At the end of the century everyone is writing about the best of this and the best of that; who made a difference and what was the greatest invention. Before the century comes to a close I want to put in a few good words for a year that may get a bad rap, 1984.

When I read George Orwell's vision of that year, several years after the year of supposed-paronia

had already come and gone, I could not believe how wrong he had been.

Sure, we have already seen the threat of government dictating our lives, but I think it is safe to say that Big Brother is still a futuristic vision, even at the turn of the century.

But why did he pick on 1984. I, and several other people of my generation have discussed this and believe that to have been one of the better years of our young lives.

The cold war had melted (even though Hollywood was still making tons of cash off the concept), everyone seemed to love Ronald Reagan and I still thought I had a chance with the prettiest girl in Junior High.

Being 12 years old meant I didn't have a lot of worries, the most of which was passing a math or spelling test. After school was the ritualistic two-on-two football games, skateboarding before the boards were big enough to do major asphalt damage, suckering your best friend into trading his Wade Boggs rookie for a Steve Crawford (I bet your wondering who that is) and mostly just hanging out and talking about the things we were going to do.

Apple was a huge success, but the only computer kids knew anything about was the Bionic Man.

We all had, what was called in the Big 80's, jam boxes. Now I simply had a big radio, but some people got down-right outrageous with it, having boxes that they couldn't even pick up and if they were able to get it off the ground that was about all they were going to be able to do.

The music coming out of the box was as underrated as the era itself. Sure, the 80's brought us a lot of crap that was supposed to be music, but 1984 was full of timeless albums like Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen and Innocent Man by Billy Joel.

For my generation the early eighties will always be considered the good ole days. Certainly our parents and the generations before them could never fathom why this would be.

But, it was because we still had a sense that the world was there for our pleasure and that we would someday be rulers of that world.

I don't know what happens to a person between the ages of 12 and 18, but I think the government should put a top-notched team of researchers on it.