What was life like in the 80s?

I agree Puss, this selfie thing is so self absorbed its embarrassing

“I think there was less pressure. No one was interested in having big tits or big lips or BOTOX or documenting every inch of their lives on social media or being tagged everywhere you go.”

Agreed. If anyone had taken a photo of themselves back then people would have thought you were weird and “up yourself” lol (which is why I don’t do them, as it is weird to me!)

I was born in 1980 so just a child but from what I can remember times were very hard and my parents really struggled. There was nothing new for us and just basic boring food. I remember eating potatoes a lot! I remember being quite bored as a child too. We just played at home and didn’t really go anywhere. I remember my mum had a perm!

Fear of nuclear war was a big thing, as PP have said.

Lots of unemployment, sense of financial insecurity.

Teachers on strike ...home a lot because of that.

Glue sniffing.

The music was great though.

They still do that at primary schools Housemartins, children are very aware.of whose on the "bottom table" and regarding council houses ,they do still.exist I live in one and it we got it fairly quickly four years ago( no priority)
I don't live anywhere near London or the South East though.

People drove older cars - new cars were only for travelling salesmen, company reps and the few with money.

The brewery wagon drivers delivering to pubs would drink a half at each pub they delivered to. They must have been absolutely sloshed by the end of their round, yet still driving the wagon!

Sports, such as formula one were full of cigarette advertising - I used to love the jet back John Player Special cars.

I was a hairdresser- started an apprenticeship in 1982. Hair was big, so were shoulder pads. I still taped the top 40 from the radio, and bought vinyl records. I walked, caught the bus, or cycled everywhere. Loved going out (started going to pubs and nightclubs at 16). I drank halves of lager. Enjoyed the cinema far more than I do now (we called the local one the fleapit).

I think we ate less then; I didn’t snack between meals at all. After nightclubs, we’d go for a Chinese curry- sitting in.

We used to go to The Lakes for days out and walk up hills, but in totally unsuitable clothing and footwear. We’d listen to David Bowie, Meat Loaf, or Fleetwood Mac tapes in the car. Kids had old bangers as first cars- or mopeds.

We discovered bronzing powder and used it liberally, along with frosted highlights, loads of mousse for crispy curls, electric blue eyeliner and Running Bare frosted lipstick from Miss Selfridge.

Clothes were from Chelsea Girl mostly. Good times!

Finished college and went to Polytechnic in the north of England in the mid 80s. Got a full grant and fees paid.

It was all 'dig deep for the miners' and only 2p on the bus.

Red lipstick, Dr Martens and 501 jeans were our uniform.

McDonalds arrived and was for kids. No one over the age of 12 would be seen eating it.

Used to take £5 out at the cashpoint and that was plenty for a night out.

Started my first job and it was common for people to smoke at their desks. The tea lady came around with her trolley at 3. Stripagrams in the office for men's birthdays! Sexism everywhere.

Salesmen drinking at lunchtime. Their mobile phones were carried around with the battery in a purpose made briefcase.

Came home stinking of smoke whenever we went out. Fag burns in clothes on the dance floor.

We just drank beer. Wine and cocktails weren't on our radar at all.

Could never afford to have heating on. Used to wear hat and scarf to bed. Used a hairdryer to bond plastic sheets to windows in a poor mans version of double glazing.

But it was fun! No one had much but what we had was shared. No pressure to look a certain way or have designer stuff.

Contd..

But those of us who did go to uni (as nobody called it in those days) had no tuition fees to pay and the government gave you a maintenance grant, unless your parents were rich.

I was a teenager in the 80s, growing up in a grotty little mining / industrial town in Derbyshire.

Unemployment was very high, there was no minimum wage and deprivation was at least as bad as it is today, if not worse. The media in the late 80s projected a world of affluence, economic booms in the finance industry, rising house prices, aspirational consumer goods, pop stars in designer suits etc etc. Life may have been like that in London, but it was most definitely nothing like that in Derbyshire.

Millions of people worked in manufacturing industry. In our part of the country the garment industry was a major source of employment, particularly for women. I knew dozens of women who worked as machinists making clothes for major retailers. They could earn good wages, and go out at the weekend with money in their purses.

A few big differences in everyday life :
No mobile phones (except for a tiny number of City boys), Internet or social media, obviously.
No chain coffee shops. Younger people may be surprised to learn that Costa / Starbucks / Nero etc didn’t exist in the 80s. They came later, in the 90s.there were independent cafes, of course, but buying coffee just wasn’t an everyday thing.

Almost everyone smoked.

Very few people who went to ‘ bog-standard’ comprehensives went to university, only about 20 of us out of 150 in my school year.

The environmental grimness and unemployment if you lived in the North, most graduates would have to go to London to find their first job. The music was amazing and even listening to The Cure and Jonny Marr last week at Glastonbury it is still stand out brilliant. There was less pressure for dcs to be academic only about 20 out of my year group of 200 went to university and that was the norm. Teachers just taught you lessons and had no other pressures put on them and there were no additional support staff in schools. It felt good to be young despite the economic gloom we could choose to study what interested us at university without worrying if it would lead to a job to pay off debts and I’m glad I could make the usual youthful mistakes without them being recorded on social media. We were optimistic we would have a decent paid job with career prospects if we worked hard and own our own house the retire on a final salary pension

Yes I agree MonkeyToes

Sadly we are lions led by donkeys: politicians and celebrities have no shame.

I know it's late in the thread and chances of anyone reading this far are slim.but..

Does anyone think the 80s and the people back then were far more considerate of others, far less selfish and self important?
Seems people used to be more polite, show more concern for others and think of the effects their actions had on others. From holding doors open, to putting trolleys back, to not parking cars like dick heads. I'd swear people would think,
"I won't leave my trolley here as someone else might need it"
these days,
"Fuck em, I can't be arsed to take it back"
Or
"Best not have the music up too loud, people will be trying to sleep"
These days,
"Fuck the neighbours, I'm having fun."
Etc etc.
From my perspective, seems these days people give no thought to anyone but themselves.

I loved the 80's. Twilight Teaser lipstick and sloppy joe tops. Acid, neon colours on my mohair, batwing sleeved jumpers. We walked everywhere. Clothes shopping trips were planned for and saved up for. By the end of the 80's store cards were easy to get. Getting engaged with a ring before you were 21 was the ambition.

It is difficult to ascertain whether the 'freedom' I experienced in the 70s and 80s would be construed as neglect.

I roamed free around the neighbourhood and only returned home for meals or when the streetlights came on. This was aged 3+. We built dens in the meadows, went scrumping etc. This was not all good and I wouldn't recommend it.

Then as I got older we hung out around the offie until we could get into pubs and clubs at 15. Also this was not all good and could be very bad in all sorts of ways (alcohol, drugs, non-consensual sex) and I wouldn't recommend it.

But it didn't stop me from working or going to uni as a slightly mature student and getting 2 degrees because the structure allowed it - the jobs or courses existed, I could get funding etc.

These days it seems that youthful misdemeanours are not discounted and young people are expected to perform perfectly in SATs from aged 7 to have any hope of adult success due to structural constraints. The jobs don't exist, funding doesn't exist etc.

Maybe that is the real difference between the 80s and now rather than superficial differences in fashion. BTW the elite in the Hunger Games have an 89s fashion vibe. Maybe that is deliberate.

Born in 1983. Remember having my milk, from a glass bottle, in nursery, in the grounds of what became my primary school.

Laura Ashley. Fall of the Berlin Wall. Recession (parents in recession - proof jobs but interest rates on the mortgage were eye watering).

I wish I could say I remember it fondly but I had parents who should never have had kids!

Coming back to say I don't remember the whiff of weed everywhere in the street like there is now.

People were more respectful of your personal space in that respect and Cocaine use was more confined to the Yuppies and rich folk. It frightens me that so many people seem to be on it now and act violently and irrationally.

However. There were two girls in my class at 16 who got pregnant. I caught up with one recently who told me her parents insisted she leave school and she had to go to see the headmistress on her own and tell her she was leaving as pregnant. There was absolutely no provision for young mums and she had no support like she would now.

Also when I look back on it, teachers could still yell 'Stupid ' at you and hit you and get away with it. No questions asked. Hard to imagine we have gone from one extreme to the other the way we have.

My DC don't fear knife crime or suicide bombers in the same way that we were taught in the 80s that nuclear war was an inevitability via public information films, drama and music.

It was a fear and considered a realistic threat that was woven into being.

Visit a 'secret' nuclear bunker and this will tell you how real the threat was perceived to be.

School comments....amazing a lot of what went on. In infant school, one teacher used to lock ‘naughty’ children in a cupboard. In my final year at primary, we had to sit in order of our intelligence! As the year went on, you would move up or down a desk depending on how well you were or weren’t doing! I also remember at secondary school doing PE, running, and the male PE teacher blatantly making a comment about my breasts (they’ve always been big) to some of the boys, and they all sniggered.

@anothernotherone phew, thank goodness for that!

ooooohbetty I was completely sure there was an Adam Ant underage girls scandal but having googled I see there wasn't! I must have been thinking of someone else

Sorry Adam Ant!

The eighties (looking back through rose tinted glasses) were fab!

The music was brilliant for most of the decade, but especially mid to late eighties. By the end of the decade Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan were huge! On TV Neighbours and later on Home and, Away were massive. Used to sneak home from school at lunch when I could and watch neighbours mid eighties.

As a teen there was no Internet or social media. So you found out about teen stuff through the many teen girl magazines that were out at the time. Used to love getting J17, Look in, Smash Hits and Jackie. J17 was best of the mags though.

In a way I think it was good there wasn't any mobiles or social media. It was good to be able to escape bullying girls from school and not have to worry about them at home.

You listened to your mix tapes or charts that you had taped of the radio top 40 on a Sunday night on your boom box or if you were lucky your Sony Walkman.

I was very into The Brat pack mid eighties, but to watch a film you either had to go to the cinema or walk to the video library and rent the film you wanted to see. Hoping and praying the person behind the counter would believe you were really 15!

The hair and make up were hideous at the end of the eighties I sported a lovely bubble perm with sun in in it, before moving on to shaders and toners.

Heather shimmer lipstick totally rocked back then. Disney motif reversible jumpers were good, as were grey and pink le femme bags. Jump suits, jelly shoes, ra ra skirts, puffball skirts with braces, long socks and DM style shoes were not great. Clearisil for skin was harsh, but my teen self swore by it and harmony hair spray! Body shop did fuzzy peach range and Dewberry, which were fab, Boots original natural collection was also fab.

Food wise eating out was rare, prawn cocktail, pizza and triffle were real treats. In our house we had traditional meals that were rotated each week, with a very occasional curry or spag bol thrown in.

Sundays were the most boring day of the week. No shops opened.

The horrible bits of The1980s The Minners Strike was awful for all those involved. Thatcherism was rife and yuppieism / excess / loads of money was flaunted, which was distasteful. The Hillsborough disaster was awful and should never have happened. My Dad boycotted reading The Sun for the lies they printed after Hillsborough right up until his death.

Attitudes in 1980's if a person was gay, had special needs or had a disability were awful and discrimination. Racism and Sexisim were also rife in 1980s though towards the late eighties things were very slowly changing. Thank Goodness.

First memory is around miner strikes, my brothers going to local welfare to get fed, being in union hut with my dad, walking in some of the more peaceful strikes. Had permed hair most of 80s, bright clothes that clashed, a fair bit of neon, music was ok but prefer 90s.

Bus holidays to spain, on bus for 2.5 days 🙁 first time in Florida, amazed by everything!

For fun played outside at 2 man hunt, hide and seak, chap door run, kirby (loved this), spectrum computer, watched the shite on tv. With fiver pocket money i went to town, bought a magazine,,pick n mix from woolies, small can juice and went back home to enjoy and watch saturday night film.

Was amazed that babies could grow in test tubes but thought it would need to be a big tube for a 9 month baby lol

Oh yes the markets, loved going there, got leather jackets, sweets, meat, net curtains, and something from burger van

Ponoka. When I was about 12-15, several girls in my year at school got pregnant. One was sent to England to live with her aunt, a couple were kept at home by their parents (you weren't allowed to stay at school) but two were sent to special "homes for wayward girls"! None of them were allowed to keep their babies.
When I was 16, my best friend fell pregnant. She had to leave school but her parents let her keep her baby. As her bump grew, she was the talk of all the village old dears because she was out walking about where everyone could see her bump!
A lot of my family is Irish. The IRA, the Troubles and the whole regressiveness of NI loomed very large for us. I clearly remember Central Station and Waverley being shut on regular occasions because of bomb threats. And going to Belfast to see folk and their being soldiers with guns at all the shop doors and there being barbed wire and military vehicles everywhere.

- You could buy a house, your own house, on one wage. (No, really. Unless you were unlucky enough to end up in negative equity.) - you can still buy a house on one salary round here.

- Council houses still existed and was a viable option - you can still get a council house round here too. My friends son and his girlfriend have just got one.
*.

• Even poor kids like me could dream of going to university some day, knowing it would be funded if your parents earned under a certain amount. In my part of the world nursing or joining the Armed Forces or working as a holiday rep were all still pretty respectable and decently paid too.* - armed forces pay is decently paid after training and even better once you move up the ranks. It's still a respected job too, as is nursing. Not sure about holiday reps. Don't know a lot about them.

- You could still get a joiner or a plumber or electrician without having to sell your soul to the bank to pay for it.

• you still can. I've just had a plumber out to fix a part in my loo. £20.

Do you live in central London?