To absolutely long for the 80's again

[bertybertyberty]

I was around 16 during the peak of this era. I was just coming into pop music, walkmans & fashion.

Young, care-free, no responsibilities, slim. It was such an easy-going era. No smart tech. You could phone a company and actually speak to someone without waiting in an endless queue or going through a list of around 10 different options. Shops had extra stock 'out the back' so you could always ask them to check 'out back' for more sizes etc. Less cars on the road. Less rules/regulations/H&S in general, much more easy going (although I recognise that some of the rules nowadays are essential and should have existed back then) Less tech meant less opportunity for scams/thieves/hacking.

Life was generally so much more laid back, casual & easy going. I LONG for these days again so much. I don't actually like modern day and the stresses that come with it. I wanted to make a booking for a day out with the DC the other day, I was on hold for 1 hour 45 minutes. I gave up and hung up.

Anyone else resonate ?

I loved the 80s as well; I was young, no responsibilities, loved the fashion, music, etc, money seemed to go further, but I do think that being young with no responsibilities is part of the nostalgia for it. I also remember the sexism, being paid crap wages on a YTS scheme, full time hours for £25 a week. I had low self esteem and no confidence. If I could go back with the confidence I have now, I'd consider it! But we also had Thatcher, high unemployment, the start of Aids, homophobia, so it wasn't all rosy.

Yep I feel you. For me it's the 90's though. I turned 16 at the end of 1989, started working in 1990. I hate the fact that we're constantly now bombarded with phone calls, texts, social media, and media/government propaganda. The government try to control everything & as a result no-one wants to take personal responsibility for anything.

I feel like as a society we had it all and we've fucked it. Maybe I'm wearing rose tinted glasses and just viewing a time when I had far less problems or responsibilities, but on the whole I hate most things about modern society. Even the music's shite.

So much live music, all the new wave, punk, ska, rock bands touring. Being able to buy tickets for less than a fiver from the box office. No registering for 'pre sale', no 'special vip access', no ridiculous 'booking fees' or 'admin fees', just join a queue a the local town hall.

@Dragonfly97 it was crap wages back then but the money went a long way, a hell of a longer way than these days. Unemployment and especially AIDS & homophobia was all very sad.
Everything is so expensive now, when back in the 80s a cheap pint meant a cheap pint down the local and people were content with a Bernie Inn (or similar)

Everything was better in the 80's, I was 9-19 in that decade so it was very formative. I would absolutely hate to be growing up now.

I loved the 80s. I turned 21 in 1982, it was a great time be alive. Downsides of course, but I think we all look through rose tinted specs. I would like to go back and rectify some of my mistakes (if only)
You could actually walk through town centres without the stink of weed in the air and gangs of intimidating youths. This was before the nanny state took hold and people were expected to take responsibility for themselves.
One of the best things about it was no smartphones/social media. If you made an arse of yourself on a night out there was no record of it 😅

This was more or less word-for-word what my mum used to say about the carefree, exciting 1960s. It's pretty much what I feel about the 1980s too (I was 6-16, so throw in the early years of the 90s). When I think of the freedom we had to make mistakes without them being plastered all over social media or preserved forever on the internet it makes me feel intense gratitude for disposable cameras and Snappy Snaps.

I'm not sure I could get as nostalgic for the Glory Days of the 2010s, but I guess that generation of new teenagers will? Somehow.

I just think most people look at their own eras with rose coloured glasses.

I miss the high street, popular tv shows like Big Brother (you can never recapture it), the new Harry Potter books, going to pick a film, waiting for your photos to develop, chatting on msn after school instead of texting, the indie era.

Have to say though I’m shocked you stayed on hold for almost 2 hours. Is it an event you can book online?

Yes, sometimes I do, too.
I was 14 in 1987 and the years I would love to go back to are from 1985 to 1988.

I too love the 1980's, I suspect because they were my teenage years (12 in 1980) and so all the shit stuff passed me by.

The fact women had only just been able for credit/get mortgages in their own names (thanks to the 1975 SD Act, rape in marriage was not criminalised (people knew it was morally wrong for, but the law meant men could not be prosecuted), high inflation and mortgage rates, soaring unemployment, the denationalisation of many industries, riots, the by laying to waste of the North due to Tory policy, strikes, the Falklands conflict, Orgreave, the homophobia driven by the fear of HIV (due to scaremongering in the press).....so whilst musically and culturally it was great .......socially it wasn't so great (and let's not talk about the fashion and the hair😂😂😂).

The seventies were better!

I'm sure it's nostalgia but I agree that life felt easier to navigate and now, it's often difficult to grasp how best to manage even simple things!

@Winter3000 I just had a little cry thinking those specific years. All my family were still alive, a 20p bags of sweets made me massively happy (likewise a 15p lemonade ice lolly or a pink funny foot), we all gathered for christmas with no fancy wrapping paper/decs and/or coordinating tree or posh bottles of booze, food was cheap, holidays were simple with one cost for the plane/seat/meal/transfer none of this breaking it down by who wants to get on the plane first and who wants more luggage and a better seat.

Modern times are miserable, the music is shite, smart tech makes it more stressful, I hate being available 24/7 to everyone by means of mobile tech, everywhere is so busy due to the huge increase in population & too many people going to the same place at the same time with the same goal in mind.

One of the best decades of my life. Newly graduated and living in London. Had a great group of friends and brilliant social life. Could afford to rent in London and go out to eat, go to the theatre and to the pub. Yes there were bad things going on , high unemployment, AIDS, riots but for me personally life was good.

Maybe it is rose tinted glasses but I have so many happy memories from that decade.

@feellikeanalien does anyone ever have those good times again, I wonder.

I often drive around to some of my old haunts and sit in the car and remember the good old times with a tear and a smile.

I feel like life can be comparable to a competition now with who can have the best of the best and then show it off on social media.

Yes. And the 90's. Woolworths, top shop, C&A. Going to parties. No one had a mobile phone, so no photos / evidence of who got off with who.

@Oblomov24 YES YES YES ! and Chelsea girl, Snob, Mark 1. Restaurants weren't trying to rip us off with £££ prices, your car tax was 'in the post' LOL and you actually had to phone someone to arrange to see them

It's nostalgia isnt it. I was a child in the 90s (v nostalgic) and a teen in the 00s (less nostalgic for that as entered the workplace just before the financial crash, kind of nostalgic for my 20s in the 2010s tho lol). I do think we are more disconnected from each other nowadays, maybe my DC will feel nostalgia for the 20s!

It's definitely rose-tinted glasses, the 80s were grim in a lot of ways.

I miss my big hair, size 10 fully working body and full face of slap.

My mum remembers the 1980s as recession and not having enough money and worrying about her or my dad losing her jobs while they had young kids.

I remember them as sweets and endless summers and water fights and exciting computers.

I prefer my memories but my mum is not wrong....

I loved that you could meet a guy and he'd chat you up in person and ask you out and you didn't have to wonder if he'd text or if he was interested because he'd just ask you to be his girlfriend and you'd agree, kiss and walk off holding hands.
That's how I met my dh but I'd hate to be navigating the dating scene today.

I was reading about the Miners' strike on the BBC this morning, as former striking miners in South Wales are now taking supplies to their colleagues in Ukraine who supported them during the strike. In the area I grew up in, this was a huge thing. Manual industry was wiped out and family dynamics changed as women became the main breadwinner. Not an era I'd want to go back to.

I was a young adult at the start of the 80s. I think there is always a nostalgia for "your" decade and my God there was a lot of bad stuff about it (miners strike, endless Thatcher) so I'm not too rose tinted.

However, I miss the relative simplicity. While I wouldn't want to be without the internet (who would) it has been a double edged sword with the ready availability of porn, increasing pressure on young women, scamming, we all know the stuff. I don't think I'll ever fully adjust to the expectation of being fully contactable 24/7. Things did feel slower.

I miss my big hair and shoulderpads (when ARE they coming back?) I miss a world that smelt of cig smoke, Kouros and Opium, where blokes wore jacket and tie with jeans.

Oh and the music was so much better!😂

Yes, the miners had it bad, but southerners had an easier life. Walk into jobs easily and get a mortgage . House prices affordable. Could live on one parent's pay. Could jump on a bus for 30p, thanks to Ken Livingstone, living in Essex. Maternity care, brilliant! Stayed in hospital 7 days first child, lessons given in folding nappies etc. second child 10 days c section, third child 48 hours. Midwife visited home before each week. GP visited home regularly when child was sick. No long waits at A & E. Could afford heating on. Petrol was cheap, so could travel. Fashion was fun, bought winter and then summer outfits, that's it. Wore them til they wore out. Chatted on home phone to friends. Recorded favourite TV programmes on VHS. Took photos on camera, all prints put in an album. Children went to play school. We walked a lot with prams and buggies, didn't drive. Minus points, no car seats for children. Smoking was normal, everyone had an ashtray available, even non smokers. Something else, my first child was a late speaker, went to a summer school every week day in hols aged 3 for help. Oh and I did open university course free of charges.