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

I liked the 70s better, but the 80s were pretty great. What was in fashion one year would be out the next, so we seemed to be forever buying new clothes, but they were bright and fun. I'm in NZ and interest rates got up above 20% here which wasn't great, but otherwise I remember it as being a fun time, much more simple than now but people had more time for each other and didn't seem to be rushing around as much as they do these days.

I was a kid/ teen in the 80s
My memories of it are

Scouring the Next catalogue for the latest fashions:
Pastel pixie boots, long T shirts with a wide belt sling around your hips
Batwing sleeve stripy jumpers
Neon, waistcoats, Ra ra skirts
Velvet button through dresses worn with DMs

Recording songs off the radio and making mix tapes for your mates. Bros , Pet Shop Boys, Madonna, Erasure

Everyone smoked.
Your mum and the teachers had Lambert and Butler which you'd steal if you had to but Marlboro were cooler.

Impulse spray for girls and Lynx for the lads (to cover the smell of the fags you'd had round the back of the bike sheds at break time)

Crappy cars that broke down a lot. No seat belts or car seats so you could stick your head out of the sunroof and cram millions of kids in the boot of your Ford Cortina.
In 6th form I had a posh boyfriend with a mini metro. Much kudos and back seat snogging ensued.

No mobile phones or texting so there was a lot of hanging about down the shopping centre or the park to see who you'd bump into.
If you were late or lost you were a bit buggered as there was no way to let anyone know.

On the other hand your parents didn't expect to know where you were. Mine would wave us off for a day out on our bikes in the summer with some sarnies in tinfoil and a Capri Sun. On teenage nights out dad would make sure I had some 10p coins for the phone box if we got stuck but they didn't wait up worrying.

I was dimly aware of Margaret Thatcher as a bogeyman figure and
of the miners strike and the IRA bombings but no idea about nuclear weapons or the Cold War. The AIDS tombstone campaign did make a big impression and there were a lot of warnings about drugs too.

The sweater shop

Findus crispy pancakes, snowy winters, hot summers, playing in street, calling on friends, cleaning dog poo off shoes, power cuts and candles, parents smoking in house, hot and sticky car seats, phone with a dial, remembering everyone’s 5 digit phone numbers, the sound of children playing outside all the time, Woolworths, lazy sundays, staring at the ceiling, reading and reading

I was 22 in 1980 and I left home and joined an airline as cabin crew. I had the most fabulous time travelling around the world. I had the BIGGEST hair ever. I used to buy my clothes in the USA because they had the biggest shoulder pads. I bought cassette tapes in Dubai for £1 each. It was basically a desert then with a few souks (markets). Then listen to them on my Sony Walkman that I bought in Hong Kong. Music was a huge thing and we would go clubbing wherever we were. The Limelight Club in Atlanta, Georgia was my favourite. At home we would head to London and go to bars like Blondes where we would get free entry and men would buy us drinks all night. Then we’d go on to a club like Stringfellows (it wasn’t a lap dancing club then) where we’d rub shoulders with stars like George Michael. Sometimes we would go to Brighton and roller skate along the promenade. It was all just fun, fun, fun. Some of the awful things that were happening in the UK just didn’t come to our notice because we were out of the country so often. I was very aware of the Falklands war because my brother was involved in it but some of my colleagues didn’t have a clue and failed to understand why we couldn’t go into town when we were in South America. We would have been attacked. I bought a house just up the road from my Mum. I wasn’t home much though. The only thing that wasn’t good for me during that decade was my love life. I left the airline in 1986 and met my (ex) husband in 1987.

Miners strike, can remember going to my grans and seeing the pickets.
Poll tax came in.
aids
live aid
Went through stages of casual, goth, heavy metal.
Yep glue sniffing, never did it.
Still having the ability to do my job, even if i was still half cut.
Boys wearing eye liner.
Going out drink from 11am till 2am, drinking yourself sober then getting drunk again.
When I was a teen, going out from dawn to dusk.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax' and I am right back there.

Oh yes. And radio 1 wouldnt play it. Even when it got to number 1shock

^

Why wouldn't Radio 1 play it?

Oh yes when frankie goes to hollywood gets banned on radio 1.

No mobiles, having to keep 10p back for phone call home.

Recording the charts on a Sunday night, having to stop recording when they spoke.

I was born in 1980.
I remember Ice cream and red lemonade every Friday evening.
Awful hand down clothes.
Bowl style haircuts.
All the DC had freckles.
DM wearing blue mascara and shoulder pads and sometimes sewing shoulder pads into her bra.

IRA bombs and Jerry Adams' voice dubbed over.

Kylie and Jason.

Neighbours only being on at lunchtime and you were at school.

The 1987 election when my class finally got a day off when all the other classes had been off for teachers' strike days.

Torville and Dean in Sarajevo and that blimmin Ravel's Bolero everywhere.

Band Aid. We never bought records but mum bought that one.

Snow, must have been early 80s as we never saw much after that in that decade - very deep in our garden and I ran into it and got buried in it

Jim'll Fix It and wanting to be on it - lucky escape!!!!!!

The 1988 Olympics and the 100m cheat. And finding out walking was an olympic sport!!

Bright neon colours in stripes or spots everywhere.

Dallas and Dynasty always what my mam wanted to watch. Or blimmin Wogan.

Hillsborough. And Lockerbie. Only having 4 channels you noticed the news and those were horrific.

I am sure that the Challenger was live as our teacher let us go home a few minutes early so we could watch it. But since, someone at the BBC said it couldn't have been as the time difference was wrong.

Mum knitting bat wing jumpers - as mentioned above.

Hot summers where you propped the front and back doors open to try and get a through breeze.

Home computers - my dad got an Amstrad. And a blimmin Betamax. 3 choices at our local video shop. There was only so many times you could watch Pete's Dragon, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Green Card. For VHS, millions of choices!

Bros. Just...Bros!

A lot of freedom - you could go off for hours - you knew where to go and not - and your parents knew you'd be OK because you'd be knocking up next door to come out and play.

Competitive marbles competitions with complicated scoring systems that were banned in our playground in the end because of people throwing the metal ones through the school hall windows.

Always finishing my work before anyone else and getting a free choice of book to read - bliss.

Finding the jaw of probably a vole and keeping it as a prized possession in a paper bag for so long in my drawer. Mum probably found it and threw it away.

Life was TV and tearing up and down the street playing with the neighbours' children, hanging out in little gangs amd invading each others' back gardens.

10ps to call your friend because though you could call from the house no-one could overhear you in tbe phone box.

Charles and Di's wedding; Andrew and Fergie's wedding.

Life revolved around the TV a bit like life revolves around the Internet today. Video recorders were just coming in so if you wanted to see something you had to be around when it was on.

Blimmin Howards Way theme tune.

Tiffany.

Scott and Charlene's wedding!!!!!!

Vague memories of tne Falklands, as my uncle was an officer on one of the ships sent. Getting the atlas put to find the Falklands.

Chernobyl. And knowing that the word "perestroika" meant openness and "pravda" meant "truth.

1984 Los Angeles Olympics. An east and west Germany. And lots of complaints about South Africa. Thinking Zola Budd was bonkers to try and run barefoot - I tried it and it hurt!!!

The pound coin being introduced, and also the 20p. I like that coin even today - you felt so rich having one.

A booklet from the government that told us to hide under the stairs with a mattress. I was too young to know what my parents were talking about - since found out it was "Protect and Survive" what to do if the Russians dropped nukes on the country. Looking back, I don't think hiding under the stairs would do much good, really.

When a local branch line closed under Beeching was reopened for passengers and our isolated town could get to bigger towns and a major city in less than 40 minutes.

Several public safety warnings which we were shown at school: one about drowning in a lake and the Grim Reaper "encouraging" you too. One about overhead electricity cables with birds getting electrocuted; wellies stuck in the sides of escalators - ie stand in the middle. And a horrific one about a boy named Robbie taking a short cut over railway lines (since we now had an open railway) and got his boots stuck in the rails - the points changed and he gets his foot trapped, and they showed you Robbie legless from the knee down (bandaged) discussing how his life had now been ruined for taking a short cut and his bad decision. I'd now see it as PSTD, and I wasn't svared of much. No kids cried tho, too much in shock I reckon - noone warned us in advance or anything; our parents never got a letter explaining

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on TV. And The Box of Delights. Willo the Wisp. Dogtanian. Mysterious Cities of Gold. He-Man. Thundercats. Benjy Zak and the Alien Prince Monkey (the Chinese? programme which was bizarre yet compulsive viewing)

Come on folks, what other 80s kids TV programmes were there?

I was born in 79. The 80s were shit. Don't believe the hype from TV or people with rose tinted specs who miss being young.

@grassisjeweled

Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax' and I am right back there.

Oh yes. And radio 1 wouldnt play it. Even when it got to number 1shock

^

Why wouldn't Radio 1 play it?

Because it was about masturbation: "Relax, just do it, when you want to come"

Found Frankie Goes To Hollywood on You Tube lol

1st song Relax

Born in late 74
Fashion was Very glam with big hair shoulder pads. Bright sweatshirts, fluffy knitted jumpers, tube skirts, trainer socks with Pom poms on the heels, Rara skirts, skinny jeans then later baggy jeans (aka mom jeans) tartan jeans, bleached jeans, stonewashed jeans. Blouses with a chain attached at the collar, checked shirts,
Bands such as Duran Duran, depeche mode, soft cell, dead or alive, frankie goes to Hollywood, spandeau ballet, Madonna, Kim wild, bananarama!
Tv - brookside, that’s life, the price is right, 321, just good friends, fools and horses, top of the pops, the kenny Everett show, the thornbirds and of course Dallas and dynasty.
I was amazed watching tomorrow’s world that one day we would be able to see each other on a telephone call in the future.
Out playing on roller skates or a bmx. I had a Sony Walkman that took cassettes and used to have the very firstthats what I call music” cassette. Other than that I recorded from the charts on a Sunday.
Went to the cinema to see ET and ghostbusters.
I had blankets on my bed and remember getting a continental quilt it was amazing.
Summers seemed to be hot.
I started high school in 86. I had short hair bjt grew it long in time for spiral perms becoming big nes because of kylie when she was Charlene on neighbours. Music then was black box, sinitta, Tiffany, pet shop boys, cutting crew, salt n peppa and still Madonna.
By the time I left high school it was 1989/1990 and I’d watch this to sum that up.

Forgot to add about news.
There always seemed to be talk of the “geirillas?” Fighting in Afghanistan.
Chernobyl
Strikes
Yuppies seemed very glam and I wanted to rich like one when I grew up
More flashbacks;
Not having to wear a seatbelt. No headrests on a car. Only one mirror on the car door eg not on both sides. Ford cortina or Granada car.
Findus crispy pancakes were a rare treat for me and used to beg for a pot noodle.
Spangles sweets, mojos, banjos marathon(snickers) Opal fruit ( I can’t even remember what they’re called now starburst? I refuse to call them anything other than Opal fruit!).
Being off school sick and having a bottle of lucozade wrapped on orange shiny cellophane.
1/2 penny sweets.
Hi de hi!
Jelly shoes and bags.
Head sports bags
Green flash trainers
Travel fox trainers
Glen maderos being at no1 for weeks with nothings gonna change my love for you.
Mars - put up the volume
Just seventeen
Smash hits
Judy Blume books
Watching a film or documentary at school and the tv and video recorder being wheeled in on a trolley
Dempsey and makepiece, Tales of the unexpected, Cagney and lacey. Play your cards right. Prisoner cell Block H
The hitman and her was really good late night viewing.

School holidays watching “why don’t you?” In the mornings.
John cravens newsround.
Funshouse,
It’s a knockout
Lots of tv double acts, little and large the two Ronnies, cannon and ball.
Just remembered about Mel and Kim - respectable I loved that song.
I remember going to travelling fairgrounds ans all local villages had summer fetes and the fairground would go round them all. The waltzers was a fav and they would play al the hits. Teens would all be standing around watching from inside the actual ride.

Girls and women were much more likely to have short hair. The coolest girls always had short hair. If long, it could be permed - corkscrew perms had a moment - and would have a lot of hairspray for volume. The roots were teased, also for volume. Boys might have flat tops.

Full, long skirts, worn with oversize button-down shirts worn tucked out with a wide belt sitting on the hip. Earlier on in the 80s, neon glo colours - fluorescent yellow, pink, lime green - with studded skinny belts wrapped twice around. Bubble skirts briefly, acid wash denim. Lotta denim all round. Denim jackets. Denim had no stretch in it yet, so it was stiffer and more durable. Trousers had pleats in the front. Pastels, including for boys - pink, pastel green. Skinny pleather ties. Shoulder pads so we looked like quarterbacks. Leather jackets with blue jeans, rock stars with mullets. Rugby jerseys worn by girls. Laura Ashley. Scrunchies. Taffetta formal dresses. Tartan. Tartan taffetta formal dresses. Grosgrain ribbon hair accessories. Fob chains. Watches with this particular navy and yellow sun/moon motif. Swatches. Preppy looks. Army surplus stores, especially as there was no cheap fashion yet: Doc Martens, greatcoats, canvas backpacks. Polo shirts buttoned all the way worn with winklepickers and stovepipe jeans for the Mod look. Goths. Flanellette shirts, plaid jackets. Converse shoes. Desert boots.

Smoking. Saturday morning music shows.

Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince. U2. David Bowie still. Fleetwood Mac still. Wham! Boy George, Spandeau Ballet, A-Ha, Tears for Fears. ACDC, Bon Jovi, Europe. Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp. INXS. Midnight Oil. Jimmy Barnes (solo). Tracy Chapman, Paul Simon. Roxette, Bros, Martika,Samantha Fox, Tiffany.

Berakdancing. Solid Gold. Slow Sunday afternoons taking country walks or going to the bowling alley.

The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Ghostbusters, Flashdance, Footloose, La Bamba, Dirty Dancing, Pretty in Pink. Mad Max. Batman had Michael Keaton. Top Secret had Val Kilmer.

If you went to buy shoes, there would be staff assisting 100% of the time. No just buying off the rack and self-serving. As little kids sometimes we had a little stair thing to walk up and sit on and the staff would always whip out foot-measuring equipment.

Moustaches on teachers.

Watching Saturday Superstore in my pyjamas every Saturday morning without fail.
Saturday afternoons catching the bus into town. Browsing books and stationery in WH Smith’s, clothes in C&A and Tammy Girl, and makeup in Boots.
Lunch from the Wimpy or just a bag of chips.
Home to watch the Brookside omnibus with a massive Mum-salad, that probably had more calories than a Sunday roast - it had ham, eggs, cheese, new potatoes, homemade coleslaw...
Then watching everyone get ready to go out - I was the youngest and Saturday nights were the nights my parents and siblings would go out on the razz, leaving me home alone from quite a young age. Sometimes my best friend would come over, and we’d basically raid the kitchen and watch Opportunity Knocks, Stars In Their Eyes or a rented video.

Sunday morning I’d go swimming, then the afternoons dragged after an early Sunday lunch. Then it would liven up when Bullseye came on, which we’d watch while eating beef sandwiches and fruit in jelly for afters. Then it was Antiques Roadshow, and the theme tune still gives me the dreads. That’s when I knew it was school in the morning and I still hadn’t done my maths homework.

I'm 89 too and love the 80s just leaving a message to watch the thread. Thanks for everyone sharing their experiences

I love the 80s but the racism just makes me sas, it's like the 50s love the decade but probably would not want a tien machine going back

Sas aka sad
Sorry been on the vodka lol

I was born in the early 80s but remember quite a lot.

Watching Neighbours, kids wearing satin bomber jackets with (peeling) transfers of Scott and Charlene on the back, Clark’s shoes with a key in the heel. Kids TV was only on at certain times. Corporal punishment was banned by the time I was at school, but teachers could be callous/shaming and humiliating pupils was standard. In retrospect, many pupils who were in obvious neglect/other safeguarding issues and seemingly blind eye was turned. Children in early primary school walking to school themselves.
Bubble gum and Diet Coke yo yos and people demonstrating yo yo tricks in school.

We were more exposed to the news than my children are now, probably because parents had to watch it when it was on and TV was all watched together. I can remember talking about Hillsborough and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the P2 class. I can remember lots of things to be scared of back then. In the playground there was a game about ‘catching AIDS’ and passing it on, funny how we absorbed the fears of the time. Dogs getting into the playground and running round!
Growing up in NI, the fear of bomb scares, bag checks in shops and my mum always warning me when we went to the shops what to do if there was one and we got separated. Gerry Adams on the TV completely silent when talking and then later dubbed over by an actor (wtf difference did that make).

Having to go to bigger cities for different shops, as the high street wasn’t all the same everywhere.

Needing to heat water for baths, only getting one once/twice a week and always feeling a bit grimy, always being cold as our central heating was rubbish, smoking everywhere. TVs without remote controls and aerials on top. Cassette tapes and ghetto blasters. Eating out wasn’t as common, cafes were greasy spoons, things like spag bop were considered quite fancy.

@onionsndsage

It had just the right amount of health and safety.

Are you misremembering? It was the decade of the disaster, largely due to the terrible lack of H&S! The Bradford Fire, the Kings Cross Fire, Herald of Free Enterprise, Hillsborough...and many more. I remember the 80s as a bleak era of unemployment, strikes, IRA bombings, poverty and riots with terrible racism, sexism & homophobia sprinkled on top for good measure. I think it's easy to look back through rose tinted glasses.

I was born in 81 so I don't really remember much. But we definitely had duvets and baths and showers and central heating! I wouldn't say life was much different to today other than no internet.