3 Things Central Texans Learned About The 80’s From The New Edition Story

We all gathered together as one big family last night and watched the first installment of "The New Edition Story" on BET and it was an AMAZING trip down memory lane for a lot of us that grew up during that era.

Everything from the music to the clothes to the slang was on point. I'm quite sure as young people watched this movie they quite perplexed with some of the smaller nuances from that era that WE remember vividly from our own childhoods. Here are a few that immediately came to mind.

1. MINORS WERE ALLOWED TO BUY CIGARETTES WITHOUT AN ID

One of the opening scenes of Part 1, we find Ricky Bell delivering cigarettes to his mother. If you grew up during that time and even before, ID enforcement for tobacco purchases was rather "loose" to put it lightly. Kids could regularly be sent to a store to purchase tobacco with either a "note" or just by recognition of who you were and who your parents were. And those "light 100s" were "designed to help you quit smoking"...yeah right.

Don't let your parents front on you, they probably showed up to the club in the 80's in leather pants and leather SLEEVES...no shirt, JUST SLEEVES. Leave the young folks alone before I pull up yearbooks.

3. "Industry Rule #4080" Remains True: Record Company People Are Shady One thing we quickly learned, like all its predecessors like "The Temptations", "The Jacksons: An American Dream" and "Dreamgirls" is that the music business is ruthless. $500 and a Betamax was New Edition's "signing bonus" and after a 6 month tour, the group came home to a check for $1.87....that they had to SPLIT among the 5 members. Damn.  

We're live tweeting tonight during Part 2 of The New Edition Story on BET so tweet with Shani Scott (@scottygyrl) and Melz On The MIC (@gargameljermel) kicking off at 8:00 PM!