steve Barclay
A line that I love I love from this movie. Although the movie itself was awful. “Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?”
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, that’s so familiar. But I don’t know.
Rob Mineault
Oh. Uhhhh .. Die Hard?
Shawn Marsolais
That’ll just be the guess when we don’t know.
Steve Barclay
That’s, that’s that’s jack Nicholson’s The Joker from the 1989 Batman with Michael Keaton. It was a terrible, terrible Batman movie. Jack Nicholson was of course Jack Nicholson. But yeah, he had some good lines.
Shawn Marsolais
Okay, I have one. This is easy. “Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?”
Ryan Fleury
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah, that’s one of my favorites.
Rob Mineault
That was that was a John Hughes movies. Ah, oh, yeah. So good.
Shawn Marsolais
The Breakfast Club.
Steve Barclay
Breakfast Club was such a great — If I was to pick a single penultimate move during the 80s, it would have to be The Breakfast Club because it hit virtually all of the possible High School subgroups and and then made them interact in ways that they they’d never actually would in high school. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
I mean, I have to say like, yeah, looking back at the 80s, like so many good movies and like, really, like, just generational filmmakers, like John Hughes, Steven Spielberg,
Shawn Marsolais
Karate Kid.
Steve Barclay
Oh, I was just gonna say I was just gonna say wax on wax off.
Shawn Marsolais
Okay. Yeah, totally. Have you watched Cobra Kai?
Ryan Fleury
Oh, yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Such an 80s. Retro, good feel.
Ryan Fleury
Probably my number one franchise from the 80s is Karate Kid. I, you know, second, second and third parts weren’t the greatest but yeah, anytime I see Karate Kid on TV, I have to watch it. I have to watch it. I’m a huge fan of Ralph Macchio. And of course, you know, Back to the Future. Yes. And Top Gun. Those are my probably top three
Steve Barclay
“Roads, where we’re going we don’t need roads”
Ryan Fleury
One thing I hate about binge watching, like I said, I’ve watched Cobra Kai multiple times, Karate Kid multiple times. And when I binge watch them, you know, season four of Cobra Kai isn’t coming up for a year. So it’s just like, Oh, no, I gotta wait and wait. And wait.
Shawn Marsolais
I know
Ryan Fleury
I hate it.
Shawn Marsolais
First world problems.
Ryan Fleury
It ruined us for TV.
Steve Barclay
That’s right. The only thing worse though is knowing that entire season is available and Amazon is only releasing it one episode per week.
Unknown Speaker
What is this, television from the 80s??
Steve Barclay
Oh, hey, there’s one. “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”
Ryan Fleury
I don’t know that one.
Steve Barclay
You don’t know that one?
Ryan Fleury
No.
Steve Barclay
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Ryan Fleury
Okay,
Steve Barclay
Jessica Rabbit
Shawn Marsolais
Right.
Steve Barclay
I am your father.
Shawn Marsolais
Star Wars.
Steve Barclay
Oh, you gave it away. Oh, you just wrecked that movie for so many people
Shawn Marsolais
But I didn’t say the name. So I didn’t. It’s not? No, I am your father. It’s the name. I am your father, isn’t it? I don’t want to say it because then I would be giving it away.
Steve Barclay
I don’t I don’t believe it is correct. I think the quote actually is no I am really not say the name at the beginning.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, okay.
Steve Barclay
I’m actually willing to put money on it for you.
Shawn Marsolais
I’m not betting I don’t bet unless I know I’m right.
Steve Barclay
No, no, because the article the article that I’m looking at right now says a common misconception is that he said Luke at the start when this is actually incorrect.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, no. Okay.
But we can ask
Steve Barclay
By the way that was not Star Wars. That was the Empire Strikes Back, which was the
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, it’s all the same to me.
Steve Barclay
Three released in the 80s though
Shawn Marsolais
You know what, I just watched all the movies this summer with my seven year old for the first time though. Like I never saw them when they came out?
Rob Mineault
Yeah, really?
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah. Cuz I didn’t get it. I like I remember something my cousin’s house on TV. Bright colored sticks fighting whatever weird gold people like,
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, we had Star Wars and then we had Star Wars and GI Joes. And she had Strawberry Shortcake and Cabbage Patch Kids.
Shawn Marsolais
Care bears even!
Ryan Fleury
Care bear stare.
Steve Barclay
Bitch Teletubbies
Ryan Fleury
de la la
Rob Mineault
It was really weird
Ryan Fleury
The 90s would be a horrible show
Shawn Marsolais
I was more into the Muppet Show than Stawberry Shortcake
Ryan Fleury
There you go
Rob Mineault
The Muppet Show! Holy crap. That was Yeah, yes. Oh my gosh, that Yeah, they don’t make TV like that anymore. Like that was a brilliant show.
Steve Barclay
I used to be able to play the theme song for that on guitar. I wonder how long it would take me to relearn that.
Rob Mineault
I mean, I like I remember watching. I remember watching like Elton John with the Muppets. Like when else are you ever going to see like Elton John and the Muppets seeing crocodile rock? Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Although for me, I didn’t like the celebrities. They were annoying. I just wanted the Muppets.
Ryan Fleury
Who was your favorite Muppet?
Shawn Marsolais
Kermit, of course
Ryan Fleury
Kermie
Rob Mineault
Miss Piggie was annoying.
Yes, I agree with that.
Shawn Marsolais
I guess she was the only female like What’s up with that?
Ryan Fleury
That’s true.
Steve Barclay
Hmm, no, she was not the only female.
Shawn Marsolais
Well, there was a doctor. That was a pig as well. I think that was
Rob Mineault
But there was Janice
Shawn Marsolais
Who’se Janice?
Ryan Fleury
The female puppet like sort of like Elmo, but
Rob Mineault
No no she she was in the band she was in like I know way too much about them up. Because I don’t remember well occasionally she would like she’s part of like Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. We I can’t believe I know that. I know what the Muppets band was called.
Shawn Marsolais
I feel like that could be a trivia question at our trivia.
Rob Mineault
Wow, I I just shocked myself. It’s no wonder I’m not smarter into because my brain has this — this is the type of things that are in my brain. But yeah, no issues. So she was Yeah, she was she was there. But yeah, the Muppets man. Ma na ma na.
Shawn Marsolais
Okay, so another movie that came out in the 80s that I am bitter about was ET. Yeah, I’m bitter about it. Because we didn’t go to the theater. And my parents said, Oh, it’ll be out in video in no time. And I don’t know, something like eight years.
Steve Barclay
That’s right. I waited forever to release that.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, yeah. So I didn’t see it until it came out on video much, much later. And then it was just boring. Like, there were so many better movies. After that, that had already come out. And we went to Disneyland. We went to Universal Studios, and we saw how ET was made when we hadn’t even seen the movie.
Steve Barclay
When you go back and you look at a lot of those movies, I think the thing that that is most striking about them is that the pace is so slow. Like we expect movies now to go at a neck break speed. And a lot of those movies for back they’re like I can’t watch The Shining. I just can’t watch it. It is it is so boring. And it was critically acclaimed at the time. But yeah, but I just find it so slow. I just can’t take it.
Shawn Marsolais
Hmm, that’s interesting. Yeah, I think we’re so used to that instant gratification that,
Rob Mineault
Yeah, it was it was a time when movies built up. They built the tension. They ratcheted things up really nice and slowly and people ate it up. But yeah, just doesn’t play as much now I know. It’s you know, and it’s funny too, when you try to watch you when you try to like play an 80s movie for somebody who hasn’t seen it these days, and they’re just like, wow, you like this? This was really good, huh?
Steve Barclay
Oh, you look back fondly on this??
Rob Mineault
Okay, what’s next? We talked about — Okay, so let’s talk about music. Music. Another big topic. So does anybody have any like big standout 80s bands that they still love to this day?
Steve Barclay
Dire Straits.
Ryan Fleury
Oh, yeah. Probably my favorite song of the 80s that I still will kind of sing and dance to the privacy of the guitar dungeon when it comes on the radio or streaming or whenever I request it, because I can do that nowadays Is Starship “We built this city”.
Rob Mineault
Oh my god. Are you serious?
Ryan Fleury
I love the radio announcer that comes in. They’re giving the traffic report while the band is playing the song I just every time I hear that song. It just makes me smile.
Rob Mineault
Oh man, I do not feel I no longer feel bad about the Miami Vice tux. Like I feel like Ryan just trumped me on the revelation that his favorite song was starship “We built this city”.
Ryan Fleury
Starship we built this city and don’t stop believing by journey which is also my ringtone.
Rob Mineault
Wow, that’s fascinating. Oh, man, you I would pay per view to watch you dance in the guitar dungeon to starship “We built this city”. How much? 20 bucks? 25 bucks?
Ryan Fleury
No, we’re talking like 500 bucks.
Rob Mineault
- I will raise it will start up a GoFund me
Shawn Marsolais
And that’d be a fundraiser for Blind Beginnings.
Ryan Fleury
Yes. Dancing in the dungeon.
Rob Mineault
24 hours of him doing in leg warmers?
Ryan Fleury
Yeah. And my hula hoop.
Rob Mineault
And a headband. Wow, okay. Well that no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mock you. That was that was a good song for the time. It’s true. It got a bad rap. I think it got overplayed and they killed it.
Shawn Marsolais
I’m with you. I am with you. Ryan. I like that song. That’s a good song. I mean, I don’t you know dance and sing along but I see why you like it.
Steve Barclay
Remember Purple Rain.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, sure
Steve Barclay
That album was a mega album in the 80s. And the song When Doves Cry,
I think, yeah, I don’t know how long that song was at the top of the charts. But it was Yeah, it was up there a long time. That was such a great album.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, I guess for me, I really locked into Springsteen in the 80s. I didn’t know anything about him. And I remember watching a TV commercial. That was a commercial for Born in the USA, the album, and they played a snippet of that of Dancing in the Dark. And I heard that hook of that song and I was like, Ooh, yeah, I like that. And I just I went, I went, I remember buying, born in the USA, the album and just yeah, loving it. And that was, for me. That was the album of the 80s for me.
Steve Barclay
Clarence Clemons played sax solo and dancing in the dark, which Yeah, phenomenal. I mean, yeah, he was he was appearing all over the place. Yeah. That that’s a standout there. Yeah, and I think the 80s was when a lot of music from overseas crossed over into into North America and it didn’t it didn’t even have to necessarily be in English, but you know, like 99 red balloons.
Shawn Marsolais
I was just thinking that that’s so weird,
Steve Barclay
Right? Yes, that’s good. Hey, Okay, how about that, so I’ll work this one backwards. The first and biggest hit by the Norwegian electro pop trio, not saying that, okay, Rose rose to international popularity in 1985. On the strength of its groundbreaking video, a mix of live action and pencil drawn animation that starred dreamy lead singer – not saying his name- as the hero of an escape romance between a lonely woman and a comic book adventure. It won six MTV Video Awards.
Rob Mineault
Oooo
Steve Barclay
This songs masterfully infectious synth riff sampled back to glory by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera in 2013’s Feel This Moment would be enough to secure a spot on any list of 80s classics.
Rob Mineault
What’s a Christina Aguilera? No I’m just kidding.
Steve Barclay
She just sampled it
Rob Mineault
No Okay, I think I know the answer to this and only because you gave it away with I think the pencil drawing part as I vaguely remember this video. Was it A-Ha “Take on Me?”
Steve Barclay
It is “Take on Me”
Unknown Speaker
[Bad singing ensues]
Rob Mineault
Thank you. Thank you for backing me up people.
Shawn Marsolais
Zoom sing along.
Steve Barclay
To this day people are getting Rick rolled.
Rob Mineault
Oh, was that ….
Steve Barclay
Yes.
Rick Astley Never gonna give you up.
Ryan Fleury
Oh, yes.
Shawn Marsolais
Never gonna let you go. Yeah, okay.
Rob Mineault
Okay, this is Yeah.
Steve Barclay
This is the sing a long with Shawn episode.
Ryan Fleury
I think we need a karaoke.
Shawn Marsolais
I love 80s music. My stuff is like, Okay, get ready. Debbie Gibson, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper. Madonna. Yeah. Richard Marx, Bryan Adams. Yeah, like, yeah, Chris de Burgh lady and red was one of my favorite songs.
Bon Jovi. I also really like Bon Jovi. ,
Steve Barclay
Yeah, you know, he went to my high school.
Shawn Marsolais
He went to your high school.
Steve Barclay
He did. Yep.
Bryan Adams.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh Bryan Adams.
Rob Mineault
Bon Jovi went to your High School?
Steve Barclay
No Bryan Adams was a good North Van boy. He went to Sutherland which is where I graduated from
Rob Mineault
No kidding.
Shawn Marsolais
But while you were there?
Steve Barclay
No, no. When when he went there, it was a junior high. And then he went from the junior high. He went to Argyle which was the senior high. So he graduated from Argyle but but he did. He did junior high at Sutherland. And his his piano is actually in the he donated his piano to the music department at Sutherland.
Rob Mineault
Oh, cool.
Steve Barclay
They can say that. He’s they’ve got to Bryan Adams piano there
Rob Mineault
I did not know that.
Shawn Marsolais
Okay, so 21 Jump Street.
Ryan Fleury
80s Johnny Depp
Shawn Marsolais
An episode of that was filmed at my high school while I was in high school.
Steve Barclay
Oh, man,
Shawn Marsolais
that was pretty cool.
Rob Mineault
Ah, okay. Okay, I’m gonna blow you guys mind. Okay, do you remember Live Aid?
Steve Barclay
Yes.
Shawn Marsolais
Live Aid sounds like a drink.
Rob Mineault
We don’t know. Okay, wait, okay, but surely, you know, band aid.
Huh? Like what you put on an owie?
No, no, no. No, no. Do you ever like Do you remember that? So like, Do They Know It’s christmas time?
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, yeah, right. Right.
Rob Mineault
Okay, so that Live Aid was the big concert that they did for African famine relief, right. It was like the first global
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, the We Are the World.
Rob Mineault
That’s right. Yeah, that yeah, that all that spun out of out of that, and then they had the big concert, like it was the first time they’ve ever done anything like this, where they had like, they had a bunch of you know, acts in in Wembley in London, and then they connected with Philadelphia, and they had a bunch of acts there and was like 18 hours of live music with like, all the hugest bands in the world, you know at the time. It was amazing. I remember watching that and just being like just completely gobsmacked. And that’s where of course Queen did that, you know, very famous performance that that they reenacted for that movie. What’s the movie called? Bohemian Rhapsody.
Shawn Marsolais
Right? That was great movie.
Rob Mineault
Yeah. That was so good. Yeah, so so good. Um, let’s see what else Ryan I want. Give me another guilty pleasure. Ryan. I want I want another 80 song that you sing and dance to another guitar dungeon because I feel like you is more I feel as more dirt there.
Ryan Fleury
I don’t sing and dance to it. But I had a huge crush on … Maybe she wasn’t 80s No, it’s okay.
Rob Mineault
Give it to us anyways,
Ryan Fleury
All right. “I think we’re alone now”. I had a big crush on Tiffany.
Shawn Marsolais
I did you know what I had Tiffany on my list. too embarrassed to say it.
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, and me and Tiffany, we were getting together.
Rob Mineault
That’s awesome.
Shawn Marsolais
Well, if we’re gonna go there, like I have to mention New Kids on the Block because in the 80s
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, Yes, they were.
Shawn Marsolais
I was kind of too old for them. It was late 80s. But yeah.
Rob Mineault
Okay, okay. This is good. Okay, I like this. This is I see we’re winging it, folks. Okay. 80s celebrity crushes.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, so easy. Oh my gosh.
Rob Mineault
Go Shawn, you’re first
Shawn Marsolais
Kirk Cameron. Ricky Schroder.
Ryan Fleury
Oh, yeah. Silver Spoon.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah. Let’s see who else did I like? Oh, I liked Tony. I kind of like Tony Danza.
Steve Barclay
Who’s the boss?
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, Patrick Swayze and dirty dancing. Oh my gosh, I still can remember what that looks like. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
I feel like there’s more but we’ll Okay. We’ll just like I’m just gonna pick up the next hour and a half.
Shawn Marsolais
I’m feeling a little warm. Move on.
Rob Mineault
Okay, Ryan. Okay. Ryan, Tiffany, already. Don’t get Steve. You’re up.
Steve Barclay
Meg Ryan.
Rob Mineault
Oh, yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
She’s cute. I’m a girl, but I can appreciate that.
Steve Barclay
Cute. cute as a button. guy. Oh, Michelle Pfeiffer. Well, definitely
Rob Mineault
Oh, Pfeiffer. Interesting. Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Was she in Grease 2?
Rob Mineault
Yes. Yes.
Shawn Marsolais
Yes. Okay.
Ryan Fleury
She was she was also Catwoman. Was she not?
Rob Mineault
Yes, she was.
Shawn Marsolais
What about you Rob who was your crush?
Rob Mineault
Okay. Mine’s pretty ridiculous, actually. Wow, this is really geeky. Okay. Erin Grey from Buck Rogers in the 25th century. Oh, yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Who was that?
Rob Mineault
So that might be slept in late. 79. Yeah, that way. Okay. Nancy Drew. The actress. But she Yeah, totally. I mean, she was really super smart and lovely. And so. Oh, and Oh, I know. Melissa Gilbert. Yes. from Little House in the prairie.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh Laura Ingells! I love that.
Rob Mineault
She’s cute That’s all I can think of
Shawn Marsolais
I loved Little House on the Prairie
Steve Barclay
Morgan Fairchild. Yeah, Morgan Fairchild.
Rob Mineault
Oh, oh, wait a minute. Oh, what was that show? Oh, what was that show with Steve Austin and not cold
Ryan Fleury
Six Million Dollar Man.? Jamie, summers, okay.
Rob Mineault
No, no, no, no. He did another show. What was the show? Where he was in it? It was in a Lee Majors he was in it and he played a stunt dude.
Oh my god. I have. I have not thought of that show in forever.
Right? The only and there was a girl that was on that show and I I can’t remember her name but oh my gosh, yeah, I think like grade nine was I was consumed with that show. The Fall Guy. The Fall Guy. Yes. Okay, so her as well. I’m sorry, lady. I don’t remember your name.
Steve Barclay
Heather Thomas.
Rob Mineault
Okay, shout out big shout out to Heather Thomas, wherever you are. Thank you. Oh, okay. TV shows TV shows that is a good segueway to TV shows because this this is this will be good too. Favorite TV show anybody?
Shawn Marsolais
Well, mine, you’ll see some themes, Growing Pains. Silver Spoons, Who’s the Boss? I might have been watching them because I liked the people. Yes. Facts of Life, different strokes. My one I like Degrassi junior high. That’s a shout out to my age. And then moonlighting. That was my one grown up show. And this is so funny. So my parents love them, but I had a bedtime and it was it was 9:30 and Moonlighting was on from nine to 10. So I only got to watch the first half of the movie. I still have never seen the full episodes, and I want to find it and watch them because I loved Bruce Willis. And yeah, Cybil Shepard. They just had such great chemistry and it was such a funny show. So good.
Rob Mineault
Wow, I forgot about that show. But you’re right. That was such a good show. Okay, wait. Greatest American hero.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, right.
Yep. I loved that show. oh okay, ALF.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, yeah.
Steve Barclay
Wasn’t a big ALF fan
Rob Mineault
You people have no appreciation of puppets. No. Let’s see what else.
Ryan Fleury
Mine were Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider
Rob Mineault
Oh, yes. Yeah.
Ryan Fleury
Airwolf. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, I like Night Court. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yeah. And Cheers. Cheers.
Shawn Marsolais
Was that 80s?
Rob Mineault
Oh, yeah, so many, so many really, really good shows.
Steve Barclay
Quantum Leap.
Ryan Fleury
Oh, yes, that’s right.
Steve Barclay
I’m always a sucker for any kind of sci fi. Start Star Trek The Next Generation started up then.
Rob Mineault
Was that the 80s?
Steve Barclay
Yeah, that was the 80s. Really? Yeah. MASH..
Rob Mineault
Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
The Wonderful World of Disney. Yeah, I don’t think that’s on anymore.
Ryan Fleury
Sundays at six
Steve Barclay
They got a streaming service now.
Ryan Fleury
That’s right. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
It really is weird to think back to that era when, like, nightd of TV were a thing. Like I like because I you say Hill Street Blues and immediately I go to like, yeah, that’s Thursdays. I like not like, just you know, it was Night Court and then you know, Hill Steet Blues, and even if you didn’t watch those particular shows, you just knew this block of Miami Vice was on Fridays, right? Fall Guy was on Wednesdays, you know Greatest American hero was on Tuesdays. You just locked in my brain.
Shawn Marsolais
Those days might all be wrong, because they were two days later in Mackenzie.
Rob Mineault
that’s true. That’s true. I don’t know when the rest of the world got them.
Steve Barclay
How about the Incredible Hulk?
Rob Mineault
Oh yes.
Steve Barclay
Lou Ferrigno. Painted all green.
Rob Mineault
“Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Man, CHiPs.
Ryan Fleury
CHiPs, didn’t watch it.
Rob Mineault
Wow. See now we’re all quiet because we’re just thinking I want to go back to those days.
Ryan Fleury
Not really.
Steve Barclay
I do not want to go back to the days where I was getting stuffed into lockers.
Rob Mineault
Wanting to go back to this those upturned collar days.
Shawn Marsolais
Don’t want to go back to that hairstyle. No, that’s for sure.
Rob Mineault
We were talking about that while you dropped, we’re convinced that you you probably escaped death several times.
Shawn Marsolais
Just a few years ago, my blow dryer caught on fire while I was blow drying my hair
Rob Mineault
If that happened. you would have been holding a flame thrower to your head
Shawn Marsolais
Well, the hairspray actually I remember my parents had a party one night and my mom’s friend had so much hairspray in her hair. And she had really long hair and it it like caught on a candle beside her. And it just yeah, I mean she was okay, but the smell. The smell was bad.
Ryan Fleury
Aqua net? Yeah, yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, I do think we should look up some stats because I’m pretty convinced that there there are there are like a lot of hair related injuries.
Oh, geez. So we’ve covered fashion, we’ve covered music, we’ve covered movies, we covered TV shows.
Ryan Fleury
We didn’t cover was there was some pretty big news events that happened in the 80s.
Rob Mineault
Okay, all right.
Ryan Fleury
And not all good.
Shawn Marsolais
I think I’m out on this one. I couldn’t think of anything. I’m pretty sure. I wasn’t watching the news yet
Ryan Fleury
To be honest, I had to Google some of these. Okay, so to start with the challenger exploded.
Steve Barclay
Yeah. Okay.
Rob Mineault
I remember that. Yeah.
Steve Barclay
I remember people walking around my high school crying when that happened.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh wow
Rob Mineault
Yeah, yep.
Ryan Fleury
But good news. The Great Wall came down.
Rob Mineault
The Great Wall of China?
Ryan Fleury
no, the German, the Berlin Wall.
Rob Mineault
What?? Did they rebuild it in the 90s???
Ryan Fleury
Trump’s wall. Damn, it didn’t.
We’re gonna make America great. Again. We brought the great wall down.
Rob Mineault
Okay, there’s been too many walls in history.
Okay, all right. Okay, so So what else?
Ryan Fleury
And we had Expo 86 the world’s fair.
Shawn Marsolais
That I remember. Yeah, the sky train started. Yeah. 86 or 85? Maybe?
Rob Mineault
Oh, man.
Steve Barclay
It was 86. I think I used to ride it pretty much every day to school.
Rob Mineault
Wow. Which should chill anybody who’s still writing the SkyTrain knowing that that thing was built back when ALF was still on the air.
Shawn Marsolais
Well, I remember that when the people came to the school to tell us about the sky train and how if you fell in you would get electrocuted and how schools don’t even step on that yellow line and like putting the fear of God into
Ryan Fleury
whoa,
Rob Mineault
Wait, that’s not true? Like because I totally got that speech too
Shawn Marsolais
I’m pretty sure the line is okay to step on.
Rob Mineault
I know if you do fall in you do get eletrocuted.
Shawn Marsolais
Yes. I’m sure you can. I’ve known people who fallen in so I don’t really understand. I think it gets live as the train approaches. I’m not really sure.
Rob Mineault
Okay, Expo 86. Okay, what else?
Ryan Fleury
Those are the three I had the wall, Expo and challenger.
Rob Mineault
Well, wasn’t Reagan was shot in, in the 80s. Right. Like that would have been early 80s. I can vaguely remember that.
Steve Barclay
Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Wasn’t it weird that he became the president in the first place? Because he was an actor?
Steve Barclay
Yeah. Well, he was Governor of California before that. So he didn’t go straight from actor to President. Okay. Yeah, there was definitely, definitely concern that they put an actor in charge for sure. Hmm. Yeah. Like so. Do you remember watching the Falkland War?
Rob Mineault
No, but I remember hearing about that.
Ryan Fleury
Too young
Steve Barclay
I can remember being on the news.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, I mean, I remember hearing about it. But like I wasn’t, I wasn’t really the age where I was like, dialed into like politics like something would have to be a pretty big event like the space shuttle blowing up to for me to for it to register on my mind at that point. It was far too consumed with Dr. Zoom and the Electric Mayhem and the Muppets to pay attention to politics. But no, there was there was other stuff too, right.
Steve Barclay
Well, Chernobyl.
Rob Mineault
Chernobyl was the 80s. Yeah.
Steve Barclay
The Yes. And Tiananmen Square.
Rob Mineault
Was that was that the 80s I feel like that was the 90s?
Steve Barclay
80s.
Rob Mineault
That was really wow.
Shawn Marsolais
Didn’t Mount St. Helens erupt or something?
Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yes. Yeah, totally.
Steve Barclay
No, right. And I was in elementary school. That would have been 79 I think.
Rob Mineault
No, I think. No, I think you’re wrong about that. Okay, hold on.
Steve Barclay
I’m doing it.
Rob Mineault
Okay, because Steve is our official Googler
Shawn Marsolais
I’m guessing 1980. Yeah, I think so.
Rob Mineault
I think you’re right.
Steve Barclay
You’re right. You’re right.
Rob Mineault
It is 1980 Yeah. siding with my boss on this one.
Shawn Marsolais
Wise, choice wise. Thank you
Rob Mineault
Yeah, it was right on the cusp. I do remember that because I remember like the ash actually made it to McKenzie. Oh, wow.
Shawn Marsolais
Two days later though, right?
Rob Mineault
I totally got that wrong. I remember watching on the news that the ash had made it to Vancouver because we had Vancouver news and I just filled in the blanks. I just wanted to be involved. Nothing made it to Mackenzie except for Miami Vice tuxes. Yeah, Mount St. Helens. Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, wait a second. What about Rick Hansen or Terry Fox were either them and oh, Terry Fox was the 80s.
Rob Mineault
Yes. And yes, it was too.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah, I think so. And also, Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. That was a big thing.
Rob Mineault
Yep. That was a standout in my mind. That’s true. No, that is that’s very true. I remember. Yeah. Rick Hansen, friend of the show, incidentally. That’s right on.
Ryan Fleury
So there See? Yes.
Shawn Marsolais
You guys got Rick Hansen?
Rob Mineault
We got both Rick Hansen’s.
Ryan Fleury
Bastard Rob.
Rob Mineault
Rick Hansen, who is a herbalist from California
Ryan Fleury
okay, you suck.
Rob Mineault
His name, incidentally is spelled ‘en’
Ryan Fleury
Leave it to the blind guy to get the spelling wrong. Yeah. He’s like, we’ve got Rick Hansen?? I’m like “Yup”. And we found out like Rob said that he was a herbalist or whatever.
Shawn Marsolais
Did you not know until he actually joined the Zoom Room?
Rob Mineault
The day of the show. I think today is the day of the show. I actually like started looking into like, it’s like, this looks weird. Like, what’s going on?
Ryan Fleury
Right. I didn’t have JAWS Give me the spelling. I just saw Rick Hanson. Yes. went with it.
Shawn Marsolais
But like the actual Rick Hansen. Man in motion. You got him?
Rob Mineault
Yes. Eventually. Yes. He eventually took pity and actually, I think we had to chase him for like, it was a good six months. But we actually got him.
Shawn Marsolais
Did you have to pay?
Ryan Fleury
No, no.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, wow.
Ryan Fleury
He wascoming .. he had just come over a school talk he did with some kids, I guess. And so he did the interview from his car down or wherever he was. But yeah, he made the time and it was it was a great conversation.
I”ll have to look that up.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, yeah. That’s a feather in our cap. Yeah. We canceled the show with the otherguy, kind of felt bad. He was really excited being asked to be on a podcast.
Shawn Marsolais
No one had ever asked him Before I’m sure.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, I just thought what I wanted have been a fly on the wall at his dinner table. When he got the invitation. Like these guys from Canada have a podcast. They want me to be on it, Martha!
Steve Barclay
Shut up and eat your kale.
Rob Mineault
Okay, anyways, yes, yeah. Terry Fox, Rick Hansen, both both things.
Steve Barclay
Actually, I think Terry far because the first Terry Fox run was in 1981. Okay, so maybe,
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah I remember going to brownie camp, and we had to do skits. And one of them was the Terry Fox run was like one of the skits, but that would have been like 1980 or 1981. And then the other skit we did was the wedding because I remember I had to be Prince Charles. Because we were all girls, so.
Steve Barclay
Oh, okay. So it wrapped up September 1 1980. So okay. Yeah, it was 80s
Rob Mineault
Why does Prince Charles have such big hair?
Shawn Marsolais
I didn’t have big hair yet. That was later.
Rob Mineault
We can’t .. we also have to have a little bit of AT content in here being called at AT Banter. So let’s real quick. What what kind of AT was in the 80s?
Ryan Fleury
Braille N Speak came out
Rob Mineault
Yeah
Shawn Marsolais
really?
Rob Mineault
What year? Yeah, what was that, 86?
Ryan Fleury
I think, Steve, do you have that list that I sent out?
Steve Barclay
I could find it. I think it was 85.
Ryan Fleury
I think I was a mid 80s. Yeah,
Shawn Marsolais
I had a type n speak. But I didn’t have it until mid 90s.
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, I’ve got a Braille N Speak 2000 that I got 97. But it was way earlier than that.
Rob Mineault
Hmm. So for the audience who are probably younger than us. Braille and speak was what? It was basically a first generation notetaker, right?
Ryan Fleury
Yeah, it was a Braille input and speech output device that you know, I think the first model had 640 K of memory. And then the 2000 had two megabytes of memory. And then you could use an external floppy disk drive as well or transferring data.
Rob Mineault
Crazy and then I then right at the end of the 80s, I do know this, in 89 was the very first version of JAWS. jaws for DOS?
Shawn Marsolais
Oh really?
Because I remember 92 learning. VERT. Was there something called VERT?
Steve Barclay
VERT. Yeah. From telesensory systems. Yeah.
Rob Mineault
what was that?
Shawn Marsolais
I don’t know
Steve Barclay
it was a screen reader.
Rob Mineault
Oh, really?
Steve Barclay
Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
And I had this rainbow reader. That was like a $4,000 machine that would scan. It was massive. It was like, bigger than — I don’t know — , no bigger than like a professional printer. And you could put your book in it, but that was like, 1994. I don’t know when that came out, it was useless. It would read to you, but you couldn’t connect it to your computer or anything. So once you read whatever you read, it was just there. Like, couldn’t do anything with it.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, you see, you should have bought an Oscar from us. Instead of buying that rainbow reader.
Shawn Marsolais
Maybe or what the optelec gone? Or what’s the thing with that vibrates on your finger? The Opticon?
Steve Barclay
Opticon? Yeah, that was actually 70s tech.
Shawn Marsolais
Okay.
Rob Mineault
Wait, what it what was it?
Steve Barclay
It was a it was a little camera that you you ran over top of print. And you left your finger sitting on top of this array of dots. A lot more dots. And you had like for Braille, but, but it basically vibrated the dots up whenever the camera ran across black.
Rob Mineault
Oh.
Shawn Marsolais
And I don’t know how anyone could actually read that way.
Steve Barclay
Like what a lot of people did. Did did a lot of reading with them, too.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah. It’s impressive. Yeah. Well, I had written down the four track tape recorder, because I feel like that was an important piece of technology. When I was going to school.
Steve Barclay
It certainly was the, on the augmentative communication side that Touch Talker came out, which was the first speaking device that Prentke Romich Company out of Wooster, Ohio, produced. And I was fortunate enough to repair those and the Light Talker, which was a head pointing version of the same. And I even got flown down to the suburbs of Wooster, Ohio to get training on how to repair them.
Rob Mineault
Wow. Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
Oh, and the CCTVs that people had in their classrooms that were these massive, you know, TV screens with the tray underneath that on wheels that you would wheel from one class to the other.
Rob Mineault
Oh, man crazy. So not a lot going on in assistive technology. It sounds like in the 80s. There was not we there was no time for assistive technology in the 80s were far too busy making parachute pants
Shawn Marsolais
To music and watching movies.
Ryan Fleury
And what else do you remember Shawn? Because like, unlike you, I had sight until 1995. So what what was what did school look like? What What was the technology? Like? Like you’ve mentioned a couple different items. But like I have no perspective on what it’s like in the 80s to try to have an education.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah, I mean, I could read print very slowly, like one letter at a time until I was 18. So I actually got through school with pretty much a handheld magnifier, a tape recorder that was about it. And it wasn’t till after I graduated that I started learning how to use assistive technology. But I know that friends of mine were using if they had vision, it was the CCTV and at that time, they were really vision teachers were really encouraging if you had any vision that you should use it. So even if you had to blow it up so big that one letter filled the screen, that’s what you were doing. Otherwise, you’d be carrying your Perkins Brailler around with you.
Rob Mineault
Yeah.
Shawn Marsolais
And like when I think about even research and papers in college, it was like go to the library get a volunteer to walk around with you help you find articles, photocopy them, bring them to the Resource Center where they would somebody would read them onto a cassette tape, at which point I would listen to them and say no, that one won’t work. It was such a long and tedious process and then having to listen to a tape and then type out quotes if you were going to put them in your paper and try to figure out what page that was on it was just Oh, like thank you internet.
Ryan Fleury
Oh my god. Yeah,
Shawn Marsolais
I often think like I’m thankful to have been born when I was and even that you know another 10 years would have been a lot easier in terms of technology but
Rob Mineault
yeah, cuz trust me like when we when we do this again next year, and we talked about the 90s. It’s not going to be much more better.
Steve Barclay
Yeah, I’ll bow to that one because I’d forgotten most of the 90.
Shawn Marsolais
I don’t think I really know much about the 90s either. It wasn’t an era that like, stuck in your memory.
Rob Mineault
I don’t know. I feel like the 90s were like the 80s light. It’s just like, they still had some stupid fashions, but it was kind of like gearing down. It was like the hair wasn’t quite as big. You know that. The fashion wasn’t quite as bad, but it was still kind of bad.
Steve Barclay
I think the 90s just sort of stood around and looked at the 80s and went, “let’s not do that”.
Shawn Marsolais
Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Yeah. Man, we’ve covered man. And look at look at the, geez, we’ve been talking for like an hour and a half you guys.
Steve Barclay
Alright, we better cut this off. We could go all day. We could literally continue this.
Rob Mineault
Ah, man so good, though.
Shawn Marsolais
Thanks so much for inviting me. This was awesome. So fun.
Steve Barclay
Well, thanks for coming.
Rob Mineault
Yeah, next year. Yeah. Okay, well, we’re gonna have to pick a decade for next year then. If we don’t want to do the 90s we can’t do the oughts.
Shawn Marsolais
What do you even call that decade?
Rob Mineault
I guess. Yeah.
Ryan Fleury
Let’s do it. Let’s do an episode on millennials.
Rob Mineault
Hmm. Sure.
Ryan Fleury
Invite the youth or Gen Z or
Rob Mineault
Oh, see all the Gens confuse me. I don’t even know what Gen. I’m at it. I don’t know. All those are really crazy.
Steve Barclay
You’re Gen X Rob.
Rob Mineault
Am I? Is that after Z?
Shawn Marsolais
Do you know the alphabet?
Rob Mineault
Maybe I need to go back to Sesame Street?
Steve Barclay
Generation X is born between 65 and 79/80.
Shawn Marsolais
I’m Gen X then, ok.
Rob Mineault
We’re, Yeah. Which was slackers? Is that is that in a different generation? Are they Is that another name for Gen X?
Shawn Marsolais
No, no, we’re not. slackers.
Now. We’re like, hard working, folks.
Rob Mineault
Man seems confusing. Oh, wait. So wait, and what’s the current generation? Gen Z?
Ryan Fleury
is it Gen Z, right now?
Rob Mineault
No, maybe? No.
Shawn Marsolais
Because when are you a generation when you’re in when you’re like, you know, of working age? Like when? You know what I mean? Yeah, I don’t know any of the rules. You can’t criticize a generation when they’re only 10 years old. Like they don’t have a chance yet.
Rob Mineault
Well, anybody anybody out there who knows you can detail for us all the generation stuff, then email us.
Ryan Fleury
Let us know if x comes before Z
Rob Mineault
That’s right. Okay.
Steve Barclay
It definitely does come before.
Rob Mineault
cowbell@banter.com help me. help a brother out.
Shawn Marsolais
Is there no Generation Y then?
Rob Mineault
So
Shawn Marsolais
Wow. They don’t even get mentioned.
Steve Barclay
no, no, they’re, well, they’re they’re also they also fall under the category of millennials too. So Oh, that’s a they have two names. I think they get referred to more as millennials. Yes. And before Generation X, of course, were the baby boomers. Right? The boomers right course. And then I guess everybody before that, I guess is dead. Dead? Yeah.
Rob Mineault
Generation dead.
Steve Barclay
Interestingly, they refer to people born between 1928 1945 as the silent generation. Yeah, I’m
Rob Mineault
sure. Huh, interesting. Well, that’s it then we just have boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, millennials and
Steve Barclay
NERDS!
Rob Mineault
And on that note, yes. Cue the music. On that note, music. You know, “we built this podcast” that oh my gosh, if we can maybe I’m gonna get Clement to work on that. I’m going to tell him we need to do you need to make AT Banter, the new AT Banter theme song and do a parody of that song. Love it. Hey, Ryan.
Ryan Fleury
Rob.
Rob Mineault
Where can people find us?
Ryan Fleury
They can find us atbanter.com
Rob Mineault
Hey, they can also drop us an email if they so desire at cowbell@atbanter.com
Steve Barclay
And of course we are just thrillingly active on social media. You can find us on Twitter. You can find us on Facebook. You can even find us on Instagram.
Ryan Fleury
And Shawn, where can they find you?
Shawn Marsolais
We’re in all those places too, but also http://www.blindbeginnings.ca and the Limitless podcast check it out.
Rob Mineault
That’s right, just to search for limitless and blind beginnings in any of your favorite podcast apps or go to blindbeginnings.ca.
Steve Barclay
Well
Rob Mineault
Dear listeners, thank you so much for indulging us. This was a very fun episode for us. We had a great time. Big thanks, of course to Shawn for joining us today. And we will see everybody next week.
Shawn Marsolais
Happy retro Day.
Rob Mineault
Happy retro day. We built this city.
AT Banter Podcast 