Great music, great bands, loads of going out and talking to people. Terrible fashion for teens but nobody cared. Lots of older women still did the smart skirt and jumper type of outfit and looked great.
No Starbucks, instead we had proper tea shops with teapots, scones and teacakes. And proper department stores and little shops, before capitalism and greedy landlords destroyed the high street.
M&S did this amazing apricot rice pudding dessert that I was heartbroken when they stopped selling. Never found it anywhere else 😞
M&S is still good now, but at the time it was awesome.
No fear around communications/tech/internet, you just picked up the phone and asked if your friends were going out.
Excitement about penpals and getting letters. Milk floats and coal men. Window cleaners.
Stamp collecting, it was fun because stamps were varied. Interesting conversations with people on the street (even the old biddies with blue rinses lecturing you about the youth of today). Little bookshops, interesting high streets. Roads were driveable. You could usually find a parking space.
TV was watchable/fewer people knew about Jimmy Savile.
Libraries were wonderful places. Councils did street maintenance.
Parents getting upset about politics. Miners' strike was terrible. Houses were affordable if you had a decent job. But if you couldn't get a job, life was very hard indeed.
However, people were generally far more polite, humorous and well-spoken, even in regional dialect. They were more inclined to help each other in little ways, without always expecting something in return. Just more community spirit in general.
There were still lots of boasters and materialistic people, but not everything was all about money and avoiding scams like it is now.