Have you ever talked to someone who lived on the Lower East Side twenty years ago... or more? 

They're always flabbergasted by the way the neighborhood has now changed. In these photos below from Bowery Boogie, you can check out how the LES looked like way back in the... wait for it... 1980s. 

Here's a hint: it's very different from the way it looks today. 

These photos by Steve Butcher make it possible to not only fathom, but actually comprehend how drastically the LES has changed in just 30 years. 

Now feast your eyes on the unimaginable below... 

This is the Bowery near Prince Street.

This is a photo from the Meatpacking District in the 1980s-- you know, when people actually packed meat there.

Before there was ever a Domino's on Ludlow, there were these vintage cars.

Here's a 1980s Jeep, accompanied by a very friendly-looking graffiti "Moon Man."

The 1980s corner of Ludlow and Rivington Street. 

A car scrap pile-up on Avenue B.

A shot of the 1980s Twin Towers from across the Hudson River.

A snowy intersection at Houston and Bowery.

This is what a corner store on St. Mark's Place looked like in the 1980s, before the street got all that modern-day flair.

Check out