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The 1980's saw major changes around the world's political landscape including the rise of conservatism and the collapse of the traditional communism and an ending to the Cold War. This was also some one of the worst decades for starvation caused by famine in the third world with many crisis in countries like Ethiopia .



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I remember the old days working with a typewriter UK



While cleaning out the attic today I came across my old Olivetti Manual Typewriter, and bought it down to show my 12 yr old daughter.



She looked at it for a few minutes and asked where is the spell checker mum ?



I explained no spell checker or even a way to go back and change a word , I then promptly started typing and although it was noisy I found the clunk clunk of the keys quite rewarding , the ribbon was all but dried up, and every so often keys would stick or I would press 2 keys together but I managed to type a letter in just a few minutes, I can remember when we first changed in our office to electric typewriters with a light touch but I carried on using my old typewriter for letters at home for quite a few years after that.





I am not sure when I last used my good old faithful manual typewriter but I think it was 15 years ago, but I can remember one of my first jobs in an office typing pool with 5 other girls all typing out letters to go out the next day and how fast some of the girls were at typing .



Is it really so long ago I MUST BE GETTING OLD , I wonder how many others remember using old fashion manual typewriters.







Memory Posted By: Carol

Comments

Anonymous said...



I remember them !! they were blue , my keys always stuck and I can remember the big handle to go back to the start of the next line. Wow have things changed since I worked in an office, I must be even older as I can remember an old black typewriter I had think it was a Royal and Black and weighed a ton.



I am sure if we showed kids today they would amazed at what we used before computers and word processing











Pan Am Flight 103 U.S.A.



I remember baking cookies awaiting Geordie's return...he called to say that he'd missed his original flight and had to hop the next one out to come home.



(And, wasn't that just like him?!) He was a first LT in the Army and was anxious to come home and see his folks and friends. While I was making cookies for him, very excited to see him since I hadn't since August, with plans racing in my mind...totally ignoring/blocking out the news reports...



MY Geordie could not be on THAT flight!...his best friend, Rob and his wife Dawn came to me and sat me down to tell me that Geordie was not coming home...and it took me several years to accept the truth...our Geordie is gone...







Memory Posted By: Anne' Marie

Comments

Ex UK Resident said...



Sorry for your loss,



i drove out of sherwood crescent seconds before the plane crashed. it missed me by about 70 foot







My Old Commodore 64 UK



My first home computer was an Atari, but then I decided to buy a commodore 64 , because I was hoping to learn programming, I bought the 64 because there were more games around and cheaper. Over a period of time I gathered a large collection of games, and did learn much of the programming skills that then allowed me to enter the computer industry, despite the 64's limitations compared PCs I still used the machine for games up to just a few years ago when I needed extra space and threw many of my games away but still have my old commodore 64 in my parents loft.







Memory Posted By: Andy

Comments

Andy said...



The Commodore 64 rocked and I loved it







The Old Computer Games we played U.S.A.



I don't like the computer games as much now that I used to play



My earliest memories of games I played on my computer and also those I spent many hours of enjoyment are the following



Brick in the Wall ( knocking the bricks out of the wall )



Lemmings ( Solving Puzzles to help and save the Lemmings )



ECO the Dolphin ( Helping the Dolphin to clean up the Oceans )



Warcraft ( The early versions fighting other tribes )



Galaxian ( Shooting down the aliens )



Chuck Yeager ( Flying missions in World War II shooting down enemy aircraft )



Frogger ( Getting the frog over the logs )



Age of Empires ( Battling with other tribes to gain control )



Anyone else remember these or other games we used to play and think they were better







Memory Posted By: Ray

Comments

Anonymous said...



I can't remember the name of the game... My brother and I were talking about it today. It was only words and we directed our character through caves and caverns and fought off elves and the such. This was around the same time we received our first pong cassette for our terminal (early 70's.) If anyone knows of this game please respond.







Great Storm Southern England October 1987 UK



I remember the storm well. It happened the night of my birthday. I was a student at the time and as I left the Union Bar after my birthday drinks, the wind was howling and I joked "it's like a hurricane!".



I remember waking in the night and watching trees on the horizon bending almost 90 degrees. The next morning. there was no power and we heard on the radio that the army were on the streets helping to clear up the devastation. The doorbell rang and it was a man from the local power company come to read our electricity meter.



Meanwhile, my family in Folkestone joined hundreds of other sightseers on the cliffs to see the cross channel ferry that had been washed up on the local beach by the stormy seas.



It was like a great hand had just plucked it out of the water and plonked it down on the sand.







Memory Posted By: Kate Lawton

Comments

Simon UK said...



I had never seen weather like it in my life up until that night we lost our conservatory



Andrew said...



I do remember the great storm that hit Southern UK on October 16th 1987, I was driving from Basingstoke to Portsmouth the evening it hit using cross country roads and could see trees being blown over behind me and at the side of me as I drove it was pretty scary, I was also due to take my OU Exams the next morning but was awoken at 6:30 AM by a customer who had all the windows blown out in their Computer Room and needed Computer Hardware equipment protected from the elements, The disc drives were old CDC drives that needed a dust free and controlled environment.





As I drove to site I had never seen so much damage done in any storm in my lifetime and it made me realise the power of nature and how we can only plan for but have no control over those forces.







Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior 1985 New Zealand



I was 11 years old when the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior was in Auckland Harbour and the next day was going to be open to the public, She was there protesting against the testing of Nuclear Weapons by the french government I remember it well as before we were due go on her she was blown up by the french government. It made me more determined to fight for environmental causes which I still do to this day.







Memory Posted By: Jane









Babies and Sleepless Nights U.S.A.



Babies provide so much pleasure to parents, but sometimes the memories are mixed with those times as a new parent the frustration of the baby not using the same sleep pattern as the parents invokes a smile many years later.



We were the new proud parents of a baby boy Thomas we had read all the books and thought that if we did anything wrong the little bundle of joy we had bought into the world would break. But the one thing that seemed to work better than we expected was our sons lungs, It seemed whenever it was time to sleep the lungs could make enough crying noise to keep you awake however tired you were, After our first baby a daughter who thank goodness was an angel with sleeping, this one was not. We tried all the recommended things, check nappy / diaper, feeding, winding, playing with, rocking, cuddling and eventually decided that the one time he always seemed to sleep was in the carry cot in the car. So at 1:00 AM in the morning off I go with bundle of joy in the carry cot into the car, drive round for 15 minutes and sure enough he falls sound asleep, carefully carried him back indoors and he stayed asleep for 4 hours ( A RECORD ) . Needless to say at least 3 nights a week I would go through the same routine.







Memory Posted By:

Comments

Anonymous said...



I can Sympathise , there was nothing worse than having a baby that wouldn't stop crying and nothing worked for me thank god eventualy mine just grew out of it ,



Maybe thats why parents should be older when they have children as they have more patience







Challenger Memory U.S.A.



Today I was reading about the chinese conducting an anti-satellite weapons test



and remembered that 20 years ago when I was 16 I watched the explosion of The Space Shuttle Challenger live on Television in 1986.



We watched it during school because one of the crew was a teacher and we were working on a project about space exploration.



It was surreal as less than a minute after taking off the explosion occured and instantly we all knew all the 7 crew were dead.



The silence in class and the looks on every students face remain as strong in my memory as the explosion itself and when reading any story about space I instantly go back to that day in my life







Memory Posted By: Anon







I was a MOD but wished I had a Honda Dream UK



I was a MOD in the 80's



It seems so long ago , I was a confirmed MOD in the 80's owned a Lambretta first then a Vespa and was always in arguments with the local rockers / greasers .



Not sure why I was a MOD but must have been cos I could wear the latest fashions and not get covered in grease, I can only admit 20 years later I preferred bikes than scooters and would have loved to have owned the latest and greatest bike at the time a Honda 250 CC Dream.



My gear included Puffa Jackets, shell suit, the latest in flares and the latest in Adidas trainers and anything that was fluorescent and can remember what the rockers wore Skin Tight Jeans, Denim Jacket and the latest in heavy metal music tees.



Of course it might also have been cos the girls wore tight jumpers, ra ra skirts and seemed much sexier



I am just smiling remembering what a pr??? I must have looked like but your only young once, so maybe I should not be so quick to judge the strange gear my kids wear now







Memory Posted By: Cliff

Comments

Anonymous said...



I thought that was 70's not 80's and did they have mods and rockers in the US



Anonymous said...



Don't forget why rockers were called rockers , brylcream plastered on hair and jeans with bottom part of legs with grease spots , Honda Dreams were for wannabes , The real bikes were the Triumphs and Nortons



nick said...



I remember going down to Brighton Seafront for a big bundle with the rockers on the beach, a crowd of us went from Coventry to Brighton for the weekend not sure of the year though and a few got arrested but we just got moved on











The 80s and the Rubik Cube UK



I have just looked in my office drawer and realise I still have a Rubiks Cube in my desk, I can remember when every kid had one at school and it was of those strange things that occur once in a lifetime when something comes along that can bind children and parents together playing the same thing.



It seems strange now remembering our whole family waiting for turns to solve this puzzle including mum, dad me and my younger brother.



It was fun and addictive and even if you solved it once you could try to solve it quicker the next time , I had a friend that could solve it in a couple of minutes every time but me would sometimes take days to solve it.



Getting one side or two side was easy but after that for me it got more frustrating and harder .



Well I am off for my lunch now with Rubiks Cube in hand you never know today could be the day I complete it in just one hour







Memory Posted By: John









80's CND March UK



Reading your this day in history for today reminded me of when I belonged to CND and went to the march in London, I am proud I was involved acting on behalf of the ordinary people of Britain and the rest of Europe who did not want to be a base for US nuclear warheads and I would do it again.







Memory Posted By: kev









Las Vegas-Movie Extra 1982 U.S.A.



Las Vegas-Movie Extra. Eric Estrada was making a movie in Las Vegas called Honeyboy. It was 1982 and I auditioned to become an extra. I worked with Eric Estrada and Morgan Fairchild and other Hollywood stars while shooting the movie. Eric had a big fold up chair he sat in. When he went on break I sat in Erics chair and was relaxing and not paying attention. I looked up and there was Eric , back from his break-he gave me a look and I gave him his chair. I also got the look when I signed an autograph-Eric just shook his head!







Memory Posted By: John Bennick









Early Computers U.S.A.



Got into computers at the very start, in fact sitting on my desk is a Sinclair 1000; from there, stepped the ladder up into everything Commodore made, jumped on all my local BBS finally IBM came out but it took some time for me to thing it was better than the GEOS page. since the I would hate to think of the by cost of the update for either parts and pieces or new machines to keep up with the necessities of other neat things, just bought a scanner, printer on the spot, plus it allows me to go back and scan my old film, both 35mm +2 1/4. Well talked enough, nice to know some people who remember things like Basic Thank You







Memory Posted By: Lance













Worst Ever Job UK



The worst job I ever had was as a brickys mate straight after finishing school , it was hard work and it just happened to be bloody hot that year so I was always worn out , it was not what i thought work would be like and I must have had cuts on every part of me from the bricks and always covered in brick dust







Memory Posted By: Simon









Worst Ever Job Taxi Driver UK



Being a taxi driver was the worst career choice i made!! I was always doing the nightly club runs, loading up with drunken teenagers i would set off on my way to hear a "please stop the taxi i feel sick" Hearing this enough times and knowing how hard it was to clean i was always alert to these kind words. I did have a passenger in one day who could barely get in the taxi be sick in the car, fortunately for him he sobered up and Valeted my car whilst i had a Mc Donalds purchased by him!!







Memory Posted By: Matthew Burton









Funny Story 80s Canada



Al and Andre told me a story one night when we were sitting in the Midway Tavern about how they had spied on this family building a snowman when they were kids. The family was, like, really Norman Rockwell-traditional-holdiday-cheer kind of crap. they even took picure while they were building it and after when they were done, like it was a member of the family. There was even a dog there, for crying out loud. Around 4pm when it started to get dark the family went in and.... Along come the Cloutier kids. They started bashing the snowman and doing all this bruce lee kung fu stuff to it, all the while shouting "DEATH TO THE EVIL ARCH-ENEMY, BANANAHEAD!!!" And this family was loooking out their window at them freaking the out!!! By the time the father came out, Bananahead was but bittersweet memory our intrepid heroes had gotten away.... Ok, now fast forward to Montreal, 1985. sit down for this one. It's a saturday afternoon in December. The weather is nice; it's snowing those big, fluffy flakes like when the temperaure is around -5c. Al and I are walking downtown and we're near Place-des-Arts. On the other side of the street, in front of Complexe Desjardins, there's a camera crew from Pulse News filming someone talking holding a microphone. Al says, "hey, isn't that Brian Britt?" and I was all, like, "Yeah, that's him!" The next thing I know, Al bends down and scoops up some snow. I copied him because that's what I always did. Meanwhile on the other side of the street, Brian Britt is still talking into his microphone, looking intently at the camera and probabaly saying "For Pulse News, this is Brian Britt. Back to you, Mitsu---" only to be cut off by Al shouting "DEATH TO THE ARCHENEMY BANANAHEAD!" as he wound up, followed by...the resounding WHAP!!! of a snowball to the head expertly aimed by the Duke of Groovydom followed in quick succession by three more rapid-fire WHAPS!!! as we unloaded our full complement of ammunition on our target. Brian Britt, reporter extraoridinaire, screamed, cursed and gave us the finger while we and assorted onlookers, bystanders, passersby, well-wishers and his cameraman laughed until our stomachs hurt. And then we ran away.







Memory Posted By: Jimmy Las Vegas









My ZX Spectrum UK



While talking to a friend today about his new PC with Vista on he reminded me of the computers We all had as kids.



Between us we had a fairly mixed bunch one had a BBC , one a Commodore 64, another one had an Atari game console and I for my sins had the wonderful Sinclair ZX Spectrum.



Now I guess many who read this will never have heard of any of these most of the younger guys at work looked at me with blank faces so I better explain what it was.



It was a very Very cheaply made home computer with some of these wonderfull features



1 Not a real keyboard more like the type of keyboard found on a calculator but cheaper and worse



2 Your games loaded from an old fashioned cassette player took up to 20 minutes to load a big game and failed as often as it loaded



3 All the connections on the back were pretty crappy and if you moved any part of the computer or other bits when playing it would crash ( I used to tape mine to make better connection )



4 You would connect it to the home colour TV and the graphics were quite blocky



5 No such thing as Mice existed so games would be played using keyboard or a Joystick



6 The memory was 16K if I remember



6 If you got a printer it was that heat sensitive paper stuff that would look a dirty white colour



If you played it for to long it would overheat and crash, if you moved anything when playing a game it would crash, Before even trying to load a game on the cassette we had to clean the cassette head or it would crash half way through.



Well now I have said how bad it was I better tell you it was one of the best inventions for teenagers at the time , because it was so popular games on cassette for the Speccy ( name it was called by those who owned one ). In general the games were not as good quality as those for Commodore and Atari but the choice was staggering and the prices were cheap, some of those I can remember were Galaxian, Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and a number of text based adventure games.



Pound for Pound for all it's problems I reckon some of those games and my old speccy gave me the best value for my money on anything from before or since











Memory Posted By: Andy









Old Fashioned Pay Phones U.S.A.



While sitting on a wall I heard this conversation between a dad ( 40+ and his daughter 6+ ) and found it interesting



Little Girl



What are those things on the wall ? ( pointing to Pay Phones )



Dad



They are Pay Phones



Little Girl



What is a Pay Phone?



Dad



You put quarters in the phone to make phone calls , that is what we used before we had mobile phones



Little Girl



No Mobile Phones !!!!!



Slight pause



Little Girl



How did you survive with no Mobile Phones and no Cars!



Dad



We had cars just no mobile phones



The point I found interesting is the little girls link between mobile phones and cars , just shows you how much a part of society mobile phones are for this generation



Also it reminded me of waiting in queues to use a payphone in busy city areas







Memory Posted By: Webmaster













My Heart Attack UK



At the grand old age of 34yrs I had a heart attack, like anyone my age I did not even realise it was a heart attack and just thought I had been smoking to much. It was a massive shock to me and after being in hospital for 5 weeks I changed my lifestyle including stopping smoking, watching what I ate more and trying to excercise , I also took stress relief classes and decided that no job was worth that sort of traumatic experience







Memory Posted By: Mathew













Callie and Jesse Horse Riding US



It must have been around 1982 or so, when my best friend had gotton herself a big quarter horse named TC and it was Thanksgiving weekend and we were going to go riding. It had snowed and it had been awhile since TC had been out. Anyway, We were riding TC double and bareback. Jess was in front and I behind. We went along the road and through the fields and then headed back towards the farm. Suddenly, TC decided that he was headed back to the barn. He broke out into a run. Jess could not get him to stop. I was hangin' on to Jess for dear life. We were going downhill and the field was about to end, in which TC would then have to make a hard right over a slippery road, when Jess yelled, " I don't know about you, but I'm jumping OFF!!!!" as she jumped. I immediately followed and found myself digging snow out of my ear. Jess had already started pursuit after TC, chasing him back to the barn vowing to " kick his butt" when she caught him. I finally got myself up and! shook it off, stumbling after.







Memory Posted By: Callie









When is a football not a football IRAN



This is true story and the best memory of mine I am writing one of the best and sweetest memory of my own happened to me . now I am 22 years old I was born in 1st September 1984 I have terminated 4 years of university as undergraduate in discipline . P.E (physical education & sport sciences )it was 1994 I experienced the latter memory mentioned . right when I was 10 years old in times of teens .I am interesting sport and other physical activities for being healthy and having safe heart and other biological systems are vital inside of humam body . its right about me . all of my body systems is on healthy except my vision it is so weak that I can not see anything without using glasses . at that time I did not have glasses but now I have on 10 years old with same thinking for being healthy the best and most beautiful cartoon was played in television made by japan . I liked that cartoon too much because it was according to times that I liked and enjoyed playing football the name of that cartoon was footballers . the cartoon affected me to play football every day more than days ago . at that time I was plying football with plastic ball for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening in summer time . and after that I wented to do physical activity on top of hills such as running on speed in way of intermittent or interval and flexibility agility and endurance training . one day my daddy bought me real ball made with soft leather and was on afficial size and weight . I gave great thanks and praised him . after that continued hardly and severely to play football . after end of game I set the ball free on center of countryard . one day when I was coming after doing endurance drills to home! , I saw my dear ball have haid in the center of countryard . stoped myself a thing deep down told me to shoot the ball hardly right like the cartoon footballers was shooted . thus I did . ran towards the ball when sufficiently reached near , shot hardly my real ball but I saw that the ball has not shaked . it was too amazing to me I bended on the ball , touched it I did not know to laugh or cry the big tears . it was shot stone in the same afficial size but not same afficila weight . it was one of the stones that my daddy had brought to make wall around countryard. I understanded that one of them right like the ball slided to the center of countryard right in front of me all of my bones below ankle had broken. after that my dad immediately taked me to clinic and then I could not use same foot for 5 weeks to hike or walk and daddy never allowed me to watch footballers cartoon and continue playing football .







Memory Posted By: Muhammad Mughaddam









Other Comments Left on 80's Pages



Cliff UK said...



In 1986 I lost my house because interest rates went up and house prices went down and I got so far in debt the mortgage company repossessed it



Jim USA said...



Bought a home in Manchester CT in 1983, 6room 3 bedroom 1.5 baths for 68,000 dollars. lot size 121x60



Latisha said...



rainbow bright, strawberry shortcake, smurfs, being little.



Gunther Goth said...



I am the richest man I know. The 80s were the time that I thought I had to have everything. No in modern times I realize that my frivolis folly was meaningless. This country is modernizing, there is no time for olde style.



