Fit to Print Volume 23 Issue 3 September 2014 | Page 7

8 0 ’s D a y

Party Like It’s 1984
80’s Day Closes Out Our 30th Anniversary

T

o celebrate the 30th anniversary of
the very day we opened our doors
(8/3/1984) we held an “80’s Day”
at the gym. Members dusted off their leg
warmers and thong body suits and got
jiggy with classes that featured 1980’s
playlists. It was a blast, as you can see
from the accompanying photos. So much
so that we may have to do it again,
anniversary or not.
It’s fun to consider how much has
changed since we opened in 1984. In the
gym, well, if we were strictly following
the 1984 theme, there wouldn’t have
been any cycling, step or rebounding
classes. They simply hadn’t been
invented yet. Although treadmills
existed, there were no elliptical trainers
- even the Stairmaster wasn’t invented
until 1983! Jane Fonda ruled the home
exercise market selling her VHS tapes to
millions of “aerobicizers” who copied her
leotard, headbands and leg warmers look

until it hurt (take a look at the photos
if you think I’m kidding). There were
no DVD’s, no You Tube, and forget
about downloading her videos. None of
that existed. In fact, IBM had only
introduced its version of the Personal
Computer in 1981. Pricing started at
$1,565 for a configuration with 16KB
RAM (your smart phone has about 16
million KB of RAM by comparison). If
you wanted personal music while you
worked out, well, Fitness Incentive
really wasn’t your venue - we only had
“aerobics” classes where you listened
to what we played. But you could pop
a tape into your walkman and take a
jog. Compact Discs had just debuted
but the players were still expensive.
(Besides, who would ever pay twice to
own the same music...oh, wait,
everybody.) iTunes, the iPod, iPhone or
portable phones of any type, smart or
not, were not even on the radar
(unless you count Dick Tracy’s 2-way

Left: Toni
Caracci & Bre
Schilt go neon.
Below: Chip off
the old
shoulder,
Jourdan and Cor
Brown Right: an
artificially
enhanced
Noreen Wingert.

Left: Authentic
80’s Mary
Krisowaty Right:
Comparing
Thongs, Jourdan
and Jane Tinelli

wrist radio)
In the outside world, Reagan was in
his first term as President and the
economy was finally rebounding after
the economic and political disaster
known as the 1970’s. Leonid Breshnev
had just died and been succeeded by
Yuri Andropov as the General
Secretary of the USSR, who would
quickly be followed by Mikhail
Gorbachev, and we know how that
worked out. (If you don’t know what
the USSR was, look it up in
Wikipedia.)
In popular culture, Prince was
releasing “Purple Rain” (which would
sell 20 million copies), Madonna
released ‘Like a Virgin’ (to great
controversy, believe it or not) and
Michael Jackson’s head went on fire
while filming a Pepsi commercial. You
can’t make this stuff up! And this
barely scratches the surface of
change.
To paraphrase the old Virginia Slims
ad, “We’ve come along way, baby.”
So much has happened that no one
could have anticipated. Here’s my
daring prediction for the next 30
years: more of the same! It will be
just as unpredictable, crazy, scary
and fun - if not more so. So hang on
to your hats. It’s going to be a wild,
ride. We hope to be with you every
step of the way.
Left: Chris
Campanello as
Richard
Simmons.
Below: Liz
Romano
showing off her
80’s thong.
Right: Monica
Proto and Kelly
Wallace in their
best 80’s garb.

Above: Kelly
Wallace going
all-80’s on us.

Autumn 2014 FIT to Print

Left: Little Mary
and her 80’s
interpretation.
Right: Tracy
Madonia’s got
the look.

7