What were the 80's like?

[Which Tyler]

Ahh childhood (turned 4 in 1980).

Jimmy Saville, Tony Hart, Rolf Harris, yellow walkman that was just about water proof enough to wear in the British weather. David Attenborough, and Tomorrow's World; James Herriott and Dr Who; and of course, Dangermouse, Wombles and Flumps.

Scary skin head older kids who "adopted" this weedy kid 10 years younger than them cos his dog ran away and they helped get him back.

Falklands war and IRA bombings, with the constant, but never really understood fear of nuclear war.

The Hobbit and disc world capturing the imagination, and ending the decade with an older sister.

Music and film, much like any other decade had some gold and some shite, with most of the shite being popular and easy to access, and most of the gold needing a little digging to find.

I even ended the decade with a moody older sister.

[drawkcabi]

Coy and Vance were the lame cousins and I did not have to Google that

A true 80's child, except how could you not know the keyboard instrument was a keytar?

[eyenon15]

I was thinking Guiano

[The Fallen]

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Beat Street was my joint. The battle scenes were/are sick.

[Gertrude]

Moonlighting, man. Bruce Willis was so hot. It was weird to me when he started becoming an action hero because I wanted him to be the quirky David Addison of my dreams. Did. Not. Want. John McClane.

As to the Cold War, it was just a kind of background noise to me. I don't ever remember seriously thinking that it would come to an ultimate head - it was just a thing that was possible, but not probable. I mean, I loved me some Red Dawn, but that was escapism fantasy and FUCK YEAH! 'MURICA! I dunno, I always thought Sting's song Russians summed it up for me. A lot of talk and bluster, but who would pull the trigger in a rational world. (yes, I know - highly naive of me, but I still subscribe to this point of view)

Me and my best friend loved to dress up 'punk' and roller skate around the neighborhood. Because of course you had a pair of roller skates complete with skate covers and pompoms, but I digress. For us, being punk consisted of ripping arm holes and a neck hole from a black garbage bag, belt it up, and throw on some leggings or a mini skirt. Then we'd tease our hair, put on thick eyeliner and dark lipstick and we were the shit, man. This was the accepted 'punk' outfit for whatever. I remember having a punk day during jr high spirit week. It was also the go-to outfit for Halloween when you were just old enough to be too cool to dress up, but still wanted to anyway while you hit the haunted houses your parents dropped you off at. Top it off with glitter hairspray and you were ready for anything. The especially daring would use a safety pin as an earring. Let me tell you, we rocked those garbage bags.

I also carried my walkman everywhere - it was like my life had a soundtrack. I would tape my favorite songs from the radio, usually Casey Kasum's top 40. This consisted of me holing up in my bedroom, getting my tape recorder as close as I could to the radio and hoping like hell he didn't talk over the song intro or cut it too soon. My walkman was bright yellow and I loved it! I didn't like the portable CD players coming out - well I did because they were awesome, but they were bulkier and how was I ever going to replace my existing music collection? Also, my music collection at this point also included some 45s (which are still probably at my mom's)

And oh crap - Night Tracks! This was MTV for my regular network shown late on the weekends. A slumber party must for sure. This was my first exposure to music videos as our cable didn't provide MTV - yes, 'I want my MTV' was an actual thing and I *holy crap* wanted it. But Night Tracks was a good substitute.

My niece has a pair of Vans checkered sneakers. Everything old is new again.

[drawkcabi]

In relation to the Cold War and the USSR, and nuclear war, in 1982 this movie came out hosted by Orson Welles about Nostradamus, I think it was called "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow", and that fucked me up. I didn't see it until it came on cable a couple years later, like 1984.

The movie was about as legitimate as Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast was as an actual news report and wow did it mess me up like that broadcast messed some people up in 1938. The movie was based around 3 antichrists Nostradamus predicted, Napoleon, Hitler, and a third one that hadn't come yet but would start to make trouble in the 1990's and be the catalyst for World War III and the end of the world. Basically a History Channel show before The History Channel.

In 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait and this was like the first time I became aware of the man Hussein, before then it was just countless news reports of this Iraqi ship got blown up in the Persian gulf, now this Iranian ship was, and there was the Ayatollah Khomeini, but when Saddam started making headlines and people were talking about him and it was the year 1990 I was like "Shit, this is it, World War III!!!"

ETA:

There was also the movie event "The Day After" and I was so freaked out by just the thought of it, I hid in my room the 2 nights it was on, not even wanting to be near a TV when it was running.

[rocksniffer]

i remember the day after...my family was really freaked out and blasted me with mail begging for news about when i thought it would happen so they could be ready....i was not amused....

-Jean jackets covered in buttons with slogans.
Charm bracelets
-Big medallions in the shape of Africa
-Pick with the fist on the handle
-but NO ONE dared wear an afro
-Loud tracksuits (literally loud, whatever plastic they were using made a loud noise)
-Whatever that instrument was that was a keyboard but you wore it with a strap like a guitar
- a Saxophone solo in EVERY slow jam

my oldest niece...Number One... still has her jean jacket from the 80s with a shit load of buttons... and when you see her in photos with family she will have her hand across her chest...where the worst ones were (or best depending on your point of view)...who the fuck knows who the fuck cares...if you are trying to be an asshole you are doing a great job...etc

and i am +1 on keytar...stupid i know but descriptive...keyboard + guitar = keytar...

[Gertrude]

Oh, yeah. Buttons. I didn't put them on my jacket though, I put them on my Adidas (all day I dream about sex) gym bag which I used for my book bag. All the cool kids were doing it. I wasn't into the slogans, but I did have one that had a picture of Petey from Little Rascals and that was my favorite. I got it at Spencer's.

Seriously though, if you didn't have one of those crappy, plasticy Adidas bags you were doing it wrong.

[rocksniffer]

Oh, yeah. Buttons. I didn't put them on my jacket though, I put them on my Adidas (all day I dream about sex) gym bag which I used for my book bag. All the cool kids were doing it. I wasn't into the slogans, but I did have one that had a picture of Petey from Little Rascals and that was my favorite. I got it at Spencer's.

Seriously though, if you didn't have one of those crappy, plasticy Adidas bags you were doing it wrong.

well i didn't have the bag but i remember spenser's gifts...that was where i bought my first farting gag gift for number one niece....also a lava lamp which has lasted all these 30 yrss and still lights the princess' room at night...

thanks for the memories, Gertrude

[Gertrude]

No one can imagine the glory that was Spencer's unless you lived it.

[rocksniffer]

i agree, Gert...my favorite game came from there - Pass Out...what fun..and when we hit light up space of course we were blazing bowls...glory days...

[Prue]

There was also the movie event "The Day After" and I was so freaked out by just the thought of it, I hid in my room the 2 nights it was on, not even wanting to be near a TV when it was running.

Oh yes. I wasn't allowed to watch that movie fortunately, but I remember there was a group of anti-nuclear activists in front of the school once handing out little leaflets with a smartie attached to it. Something like: "This is only a smartie, but in case of a nuclear bomb going up, you'd need to take iodine pills to avoid radioactive iodine getting embedded in your body. But maybe you should rather take a poison pill, because this is what your death of radiation would be like: *gruesome details* :stillsick:

There were also children's books dealing with people dying of radiation in a post-apocalyptic world (Pausewang: 'Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn' = The last children of Schewenborn). A friend lent that to me but I couldn't finish it.

[Elder Sister]

I had a jeans jacket with a joint painted on it, along with a bottle of Jack Daniels. It actually belonged to about 5 of us in high school and we would take turns wearing it.

Because we were classy like that.

[Gillio]

dont you wish you'd written a book - the sisterhood of the traveling jacket.

[Essan]

The worse thing about the 80s, was that whilst we sat in the pub discussing what we would do if we heard the four minute warning* (assuming, of course, the IRA didn't blow up up first) we had to drink fizzy beer - real ale had gone out of fashion and many pubs didn't sell any at all ..... !

Today, we no longer fear nuclear anniliation, have far less fear of terrorist attack and we get a huge choice of real ales wherever we go! Don't know how lucky we are :cheers:



* supposedly, if the Russians launched their nukes, we would have four minutes warning before they hit Britain and we all fried to death.

[Jaxom 1974]

Wasn't The Day After the television movie? Or was that a different one? I know it was something we had to watch in high school by the end of the decade.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

People smoked anywhere and everywhere. Fresh air was anathema. Boy... I just loved that.

[Essan]

Wasn't The Day After the television movie? Or was that a different one? I know it was something we had to watch in high school by the end of the decade.

Yes, it was

[Which Tyler]

Oh yeah, probably another Brit only one here.

Most traumatic experience of the decade for me was not missing an IRA bomb by about 5minutes (Wimpy near Paddington station IIRC) BT watching Watership Down in the cinema.

[Whitestripe]

No one can imagine the glory that was Spencer's unless you lived it.

Our Spencer's had an employee standing outside to limit the number of kids who could go in the store at one time on Friday and Saturday nights. I, however, spent my time in Record Bar.