What were the 80s like?

[flowerwild]

I’m nostalgic for a time I never experienced.

Colourful. Somehow felt a lot more decadent than the 70’s which were cold and with a lot of social unrest and strike action. The Falklands War however felt close to home and immediately affected people I knew.

I was 12-21 so absolutely brilliant for me.

I went from a child to a teen in the 80s. In terms of culture and aspiration I can remember longing to be American. Sesame St, ET, the Goonies, all the US music - I wanted to be Born in the USA.

In terms of real life, it was grim. Working class in the north, my dad was made redundant four times that decade, three of those the factory closed completely and nothing replaced it. Thatcher's government brought in 'care in the community' for people with mental health issues, and as with most things Tory it was ill thought out and done on the cheap. An indirect result of that policy was my dad's only brother being murdered. In 1989, on the 15th April, my dad, uncle and 10 year old brother were at Hillsborough. All fortunately not in the affected pens and physically unscathed but the aftermath, mistreatment and labelling of fans still has its effects today. Fucking Thatcher and her defence of SYorkshire police.

My high school days.
Preferred the 90's.

I was 16 in 1980 and 26 by the end of the decade. University was free and maintenance grants were just that, no student debt to put you off although only 10% made it to uni. The early years saw miners strikes and the Falklands War. The last war where soldiers were shipped off to war with loved ones waving from the docks and a heroes welcome on return
No computers or mobiles phones, so you could pretty much get away with anything and your parents remained blissfully ignorant.
Licensing laws meant that pubs were for drinking and limited the time you could drink. You could only buy alcohol from off licences and pubs. When supermarkets started selling alcohol they had to comply with licensing laws so closed off their alcohol aisles for most of the day.
If you arranged to meet up with friends you couldn’t cancel at last minute, people met their partners in all sorts of places, no such thing as online, although the newspapers had a lonely hearts section where you could advertise for a girl/boy friend. We used to spend hours reading the adverts they were so entertaining. They were the forerunner of text messaging using a sort of shorthand. You can tell someone’s age from the way they text. Pre 1980s use sentences, they didn’t really text, it was easier to phone. Post 1980s they use text language. Then post 2000s back to sentences because originally texts had a limit on the number of characters you could use. Once smartphones hit the market with predictive text there was no need for shorthand.

As a teenager in the 1980s men were coming out after changes to laws re homosexuality. Men wore makeup, even the straight ones (see new romance and glamrock) there was no need for gender fluidity since no one gave a f*ck about how you identified, the rules were not in place. Promiscuity was fashionable until 1984 when AIDS appeared. Then the whole scene changed.

The standard of living was on the up, and despite 25-30% base rate tax people had much more disposable income. Home ownership skyrocketed along with house prices. Foreign travel was available for a much larger proportion of the population as the package holiday simplified things and the EU made travelling around Europe easier.

It was great growing up during this decade, it was colourful, fun and the fashions were bonkers. Women had short hair without it meaning anything. The pound was king and everything seemed possible. Then the early 90s brought the stock market crash and the downturn in the housing market.
I don’t think that we have seen the same level of prosperity since. However, we didn’t have such expensive tastes back then, one small TV, limited drinking times, infinitely better travel infrastructure meant you didn’t need two cars. Life didn’t revolve around keeping up with the Joneses so less of your income was wasted on unnecessary stuff. you bought furniture to last 20yrs, even flat pack stuff lasted. Ultimately less of your disposable income was spent on expensive electrical goods or technology. We were probably no better off but we only bought what we could afford. Almost everyone I knew whas happy to buy second hand.

Credit cards were difficult to get hold of so you couldn’t rack up too much debt. It all changed in the 90s when banks realised how much money they could make out of us.
We were savers because we were taught to save and only buy what we could afford.
Attitudes to debt have really changed. Maybe because our grandparents remembered the workhouses and debtors prisons.

I remember the AIDS advert as a child and being terrified about it.

I was a dental student in Birmingham where one of the first suffered was diagnosed. It was a bit like the Covid restrictions when HIV positive patients were treated.
One of my friends in my yr went on to pioneer a dedicated dental clinic for aids patients in Brighton. He was gay and saw how the virus devastated his community and limited their access to basic health care. He dedicated the early part of his professional career to AIDs he never imagined that in his lifetime a “cure” would be found. And although it doesn’t cure AIDs it controls the disease to the point specialist clinics are no longer necessary.

And yes it was a frightening time in healthcare.

Paying by credit card involved a machine that the card was placed into. Then a pre printed docket was placed over the card. A slider was was whizzed over them and your card details were imprinted on the docket. You signed the top layer of the docket and the signature compared with the one on the back of your card. You were given one layer of the docket, the carbon paper was binned and the retailer kept the other layer which they paid in to their bank.

Good:
Clothes
Music(Pet Shop Boys, Wham, Madonna, Housemartins, New Order, Kylie, Rick Astley, The smiths before Morrissey went all Brexity, the start of the Madchester scene)
Buying pocket money priced stuff at The Body Shop
A List celebrities on Wogan most nights, Moonlighting, Dallas, Dynasty, Brookside.
The Walkman
Live Aid
The 1989 Brit awards(Google it)
Getting a day off school for the royal wedding in 1981 and everyone loving Princess Diana
Unfolding piles of jumpers in Benetton that were completely unaffordable

Bad: Miners’ strike
Thatcherism
misogyny
homophobia
everyone being terrified of AIDS or nuclear war

Oh yes the nuclear threat. I had friends who spent time at Greenham Common protesting outside the American airbase.
And the continuing battle for real sexual equality!
The introduction of breast screening, bringing about the gradual reduction in deaths due to late diagnosis.

I was very young but it felt safer and freer. I used to walk myself home from school age 7. It was only down two roads but even so...people didn't worry so much then.

I forgot to say,
AIDS was a monstrous killer of so many lovely people, especially men, who were lost to our society- you wouldn’t believe it given how it is today.

you bought furniture to last 20yrs yes, @Angrymum22 and also people very often bought junk shop things and fixed them up.

Houses were not slick and perfect with extra bathrooms.

Stripped, waxed pine was popular
Victoriana was into fashion.

Virago books.

The style was dado rails and flowery wallpaper
Then IKEA came over and told us to ' chuck out your chintz'!

Famine in Ethiopia - on the television we saw skeletal bodies. It was shocking and horrifying. This led to Live Aid which Bob Geldorf thought of and organised.

That decade felt like an expanding bubble that burst at its end.

The 1960s saw the start really.

I’m so sorry. YNWA.

I was a child in the 80s. Spent most of them playing out whenever I wasn’t at school, and the last couple of years spending every minute I wasn’t actually with my friends on the phone to them, from the landline extension in my bedroom (the best thing you could possibly have back then!) As a PP said, people were so much more sociable then. My mum was always in and out of the neighbours’ houses, or one of them was in the kitchen with her, and my dad used to have friends round or go to the pub regularly. My husband and I don’t socialise anything like that much.

Anyone remember Johnny Briggs tv show? Just seen something about it pop up on Facebook. I loved that show. (Merino beret, “we’re doooomed”).

12 to 21.
Smash Hits, taping the charts, TOTP, the Tube, Young Ones, Channel 4, Brookside.
Chelsea Girl, Miss Selfridge, Silver eyeshadow, pencil skirts, stilettos.
The early 80s were more like the 70s, mid to late 80s were how people think of the decade - shoulder pads, yuppies etc.
Buying jeans and then taking them in on my mums sewing machine.
Buying a handbag from Chelsea Girl and then cramming it full of school books.
Going home for dinner and playing my records full blast as there was only me in the house.
Waiting til after 6pm to ring friends.
Seemed to get loads of homework.
Sixth form was very small compared to today.
Politics, people joining CND, lots of talk of the nuclear threat.
My mum was a teacher and had several promotions.
Coach holidays to Spain (horrendous).
Had a Saturday job in a cake shop, got £1.13 an hour, paid cash in a little brown envelope. Old fashioned till where you had to press down the keys, and add up in your head.

So i wish I was 18 in the 70snot the 80s. I would have loved the music the clothes and the make up and the hair!

Absolutely loving this thread …would go back to the 80s in a heartbeat! My kids and their friends all love and listen to 80s music. Had a great evening last year at Stanmer Park Brighton watching Nial Rodgers and Chic…best night out with my 20 something children ever !

High unemployment, the fear of nuclear war, and the feeling of drudgery. Racist abuse in school was "just one of those things", as was smoking everywhere. Corporal punishment meant you could be whacked by a teacher at any moment. We could see there was fun to be had if you could move to London, get a decent job, and managed to avoid the East End. (EastEnders was very informative!). There was some good music, but an awful lot of crap in the charts (Frog Chorus anyone?)
If only I'd know how fucking fabulous the '90s would be! The best decade ever! - I made it to West London, could afford a mortgage on my own in my early '20s (but didn't buy anything!!!) got a mobile phone and drank vast amounts of Bicardi breezers. Good times.

I did get a job after I left school ( eventually) but it wasn't easy and the thing that got me down were the ones saying how easy it was ten years earlier ' oh , you could walk out of one job into another within a day', it wasn't that easy in 81 /82 ( but certainly an easier process to apply etc than it is today!)

The 80s were SKILL!