Get caught in the 80's

[peppermint peppy]

Hello dear folks,
Do you remember your favourites in the 80's.No matter whether music,movies or your first love.I'm interested in your favourite thoughts to this time.
As to me I had made my first school-leaving qualification,was keen on Michelle ,watched E.T (my first movie)at the cinema and digged Spandau Ballet and Kim Wilde

[Jen-Jen]

I was born in 1985, so was very young in the 80's but remember watching the Care Bears religiously, and enjoyed Ducktales, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Snorks, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These cartoons were still on TV in the 90's too, so I can remember them all very well.
I also remember wearing slap bands/bracelets - I think I wore them in the 90's too - but they were from the 80's.
And I loved cabbage patch dolls - I didn't have one, but I always loved going to my cousins house, because they had them. Santa gave one to me later on, when they came back in the late 90's.

[Boodi]

When I think back to the 1980s the first thing that springs to my mind are the political changes that took place at the end of the decade and transformed the face of Europe for the first time since the late 1940s. I especially remember Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the USSR (1985 - 1991), and his attempts at reform— "glasnost" and "perestroika", which made those changes possible.

On a lighter note, the TV series "Dallas" achieved almost cult status in the early 1980s (or at least that was my impression at the time), with cars driving round adorned with stickers proclaiming "Who killed J.R.?"

Abba (who I liked very much in the late 1970s) broke up in the early 1980s. I think their last album (Supertrooper) was released in 1980 or 1981. Just my memories....

[Julian]

[post edited]

[peppermint peppy]

Oh yes,I remember Madonna and K.M.
Texas is dark to me....Sorry!

@Boodi!
Thanks for your clues concerning changes in politics and world order.
They're very important to mention.

[Petermax]

The 1980's were for me a bit of a grind and I was glad to see the back of them. However, I did enjoy the earlier years of the decade, it was a very exciting time with the various conflicts, political events and new ideas in technology, fashion and music.The Cold War cast a shadow though, at the time I wondered if we would ever get through it, relations were very tense with the U.S.S.R. Anyone who watched the Barry Hines drama Threads in 1984 will know exactly what I mean.

On a lighter note, the early 80's produced some very good television drama such as Boys from the Blackstuff, Brideshead, plus some very atmospheric youth drama such as Johnny Jarvis, One Summer and Annika. As regards music, there were a huge number of bands who made their mark both at home and abroad. I remember seeing Depeche Mode in Washington DC and Bournemouth, I was no fan of synth music but their stage show was something else. Altered Images, Madness, Bad Manners, The Jam and Spandau Ballet also come to mind.

The excesses of the latter half of the 80's left me cold though, and apart from the momentous events in Romania and East Germany, I have no special memories of that period. It was almost as if the 1980's had started to impersonate itself, a lot of the music and fashions began to look and sound a bit silly. (Grumpymax? )

[Lucky Star]

I left school in 1983 and remember very fondly the music of the early 80's particularly bands like The Jam, Duran Duran, Visage, Ultravox and Japan. Later I got into bands like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Sisters of Mercy. Lots of black clothes and silver jewellery. The 80's produced some great music and fashion although its often looked down upon now.

Politically, as others have said, the cold war dominated the early half of the decade and the coming of Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin wall dominated the latter half.

Its also the decade where travel began to open up a lot. Young people began taking the sort of trips which are now called "Gap Years", I remember backpacking around Western and Southern Europe on an Inter-rail ticket. A wonderful mind opening adventure during which we slept standing wedged in the corners of trains, ate a lot of food from train station cafes and tramped determinedly from one cathedral to the next, lonely planet book in hand. Not sure I'd do it now but it was a fabulous introduction to the continent.

I dont seem to remember a lot of TV from the decade, I much preferred to go out than remain in in front of the TV, but of course I remember Dallas, Only Fools and Horses, Allo Allo, and other such comedies. We had no mobile phones then, they were starting to appear by the end of the decade but only despicable, rich yuppies would be seen dead carrying one. Little did we know.

And of course anyone who was around, in the UK/Ireland at least, in about 1985(?) will remember that every single member of the population was walking around in T-shirts which said in huge letters FRANKIE SAYS......... This was from the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood who were, for a time, the biggest stars on the planet, or at least the most ubiquitous.

Great topic PP. Should be lots of interesting replies to this one.

[Ming]

I wasn't there in the 80s, but I vividly remember The Smurfs and Flintstones and Jetsons! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were pretty cool too.

[Julie2owlsdene]

The 80's, wasn't as good as the 60's.
In 1981 my daughter Sarah was born, after 11 years of being married, so that was a bit of a pleasant shock
Music of the 80's was quite good. Howard's Way, was the best programme on TV. And shoulder pads made us all look like we were wearing a box. Bring back the 60's I say.

[Petermax]

Howard's Way, was the best programme on TV. And shoulder pads made us all look like we were wearing a box. Bring back the 60's I say

By way of coincidence I am currently watching the Howards Way series 5 box set. I live just a few miles from the Solent and River Hamble. Never mind the fashions, what about those cordless telephones the size of breeze blocks that the cast always seemed to be using?

As regards the 1960's, it looks like I missed out on a good era. I was born in the middle of that decade, too late for any proper memories.

[lizarfau]

My memories of the 1980s are:

Going to university
Going inter-railing with my best friend - especially travelling through communist Romania
Working on my first (and last) newspaper, then covering horse shows for Horse and Hound - with all my knowledge of horses gleaned from Ruby Ferguson's Jill books!
Writing stories for Patches, a teenage magazine (I still do have them in a scrapbook and they're very teenage ... )
Watching Torvill and Dean ice-skating their way to various gold medals
Watching brilliant gymnastics on telly (Daniela Silivas, Aurelia Dobre, Elena Shushunova, Oksana Omelianchik)
My favourite TV shows - Tenko (brilliant series, which I've recently rewatched on DVD), A Question of Sport, the Valerie Pollard years in Crossroads
Music - The Pet Shop Boys, the Proclaimers, Elvis Costello, Adam and the Ants
And, as others have mentioned, the politics ... the way the Iron Curtain fell at the end of the decade, Glasnost, Margaret Thatcher* ...

*ETA I can't believe no-one else has mentioned Margaret Thatcher!

[Julie2owlsdene]

*ETA I can't believe no-one else has mentioned Margaret Thatcher!

Is she really worth mentioning What with the dreaded Community Charge

And what about the 3 day week, when electricity was turned off, Sorry, that was the 70's, I rest my case.

[JuliaE]

well, born in 1982, there aren't so many memorys.
But when I am thinking back, here are
-the flinstones
-Disney cartoons (but when I think about that, maybe Disney cartoons were in the 90's, when "Disney club (german TV Show about Disney characters) started)
-my little pony (I loved them, had many of them, watched films about them and was in a fan club)
-the Smurfs

[Anita Bensoussane]

A decade of great change for me as I was still in junior school at the beginning, and halfway through university at the end.

TV programmes I enjoyed included The Enchanted Castle, Stig of the Dump, The Bagthorpe Saga, Fame, Brideshead Revisited, Diana, Annika, The Thorn Birds, Educating Rita, Tenko, Only Fools and Horses, The Young Ones, Spitting Image and Neighbours (with Scott 'n' Charlene!) Like Petermax, I remember Threads and also another film about nuclear war - The Day After.

Music meant Madness, Abba, Blondie, Madonna, Eurythmics, Mike Oldfield, Chris de Burgh, Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, The Bangles, Human League, Tears for Fears, The Pet Shop Boys and Queen. I had a friend who was crazy about Boy George (Culture Club) and another who adored Morton Harket (Aha.) T'Pau's China in Your Hand screams "1980s" to me.

My first crush was a boy named Craig, in junior school. I never told him I "liked" him but I have fond memories of a school trip on which we sat next to each other on the coach, discussing the Secret Seven and Famous Five. Ah, the height of romance!

1981 wasn't a great year as my parents got divorced. But in 1982 I had a whale of a time on a week's camping trip with the Guides. We camped in a field in Llangernyw and enjoyed campfires, games and challenges, countryside rambles, swimming in the river and a midnight hike through the woods.

Perhaps the highlight of the 1980s for me was going Inter-Railing around Europe for a month with a friend in 1989 - great to know that several other people here were also Inter-Railers. Among other things we climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was quite an experience as the different levels you came out onto had no railings around the edge - just widely-spaced columns. I loved Inter-Railing so much that I went again alone the following year, visiting different countries.

Other things I remember are the advent of video recorders (VHS v. Betamax) and playing Horace Goes Skiing and Jetpac on my ZX Spectrum 48K. Also the two Royal Weddings (Charles and Di; Andrew and Fergie), the Falklands War, IRA bombings, Perestroika and Glasnost, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Big hair, shoulder pads and leg warmers can't be forgotten, and neither can Marathon Bars and Opal Fruits!

Anita

[peppermint peppy]

Wow -Thank you for your replies.Your contributions are very great and very interesting.
Seems that I have tapped a cask!-
But I have some questions back.
@Anita
What are -Opal Fruits and Marathon Bars-?Are they trademarks?
@Julia
Flintstones and Smurfs were great.Regarding Flintstones,I loved these nice marital stories between Wilma &Fred as well as Betty & Barny.They were so funny and true-to-life.
But do you remember "Heidi" cartoon or "Bee Maja"?
@All
How have you expierenced Falkland War and IRA bombings?
How have you managed to live with fear and risk?
For me-they were news on TV only.