A rebus from a while ago

I think the rebus describes ...

... Eighties parties.

Explanation:

The centre part without the cut-off symbols shows eight different T's / tees / teas, so eight tees or Eighties. The bottom part shows two partially visible t's, so part-tees or parties. (That doesn't explain why the t's are all different, though.)

This solution fits with the title: Eighties parties are from a while ago.

I'd guess the picture describes a:

Manatee (many-tee)

What we see is:

A teacup, a teapot, a capital T, a small t, an italicized t, a golf tee, the character tau, a tee-shirt, etc etc. Given the variation of "t"s being represented I guess there are many-tees.

But this word isn't exactly one I'd consider common-use so I suspect I may be on the wrong track here.

Just for varieTy, let’s add this up to a case of...

...teetotalism — obtaining a sum total of all kinds of Ts.
   =
Teacup + Teapot +
capital T + sans serif lowercase T +
italic/script lowercase T + golf Tee +
Greek lowercase T (Tau) + T-shirt +
... through infini-T

After all, this rebus doesn’t contain a single detectable drop of alcohol.

And “from a while ago,” as in the title?

Teetotalism had its heyday in the 19^th century..