Seven Things That Every Childhood Of The 1980s Wasn’t Complete Without

1. Starting the day with cereal is still the norm for most people, however the joy of rummaging through the whole box to find a plastic piece of treasure made breakfast in the 1980s all the sweeter. Pimp your bike wheels? Cornflakes has got your back…

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Snack times in the 1980s were always good times with massive chocolate bars and lots of colourings that are now forbidden.  A favourite of mine was probably a confusing one to todays children though, add your own salt and shake them up! Yes half the packet would end up super salty and the other half disappointingly plain, but that was half the fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Summer times when we were allowed to run around the streets with a little bit of pocket money were made complete by the arrival of the ice cream van, lemonade ice lollies have always been the most refreshing and trying to peel a paper wrapper from a super sticky ice lolly was all part of the fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Rainy afternoons in the school holidays were filled with trying to find things to do as there weren’t channels dedicated to kids TV back then.  A staple in our house was seeing how many different pictures we could make on a little  board with cut out pieces of felt, it might not sound like the most fun now, but back in the day it was awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Music lessons began the same way for most children in the 1980s at school, you would get a recorder and drive your parents mad tooting it loudly around the house and have “Don’t run with that in your mouth, you will smash all your teeth out!” yelled at you (I am yet to meet anyone who actually did manage to smash their teeth out on a recorder, but there must be someone out there.) The day when your recorder group could all play London’s burning at staggered stages all at the same time we all felt like a musical genius.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. After you came home from playing all filthy bath time was made by the big bottle of Matey bubbles, no ph balanced, skin kind bubbles for children of the 1980s, do not get this water in your eyes, it will sting until the next morning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  As if your eye stinging bath wasn’t harsh enough there would follow a nice layer of antiseptic cream on your grazed knees and elbows from the tree climbing and falling over on roller skates in playgrounds that were made of concrete where any wooden bits would be full of splinters.  Good old Germolene still brings me straight back to my childhood every time that I smell it.