I’d be jet setting all over the place, interviewing some people whom I’d love to have an hour or three, now, to talk to: Grace Hopper, ‘Kirby’ Ross, and Hyman Rickover.
Woah, You must be a young one. Carter was a horrible president. Are you kidding?
1980 or 1983? They were kinda different. 1980 was the last gasp of the 70’s but 1983 was on its way to becoming the “80’s”.
1980: I’d go to NYC and hang out at CBGB’s and the burgeoning punk scene.
1983: I’d still go to New York but I’d hit the club scene, hanging out at Limelight and the Palladium. Get myself featured in Details magazine back when it about the NYC cub scene and not another men’s mag. Goofy outrageous outfits, plentiful coke, early 80’s dance music.
I don’t know what would bug me most. Probably making travel arrangements. Such a pain without the internet.
There are a couple of girls I would like to look up…
The first reported A.I.D.S. case in the U.S. was in June, 1981, but it wasn’t called that at the time. (One of the early names was G.R.I.D., or “Gay related immunodeficiency”). H.I.V. wasn’t discovered until 1984. (I actually remember reading an article in the N.Y. Times speculating about the connection between G.R.I.D. and “poppers,” it having been noted that guys who partied a lot, slept around a lot and used poppers a lot tended to get sick with kaposi’s sarcoma. It was suspected that excessive use of poppers damaged the immune system. Would that it were that simple.)
In short, if you were hoping that a trip to 1980 (or even 1983, since Sampiro mentioned both years in his O.P.) would be a ticket to lots 'o relatively low-risk sexual fun, I’m afraid you would be in for a disappointment. There was a whole lot of H.I.V. out there, it just hadn’t made it’s presence widely known yet. (Although no one will ever know if he was correct, author Randy Shilts speculated in **And The Band Played On ** (1987) that the first big influx of H.I.V. to N.Y.C. occurred in 1976 during Operation Sail, when sailors from all around the world converged–and partied–in the city during the Bicentennial celebrations.)
AIDS existed? Bother. (Not that I’d be on the radar of anyone anyways, what with being 44 and all…)
I got to looking at my laptop and wondering, how would 1983 people be able to connect to it? No serial port, no VGA port. There’s a DVI port, but that’s output only, even though I have a DVI-to-SVGA adaptor. They’d have to reverse-engineer either the USB or the Firewire ports. CDs of any sort weren’t out yet, not to mention DVDs, so there’s be no discs to put in the optical drive. I have no floppy drive for it, and even if I did, I’m not sure whether 3.5-inch floppies were out yet. I’m certain I couldn’t hook up a 5.25-inch floppy to it. No Bluetooth or WiFi networking. No GSM, so they couldn’t feed something through my cellphone and its Bluetooth link. If I didn’t have the USB-to-serial adaptor, there’s be no way of connecting. The only thing I know is compatible is the power cord.
Wait… there’s Ethernet. Was 10base-T widely available in 1983?
What would I miss in 1983? Web comics!
1983? Been there, done that. It was kinda nice that you could smoke pot pretty openly back then. I was working in DC at the Smithsonian back in those days, and my department would occasionally have outside staff meetings on the mall where people passed joints around.
Yeah, Sampiro. Your OP is kind of confused as to what year we’re in.
I’d be pissed to run into myself and be faced with how much better shape I was in then. That would suck.
If it’s '83 MTV would actually be playing music videos. Videos of 80’s music. That would be cool.
Maybe in Mad town you could. Wouldn’t get away with it in West Bend which is where I was in '83.
I forgot - what I’d hate about it: The social norms of the day towards smoking. The fact that all the fresh fruits and vegetables we’ve become so used to would be unheard of - they’re still thinking frozen veggies are the bee’s knees! That homophobia is so much out in the open. GRID research was underfunded for years, because it was being described as a disease of “those people.”
The other thing I’d do, and enjoy, would be taking photographs of open land in places like Eastern Massachusetts - where it was already in the process of disappearing.
Damn, age 18 and a sack of cash? Drink, music, men. No shopping- the clothes really really sucked.
Michael Jackson just came out with Thriller in 1983 and all was right in the world.
I was too young to have any fashion sense except for a pair of hand-me-down parachute pants with zips.
I was living in the UK at the time and it was a charming time to grow up. I remember waking up on Thursday and looking forward to getting home, playing Pitfall II on my Commodore 64, and watching a new episode of Tomorrow’s World and Top of the Pops back to back!
Mundane worries like which girls liked me, being able to pop a wheelie, and telling the best jokes in class. That was about the last time I never worried about school or grades 'cos it was so easy back then.
Bad things? Well, as much good music as we had in the Eighties, a lot of it was dire. (Quick look at Wikipedia) Well you know something, I just looked at the Top 40 in the UK in 1983, and… with the exception of the Flying Pickets, I have to admit the tunes are mostly classics!
A time when The Clash, The Police, U2, New Order, and Duran Duran were in the charts? Totally ace!
My Commodore 64 would be a definite highlight. And this time, I would make sure my disk drive didn’t burn out.
On the downside, I’d have to wear those ugly clothes my mother insisted on buying. Really, turtlenecks covered in fleur de lis? Why??
February 7 - Iran invades Iraq
April 18 - US embassy bombed in Beirut killing 63
October 23 - bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut
In Panama, Noriega was in charge
In Nicaragua, you’ve got the Sandinistas and the Contras
El Salvador had an ongoing civil war.
Guatemala - guerilla war + military coup
The places you listed may not have been ideal vacation destinations 
I’d go look up my best friend and make his acquaintance. He died of AIDS, most likely acquired in the 1980-83 period. If I couldn’t warn him, I’d at least enjoy seeing him again.
I’d go see the girl I was in love with back then. we were in High School in 1983, so since I’d be way too old for her in the time travel scenario, I wouldn’t try to woo her or anything. But it would be great just to see her again.
You know, that’s something I might do as well. A good buddy of mine during that time period would go on to die of AIDS in 1989. I could at least warn him–or if not, at least share a last few laughs and a couple of beers with him. He was a good guy.
I was born in 1981, my brother in 1984.
If I were in 1983 I would go kick my dad in the nuts real hard, Kenny-style yo.
More candy and toys for me!
Mwahahaha.
…and your location would be a good location for it. I was going to answer similarly, except I’d be going to see alternative back when it was actually alternative. R.E.M. before they started sucking, Husker Du, the Replacements, et al were going strong then.
Another thing I’d do is kill preppies until I run out of ammo.
I’m honestly sure. The computers being much less advanced would definitely be a downer, but aside from that - I really don’t know, I’d have to see what the eighties were like as an adult, actually. Myself, I was 8 in 1983, so, let’s see…
I was excited about getting into the gifted kids program for grade 4 and really psyched about commodore 64 ‘koalapainter.’ Yikes!!
Yeah… not just the internet - I’d be missing windows XP 