What are your memories of the 1980s?

I was born in 1979 so the eighties were definitely my time! Not at all perfect by any means, but it really was a great decade to grow up in, and I'd rather have spent my childhood in the eighties than any other decade. We went out, had fun and played with the other kids on our street. We didn't have social media so we weren't inside all the time, glued to our devices. If you got bullied you either told your parents, told the teacher or fought in the playground! If you fell down you got back up again. And like alot of you here, my most favorite memories are about family - family celebrations, Christmas's with my grandparents, Saturday mornings eating cereals and watching cartoons with my siblings, going to the mall with my mom. Those were good times and alot simpler than it is now. I also think that pop culture, in general was alot more optimistic, and fun back then, and accessible for all regardless of race, gender, status etc.

Well I'm going to start on a downer! The eighties, especially where I were from, There were something like 5 million unemployed and I'm sure most of them were up in the north. Homelessness and the 'cardboard city' concept existed all around the country. I grew up on a housing estate so being skint were the norm for most of us. Then there was the issue of drugs which really was rife and would spread like wildfire around our estate. And I'm not just talking about a bit of spliff either but hard drugs. School leavers would walk out of school and head straight to the dole queue because there weren't that many jobs around. And ironically at the same time, we saw the rise of the yuppie, the city boys, the stock traders who were living the high life, quaffing champagne and the rest of it. It was quite bewildering for a kid like me who couldn't understand why so many of the people I knew claimed to not have money when I could see people who were living like money was no object! I think if there's one good thing to come out of my experience, is that I aimed to try a lot harder than a lot of my family did because i knew that this wasn't how I wanted to live for the rest of my life. I may not be living like a city trader but I'm glad for all I've achieved and all the hard work it took to get here.

I have a theory about why everything was so bright, vibrant and in your face in the eighties - well it had to be to compete against the doom and gloom of the decade! I think that's why so many of us forget the hard times it's because we were blinded by all those brights. LOL! But of course there were loads of highlights too. Family, celebrations, school days, that feeling of growing up as part of a community and pulling together even when most of us had known hard times. The weddings of Charles and Di, Andrew and Fergie. Live Aid... Good times did exist back then.

I didn't come along until 1990 so as you can imagine, I have no memories of the 1980s at all! But I do have a fondness for the decade. I hear lots of great stories about this time from my family members who were around in the eighties. I love looking at photos and they tell so much about that time. I'm not just talking about the 1980s styles and fashions but everyone just looked so relaxed and like they were really living for the moment even though I know that decade wasn't the easiest for a lot of people. I feel like today a lot of things are done for Facebook or Instagram (I have to be careful here because i do love Instagram!) But I just get the feeling that from what I've heard and what I've seen in pics and home videos that people seemed to enjoy life more than we do today even though we've got so much at our disposal, and not just see everything as a photo opportunity.

I was born in the mid eighties so I was still only a tiddler when the eighties ended but believe it or not I do have some good memories of that time. I'm an only child and while some might consider it boring that it was just me, my mum and my dad, it was actually anything but. I had an amazing childhood, and I think one of the things about being an only child is that you form a more closer bond with your extended family - cousins, second cousins etc. - than people who grew up with lots of siblings. So I always had big birthday parties and our family Christmas parties were unreal! I also remember being at nursery, and even starting infant school, wearing my little uniform. Haha! I think my mum still has my tie. I had a very carefree upbringing with lots of open spaces, and I didn't really want for anything (and no I wasn't spoilt!) So when I think about to the eighties, I think about family and all those wonderful events and gatherings. I try hard to give my children the same kind of childhood that I had even though I know that it's a different time now. But I'd like to think that it's working and that my husband and I are doing a good job.

I was born in 1987 so I don't have a whole lot of memories of life in the eighties. I remember it being just me, my mom and my dad. My sister hadn't come along then. And we were still living in WA. To me the nineties are more my decade because I remember them so much more and had pretty terrific experiences - camping trips, singing, moving to Oregon, becoming a teenager... But I do feel a special connection with the 1980s. Probably because that's the decade that produced me! So I do feel quite nostalgic when I see old photos or listen to eighties songs that were hits before I was even born. I just wish I could of remembered the eighties more.

It's been lovely reading about everyone's memories of the 1980s - my favourite decade! I thought I'd hear stories about outlandish fashion and electropop, but it seems as though everyone's defining memories of the 1980s centre around family life - just as it does with me!

I was born in East London with my mum's side of the family right on our doorstep so we saw them loads. I lived right by the park that was once the garden of philanthropist Elizabeth Fry - the local library (which I don't believe is a library any more) having once been her home. And on the other side of the park lived my uncle with his family in a type of beautifully converted flat that I don't think exists in the part of East London that I grew up in as most properties seem to be divided up into bedsits or house-shares. And then of course there were the big family Christmases where every year, one of my aunts or uncles would take it in turns to host a gathering in their house. I do like Christmas and always look forward to it but I feel like Christmas has lost its sparkle a little bit and doesn't compare to the festivities we had back them.

I was at primary school for much of the eighties, and I'm very happy to say that one of my best friends is someone I met at primary school and we've been friends ever since. That's a long time!!!

I watched an awful lot of TV for a child and I'm glad that I was able to watch shows like EastEnders, Neighbours, and Home and Away right from the beginning (even though I stopped watching H&A years ago!) It always makes me chuckle when a former well-known character from the show's hey day makes a return, and people who were clearly born long after said character had left, takes to social media to ask who they were! There are some benefits to being an 'oldie' after all! Haha! Then there were shows like Top of the Pops which everything stopped for on a Thursday night, and groundbreaking programmes like Crimewatch UK where the older episodes from the 1980s and 1990s still have something of a cult following.

It was my grandad and my mum's siblings who looked after us while we were at work, and I remember Thursday night was always a roast chicken dinner, while Friday it would always be a prawn noodle stir fry. How my aunts had the time to get back from work and whip all that and have dinner served on time, I just don't know as they had a lot of people to cook for!

I could go on and on about my eighties memories but I think this'll do for now! 😂

I'm from London and was born in 1977. I have very faint memories of the seventies of course but I remember the eighties very well. It was a fantastic decade. I come from a big West Indian family, so my memories of growing up in the 1980s involve church, traditional Sunday lunches of chicken and rice, family parties and of course primary school. If only I knew then that they really are the best days of your life. In the eighties it was just me and my younger brother. We had to wait until the nineties to be joined by our baby brother. But family, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents were always over at our house. We actually lived right by a park so whenever a big group of family came over and the weather was good we would hang out in the park, having a picnic, eating ice-cream, riding our bikes. Those were good days and something I regret not being able to give my sons. It's just the three of us here in Australia as my family are all in other countries, mainly England and the Caribbean, and we have no contact with my ex-husband's family. You don't miss what you never had so I don't think my boys mind too much but I do think back to my happy childhood years and wish that they could of had the same.

I started secondary school at the end of the nineties which apart from the birth of my brother was the biggest life changing event of that decade. I know a lot of people may not have had the best time in secondary school but it was all right for me, I have good memories of that time and I made some friends who I'm still in touch with even now.

I was born in 1986 so my memories are very limited as I only spent for years of my life in this great decade! But I do have memories of dance classes, pre-kindy, family barbecues and barn dances. So my experiences and memories of the 1980s are of fun and good times. For those who were older, you may remember a different time because true, no decade is perfect. But for me, that's pretty much what I remember. Now the nineties - that's a whole other story!

I was growing up in the London Borough of Brent, and for most of the eighties I was at primary school and I started secondary school in 1989. The part of London I come from hasn't got the best reputation but that said, there was still this feeling of community, something that I'm not sure exists in much of the world. I was also attending dance classes and drama workshops. I had loads of excess energy that my mum felt I needed to work off in some way so she enrolled me in these classes which I absolutely loved but I don't think a career in Hollywood was ever part of the plan. So other than school plays and the odd panto, that was pretty much it!

The eighties is absolutely my time and whenever I watch a show from then or listen to one of the songs I used to dance my socks off to, it takes me back. Great times.

I might be accused of looking at things through rose coloured glasses but for me personally, I think that the eighties were truly magical times. I'm not not to start the debate about this decade having the best music, fashion etc. because that's subjective, and true, everyone thinks that the time they grew up in had the best of everything. But for me I have wonderful childhood memories of growing up in Wales, having this huge extended family and all those big family parties and gatherings, camping trips, being very outdoorsy. Money was quite tight, we weren't exactly poverty stricken, but we did experience some rather lean times so we didn't always get what we asked for and weren't always dressed up in the latest clobber or anything. But we pulled together as a family, and I think growing up experiencing difficult times like that teaches you a whole set of skills like budgeting, living within your means, not being so frivolous and so on. Things a lot of people could learn today.

I try to give my kids a similar upbringing while being mindful that we are living in a different time. So while they do have screen time, I always encourage them to be active and outdoorsy rather than sit around playing games all day. I simply won't allow that! And we love doing things as a family and including the extended family members too. My husband and I grew up with aunts and uncles and cousins and we want the same for ours. It seems to be a product of modern day life that a lot of people don't have that interaction with extended family and it's such a shame.