I also grew up in the 80s, and was fascinated by the 50s as a whole. Perhaps it was seeing Back to the Future, I don't know. But the music, movies, tv shows, fashions, they all appealed to me. When I got into card collecting with the wood grain bordered 87T set, my dad got me a binder for them shortly thereafter, and it featured many 50s cards on the cover, and I just thought they looked amazing. It was this one:
As a fan of the sport, I knew many of the names, but not all. That Richie Ashburn card in particular really called out to me. I ended up getting his biography from the library and became fascinated by him. But while I liked the Topps sets of my era, and later the great photography of sets by Upper Deck and Score, I knew that they paled in comparison to those beautiful cards of the 50s. Later in life, since I got back into card collecting, I've focused almost exclusively on the 50s, and it's no coincidence.