what was a massive deal when you were growing up that isn't now?

[learthebear]

or you thought was

On the Viennetta theme - Ice Magic! Loved that stuff.

Additives/E numbers.

Deffo mad cow diesease from eating beef at school cos we weren’t allowed to eat it at home. So I thought my whole (Hindu) family would find out I ate beef, that was my main fear rather than the disease itself. 😂

Blue and green ever being seen together 😱 the horror! Something to do with sailors?

Red and white also not allowed, my Nan used to full body shudder and say solemnly “blood and bandages”!

Nuclear war
The ability to navigate a room without stepping on lava

Sink holes

I recall it was an issue for the Chinese cocklers in Morecambe Bay twenty years ago and also more recently for some kids on the Somerset coast.

Life was more simple back in the 90s, technology, social media and political extremism have turned todays society into a polarised hell so everything seems harder for absolutely no other reason other than poor decisions. The big deals back then are laughable compared to the horrors of 2023.

I still use one! It's a thing of beauty.

The Yorkshire Ripper.

Piranhas and acid rain

also spontaneous human combustion. I saw a photo of just a burnt pair of shoes and it terrified me for years!

Wearing make up. I bought a few bits when I was about 11 and my mother dramatically flushing it down the toilet as if I were the Whore of Babylon.

Public safety initiatives like the Green Cross Code.

That just reminded me of Benetton bags. Late 1980s, drawstring canvas bag, absolutely de rigueur as a school bag. Benetton was hugely trendy generally too.

Homosexuality, I was a juror on a trial of 'homosexuality in a men's public toilet' in 1972. The prosecution evidence included statements from policemen who climbed on the seats of adjacent cubicles to see what was going on!

...and scary Public Safety Broadcasts about all sorts of things

The awful emergency safety broadcasts. Terrifying.

Nothing nostalgic about those times really

I know right? Standards have dropped I can't believe I wore underskirts under my school skirt! In the 80s 90s

One of my first Saturday jobs was in a florist, around 1990. I can remember being told very firmly that any bouquets that were going to hospitals or care homes absolutely must not be red and white. I enquired why and my boss muttered darkly, 'blood and bandages', so it was definitely a thing.

I must say I think the opposite. Between Chernobyl and AIDS and car bombs and the gulf war, there was at least as much to worry about then. It was just that the decades before were worse so we felt relatively lucky.

I still think the greatest gift my 1980s Irish childhood gave me was perspective. Things were shit, we were happy enough, and I have been easily pleased ever since. I mean I haven't combusted yet and kiwis are in the Aldi super six.

Oh and tsunamis!

I believed a tsunami could happen anywhere at any time - I had no understanding of the causes. And we lived about a mile inland, so my cunning plan was to run further inland. In retrospect there was never much likelihood of a tsunami in Dublin bay.

The main thing I remember being a massive deal when I was at primary school was Changing Your Hairstyle.
Didn't have to be a haircut either, just wearing your hair in a ponytail if you were usually a hair down kind of person was enough to elicit stares and giggling. I have a very clear memory of a girl in my class, (we were about 8), having her waist length blonde locks cut to just below her shoulder. She also came in with it loose, rather than in the two plaits she usually sported. I swear most of the class spontaneously combusted on the spot. 😂😂😂

Dial a disc, record shops, tranquillisers, comics, deep snow, toxic garden products, miners strikes. Sigh.

Nuclear War.

O Levels.

Boring Sundays with little TV, no shops and nothing to do.
Cooking mince in school, I swear the third year we made an Xmas cake and every other week it was mince. It might have pastry or potatoes or pasty and potatoes or dumplings but it was always mince. No herbs or spices nothing tasty.

The Yorkshire ripper.

Disasters, they seemed to happen regularly, Herald of Free enterprise, Hillsborough, Bradford Fire, Marchioness, Kings Cross, Piper alpha, Manchester airport fire, Woolworths fire...

When people complain about 'health and safety gone mad' they should have a good look at the 1980s.