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?

'support the miners' with the buckets rattling down Church Stree - yes!

I was a teen in the 80’s. I don’t recall it being much different to today. My teens are having a fairly similar experience with the addition of social media. We didn’t travel as much or eat out quite a much but broadly the same as today

I was born in 1980 and being 5-10 years old from 85-90 was just glorious. I remember my first day of school in August 1984.

It was a truly great time to be alive. Being in and around Glasgow in 1988 in particular was amazing. The Garden Festival, Celtic winning the double, being out and about all day with friends in the summer, kids TV, the amazing movies, music etc etc.

It was a glorious time to be a kid. I don’t think it looked as much fun to be an adult given the damage being done to working communities by Thatcher at the time, but my memories of the 80s are undeniably golden.

Donkey jackets stolen from proper working men
short hair
skintight stonewashed jeans
second hand DMs
Radio would shut down after John Peel
smugglIng radio into school and meeting the boys from the neighbouring school to listen to the midweek chart rundown at lunchtime.
dancing at working mens club to cheesy disco on a summer night
pineapple fritters were our go to once a week treat from the chippy by the beach
people playing Dare on their boomboxes that they had on their shoulders walking round town
going swimming all day, every day at the local new pool
bumping into lads who were over on cycling holidays for the summer
weird late night signals on the radio which apparently really were russian codes. We would listen to these for hours just chatting.
caked on make up, white lightning and cherry brandy liqueur chocolates.

bloody loved the 80s

I was aged 5-15 in the 80's so my childhood, I remember playing in the street as soon as we got home from school until tea time, all the neighbours kids would be out too so we'd have games of Ackey 123, bulldog, Tig etc and ride our bikes or rollerboots.

Dad worked for Radio Rentals which was a TV repair shop so he'd bring the latest telly's home at the weekend for us to try, I remember the first ones with a remote control which was a novelty although they only did the channel and volume, we also had a recorder that you loaded the tape in the top, the control for that had to be plugged in then trail the wire to wherever you were sitting.
He also used to borrow Atari consoles, they seemed so futuristic! In fact they were very basic with the early Pacman and Space Invader games.

Both parents smoked and the living room was always a haze of blue smoke with ashtrays on the table.

Early teens were spent sneaking into the over 16's disco at the local leisure centre, everyone seemed to get on better in those days, there was less bitchiness and bravado, there was no social media telling us what we should look like so looks weren't that important.

The biggest difference in education. We were the ones who took the blame for poor grades. Teachers (good or bad) just taught you and the blame was not passed to them if you didnt work.

It’s sad reading about those who suffered unemployment and hard times during that era.

We can only comment on what was happening to us at the time and our own personal experience and I am very grateful that my world at the time was wonderful.

We were known as Yuppies by the press and were fortunate to work in the banking industry where we were highly paid, given great perks and our working conditions were great.

A long way away from mining towns and people less fortunate.

I can understand how leading such different lives shapes your political views but for me, Mrs Thatcher was wonderful.

It was grim. Very rainy. Thatcher. People were hard and mean-faced. Everything was grey.

I was an art student in the 80's.

It was fun. But I hated the music. We listened to Velvet Underground cassettes on the cassette player in the studio.

If you were a kid in the 80s you probably ate what your parents learned to cook in the 60s and 70s. Chips with everything, fried everything, boiled veg, tinned meat, Heinz beans and spaghetti. American food was starting to become popular so you occasionally saw burgers, pizza and pasta. Also new stuff like Viennetta, microwave meals and Birds Eye Supermousse.

Health and aerobics were just starting to become a thing. My Dad used to laugh at the idea of running for fun when you weren’t actually going anywhere. People started wearing sports clothes all the time, shell suits and leg warmers. Music was great. Hair was big and crimped or curled. Bright lipstick and eyeshadow. Clothes were totally over the top with shoulder pads and bold patterns and colours. Everything seemed new and progressive and exciting.

The world was very small though. If someone moved away they were never heard from again. I had a friend who lived next door to my aunt in another town 30 minutes drive away and I only saw her twice a year when we visited, with no contact in between - because there was no way to stay in contact except for letters (phone calls cost too much). Your friends were the people who happened to live nearby. If you didn’t fit in it was tough, you had no way to find other people you might have something in common with. Equally you had no way to find out what was on; unless you saw a poster you had no idea about events you might be interested in. There weren’t that many cars either, so you probably couldn’t have met up with anyone or attended any events anyway. You could only watch what was on tv, could only read what the local library or bookshop happened to stock. It was very isolating and lonely and I’m glad the world isn’t like that any more.

Great.

Well this question makes me feel super old.

I waa born in 1980.

Many mums were still housewives/stay at home mums.

I was fairly unusal at most of the schools i went to that my parents were divorced. Which meant that a) i couldn't just play at the weekend cos i'd be at dads b) my mum had to work.

But nothing was thought of kids riding in the boot of the car, certianly there were few seatbelts

Going to the pub and only being allowed in the garden or if you were lucky the play room, if a pub had neither you'd sit in the car with your pop and crisps.

I was 9 at the start and and 19 at the end.

I was worried about nuclear war aged 13 and AIDS scared me. Other than that it was Top of the Pops, Smash Hits, Duran Duran, Studio Line hair mousse, school discos, first boyfriends ......happy days.

So different to now. No supermarkets where I lived in Cornwall. No escalators either!

Sending old clothes and toys to the miners strike.

No brand snobbery. My snazzy outfits came from Woolworths or pool market.

I was a teen as well. Music was fab, the fashion was interesting. I look back with a lot of fondness but guess the unemployment, etc passed me by as I was too young to notice.

It seemed like everyone smoked, you could even smoke in McDonald's. Not many people I knew went abroad for holidays. We went to the cinema, went roller skating, ice skating, met friends and hung out in town listening to music on our Walkmans.

Listened to the top 40 every week with my finger on the record button to record any songs I liked onto a tape. I had quite a fancy radio which could pick up American radio stations so knew American bands my friends hadnt heard of. I could also pick up the local police frequency which was entertaining.

We had terrible games consoles where a game could take 30 mins if not more to load up.

Tv was dire. 4 channels and often they'd switch off for a bit in the middle of the day and then shut down about 11pm/midnight. Sky tv came out, my friend at school had it but I didn't.

My parents used to try to drag me out to garden centres on a Sunday as it seemed it was the only thing to be open.

A lot more racism, sexism, etc. I can remember pubs having signs saying "no blacks, no Irish".

I turned 16 in 1980. The 80s were great, I had the most fun of my life. No doubt I'm remembering it all through rose tinted specs, but I loved it.

Two words

The Equalizer

The series NOT the film.

As a child I loved it. We had so much more freedom than today's kids.

I remember strikes and having no.money. We were the only, single parent family in our area. And dirt poor. My mum owned her home, I remember her once saying if she'd have been employed when the interest rates shot up we'd have been homeless. So I'm guessing there was some sort of mortgage support. But as a child none of this mattered. The strikes were fun as the schools opened their kitchens so we'd all trudge up for a free lunch. And double puddings.😂😂😂 Going to the market and asking for left over veg for the none existant rabbit and bones for the none existant dog (( stew )) honestly didn't matter as there were so many in the same situation. Expectations were a lot lower. All of our clothes were home made, my mum used to sit at the sewing machine for hours making and altering clothes. Clothes from an actual shop were a big treat.

We were lucky we had a mum who prioritised holidays. No matter how poor we were we'd get a week in Butlins each year. Very self catered. And again absolute freedom. We wouldn't be seen. I absolutely loved being a child, but I think that had a lot to do with having a good set of childhood friends and cousins to maraud about with. I think we were extremely lucky.

It wasn't all good, there were some very, dark times. And issues with abuse not being taken seriously. But in the main. I'd rather have grown up then than now.

Smoking - trains, planes, everywhere - no one gave it a second thought.

We also had riots in Bristol - a major one in St Paul's and a smaller one in Southmead .

Yes, recording 'the charts' on a Sunday 😄

Getting a microwave. Chernobyl meant I couldn't play outdoors. Polly pocket. Poppies. Mum and dad going for noeuveau cuisine, photographing it and printing photos!

I was just saying after Stranger Things last night that I had a CB radio - used to talk to people all over the world. Where I lived when the wind caught it right I could hear Russians and Germans

One Four for a copy ...

My mum used to rotate the same meals. So every Monday we would have the same food, every Tues, etc.

Cheap beef burgers full of gristle with lumpy mash, findus crispy pancakes with alphabet bites, always a roast on a Sunday, fried eggs and bacon one day.

Dad used to make his own yoghurts every week. There was a little row of pots in the bathroom culturing or something. He made his own wine as well.

Mum got a bit exotic at some point and started buying pizza which was quite fancy!

We had a sodastream which I thought was magic.