Flashback: July 27, 1983

Welcome Back to the Time Machine

Welcome back to The GenX Edit, your weekly ticket to a time when phones had cords, kids drank out of garden hoses, and summer boredom was a feature, not a flaw.

This week, we’re rewinding to July 27, 1983—a time when Annie Lennox ruled the airwaves, Chevy Chase couldn’t read a road map, and “screen time” meant watching Knight Rider reruns with a bowl of Jiffy Pop popcorn that somehow always tasted better slightly burnt.

Whether you were mastering the Rubik’s Cube, dodging Atari rage-quits, or just learning how to be bored without opening five tabs, this edition is for you.

So grab a cold Tab, crank the Def Leppard, and let’s go back to a summer where imagination did all the heavy lifting.

This Mixtape Memory Lane is sponsored by 50 Ways to Keep Your Lover.

Mixtape Memory Lane 

The Hot 100 from July 27, 1983, was pure brain candy. These tracks weren’t just catchy—they burrowed into your memory and stayed there.

• #1: “Every Breath You Take” – The Police
  Still the most misunderstood love song of all time. Sting says it’s about obsession and control, but prom committees everywhere were like, “Nah, it’s romantic.” Either way, that bass line lived rent-free in every GenX brain.

• #3: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” – Eurythmics
  Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart showed up in matching power suits, synths blazing, and made us question reality. Mysterious, moody, and iconic, this was the future of pop music, and we were hypnotized.

• #7: “She Works Hard for the Money” – Donna Summer
  This one hit like a caffeine jolt. It was disco evolved with grit, grind, and vocals that told the truth. A song your mom probably danced to while folding laundry and doing everything else at once.

• #15: “Burning Down the House” – Talking Heads
  David Byrne made paranoia sound like a party. The lyrics didn’t make much sense, but the vibe? Unmistakable. This was intellectual energy for anyone who’d ever tried to overanalyze a dream.

• #22: “Rock of Ages” – Def Leppard
  Arena rock in its final form. Simple. Loud. Inevitable. This track made you feel 10 feet tall with a tennis racket guitar and a bad haircut.

👆 Watch the full throwback video playlist on YouTube Music.

Screen Time Rewind 

National Lampoon’s Vacation was pulling big numbers at the box office, proving that family road trips are only funny when they happen to someone else.

Meanwhile, WarGames had us all side-eyeing our Commodore 64s, wondering if they were secretly plotting global thermonuclear war.

It was rerun season on TV, but anticipation was building for Knight Rider. KITT was the high-tech sidekick we didn’t know we needed…sarcastic, stylish, and way more emotionally intelligent than most of our classmates.

And if you were looking to have your mind blown without leaving your couch, The Twilight Zone reruns were delivering existential dread in 22-minute doses. Rod Serling had already nailed what Twitter threads are now trying (and mostly failing) to do: tell a full story that makes you question your place in the universe.

his Life Reboot is sponsored by La’Merde Designs apparel.

Life Reboot: Mind

Last week, we talked about soul…the quiet kind you tap into when you slow down and really feel.

This week, we’re shifting gears. We’re celebrating the mind…the part of you that lights up when you solve something, make a connection, or finally figure out what that cryptic lyric actually meant.

In 1983, that kind of mental stimulation came naturally. We didn’t call it cognitive engagement, we just called it a good afternoon.

We played memory games, read cereal boxes like novels, and tackled puzzles on paper placemats while waiting for grilled cheese. Our brains were always doing something but it wasn’t multitasking. It was focused fun.

And that kind of fun? Still great for your brain.

A 2021 study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found that people who regularly do puzzles and games show better short-term memory and mental flexibility—and it’s true across all age groups (Chan et al., 2021). Another study by Collins et al. (2019) showed that mentally engaging tasks can actually lower cortisol and improve mood, especially in people prone to anxiety or overthinking.

So this week, instead of stillness, try this:

Challenge: The Cognitive Playground

Give your mind something to chew on. Choose one focused, low-pressure activity per day—just for the pleasure of solving, completing, or understanding something.

It can be digital or analog, solo or shared. The only rule? No passive scrolling. This is intentional engagement—the mental version of stretching your legs.

Here are a few ideas:

• Solve a rebus puzzle (we’ve got four below)

• Play a trivia quiz or another game you actually enjoy (shoutout to LinkedIn’s daily games)

• Try a free app like Brainwell or Lumosity…anything that leaves you feeling sharper, not drained

• Do a jigsaw puzzle, Sudoku, crossword, or solitaire—online or old-school

• Finally win that level on a game you’ve been casually ignoring

Stillness is powerful. But movement has its own kind of magic, too.

This week, treat your mind like it’s 1983…curious, focused, and wonderfully offline or at least off autopilot.

This isn’t a productivity hack. It’s mental playtime. You’re not trying to optimize your brain…you’re giving it space to move.

Visual Feature is sponsored by Practical Advice from the Scriptures.

Visual Feature

Teen Magazines & Their Cultural Clout

In 1983, teen magazines like Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, Right On and Bop were more than entertainment…they were pop-culture anchors. Packed with centerfolds, quizzes, posters, and obsession-worthy gossip, they gave GenX teens something to look forward to every month.

Life Reboot is sponsored by La’Merde Designs.

Mixtape Memory Lane is sponsored by 50 Ways to Keep Your Lover.

Visual Feature is sponsored by Practical Advice from the Scriptures.

That About Does It

Back in ’83, our minds stayed active without effort between solving video game mazes, deciphering lyrics, and dreaming up our own adventures, we were constantly in motion upstairs.

This week, let your mind stretch for fun again.
Play something. Try a brain game. Challenge yourself just to see what happens when you push past “bored.”

In the words of The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling:

Until next week…