Kamran E. Mian

Late Disco Time Travel

I wish I was a young man in 1980. I would cruise after dark in my Volkswagen Rabbit diesel while listening to Nightfall’s first year on the radio, or drive all the way to New York and seen Diana Ross singing on a disco booth at the last Studio 54 party. If I had money, I could frequent the local record store, even if my peers preferred 8-tracks or early tapes, and then see whatever great film was playing at the cinema. I would at least have tickets to Raging Bull and Ordinary People. Some of the young people may be able to shell out their change at the arcade for the new Pac-Man game, and some of their parents could buy primitive home computers, but without the internet, the general population would keep a moderate interest in technology without being sucked into it.

If I was short on money during the school break, watching the Lakers and Seventy-Sixers in the NBA finals would be a cable-free option. The rest of the break could be spent trying to figure out who shot J.R. Ewing on Dallas. Maybe the off-season waiting would have made my guess right!

As a preteen, I decided that instead of dealing with possessive social networks, or the hyper-sexed youth culture promoted on places like Disney Channel, I would withdraw to a fascinating foreign time. The period between 1976 to 1981, with 1980 as the centerpiece, seems to have included so much of the art, culture, and products I love that it is difficult not to reenact the era as a whole. Time travel is possible for anyone who wants to escape badly enough.