tonyh29 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Everyone thinks their era was the best time to grow up. yes and no ... my recollection of the 70's is that it was shit ..but the 80's ( I turned 10 in 1980) were great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Love it how we all grew up poor Wasn't anyone even remotely middle class ? Not me. High rise council estate, dad was a factory worker, mom was a shop assistant (among other low paid jobs). They never owned a car, had a bank account or took an overseas holiday. But before I get too "four Yorkshiremen sketch", my childhood was great. Apart from the fact that my parents argued incessantly (which really pissed me off), I was as happy as Larry - had loads of mates, enjoyed primary school, mostly enjoyed Grammar School (sixth form especially). I look back on it with great fondness - but then again I'm quite happy as I am now, too. I guess it was as much as anything me thinking out loud that did we suddenly have this "boom" moment when everything took off (no politics please ) My dad worked my mum didn't ... we were a one car family , an old Hillman Avenger and i think around 79 my mum got an Austin A40 that was so old the windows had to be propped up with wedges otherwise they stayed fully open , and one door of the car didn't open at all like others , we'd finish school , get changed and then rush out with all the other kids in the street to play football (always some old codger would call the police because our football dared hit their garage or kill a daffodil) , 40 /40 or knock down ginger .. that was 6 days a week pretty much , Sunday night being an early night due to it being Bath night .... and then suddenly as i touched on in my first post .. along came microwaves , VCR's , holidays , Binatone consoles with awesome graphic stick tennis .. not just us but the whole street .... i wouldn't say overnight , but it kinda felt that way did a whole generation go from poor to working class overnight ... was it technology advances that caused the boom ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Everyone thinks their era was the best time to grow up. yes and no ... my recollection of the 70's is that it was shit ..but the 80's ( I turned 10 in 1980) were great 80's Britain looks like the most horrible depressing place in the world whilst 80's America always looks the opposite. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Everyone thinks their era was the best time to grow up. yes and no ... my recollection of the 70's is that it was shit ..but the 80's ( I turned 10 in 1980) were great 80's Britain looks like the most horrible depressing place in the world whilst 80's America always looks the opposite. i suspect it depends where you went in either country ... tbh , that still rings true now ... there are parts of America even in the 2010's that look like 3rd world countires and I'm surprised some Ethiopian Rock Star isn't organising an aid concert for them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 My wife blames my parents for me being pretty mental now, not in a sleep with one eye open way, but how I dwell on things and over react. I have to agree. My parents were shit, my brother was an evil bastard and the sooner i could get out of the family home i did. I truly hated every minute of my childhood from zero to 14 when i moved out. To the point i cant talk about it without upset or resentment. A good example, bear in mind my dad was pretty well off, my wife said what was the best present you had as a kid, I told her i had a pen once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Sorry to hear that Seat68. I always find it sad when people had a bad childhood, especially when it was as a result of family, the people in the world who you are supposed to be closest to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I have said on a different thread how much I loved school, and I really did, I was happy as I was out of the house. My school days were, genuinely the best days of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GarethRDR Posted January 31, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) Had it's up and downs, like everyone else (WARNING: INCOMING TEXT WALL). Abiding - both good and bad - memories of the various times of my life were; Age 0-3 - Basingstoke +My toy shed in the garden and my Postman Pat car. Also one of those scrolling steering wheel games with the little plastic car at the bottom and lights up the side. +Button Moon, Thomas The Tank Engine and Finger Mouse. -Being left for 10 minutes in the car by my parents as they were looking at a house (I'd been naughty at the previous viewing, was their justification) and, being unable to work out how to get out of the car I wound up crapping myself. I was sat in the car shouting as loud as I can that I needed the toilet, and I remember being really angry at them and telling them something like they'd made me poop myself. +Ritz crackers and choc-ices. -Those nasty coconut snowball things. Horrid. +The miniature railway outside the back of the Viables centre. Loved it. Still here to this day, when I saw it after moving back here years later, the flood of memories nearly triggered a mental break. Choo-choo mother ****! Age 4-10 - Scotland -Getting sent to the headmaster's office on my first day of Primary school for flicking paint at John Halley (even though he started it). +Transformers, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Thunderbirds and Knightmare. +SO MANY TOYS. +Birthday parties at Pizzaland. +Finally completing Screwball Scramble. +The woods right next to our house that some older kids had built an amazing treehouse in. -Getting belted (with an actual belt) by Mr Thompson. Only looking back at it do I realise what a big deal that would have been if I'd told my parents. Still, he's probably dead now. +When the book orders arrived at school and the whole class gathered excitedly round the big box. +When cereals had really cool toys in them; my Ricicles Captain Ric wobbly pen and star chart, the Crystal Maze puzzle toys from Sugar Puffs, and a marble maze from a packet of Toppas (the proper name for Frosted Wheats). +The introduction of Pop Tarts. -The disappointment of eating a Pop Tart. +Rocket-shaped jelly moulds! Jelly all the time. And Angel Delight. And Hippopotamousse. Don't push me, push your Push-Pop! Secret bars and Vice-Versas. Pyramints. Getting really excited at Easter. +Pumping the sodastream machine until it hissed. +Pro-Set football cards. My favourite was Alex McLeish! -The looooong drives down to Dagenham to see Grandparents. +My older cousin living 5 minutes down the road and having all the awesome toys. +My first BMX. +Completing my Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles coin collection. Still got it squirreled away. -Playing football on the playground with rolled up socks because we weren't allowed balls. +Speaking of the playground; British Bulldog, Kiss-chase and What's the time Mr Wolf? Pulling the bottoms of our jackets over our heads during windy days and getting blown backwards. +/-The time Leon Mayne ran straight into a concrete wall, busted his head open and had to get stitches. There was so much blood. +Hamming it up in the school play. My folks still have the VHS. +Beavers and Cubs Scouts. -The moment I realised my Dad wasn't actually a pilot, what "ground crew" meant, and all after making him a Birthday card that said he was "The best pilot in the wurld". -Never getting any badges at Beavers and Cub Scouts. +Recording a class nativity play for a radio competition and it getting played on Moray Firth Radio. We got sent a box of jumpers and those little furry things with eyes, feet and a banner that you stuck on walls. -Giving up Tae-Kwon-Do after a month because it clashed with Thunderbirds. +Losing my first tooth painlessly on a Penguin bar. -Deciding it was a good idea to rip out any remotely wobbly teeth thereafter to get money. -Bored out of my mind at Waltzing Waters. +Camping, just me and my Dad at Glenmore Forest Park. +First computer, Spectrum ZX81. Then an Atari ST. -All my friends having Segas and Nintendos. The spoils of a trip to Woolworth's in Elgin. Age 10-14 - Germany +The food. All of it. Especially pizza and curry. +Getting properly into football. -SSVC/BFBS Forces television. One channel of pure suckage. +Teletext page 302. -Getting films in the one-screen cinema at RAF Laarbruch about a year after they'd come out in the UK. +Overnight trips on the ferry back to the UK for holidays. +Ice cream parlours and ice cream vans. "Blau Engel" flavoured ice cream. Spaghetti ice cream. -When a garbage truck ran over my Mitre Delta. -Mick Wright, my year 6 teacher and a nasty piece of sub-human shit. +Mr Clement, my German teacher who got me into Borussia Mönchengladbach. He left copies of match programmes as reading material in his lessons. He later lent me his season ticket to watch them play Köln because he couldn't go that weekend. He offered the ticket to all the kids during a football lesson, but chose to give it to me as I was dressed top-to-toe in 'Gladbach kit. My Mum had to take me, we only had the one ticket and couldn't get another but the guard at the turnstile let us in anyway. 'Gladbach won 2-1. Peter Wynhoff scored the winner with a 30-yard piledriver. -The time I nearly got expelled for punching Arlene Fraser in the face. Bless her, she later admitted to having tried to pull my own face off beforehand, but nevertheless you don't hit girls. -The time I nearly got expelled because Mark Hathaway lied and told the bus-lady I was mooning people from the window. -That bus-lady never liked me. +Getting that bus-lady fired for making me clean out the ashtrays. +Going up to Amy Stone's room expecting to play with Lego, getting kissed repeatedly instead. The kissing went on for a year or so, until she broke it off because she wanted an "official boyfriend" from her own year-group. This was fine by me, I was far too busy desperately searcing for a John Salako Coventry City sticker to complete my Merlin Premier League 95/96 sticker album to get into a serious relationship. Plus, there was the ever-present threat of cooties. +Oh, and Merlin Premier League stickers and albums. The stickers were highly prized items because the NAAFI shops didn't get them in, so we all had to rely on our Dads going back to the UK on detachment and bringing back boxes in bulk. My Dad used the packets as incentives to do well at school. But I used to sneak into my parent's bedroom when they were out and grab a packet or two from his bedside cabinet. Which leads me too... -The time David Feeney came over for swapsies, we both went to my Dad's bedside cabinet to get more and we found that picture of my Mum. All the Garry Parker stickers in the world wouldn't have been worth it. +Our first pet, Kryten the hamster. +Getting a PlayStation. -My sister wiping 5 hours worth of Tomb Raider from my memory card because she didn't wait for me to show her how to use it. +Playing my first football match for JFC Laarbruch. We beat Alderkerken 22-0 and I had nothing to do. The second match was better, I had a decent game. I was wearing my Bosnich #13 Asics top and red tracksuit bottoms. -When John Ainsworth's Dad took over the JFC team and proceeded to only pick John and all his mates. I quit the team after he chewed me out in a training session, after I muscled the considerably-taller John off the ball. I remember him asking incredulously if I had "a problem with his son". Funny enough, I didn't; John was a nice guy, which clearly he didn't get from his complete shit of a Dad. +Being a short drive from the Dutch border, Venlo and the greatest pancakes I've ever (or will ever) eat. +Samantha Allander agreeing to by my "girlfriend", on the proviso I "dated" her friend Natalie too. -My Dad getting posted out to the Falklands for months at a time. Worse still when he was posted to Croatia and had a cancer scare. Turned out to be IBS, but from a million miles away and only knowing what Mum could bring herself to tell us it was pretty horrible. +Some great family holidays, being able to just load up the Montego, stick the roof boot on and drive. Legoland in Denmark (meeting and arguing with Kasper Schmeichel over who was better, his Dad or Neville Southall, the **** was I thinking?!) was probably the best. +Year 7 Skiing trip to Austria. Fantastic time. I've never gotten around to skiing again but I desperately want to. Sharing a hotel room with my best friends Tom Wools and Gordon Scott. -Only came second in a karaoke competition on said Skiing holiday (for my amazing rendition of Three Lions). I maintain I should have won, as first place went to some bint from the school choir who did a pitch-perfect Amazing Grace. Erm, it's KARAOKE, not Songs Of fricking Praise?! I'm still angry about that. -Euro 96. Gareth Southgate. If you think you had it bad, I guarantee I had it worse. 1) I was the only Villa fan at school 2) in Germany 3) called Gareth. Most of the school, somehow, decided to hold me personally accountable for the miss. -Getting posted back to the UK. I loved Germany, every second of it. I let my first girlfriend slip away for this man. Age 14-17 - Odiham -The establishment of/having to conform to the strict social hierarchy of secondary school. +Football Italia, Spaced and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. -Apparently I'd used up all my "game" in Germany; I asked a grand total of one girl out during these years and was shot down. +Julie Bale, my Geography teacher and chief masturbatory aid. -Failing GCSE Geography, after sitting down in the exam and suddenly realising I hadn't paid any attention to a single world Julie Bale had said in two years. +Getting a full season for the local Sunday League team and winning my sole-to-date man of the match trophy for saving a penalty in a league game. -Part-time jobs, terrible ones too. Folding boxes at a packing company, working at Clinton Cards over Xmas and doing weekends at Cargo Homeshop. +Having what felt like a boatload of cash from those jobs. +Going to a Tomorrow's World exhibition in London to try and track down Philippa Forrester. -Only realising when we got there that Philippa Forrester wasn't attending. +Going to Laserquests in Guildford and Woking and paintballing just outside of Alton. -Getting my own hamster, Villan, who was Pazuzu in furry form. One time he forced his own bars open overnight and proceeded to nestle in and shred my Tazmanian Devil pyjamas. +Trance music in the 90's. +DJing one of youth clubs and only playing trance music. When kids requested other stuff I kept that strobe lights on long enough to give them headaches and drive them from the dancefloor. Don't think I truly understood the concept of DJing at the time. +Massive Super Soaker battles, using the empty family's quarters on camps as bases. +Finally getting out of that **** school. I didn't come all this way for Peter **** Snow. Are there things I'd do differently if I could do it all over again? Sure. But I wouldn't, though. I did enjoy my childhood. Ultimately, whatever I've done has lead me to this point of my life now, which I'm very happy about. Edited January 31, 2014 by GarethRDR 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Close VT winningest post has been posted loved my long summers at RAF Saarbruchen so quite envious of that Laarbruch lifestyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 That was a sensational post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted January 31, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 31, 2014 .....one of those scrolling steering wheel games with the little plastic car at the bottom and lights up the side. Demon Driver? I still have mine - and it still works. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 No, it was this: And it was bloody fantastic. Didn't realise it was a Tomy toy. Speaking of, I also had this little fella... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Love it how we all grew up poor Wasn't anyone even remotely middle class ? Apart from the fact that my parents argued incessantly (which really pissed me off), You'll have to forgive me for asking but I can't resist. How do you think that affected your personality? My guess would be that you would have grown up to hate contention and are a natural peace-maker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 31, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 31, 2014 My most harrowing childhood memory? When I was 4 I jumped off a climbing frame at nursery. Unfortunately, I was trying to jump as far as I could (onto a crash mat) This resulted in two things: 1. My tongue sticking out due to intense concentration. 2. A very uncontrolled flight and landing. The ultimate result was that as I landed, my knee hit my chin, still with my tongue outstretched in concentration and I bit clean through it. Luckily, I managed to isolate the part that I bit through to a very large hole, as opposed to just biting the whole thing off, but it was a very close run thing. Needless to say I cried, a lot. And there was blood, a lot. It was a little traumatising. But as I said, not half as traumatising as it would have been had my tongue flopped out onto the floor completely detached from my body. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 +The miniature railway outside the back of the Viables centre. Loved it. Still here to this day, when I saw it after moving back here years later, the flood of memories nearly triggered a mental break. Choo-choo mother ****! I see yourchildhood Basingstoke miniature railway and raise you my childhood Chertsey miniature railway 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Holy Mallard, I've got to get my ass down there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) My most harrowing childhood memory? When I was 4 I jumped off a climbing frame at nursery. Unfortunately, I was trying to jump as far as I could (onto a crash mat) This resulted in two things: 1. My tongue sticking out due to intense concentration. 2. A very uncontrolled flight and landing. The ultimate result was that as I landed, my knee hit my chin, still with my tongue outstretched in concentration and I bit clean through it. Luckily, I managed to isolate the part that I bit through to a very large hole, as opposed to just biting the whole thing off, but it was a very close run thing. Needless to say I cried, a lot. And there was blood, a lot. It was a little traumatising. But as I said, not half as traumatising as it would have been had my tongue flopped out onto the floor completely detached from my body. I did something similar, when I jumped off a coal shed, caught my neck on a clothes-line, did a full triple Salchow and twist before landing on my head. My childhood consisted of a long series of lessons in how excitement and over-exuberance always lead to a trip to the hospital. I have more scars than Jack Reacher but fewer excuses. Edited January 31, 2014 by MakemineVanilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 No, it was this: And it was bloody fantastic. Didn't realise it was a Tomy toy. Speaking of, I also had this little fella... I had that too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 One of the most tragic moments of my childhood was being too tall for Wacky Warehouse at seven years old; A time that should have been my prime years in the ball-pool cut short by something out of my control. I remember going to a mate's birthday party and having to sit with the Moms whilst all the other children had the time of their lives in that mesh-netted paradise. ....I was eight at this time but still hadn't full accepted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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