Growing up 80's W/O
May 04 '06 (Updated May 07 '06)
The Bottom Line The decade of frilled shirts, ra ra skirts and cool music, what not to love?
I was heading home yesterday after a long, arduous day at work issuing speeding fines (yes I’m evil that’s what I do for a living) when I stopped at a discount book shop. Nothing unique there of course but I stopped and had a curious look at a very cheap Garfield style book all about…. ALF! How crazy is that, some 17-18 years since the cat eating alien left the tv screen a book pops up about him. No, I didn’t purchase the book – flicked through it and just cringed, point being it got me reminiscing about how much I liked growing up in the decade known as the eighties.
I’m thinking if other people want a W/O for this – feel free, would be cool to compare musical/movie/tv – bad hair experiences for sheer novelty value. Here’s my contribution to growing up in the decade of John Hughes movies, synthesisers made to look like hand held guitars (what was up with that!) and a time when Michael Jackson was a little less scary.
Television shows (cartoons and others)
Well I have fond memories of many, many cartoons some including He-Man, She-ra ( I just loved trying to find that damn elf type creature during the show!), Transformers, the Carebears, Ulysses 31 (a damn fine, well written cartoon that nobody I know even remembers), Battle of the Planets and the New Ghostbusters replete with slimer. I recall a cartoon about the Ewoks which was on very, very briefly but cute. I didn’t descriminate between typical boys and girls cartoons, was just as happy watching shows about talking robots or cars as I was about girl bands and sweet talking care bears. I recall having a family friend that I used to visit solely to play with his He-man figurines, I never got any as presents and I think my mother refused to buy any for me or my younger sister.
As a family I remember always watching The Cosby Show with my parents and loving it, also liked the Scarecrow and Mrs King and absolutely loved Dr Who. It’s funny that some of the scarier moments as a 4-5 year old were really rather tacky when you looked at the quality of props used, but that was part of the charm. There was also this cool US show I don’t know the name of about a man who could shape shift into animals – he was kinda part detective/crime solver part mystery man. I also watched some fantastic re-runs of The Muppet Show and The Goodies – which are just classic!
I also thought Macgyver was very, very handsome back in the 80’s and had a huge crush (aww ok I admit it, I still do) on Michael Biehn from my first viewing of The Terminator.
Movies
I’m going to share one of my earliest movie memories with you folks, there is a scene from Barbarella with Jane Fonda’s character being trapped with these dolls trying to bite her…. That was a very, very scene for a little girl to watch, I had a love of porcelain dolls and it kinda freaked me out! Looking back I saw a whole heap of movies that I really should never have, I was younger than 7 when I snuck behind the couch to view Evil Dead and not too much older when I saw The Terminator. Not sure if I had a really uncaring older brother who didn’t care what I was watching or if my parents were too busy with having five children to keep track of us!
Aside from R rated movies I loved all of the teen flicks and most of the children’s movies that came from the 80’s, they had a feel good quality that I don’t think is captured the same way now. I always loved The Never Ending Story, Krull, Labyrinth and Star Wars for the fantasy escapist theme and beautiful other worldy settings. I loved all coming of age movies such as Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, Stand By Me and the Goonies which had part action, light comedy and a lot of charm. Was always good to see adventures kids my own age got up to, I admit to wanting my own space ship many a time. I don’t recall being a child who painstakingly replayed all of the above movies to death – I just had my favourites which I got to rent from time to time.
I had such a love of movies I remember clearly telling everyone within earshot about my reviews I wrote for school and wanting to be a movie critic or journalist. Such was my love for writing even back then!
I also loved the teen movies such as The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles and anything that had either of the two Corey’s in it (Haim or Feldman). There was a cheesy humour in all these movies, with good acting and a feel good quality that made up for other shortcomings and were above all entertaining. Thinking about it, there were so many good movies out that are still fun to watch now on a Friday night.
Music
There was a very well known music show on here in Australia called ‘Countdown’ that ran from mid seventies (1974-1987) which was hugely popular, very kitschy which featured local and overseas bands and live audiences complete with tacky sets and a distinct lack of live singing! Was hosted by a man by the name of Molly Meldrum who always wore a hat and was a real music buff, he interviewed all of the musical stars and predicted many of the 80’s stars before they became famous (including Inxs and Madonna to name but two). This was such an entertaining show that everyone from Duran Duran, Rod Stewart, Billy Idol co-hosted the show from time to time when on tour in Australia. Every year over summer, episodes from the show are repeated and I sit on the couch laughing at the old countdowns and interviews.
I loved scratching all of my sister’s records when young – I used to play all of her compilations to death and dance around the room. I loved Duran Duran because they were always changing their hair colour and had good film clips, Spandau Ballet, Kim Wilde, Nik Kershaw and heaps of aussie bands were popular with me also. I personally liked the heavily synchronised sound that was favoured and it never bothered me seeing so many men in bands wearing puffy shirts or grotesque make up! I remember liking the camp style of so many 80’s film clips, in particular Kate Bush’s unique choreography in anything she did and the clips to Fade to Grey by Visage and the use of puppets in Genesis’ Land of confusion. There was less slickness and far more ugly people in music in the 80’s….. I liked that aspect. I also remember the revolution of the cd in the mid 80’s, I was lucky enough to be the first person on my street who had parents who splurged out on a new stereo complete with cd player. Funnily enough, the first cd’s ever bought in my family were Enya and Laura Brannigan.
And who remembers the ill-fated cassingle? How cool were they at the time? In Oz they were bright yellow and pretty cheap to buy, I recall them being hugely popular here and quickly phased out lp’s on vinyl.
Toys
After reading some other entries in the write-off I realised how i forgot all about toys!!! How could I do that. I have always unashamedly loved dolls, barbie dolls, porcelain dolls, ugly baby dolls!
I loved Barbie dolls - the first one I ever owned as a ballerina Barbie - she was very pretty and had her own pedestal and white fluffy tutu. I remember 1985 and Cabbage Patch kids were sooo popular at my school, I got two luckily and only renamed one of them... I didnt happen to like the name Sylvana I remember. I also remember the smurf craze - all the figurines you could collect, but I never got any... boohoo! For the most part i just loved the ads on tv for most of the toys they were so corny all those Mattel ads.
Some other toys I treasured was my playdoh set complete with people you could poke the playdoh through and make weird hairstyles with! Also liked lego and hot wheels toys which i never owned myself but always managed to have a look at them at school when the boys brought them in.
It's funny remembering the Atari and Commodore 64 - they were so exciting back then, I loved (and still do) love computer games and my whole family kinda got addicted to playing them and inevitably fighting over them. Can still remember the donald duck game on C64 where you had to build Huey, Duey and Luey this playground by catching fruit, or being a train navigator... was very cool back then.
Well I’m amazed how fast it has gone for me since I started typing, having so much fun reminiscing it doesn’t seem like real writing if this makes any sense. I tend to look back at growing up in the 80’s from the age of 3-12 with a real sense of nostalgia and fun, I loved primary school, the music and the crimped hair with bright make-up and strange fashion trends (hmmm boob tubes or legwarmers anyone?) but most of all I liked the feeling I was in a good world. Maybe the realisation of all the war/poverty/turmoil that was in the world as I entered my teenage years just makes the 80’s more special to me as I still had a beautiful innocence!
Would love to read other’s experiences and or comments about life in their little world back in this wonderful decade.
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cheekyred23
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Member: Georgina
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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If chocolate is bad then I'm a bad, bad girl
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