Ouch! How long did it take you to get back into the stock market?
I am not sure but I think RJI was a property investment company quite different from the likes of KIP today and BIL was a speculative investment company into asset stripping and the like? They were in the Wild West 1980's when the stock market was even more poorly regulated than today and when "full and frank disclosure" were dirty words. Today's companies you mention are different beasts with solid business turnovers - different from those 80's "flash henries".
Are people, including the local taxi drivers, starting to borrow to leverage themselves into more and more HNZ, CNU at el.? If so...then alarm bells indeed should be a'ringing!