If you love a bit of childhood nostalgia, this is for you, especially if you’re a fan of the 1970s and 1980s! For kids and teenagers nowadays life’s a huge contrast to the life of those who were children in the seventies and eighties. Back in the day when mobile phones were non existent, a tablet was something you took if you were ill and computers were just being introduced into schools – and then only for computer lessons.
If you grew up in the 70s/80s hopefully you’ll relate to some of these memories I have!
Taping the Top 40 and making mix tapes
Listening to Radio 1 on a Sunday night, recording the charts while making sure that you cut out the DJ’s boring talking bit with your finger hovering permanently above the pause button and being absolutely mortified if you missed just a tiny bit of the song. Who can remember the precision required?
Carefully learning the words of said songs from Smash Hits magazine. Or do you remember when you used to buy a new album – whether a record (or vinyl as it’s now called for some bizarre reason) a tape or in latter years a CD – and how brilliant it was when the words were published on the insert.
You’d dedicate hours to your auditory adventure, belting out the lyrics with the confidence of a rock star, secure in the knowledge that you were nailing every word. No more hilarious misheard lyrics like this one: “My love has got no power, he’s got his trombolese…” Anyone else??!! The correct lyrics of your favourite songs are probably still etched in your brain today, ready to be unleashed in a spontaneous solo concert at home.
Speaking of which, there’s nothing I love more than a private singalong session when I have the house to myself. Sometimes, I’m even tempted to take my talents to the garden when the back door is open on a sunny day, but I suspect my neighbours might not be prepared for my performances just yet!
Bedroom walls covered in posters of your favourite pop stars
Covering your bedroom wall in posters carefully pulled out of publications such as Smash Hits, Jackie or Just Seventeen. I think mine were probably mainly Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, David Soul and John Travolta. I’d love to know if this is still a thing!
While we’re talking about Spandau Ballet can we just take a moment to appreciate how finely Martin Kemp has aged, if that’s not a stunning example of men improving as they get older I don’t know what is. Also can we also take a moment to acknowledge how absolutely dreamy Tony Hadley’s voice is. Isn’t it funny how you notice things more as you get older.
Learning the words to your favourite tunes
I’ve got Spandau Ballet as one of my playlists in my car and frequently sing along at the top of my voice. Luckily for everyone else I’ve usually got the windows shut, I’m sure I’m a sight to behold when I’m stuck at traffic lights though. If I’m listening to the radio and having a singalong in my car I often wonder how many other people are listening to the same radio station and having a singalong too – we’re like some huge people’s choir, all together now … 🎶🎶🎶
Remember when you used to play your favourite tapes over and over and over again. Yep eventually the tape would work it’s way loose and get tangled so you’d end up with half of it outside the casing. This is where your pencil would come in handy – wind it back on and give it a new lease of life. Whoever worked out how to do that was an absolute genius! Although sadly, if the tape finally snapped or just got caught in the cassette player, then it really was game over.
1970s and 1980s hair styles
Did you ever bleach your hair, using actual bleach?! Just a little bit on a cotton wool pad to give yourself a few natural highlights. I remember it was a thing once where you washed your hair and then the final rinse* you put lemon juice and went and sat outside for hours in the sunshine, frequently checking to see if your hair had lightened. Or did you ever use Sun-In? I was a bit scared of that one ironically because I didn’t want my hair to turn orange but I’ll put my hands up to the first two!!
* Oh for those that might not understand final rinse, it was in the days when only posh people had proper showers and most of us had to wash our hair in the sink unless we’d upgraded to a rubber shower attachment that you could pop onto the bath taps, with the frequent probability that the rubber bit would pop off the taps and have to be rammed back on again.
Washing hair in the sink meant filling the sink to as high as you could, without the water dispersing and spilling over the edge when you put your head in. You’d shampoo, rinse, change the water, rinse again, change the water, rinse again, conditioner, rinse… you get the picture. And that the final sink full was the one you added the lemon juice to.
Hair was big and ‘crispy’, if you used lots of hairspray. It would be even crispier if you’d put bleach on it and used lots of hairspray as well. You’d blow dry your hair BIG and then maybe tong it to fluff it out a bit more then spray spray spray to keep it in place. It would literally be a case of move one section of hair with your hand and the whole hairstyle would move in sync!!
Incidentally did anyone else have their hair similar to Princess Diana’s at any point. I did shortly after having my first son, it was fairly short and highlighted and tonged back and I remember one day I was sat in the back of the car (a Ford Granada Mk3 or Mk4 injection ghia which at the time was quite a nice looking big car, it was a beautiful sky blue too – such a pretty colour.)My ex-husband had popped into the reception area of a building to deliver a parcel and apparently a whole load of the staff were all gawping and gazing, faces pressed to the windows because they thought I was Princess Diana! That honestly gave me such a massive confidence boost, and I’m pretty sure I repeated the story for a few weeks after too! It’s funny the things you remember isn’t it and little things that can make you feel like a somebody ❤️
The family phone that never left the hallway
This might surprise you but mobile phones haven’t been around forever. We used to have a landline phone but the actual phone was fixed to a particular place on the wall. Personally our phone was at the bottom of the stairs. Which happened to be in the living room. So when the phone rang everyone heard it. When the phone rang you had to answer saying your phone number and then find out who it was. “Merstham #*#*” many people only had four digits in their number, no wonder they were easy to remember.
Looking at this picture really makes me think about the sound when you dialled the number and the dial went back, it was a kind of purring sound. I love a bit of nostalgia don’t you?
Thankfully one of the perks in those days was there didn’t seem to be any spam callers or scammers. What a joy – no people ringing you to tell you that you have a problem with your computer etc. Having the phone in the front room/lounge however meant there was no privacy whatsoever. If you made a phone call you had no option but to sit or stand at the bottom of the stairs – in the living room – and your phone call would be the main event of the evening. If the wire connecting the hand piece to the base set was long enough you could stretch it a little and shuffle up a few stairs and try and talk quietly but there still wasn’t much privacy. Oh yes and banning you from using the phone meant putting this little phone lock thing on the dial – yes dial! – at the number 1 so you couldn’t ring anyone unless their number was 111111111. It was also best to make all your phone calls after 6pm – especially if long distance – that meant a different dialling code to you!
Talking of phones that’s just reminded me that people just used to remember all the phone numbers then, without relying on a phone to have them stored in.
First ever job
Talking of remembering phone numbers. When I worked as a secretary in an insurance company we had 19 district offices that were our responsibility and I knew every single phone number off by heart. I believe we also had branch offices and I knew them too, plus all the manager’s names and all the sales reps’ codes – well most of them and I think there were about 300 odd of them. I really loved that job. I started as office junior and within about three or four years had worked my way up to the Divisional Manager’s Secretary which was a great position! I worked with the nicest group of people, everyone was so friendly and kind ❤️ I don’t think I ever had a bad day working there, just happy times! Amongst other jobs we had to publish a weekly sales bulletin which was kind of like a little magazine with news and recognising people who had done well. We collated all the figures by hand, ordered them manually, worked out the averages and top sellers, added the marketing news and other snippets, and typed it on our manual typewriters, before photocopying and posting them out – to the addresses that we knew off by heart. Isn’t it funny how when you have to remember things it makes you remember more. We didn’t have numbers stored in our phones then, we either looked them up or remembered them, although we had address books and phone directories we could use too. I can still remember quite a few important numbers, I can still imagine my Gran answering her phone and saying her number (which I can still remember years later.)
Saturdays were spent going into town, if you had money then great – you could get yourself a record or some makeup or maybe some pick n mix from Woolworths. Even if you had no money it was still nice to have the chance to catch up with a friend and mooch around town.
Popular cars in the 1980s
If you were around in the 80s you’ll probably remember cars such as:
- Ford Escort
- Cortina
- Granada
- Sierra
- Renault 5
- Ford Capri
- Austin Metro, Maxi or Allegro
- Vauxhall Cavalier
- Original (small) minis
I hope you’ve enjoyed a little trip down memory lane. Or perhaps if this is all before your time, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a little about how life was a few years ago.
Please do let me know in the comments if there’s anything you can relate to – or anything you’d like me to cover next time.
Well until next time, thank you so much for reading!
