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

@freeandfierce

It was amazing. Big hair, ultra glam outfits, big jewellery. Fantastic music. Great pub and club scene. I have some very special memories of that decade. You had to be there!

Ahh pub and club scene, even before Covid the club scene had pretty much disappeared. Maybe a Renaissance is in order.

I remember getting smash hits and all the posters of kylue/jason/Sonia!
And the first aha video coming out. And watching Adrian Mole on tv.

I loved the 1980's!
The summers were hot
Children freely played outside and went to the park for hours
Rara and puffball skirts in Tammy Girl
Choosing Christmas gifts in Argos
Knickerbocker glorys in Wendys
Gobstoppers
Penny sweets
Soda stream
Buying records with friends
Using telephone boxes as no mobiles
Bembon Brothers theme park at Margate
I could go on.........

@SpiderinaWingMirror

No such thing as being I'd for pubs. Went to them at 14 😂

Very true, although we did live in the shadow of "the raid"...we used to drink in a couple of specific pubs where the landlord would send a message round the bar if they heard the police were around

Oh, who remembers Lynx? The animal welfare group. I had a T shirt I bought from an advert in Time Out magazine 'The roar of disapproval' I wore that with pride

@Trulyatraditionalman

No duvets????!!! 😱

We had duvets which were thin foam filled things. My mom thought they were highly sophisticated and called them 'continental quilts'

Don't know what all the fuss was in 1996 with the Spice Girls and 'girl power'- this stroppy trio had it in spades the decade before...

There were some sweets popular in about 1987 that looked like ball bearings - they were short-lived as the silver coating was found to be poisonous.

Similar story with the legendary 'Pacers' - square green and white striped chewy mints, which I remember having in 1982. They were found to contain an addictive substance and withdrawn (unless that's an urban myth - but they disappeared for some reason or other).

I liked most of them. I was 18 in 1983. After leaving university jobs were easy to find and property was cheap. I went out as often as I wanted. Much more interested in chasing men than in building a career despite having a good degree and prospects. Used to have lunches in wine bars.

Sexism was rife: the post room was covered with page three girls and I needed to go in once or so a day. We weren’t allowed to wear trousers to work for quite a few years.

The music was much better. Much.

Erm, the clothes and hair. Not so good 😆

I was a teenager and in my twenties in the 80s. I remember the darker side - Thatcher's abuse of power, clause 28, the miners' strike and this creeping sense that greed and selfishness were now admired and encouraged over a sense of fairness and community spirit. Having grown up in th elate sixties and seventies I was so aware of this shift.

Some of the music was great, the warehouse parties were fantastic, the club scene was amazing. The economy was booming - you could arrive in London and within 24 hours have three jobs and a flatshare if you put your mind to it. Rent was much cheaper. I had a gorgeous flatshare in Kensington minutes from Hyde Park, which were affordable on agency admin job wages. And when friends moved down from the North they found a place around the corner. Those flats would now only be affordable to oligarchs or top bankers and lawyers. We were just a bunch of teenagers working in bars.

The comedy circuit was incredible and so accessible. The comics would do their turns then stand at the bar and drink with you. Mike Myers, Paul Merton, Julian Clary, Jo Brand - I remember all of them being really chatty and lovely in those days.

I had debt after uni and just got two jobs - an office job during the day and a restaurant job at night until the debt was paid.

Life felt far less gruelling, especially for young people. There was no gig economy. Work was stabler.

Catalogues! The new one coming out and pouring over what you were going to buy (at 50p a week for 72 weeks)
Getting a standby ticket to London for the weekend, going down to Flip in Covent Garden and filling bags up with authentic 50s American clothing.

Oh yes lunches in wine bars, and then back to work for the afternoon after a couple of glasses of wine. I don't think I'd manage that now.

I remember going clubbing in 1985 - aged 15 (Atmosphere in Birkenhead or the Chelsea Reach) no one checked you age - great night out but the down side - being hit on by 30 year old blokes all night (including a teacher)!

I was also at Greenham Common for a bit (weekends only) which was wonderful - the 80's for me started with a Duran Duran obsession and ended in my total political awakening (joined Labour at 16) - it was heady but growing up in Liverpool is was also grim as fuck!

Having a rotary phone and pulling it as far up the stairs as possible so your Mum couldn't hear you on the phone. Being nagged to get off the phone due to the bill. Spending evenings writing letters to friends (even though you saw them every day). Passing notes in class.
Recording the Top 40 every Sunday on radio One on a tape and learning the art of hitting pause when the DJ started talking. Making compilation tapes for friends. Getting posters and music lyrics from Smash Hits.

@Goawayquickly

Oh, who remembers Lynx? The animal welfare group. I had a T shirt I bought from an advert in Time Out magazine 'The roar of disapproval' I wore that with pride

We had the full set! Huge baggy things to be worn with our 501s and greased doc marten shoes.

There was a big north south divide

Unemployment at 25% in my area , where the pits had closed

I went to uni and mixed with people who did not understand that post office Christmas jobs went to men with families to support

I remember the mixed feelings when our town got its own dole office , it saved the bus fare

I was 20 in 1980.
I had an absolute ball.
Lots of shoulder pads but also some lovely "summer colours"
Velvet headbands and pie crust collars.
Bright sweaters and matching tights with pumps with bows.
19 Mossop Street and The Admiral Codrington
Barbours
Channel 4
Roland Rat
The Green Goddess
Big bang in the City
Balls, so many balls
Chintz and swags and tails
Buying a flat in zone 2 for £30k
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals
Convertible Golf GTi's
The rise of the fitted kitchen
Royal weddings
The Falklands
Reagan and Thatcher
Privatisation
Yuppies
Next was new
The rise and fall of Laura Ashley
Smoking - everywhere
The rise of Chardonnay
The rise of the microwave
The fall of space invaders

Oh I had such a lovely time.

Anyone remember those cards that had multiple choice tick boxes you could post to your mates?

Turned 13 in 1980, working class South Londoner, with a job 'up West'.
We followed the fashion, despite dreadful pisstaking by adults around us - everything from the black/white pseudo ska revival, to the frilliness of New Romantics.
We hung about outside hotels like the Grosvenor Park to catch a glimpse of Duran Duran or whatever.
Wham at the Lyceum in 82/83. Duran at the Arena. BOWIE!
Few of us went on to uni but we've all done well for ourselves. We frequented pubs from 15/16 and whilst we had our drunk times (oh, blimey) we also watched and learned how to drink socially.
Holidays in Mallorca or Ibiza with mates.
Going out as a gang and coming home as a gang.
Buying flats at 19/20/21. I had £7k saved up, it was the deposit, stamp duty and legal fees for my first flat. And I had enough left over for a cooker and a bed! Party central.
My life did not really change till the early 90s. I remember NY 93/94 as my last really really big blow out of a drunken mess of a night. Then i got married, bought house, acquired a baby.
I'm incredibly sad that my late teen dcs can't have just a little of that life.

Music: Wham!
Clothes: batwing jumpers, pinstriped jeans (which we sewed a running stitch inside to make them tighter), denim jackets.
Make Up: pink illusions lipstick, sparkly purple eye shadow and blue eyeliner.

Big hair, after being stuffed into a diffuser on the hairdryer.
Watching Cheers! on TV and Seagull Island
Sheets and an eiderdown to duvets.
Giving your mum two rings on the phone before cycling home from a friends.

Rose has listed loads of things I hated !

I love clubs though

@midgedude

There was a big north south divide

Unemployment at 25% in my area , where the pits had closed

I went to uni and mixed with people who did not understand that post office Christmas jobs went to men with families to support

I remember the mixed feelings when our town got its own dole office , it saved the bus fare

I remember the same - we had Labour members move into our town (and out houses - sleeping on the floor) during the 1987 election - they where lovely but overly impressed by the grim northerness of it all.

Giving your mum two rings on the phone before cycling home from a friends

I also had to do three rings to the friend to say I'd got home safe.

Lazy summer days we would gather in my friends bedroom and put Human League on really loudly. Her parents were young and seemed a bit bohemian so never minded.

In sixth form 1985 we thought we were so cool. We all arranged to go on a trip to London to see the Damned. One of our group ( now a sort of famous actor) got chicken pox all over and I remember thinking he looked really ill and scary.

1986 ( I think) we went to Liverpool to watch the beastie boys. There was a riot. For some reason the Beastie Boys thought it was a good idea to shout 'come on you scouse bastards' whilst wielding baseball bats! It didn't end well!

Good times😁

I was 10-20 in the 80's.
I remember making calls from coin phone boxes, riding my bike to get to places, The Falklands War, the bullying and fighting at school, teachers strikes, being relieved I wasn't put into one of the two "remedial" forms at school, (school in general was pretty shocking back then), recording music onto tapes straight from the radio, moving to London for uni with the IRA attacks happening. Limited TV, but all sitting together as a family to watch it, Dad working, Mum at home being a housewife, writing letters to friends and relatives, spending ages drawing the title page for a geography project, going to the library every week for records and books, and using the books to look up information!