To ask you to tell me about the '80s?

[Trulyatraditionalman]

I was born in Dec '89. I absolutely love '80s music, and the way it is depicted in films and TV makes it seem like it was the most amazing decade.

I'd like to experience the '80s through your memories

@ghostyslovesheets

Ahh the interest rates went as high as 13%? Those sister a must have done well if they managed to keep the property. That size mortgage sounds insane

Apart from the threat of nuclear war ...I loved being a teenager in the late 80s..pocket money went in stuff from woolies and Chelsea girl, miners eyeshadow. Then I got a job and became a goth so Saturdays were spent looking for pixie boots and listening to the Cure wearing ball gowns and back combing hair with sugar paste. In the early 80s things were very hard in the area I lived , strikes , we were very aware of unemployment and kids going hungry in the village .
Memories of my mum buying me 1 cal cola on our way to ballet on a Saturday morning and treating me to a ra ra skirt .

Pretty carefree, i left school at the beginning of the 80s, easy to get work, sporty cars, motorcycles, little health and safety, loads of under age drinking, cctv and the police drove little cars which the boys would outrun in their 3.1 capris or z1000's, no cameras or police helicopters

Of course i look back on it with horror now, the number of car and m/c accidents was grim.

And taping Japan off the telly with my cassette recorder !!

Does anyone remember the name of the jumper shop that was around in the eighties. Not the sweater shop. Everything was bright colours but expensive.

I was born in 75, the eighties were great.

Snow was proper snow, and lasted forever.
The summer was blue skies and hot.
Everyone going up town at dinner time from school to get a 40p chip.
Saturday shopping day and shops shut Sundays.
Ford escorts and xr2i's.
Life being simple.
The IRA blowing up friends dads going to work.
Relatives being blown up.

Bennetton?

This may already have been mentioned, but when you got off your bike, you just dropped it where you stood; in your garden, outside the shop, in a field, and when you came back 4 hours later with a massive rip in your velour tracksuit and no bag and half an eyebrow missing, with a box of found matches in one pocket and frogspawn in the other, your bike was still there, and the thought that someone might have nicked it would never once have crossed your mind.

80's kids stories/TV was seriously weird at times. Who remembers dramarama? Children of the dog star? The secret world of Polly Flint? And yes to the racism. My mum had a relationship with a black man and kids at school didn't hold back. They'd obviously got it from their parents. You'd be suspended or even expelled for that kind of language now. And there were far more overtly neglected children at school as I recall. Classmates who were dirty, smelly, had ill fitting clothes, no coats, no pack up etc. I don't see anyone leaving my kids' schools in that kind of state.

Yes we definitely had duvets from the late 70,s we called them continental quilts ,I remember when I was very little I was born in 1973 we had blankets but I think that was more of not being able to afford duvets ,I had a continental quilts / duvet from 1978 when we moved house and had a bit more money ,my parents had an eiderdown which was quite like a duvet ??

Vestas curry in a box as an occasional gastronomic delight.
The kids being routinely offered Babycham at special events.
Incredibly “relaxed” attitudes to drink-driving.
The permanent fog of Embassy fags.
Dour caravan holidays.
But Bananarama were ace!

I had a great childhood in the 80s. My parents (well, my dad) was doing very well. My mum was a bit wild by suburban mum standards, with crazy pink and purple hair and punky clothes - other kids used to ask me 'Why's your mum a punk?' . I loved it!

She used to go out clubbing with her hairdresser and she's told me about going to gay club nights in squatted venues where they played hi NRG disco, or sometimes (but these were less fun apparently) West End clubs where if you didn't look right, you didn't get past the doorman!

Pubs packed. Every. Single. Night. Because there was no internet, no gaming, not a lot of tv stations. And no wine bars - just seedy bars and night clubs where you stuck to the carpet, but they were great. Dallas - loved Dallas with JR.

@Trulyatraditionalman

Yes, definitely no duvets. Or showers. Or pasta. Unless you were posh, or From the South.

I remember it as a dark, dark time. Nuclear war, Cold war, class war, terrorism.

I used to fill page after page of colouring books with drawings for bomb shelters, and made lists of what I would do in the 3 minute warning.

Also, child abuse seemed to be pretty normalised. We used to have "checks" at school to see if we had our PE knickers on underneath our PE skirts, and the teachers supervised post-PE showers, which were off course mass showers under a few fawcetts.

All very weird. And dark.

Nightclubs called Ritzy's or Cinderalla Rockafella.

Yes to books backed with wallpaper and lifts in cars crammed with as many children as would fit whilst a stressed parent smoked and shouted. Ski Sunday and sandwiches and long boring days on Sundays.

School was violent, teachers and students. The art teacher moved in with a sixth former - she was seen as manipulative and you truanted, smoked and snogged the technician as much as you wanted.

Pen pals from everywhere, whole evenings in the phone box waiting for calls, clubbing in home made and re worked stuff from the charity shops. Giant hair and shoes from the market, older men with red cars and cheap hols to France or Spain. It was exciting and innocent and parents were strict until you turned 13 when you suddenly were treated like an adult. I worked in a record shop and had punk friends. We all moved into bedsits early on and there was always somewhere to party and crash. Booze turned to heroin and the early promise of everyone working separated out into the middle class doing better. My school was a real comprehensive which I loved. Friends wee from shit holes and huge houses and everything in between. Not many schools like that now.

It felt promising and exciting and cold!

I was a teenager in the 80s. It was brilliant.

Top 40. Duran Duran, FGTH, Dynasty, Dallas, James Bond (Roger Moore), multi-coloured hair, mullets, rat-tails coloured in pink felt tip pen, perms, Tammy, Clock House, and all the kind of gothy record shops which I liked in about 1986.

I grew up knowing for an absolute fact that everything I touched would turn to gold, because that's what we were encouraged to believe. We could do anything, be anything - nothing was impossible. I still believe this now, even though experience has tried to tell me otherwise!

Being a girl in the 80s was much better than being a girl in subsequent decades, I reckon. There wasn't the same need to conform (or to stand out by not conforming). Girls at my school were fat, thin, nerdy, cool - anything, really. Some had short hair, some had long hair, some had mad mullets. There wasn't the awful 'sameness' that girls seem to encounter now - no identikit long, straight, flicky hair, make-up, pressure to be a certain shape or size. My DD (nearly 17) has so much more crap of this type to cope with than we did. Bananarama or Toyah would never get a record deal now!

I spent my entire education at the same girls' school - and while there was horrible bitchiness, there just wasn't the same sense that girls had to look or be a certain way.

I was born in 66 so grew up in the 70s and 80s.

In some ways, it was great.....if you were young, with no responsibilities and you weren't living in a deprived area.

Racism was rife. The NF was quite powerful, and Black footballers got a lot of abuse. Police racism had a part to play in riots in I think 81/82. These happened throughout the country....Brixton, Bristol, Toxteth. Ironically Ghost Town by the Specials was number 1. Two Tone records, of which the Specials were a part, was a good movement though, as most of the bands had both black and white members and it was known for ska music. The Rock Against Racism movement was also popular involving bands like the Clash, Steel Pulse, Aswad. I'm from an Irish background, and there was a lot of racism against Irish people then because of the IRA. A bit like more recent racism against Muslims.

Homophobia was rampant. On the one hand there was bands like Culture Club, Bronski Beat/Communards who were openly gay (or had gay lead singers) but Section 28 happened, which made it illegal to promote homosexuality. So no Pride, no education in schools, no LBTG forums in schools, colleges, workplaces etc. HIV/AIDS just made it worse, with being gay equalling death and disease. Atbth e time, little ws s known of transmission, so people being treated were looked after by people using full PPE, a bit like those used now for covid19. As well, there was no effective treatment so a diagnosis meant death.

Housing was more affordable but interest rates high, so the opposite to today. So it was easier to get a deposit and mortgage, but repayment were high.

Thatcher's government decided the coal min we were no longer financially viable, and they were to be closed down. The resulting strikes were messy, and the areas affected have never really recovered. It was also her government that started the selling off of council properties, and councils were not allowed to pour the money raised into new stock, which meant council housing stock went right down.

Personally I enjoyed it, but I'm a white, straight person living in London, and nowhere near on the property ladder. The music, fashions, films were great. But I'm well aware it wasnt great for all.

@Livelovebehappy

Pubs packed. Every. Single. Night. Because there was no internet, no gaming, not a lot of tv stations. And no wine bars - just seedy bars and night clubs where you stuck to the carpet, but they were great. Dallas - loved Dallas with JR.

And Every. Single. Lunchtime.

Because that's what people did on their lunchbreak from work. You can get rid of four pints in an hour, if you try hard enough. Makes the afternoon sail by...

No not Bennetton. This will do my head in. Used to go up from school at dinnertime with a friend, she always had money, buying jumpers! Bright mad colours, loved them but couldn't afford them.

Still got my ra are skirt somewhere. I loved it and always hoped that it would come back into fashion again. But even if they do, I’m 3 dress sizes bigger now. And footless tights. They were as ugly as hell. Madonna was the queen of pop back then.

The 1980's was my 20's.

I had my hair 'Duranied' in 1982. Spray starch was the thing to keep those peaks upright.

I wore three-quarter sleeved, loose waisted dresses from Miss Selfridge, with winkle-picker stilettos.

In 1984 we bought a 3 bedroomed semi (North Bucks) for £24,500 and sold it, in 1988, for almost twice that.

I would do the 80s again, anytime!

The Sweater Shop.

Oh i went to a girls school. At the time, this meant we were not allowed to do "boys" subjects. Sciences and maths yes but no to metalwork, woodwork, football....just cookery, needlework and netball.

I grew up knowing for an absolute fact that everything I touched would turn to gold, because that's what we were encouraged to believe. We could do anything, be anything - nothing was impossible

That’s how I felt. I was going to pass my O levels leave school and get a job in a bank and do day release college. And that’s exactly what I did. My Dad said years later that he was amazed as he never thought I would. But I never doubted it with my teenage new found confidence.

I was born in 1981, and although I had a good childhood, I remember the 80s as a decade of tragedies and disasters. Lockerbie, an Armenian earthquake, Hillsborough, the Marchioness disaster, terrorist bombings, a hurricane, plane crashes...

I was born late 70s and this is really true for me, I was at primary school mid to late 80s, I remember the Challenger disaster and we were all talked to about it at school the next day & remember thinking about the astronauts having my age at the time.

God, the newsflash on TV about the Lockerbie disaster just a few days before Christmas is etched on my memory...I also remember the Hillsborough news flash on TV, just an idle Saturday afternoon and never been to a football match before I couldn't quite comprehend the full horror until years later when I was much older and read about it.