To think growing up in the 80s was the best?

[Yipitsme]

Feeling all the nostalgia.
Big scrunchies,nike air max,fun house,mix tapes,michael Jackson before the rumours,sweeties and irnbru in spades ,playing out from the moment you came in till it got dark,sitting around a small 20inch tv,proper playing make believe, eating loads of stodgy food!the music high school with crazy teachers.all the stuff that's frowned upon now basically.
I had such a fun adventure filled childhood even though we never travelled even out of our home town.And we were poor!
Anyone else?

I remember them fizzle sticks
Also fruit polos, or lemon polos, toffos (mmmm), boost bars before they changed the ingredients, infact, any chocolate bar because it was 3 times the size that they are now!!

I loved the salt and shake crisps, bikers, noughts and crosses crisps.

Loved coming home from school, getting my egg and chips/fishfingers and chips then going out to play, knocking on a peoples doors and asking them if they were playing out. Always devastating if they said no, always a bonus if invited in to play.
Stick on earings, plastic shoes, light up shoes, shoes that had a metal thing on the heal so I could sound like my mum when I was walking.

Eclipse clothes or naff naff! Inflatable bags (and chairs etc) kickers, puffa coat, 2 strands of hair at the front dyed orange by sun in!
Exclamation, Tommy girl, ck one, Charlie red, sunflowers, green tea perfumes, impulse body spray.

My little pony, care bears, fun house, art Attack, the land before time, disney princesses.

Everything closed on a Wednesday afternoon and all day sunday.

Playing out until god knows what time with all the kids on the estate. Building camps with old bits of wood collected, bmx, roller blades, roller discos, house parties.
Trick or treating with a turnip wearing a black bag and a cheap mask that made your face sweat.

Christmas it usually snowed!

I was born in the 80s and a teenager in the 90s.
Lots of good memories

Trying to pause the cassette recorder before the DJ started talking while recording the uk top 40 on a sunday afternoon.

I am a 80's kid and loved growing up in the 80's. The mid and late 1980's were the best IMO!

Bring back lovely, but probably rose tinted memories of being care free.

Some of the best things ever in 1980s were calculator shaped pencil cases, le femme bags, magic steps shoes, cricket the doll, spokie dokies for your bike, rainbow brite, He Man and Shera, adopting a cabbage patch kid, The A Team, poochie the dog, lo lo balls, care bears and crystal barbie.

Later on Nike Air max trainers, LA gear, Disney reversible jumpers, ripped jeans, Sony walkman, mix tapes, taping the top 40, smash hits, J17, body shop dewsbury or fuzzy peach there was also a brilliant impulse body spray called Dominique? Athena, Sweater shop.

Music was also good

Brilliant Brat Pack and Teen films. Back to Future, Footlose, Top Gun etc

Kids TV was also the dogs bollocks Grange Hill (Zammo, Jackie, Roly era), Going Live, No. 73, Gruie, Johnny Briggs, fun house and The Cuckoo Sister

Bunking school to watch early episodes of Neighbours. Watching first episode of Home and Away.

Bad bits King's Cross Fire, Zebrugge and Hillsborough v sad.

I really grew up in th 80s went from being a teenager with no cards to married with 2 children at the end of the decade. I remember some one smuggling the radio on so we could listen to the charts.

@bugaboo218
At last, someone else who remembers No 73! I loved this (grew up not far from the TV studio where they filmed it) but no one else remembers it.
I've just read Sandi Toksvig's memoirs so I knew I hadn't imagined it!

Child of the 70s, teen of the 80s.That has to be the best combination.

I remember going to see Dirty Dancing at the cinema when it first came out. And watching the video for Take On Me over and over again, just in awe of how clever it was (and how beautiful Morten Harket was). Pop stars who created amazing looks without having to earnestly declare their gender identity and what their preferred pronouns were. The best films. Live Aid when we were still allowed to believe that it was a good thing and be moved by it. Robin of Sherwood. Dynasty, and having to wait a whole week to find out what happened next instead of bingeing it on Netflix.

Too of the Pops 1981 was on the telly tonight..such a great year for music and so evocative for me. I ❤️ the 1980’s !

@Orchid No 73 was brilliant. A whole Saturday morning of choas that kids would find funny. My parents were not keen on me watching it, especially when I tried (and failed) to copy one of the people on the show skating in the house in my v fetching rainbow roller boots!

What about taping the charts on one of those old cassette machines? And cursing the DJ for talking over the end of the song.

The 80s were fabulous. And the music was great

All of the above plus I loved going to the Radio One roadshows. I was allowed to go with my older sister (we were both under 10) and loads of other kids from school went too. It was the first experience of meeting socially outside of school without parents. I don't think kids would have that freedom now.

Saturday morning pictures too, again, no parents.

Anyone remember half penny sweets? When the half penny went out of circulation you got two half penny sweets for one penny.

And Puffs, I miss those crisps.

This thread does make me nostalgic, but more in an aspirational sense.

OP please don’t think you actually grew up ‘poor’. The Nike air max , Global video rentals on a Friday night!measured sweeties from the post office.ice cream and everything experiments, milk coke beer! you describe was not something all ‘poor’ children experienced.

Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy growing up in the 80’s and playing out all day, but those material goods weren’t part of my life.

Don’t want to ruin your buzz or anything, by all means reflect on the happy times in your childhood. But I don’t think you understand what ‘poor’ was.

If I could jump in a time machine and take my kids back to the 80s of my childhood right now, I would.

We could go wherever we wanted and see whoever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Even if coronavirus had existed, I probably would have caught it, got sick and recovered. Because that's what most people did back then with illnesses! I had mumps, ffs! I was delirious, could have died. Did they shut down the country? No. It's only the internet that's allowed us to live in this ridiculous purgatory indefinitely.

Sorry, serious post on a fun thread. Feel free to ignore.

I used to love going to shop to get a lucky bag and some sweets. I live in rural Ireland, the shop that sold lucky bags was also a pub.
On st. Patrick's day after the local parade which we were part of, our parents would go to the pub and we'd be given money to buy sweets. We'd run and hide when our parents wanted to go home.
I was bullied through a lot of my childhood but I still have fond memories.
Swimming lessons every summer. There's be a private mini bus to take us.
Tayto hot lips with the Ateam on the pack.
Writing to Jim'll fix it to meet the Ateam. (Glad that never happened)
Disappearing to have "adventures" in the fields because I read too many famous 5 books.
Girl guides.
Halloween.
If someone gave you 50p you were rich.
If you got a pound you were in heaven.
So many memories. Saturday morning cartoons, toys in the cereal box. Aww good times because we didnt know what it was like to be a grown up.
Did anyone watch back to the future where they went to the future and count up to how old they'd be by then. It seemed so far away and so futuristic.

081 8118181
If you know you know.

It was better than now, that's for sure.
No social media, for one thing.

Far less rigid in many ways.

80s teenager here too. So started off the decade in RaRa skirts, moved on to lacy fingerless gloves, big belt, big hair with scarves / bows in it (inspiration Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan), avoided puffball skirts, by 1987 cultivating my goth look, and by the end of the decade a student living in short skirt over leggings and oversized tops, with ankle boots or the classic that was shorts worn over thick tights.

So spent lots of the mid-80s watching films - met up with friends every Saturday to go to the cinema. Remember Back to the Future (many times), sadly Top Gun (dreadful) and Gremlins. Robin of Sherwood on telly. Launch of Channel 4 a particular highlight with its 'alternative' programming. The Tube. Blackadder.

Started the decade loving Wham, Madonna, then moved onto The Cure, The Smiths and by the late 80s had the best time ever going to gigs - remember REM v v well

I was 15 in 1985. I wouldn't want to change it for anything!

Even if coronavirus had existed, I probably would have caught it, got sick and recovered. Because that's what most people did back then with illnesses! I had mumps, ffs! I was delirious, could have died. Did they shut down the country? No. It's only the internet that's allowed us to live in this ridiculous purgatory indefinitely.

Partly that - but I have been rereading a lot of my childhood books (mostly older than me, written in the mid-century decades) recently, and they are forever being quarantined for mumps, measles, scarlet fever and so on. We had readily available antibiotics and mass vaccination - had we been our parents' or grandparents' ages, we would probably have been a lot more familiar with quarantine. I remember my mum talking about how all the swimming pools closed because of polio outbreaks. But equally, the lack of technology would have meant we couldn't have all worked from home (except I grew up on a farm, so we lived on the job anyway, but most people couldn't work from home.)

@IwishIwasyoda OMG I had THE BEST rara skirt!! Forgot about that ...
I remember wearing lots of electric blue and bright pink: had some fab black lace gloves. Our style icon was Madonna in ‘Like a Virgin’ video, but then moved on to Curiosity Killed the Cat - puffballs, stripy tights, DM shoes and big gold hoop earrings. This was just a stop over en route to Depeche Mode, The Smiths, and Echo an the Bunnymen. Heavenly times and great memories x

I was a teenager in the 80s
It had the best music , best clothes

I was really thin so those skinny jeans ( just started having Lycra or Elastane added) were fashionable and I wore them.
Donkey jackets
Legwarmers that you ruffled down into yout Tucker Boots

Long hair that I did in all the tiny plaits then teased out ( I didn't have crimpers )

Teens were very aware politically - (or thought we were)
CND , the ALF, The Smiths and "Meat is Murder"

You took an LP into school or someone made you a copy (for the Walkman )

Jobs were on a 'its not what you know it's who you know' basis

Being gay was not talked about
Getting pregnant or a "reputation" was the worst thing that could happen.

Loads of my mates became vegetaian all drifted off it but I have stuck with it . .

[quote Piffle11]@IwishIwasyoda OMG I had THE BEST rara skirt!! Forgot about that ...
I remember wearing lots of electric blue and bright pink: had some fab black lace gloves. Our style icon was Madonna in ‘Like a Virgin’ video, but then moved on to Curiosity Killed the Cat - puffballs, stripy tights, DM shoes and big gold hoop earrings. This was just a stop over en route to Depeche Mode, The Smiths, and Echo an the Bunnymen. Heavenly times and great memories x[/quote]
Omg...that was me 100% 🤣🤣😍

As a child the 70s were great. I’m glad I was a bit older during 80s and could take full advantage of a lot !

The 80s definitely changed for me, started with pastel pink stilettos and finished with a lot of black clothing, pints of cider .

And of course mixtapes, for me The cure and fields of the nephilim-does anyone them ? I did like some fairly depressing music

I loved being a teenager in the 60s- the start of pop music with the Beatles; that was so fresh and exciting. My family didn't have much money but I was happy and had a fantastic education too. I was a hippy and had lots of freedom. That was the best time.