Friday Afternoon Random Question: Best Year Ever, Man

What’s the best year ever? Confining myself to the Zac Crain Era (1974-2051), my list looks a little something like this:

1. 1977

2. 1974

3. 2000

4. 2004

5. 1986

28 comments

  1. You must be referring to the Quit-Smoking Zac Crain Era. The Smoking Zac Crain Era cuts off at 2029.

    @ 2:15 pm on April 3, 2009
  2. 1948 — Harry Truman, Larry Doby, my birth.
    1964 — British Invasion
    1991 — 2nd wedding, tranquility arrives.

    @ 2:15 pm on April 3, 2009
  3. 1969. sorry you missed it!

    @ 2:25 pm on April 3, 2009
  4. @IJS: I’ve talked the Internet, and stand by my reporting.

    @ 2:26 pm on April 3, 2009
  5. 1986 – Reagan wins next term, Soviets loSE

    @ 2:31 pm on April 3, 2009
  6. 1980 – turned 18, went to Europe, graduated high school and lost my virginity.

    @ 2:33 pm on April 3, 2009
  7. 2008 – Texas Tech beats the #1 ranked Texas Longhorns — TV audience discovers Lubbock actually is a pretty cool college community. Town runs out of beer one hour after game ends. Mack Brown cried.

    @ 2:43 pm on April 3, 2009
  8. 1986 — Several of my Cistercian classmates will know why.

    @ 2:46 pm on April 3, 2009
  9. 1984 was a great year! Best one I can remember:
    Top movies were Ghostbusters, Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Terminator, Beverly Hills Cop and Sixteen Candles.

    The following musical artists either had their biggest album or broke into the U.S. mainstream in 1984:
    U2, Madonna, The Smiths, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, Prince, Paul Weller (Style Council), Michael Jackson, Van Halen

    Sports – The LA Olympics (without Russia, we won everything), 49ers had their very best season (18-1) ending with the Montana/Marino match-up in the 1985 Super Bowl, the first of the Celtics/LA Lakers NBA Championships (Celtics win), Wayne Gretzky won his first Stanley Cup, McEnroe vs. Connors at Wimbledon

    PRETTY DAMN GOOD YEAR ALL THE WAY AROUND!

    @ 2:54 pm on April 3, 2009
  10. I see I’m not alone…

    1984!

    @ 2:58 pm on April 3, 2009
  11. i like to see 1977 topping the list – my birth year. nice.

    @ 3:01 pm on April 3, 2009
  12. @j.d.w & Jason Meyer: Yeah, 1984 I have at No. 6, but easily could have slotted it higher. Other honorable mentions: 1992 and 2006.

    @ 3:04 pm on April 3, 2009
  13. 2004 – got cholera.

    @ 3:08 pm on April 3, 2009
  14. 1980 – 8 years old, straight-A student and sports junkie; Magic scores 42 to beat the 76ers in 6 games, bobby nystrom was offsides as the Isles beat the Flyers in 6, phillies finally win a WS in 6 games, and then the Eagles beat the Cowboys in the NFC Championship but fall to the Raiders in Jan. 81

    1985 – 13 years old, no longer getting all A’s; ‘nova beat g-town and i started drinking beers and kissing girls for real like

    1999 – 27 years old, barely made it out of college with a BA after nearly a decade; living in NYC and partying like it was 1999 and the bubble was never gonna burst

    @ 3:16 pm on April 3, 2009
  15. Are we allowed to group multiple years into one ranking? 1992 – 1997. College. I would provide more details, but I can’t remember… and anything you can’t remember should be at the top.

    @ 3:23 pm on April 3, 2009
  16. 2008 – met and courted my bride to be

    @ 3:37 pm on April 3, 2009
  17. Taki, I hate to spoil your fuzzy memories of 1986, but Reagan was re-elected in 1984. And the Soviet Union didn’t fall till 1991.

    @ 4:00 pm on April 3, 2009
  18. Let’s go with 1985. … Actually had a girlfriend then. … and hair.

    @ 4:05 pm on April 3, 2009
  19. @pr…you meant “pretty cool community college” right?

    @ 4:17 pm on April 3, 2009
  20. 1983-met Eric Clapton at a party. He asked me out, and I said no. He got totally piffed and left the party in a huff with his gang. Then the hosts of this party got totally piffed with me for not being cooperative. WTF! I am not THAT kind of girl! Well, anyway, Eric called me again and again over the next few weeks while he was on tour. Then it all stopped until 1985…

    @ 4:29 pm on April 3, 2009
  21. 1974: Graduated HS, left small town WTX for college, discovered Willie and the rest of the progressive country music scare.

    @ 4:31 pm on April 3, 2009
  22. Matt,

    bwwwwaaaaaaaa hahahahahahaahahahahaha -that’s a good one.

    @ 4:54 pm on April 3, 2009
  23. @Gadfly: You seriously turned down a date with Eric Clapton? I am married and wouldn’t turn down a Clapton date. (He’s on my exemption list so it’s ok.)

    @ 5:24 pm on April 3, 2009
  24. Well…you see…I still had morals in those days. There is more to this story, but some of the local characters are still alive.

    @ 5:28 pm on April 3, 2009
  25. 1977. Star Wars. Punk rock. I was born.

    @ 5:50 pm on April 3, 2009
  26. 2010, because after this year, anything will look like the best ever.

    @ 9:44 pm on April 3, 2009
  27. I’m trying to figure out Zac’s progression of years, he’s 3 (pottytraining?), he’s 0 (birth?), he’s 26 (met the Mrs.?), he’s 30 (married or new baby?), then he regresses to 12 (alcohol, pot or sex, or all three is my guess).

    @ 10:27 am on April 4, 2009
  28. In terms of Dallas, 1984 was the year–three of the 20 largest banks in the nation (imagine that…) the Republican Convention, the Mavericks were a hot ticket, and you still had the newspaper wars between Belo and the Times Herald.

    @ 6:15 am on April 6, 2009