What was life like in the 80s?

[Strangerthanadeadting]

As a recent fan of Stranger Things and having only been four years old at the end of the eighties, I'm fascinated to know what life was like for teens & adults back then.

It's depicted as being so much fun on TV. So colourful, the music is brilliant, the fashion so vivid. It was a time before the Internet, social media, plastic surgery, the Kardashians.

I'm fascinated. I'd love to hear what life was like. What people did for fun, what they ate, how different a working day was, if it really was as glamorous as it looks, if the hairstyles took forever, what people thought the future would be like? Was it a better life? A better time?

It was quite hard if you were in your teens and not supported by your parents in any way: I can see that today's access to information would have made my life so much easier. I could have found stuff out rather than just accepting the doors that were closing in my face. I could have got somewhere.

x2boys

I can only go on my experience of living on the North during the 80s

When you say NW does that take in Liverpool, Manchester and North Wales area. Didn’t realise how unaffected the NW was

I loved London. I left the North where I was earning £80 per month and walked into a job on £180 per month for less hours, less travelling and only a slight increase in rent.

Then I picked up so many extra jobs.

Within a year of earning £80 per month I was bringing in closer to £580, I was working virtually every night as well as a ft job

At a certain time of year, you would go to friends horses and there would be travel agent brochures everywhere.

You don't get that anymore.

I don’t every remember us having takeaway food in the 80s, other than the occasional fish and chips.

We didn’t eat out often either (although maybe that’s because money was tight).

A real treat was occasionally being taken to Spud U Like in a Saturday lunch time after my mum had done her shopping, or to Wimpy’s in half term when my gran got her pension.

Oh and the pancake place. Does that even exist now? I remember the dewberry perfume from the body shop and always got the jackie magazine!!

@x2boys, I remember spandex!!!!! OMG!!! What a sight!! Makes me laugh just thinking about it and oh the perms!!

Has anyone mentioned Spitting Image yet?

I was born in the late 70s, but in California. My parents were divorced and my mum remarried. My mum had a high powered, 80s career woman job with long hours. I spent a lot of time unsupervised playing out, usually riding bikes or roller skating. I watched A LOT of TV. There were so many TV programmes aimed at children. I even had a TV in my bedroom.

We got pizza every Friday night and usually my best friend and I would sleep over at each others house. We played Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls.

I changed schools when I was 8 and on my first day I wore head to toe denim including denim boots. I got my hair Permed at age 7(!!) And usually wore it in a side pony tail. I loved my jelly shoes and jelly bracelets. At school we played tetherball or jump rope.

We ate McDonald's at least once a week because it was convenient.

School finished at 2:30 and on Fridays there was an ice cream sale. 25 cents would buy you an ice cream sandwich.

My stepdad got a brand new electric blue Camaro convertible. It was the coolest car ever, but actually we kids weren't allowed in it very often.

Holidays were camping with friends by the lake. They had a boat and a jet ski and it was great fun. My mum and stepdad would go on cruises to Mexico without the kids.

We rarely ate dinner together due to parents long working hours. My mum would often go to the gym in the evenings and we would go to the gym crèche and she also played on a bowling team. We kids would go along to the bowling alley and play with other children until late at night. It was great fun.

My mum and stepdad argued all the time about who would do the housework and cook. My mum felt that because she had a well paid job with long hours that it wasn't solely her responsibility. My stepdad thought otherwise so mostly things didn't get done around the house.

We spent a lot of time at the shopping mall. Several evenings a week my mum would take us after work. We'd eat dinner, walk around, shop. When I was a bit older, it was the place to hang out with your friends. My favourite shop was Giftgate which sold Hello Kitty products. You were the coolest ever if you had a hello kitty pencil case.

Early-mid 80s, I remember local shops being shut on Wednesday afternoons and all day Sunday, in fact pretty much everything shut Sunday and nothing on telly. Hated Sundays!

There weren't many supermarkets - our nearest was quite a drive away, even in London, but by early 90s there were about 3 big ones within 10 mins.

Kids TV was 2 hours after school, plus Saturday mornings.

Everyone watched Top of the Pops even if, like us, you hated 90% of the music, but then everyone knew what The Young People were listening to, unlike the more separate world it is now, I reckon.

I knew how to answer the phone when I was 6 and started arranged to go over to friends' houses and vice versa over the phone when I was 7 or 8. Realised recently when handing phone to DD (11) to speak to a friend she had no idea how to open a call properly as she just said 'Is R there? Is R there?' repeatedly rather than greeting R's dad!

The Sweet Valley High books I had and read loads of them.

Me too Helena and the cheerleader ones , there were also the stand alone books ,boy meets girl ,boy and girl have and an misuderstanding, boy and girl get together again at the end of the book , were they sweet heart or sweet love or something? Being a teenager in the 80,s and reading American books ,meant I came across American words and phrases that I had no idea what they meant imagine my confusion over peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches 😂No Google in those days!

Spandex was called Lycra in the 80's.

I lived in Greater Manchester Oliversmumsarmy I'm not saying there wasent high levels of unemployment just that it wasent my experience as I lived in an affluent area ,and my parents and parents of friends all had good jobs ,The permed hair on men and women neveradullmoment 😂

It was spandex when I wore it in the late 80,s early 90,s it was like tight black leggings very shiney material.

I started secondary school in Sep 1980 aged 11 and I loved the 80s!
Fame
Duran Duran v Spandau Ballet
Smash Hits v NME v Melody Maker
Learning the lyrics and taping the Top 40
Mullet haircuts on males and females
Electric blue eyeliner and mascara from Woolies
1 in 10 unemployed (and a brilliant song)
Madness, the Beat, Specials, ska dancing
Miners Strike and Falklands War
Judy Blume's 'Forever' was top teenage read
Jackie, Blue Jeans, Patches, My Guy, J17 magazines
The Jam
Flying suits tucked into pixie boots
Sun-in
Wide belts worn on the hip over a huge blouse
Generation Game with Larry Grayson
New stretch jeans that you shrunk in a cold bath
Christmas stockings full of C90 tapes, over the knee socks, neon things, and Altaire Design colouring books.

I could go on....

Visit a 'secret' nuclear bunker and this will tell you how real the threat was perceived to be.

Y to this. I was petrified of nuclear war and the threat was there constantly. We went to a secret bunker a couple of years ago and it brought it all back. I'd actually forgotten how terrified I was.

I left school at 16 at the end of 1979. Of our year group of 360 pupils only about 35 stayed on for A levels, and of them only 4 went to actual university. Probably half of the rest went to polytechnic or college. Careers advice was Teaching, Banking or Civil Service for the clever kids, Nursing or Hairdressing for the less clever girls and the Dockyard for the boys.

I started work in the Civil Service at the start of 1980. Sent on a month's residential course, and had to share a room in somebody's house! No computers, everything in huge files that got delivered by the post-room. People chain-smoking at their desks and going off to the pub on Friday afternoon .I'd only been there a few months when there was a total recruitment ban for several years, so I was treated as a child by the others and regularly told off.

Spent the early 80s going on demos for CND and Animal Rights, which my DF wasn't happy about, and went vegetarian, which really upset him.

Got married in 1983, and bought a house. Solicitor would only send the paperwork to DH which meant it was delayed while he sent it back to me. Loans you had to have your father's permission and go and speak to the Bank Manager.

Supermarkets had half day closing on Wednesday, shut Sunday and closed early on Saturday. Late night shopping was Thursday which I think was 8pm. Rest of week was 6pm. Paying by cheque meant huge queues as most people didn't start writing the cheque until they'd put their shopping through. It did mean if you got paid on Friday you were safe to go shopping on Wednesday because your cheque wouldn't be presented for at least 2 days. Food was seasonal and expensive.

Very few people had cars and there wasn't the obsession with speed limits there is now, and no cameras. Roads were generally either 30mph or 60mph. DH drove from Kent to Southampton and back in an afternoon in the boss's Jag at over 100mph. It was rare on motorway journeys to see a woman driving.

Left work at the end of 1985 to have DC1. They had only just started allowing people to come back after maternity leave so I was told to say I was going back, even though I knew I wouldn't. I got 18 weeks Leave; 11 before the baby and 6 after. Ended up going back to work in 1990. There were very few actual nurseries so my children went to Pre School Playgroups. They would only take them from 2 1/4 if they were out of nappies, so DC1 was always wet.

Children's clothes were relatively expensive so they didn't have many. Pampers decided to start selling Boy nappies (more padding at the front and cut higher round the legs) and Girl nappies (more padding underneath and flatter at the front). I was furious because we had a DD and a DS both in nappies and we had to buy 2 smaller boxes instead of the one big value one. Other brands were available but didn't fit so well and leaked.

My DPs moved to Europe so we spent a lot of time going across by ferry. To book the tickets you had to go to a Travel Agent. Otherwise we went to Butlins and I've no idea how we booked that. Presumably the same travel agent. No internet and no phones, but there was Teletext.

We had a ZX Spectrum and an Atari and waited hours for them to load Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex the Kid, and Ghostbusters.

I joined the CND when I was 10, that’s how scary it was. It’s just a brand of Shellac now

Not nearly as many adult cyclists on the roads - and none on the pavements.

Seatbelts weren't obligatory iirc, and no one bothered with car seats for children. If you went out with family friends half a dozen or more kids might cram into a car, even sitting in the boot of a hatchback.

Me in 1984, aged 16 :) The eighties were an amazing time to be a teenager and I feel so fortunate to have grown up when I did.

It doesn't look like the photo posted for some reason :(

Im very very glad i grew up pre internet and pre social media

My memories of the 80s:
Wogan on tv
Waiting 3 years for films to be shown on tv
The national anthem at midnight
Twinkle magazine
Puffball party dresses
Velvet
Couches with extra covers on the arms
Lots of boarded up houses
Adults smoking everywhere
Men with moustaches
Cars having chokes and no seatbelts in the back
Young kids wandering the streets without parents knowing where they were
Sinclair computer with a green and black screen
Blondie
Kylie being an actress
Women not all having long straight hair
AIDS being a death sentence
Chernobyl challenger and the threat of nuclear war or IRA bombs
Going live

A Hammer double on a Friday night on BBC1

Oh god, I was the lycra queen. I have a friend whose family business was manufacturing dance and exercise wear. I had so many different lycra outfits that I could have worn a different one every day for weeks and weeks. I was the envy of my rock chick pals
My biggest crush, apart from Fish, was Dave Lee Roth. God he was glorious. My late teens were spent at a different rock/metal gig in the playhouse nearly every weekend. It was the highlight of my life.

I was 13 in 1980. So many happy memories that many here have already mentioned - home perms, blue mascara, massive shoulder pads, lace tights, fingerless gloves, tons of blusher, Jackie magazine, Anais Anais, listening to the charts on a Sunday and the excitement of waiting to hear about that week’s number one. And going to the Hippodrome in Leicester Square and seeing Paul Young there. Good times.

Family life was good - my brothers playing Dungeons and Dragons, everyone watching Top of the Pops on a Thursday night and talking about it the next day at school. Swap Shop on Saturday mornings,

But also that terrible ongoing anxiety of thinking that we could all go up tomorrow in a massive mushroom cloud. I remember my mum talking about the Protect and Survive leaflet, and having a massive sobbing meltdown when I realised what she was talking about. It’s difficult to explain how incredibly real that fear was at the time.