Child Of The 1980's

Do you remember the good old days when you went to the fish and chip shop and came out clutching a little parcel wrapped in newspaper?  Today this is a dying practice, with only a handful of shops remaining that serve one of UK’s finest dishes wrapped the way it should be, instead of being in white paper, white paper printed to look like newspaper (why bother) or most heinous of all, a polystyrene tray.

I’m not sure exactly when the tradition of using newspaper to wrap your chips was phased out, but certainly by the end of the 1980′s you’d be hard pressed to find a chippie serving in this manner.  So why did the practice stop?

Well, as usual it was a Health and Safety concern.  Despite the fact nobody has ever died of fish-and-chip-paper-poisoning, at least not as far as I’m aware of, it was deemed unsafe in case the ink used for the newsprint came off on the food.  I dare say that in order for this to be a problem you would have to eat fish and chips for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper every day for every year of your life, and by then you’d die from your blood having slowly turned into a mixture of cooking oil and batter.

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Yesterday it was Torvill and Dean, today it’s Pearl and Dean, but before that, a few memories from me.   As kids I wouldn’t say we were big cinema goers.  Mum and Dad weren’t particularly into films so we usually only got to go when there was a big film to be seen, such as E.T. or a Disney cartoon when we were very young.  This was fine though, as it made it much more exciting when we did go.

Our local cinema (which has sadly now been turned into a gym – boo!) was one of those that are now a dying breed – the independant, single screen flea pit.  To be honest, they were beginning to be a dying breed even in the eighties, but I used to love the old place.  Through the old wood and glass doors you’d enter the red carpetted foyer, with a little ticket booth on one side and a shop selling popcorn, minstrels, kia ora and hot dogs.  They also sold those little boxes of fruit gums and fruit pastilles that you don’t seem to get these days.

Clutching your little paper raffle ticket in your hand, you’d then ascend a twisty staircase and hand your ticket to a man who would then tear it in half and give you half back.  From there it was into the dark red and brown decorated cinema itself.  Find yourself a seat (no seat reservations in those days) and settle down for the main feature.

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Valentine’s Day 1984 was a day that has gone down in ice skating history as being the one and only time that an ice dancing couple has ever managed to score a clean sweep of perfect 6.0 scores from all the judges. Who were that duo? Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of course, with their routine set to Bolero.

Torvill and Dean were a household name in the early 1980′s, as they were such a success on the ice that ice skating was rarely off our screens at the time. They had won just about every gold medal it was possible to win, but the big one was the Olympics, and it was for the 1984 Winter Olympics that they put their Bolero routine together. Dressed in flowing purple, the pair went on to receive not just perfect scores but a standing ovation from the crowd!

However, things aren’t quite as straight forward as they appear, as the routine could easily have been disqualified due to a technicality. An Olympic ice skating routine is only allowed to be four minutes in length, yet Bolero is a piece of music that is around 17 minutes long. Working with a composer Torvill and Dean managed to reduce the music to 4 minutes and 18 seconds, which was still too long, but cut the music any further and the feeling of the piece would have been lost.

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It’s funny how some games have stood the test of time, whilst overs have faded away.  One of the latter is Mr. Pop!, and I’m surprised that it’s no longer available given that it was a lot of fun to play.

Mr. Pop was a cross between Perfection, Guess Who? and Mr. Potato Head.  It was a single player game in which you first had to pick a card that had a picture of a man’s face on it.  You had to recreate that face by inserting plastic pieces of hair, eyes, noses and other facial features into slots on a plastic head.

Sounds pretty easy so far, but you had to do this against the clock.  The plastic face was mounted on a plastic board that featured a clockwork timer (that’s what we like – no batteries!) so to play you wound up the timer and pushed the head back until it clicked into a locked position.  Letting the timer run out caused the head to pop forward, shooting all the plastic face pieces out at the player, which was quite a shock.

The game was intended for younger players, but adults had just as much fun playing it, and quite often were worse than the kids.  It’s a crying shame this game is no longer available as beneath all the fun it was quite educational, teaching concentration, pattern matching and hand eye co-ordination skills.

Whilst Mr. Pop is no longer available, there is an almost identical equivalent called Mr. Funny Face, so if you hanker for a bit of face making fun against the clock, why not check it out. Thanks to Pamela for pointing me at this new version.

This week I wrote about the wonderful BBC kids show Record Breakers, so in keeping with this theme I want to find out how many of you out there have ever been part of a record breaking attempt, whether on your own or part of a group, and whether you broke the record or not.

If you have been part of a record attempt then please post a comment to let us all know what the record was. Doesn’t matter how daft it was, like the most number of fish balanced on your head or the most people belching the alphabet in unison, I’m itching to know.

Have a long think before you answer the question though. My immediate reaction was to say that I wasn’t a record breaker, but then I remember taking part in an attempt to build the longest Lego model in the world at a Lego Fan Club day in Milton Keynes. Can’t remember whether we did it or not, but there was also an attempt at building the tallest Lego tower, which has since been beaten. For more fun Lego records check out this awesome page of ridiculous Lego claims to fame.

“19″ by Paul Hardcastle is a track that everybody who was around in the 1980′s must surely recognise and remember. It was released in 1985 and took the UK chart by storm, staying at number one for 5 weeks. It also enjoyed a stint at the top of the charts in many other countries including Austria, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, and more besides.

The track consisted of a dance music backing which was overlaid with vocals provided by Peter Thomas, an American narrator of documentary TV shows. The vocals were in fact exactly that, the narration of a TV show about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, with a little electronic trickery applied to them. Thomas’ voice was sampled and played back in different ways by a synthesiser, allowing for words to change in pitch or have parts repeated, creating a kind of stuttering effect. How many of us have attempting to sing along by going N-n-n-nineteen I wonder.

Whilst Peter Thomas was initially against the song he relented and allowed it to be released, and just as well as not only was it a great song, it was also educational! Many people of my generation had heard of the Vietnam War, but didn’t really know much about it, especially those of us from Europe. The song does a good job of letting us know about the atrocities of that war, with the title, “19″ coming from the average age of the soldiers that fought in Vietnam, which contrasts sharply to the average age of a World War II soldier, which was 26.

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Record Breakers is another BBC childrens TV show like Blue Peter, that tries to be a little more intelligent than most children’s shows, and that ran for years and years (although it fell far short of Blue Peter).  It started airing in 1972, and came to a close in 2001, so it was on our screens for nearly 30 years!

The name that is most associated with Record Breakers is Roy Castle, who was the host of the show from the beginning until 1994 when he sadly died of lung cancer, which as a non smoker he attributed to years of playing the trumpet in smokey jazz clubs.  Roy was a variety artist through and through and was an accomplished trumpet player and tap dancer, though he could turn his hand to just about anything entertainment related.

The show was co-hosted by twins Norris McWhirter and Ross McWhirter.  I must say I never remembered Ross, he was a bit before my time, but I certainly remember Norris.  Both brothers were editors of The Guinness Book of Records for many years, and both had photographic memories.  There was a segment on the show where kids could ask the brothers questions about world records, and they could always answer them!  I remember one time a boy in the audience called Norris out on a question about the biggest diamond (I think).  Turns out the little upstart was wrong and Norris was correct!

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Firstly, I’d like to remind you all about our competition to win tickets to the 80s Rewind Festival taking place in Henley-On-Thames in August. The competition is open to the end of March, so click here or on the big yellow icon at the top of this page to enter.

Next, you may have noticed a new feature creeping into this very site. I’ve joined up with the eBay Partner Network to bring you links to eBay listings for relevant items. If you really want to get hold of something from your childhood that is no longer available eBay is one of the best places to go, so hopefully these links will make things a little easier for you to find that toy or game you loved. The links should even take you to the relevant eBay site for your country, or at least will if you’re in the UK, US, Australia or one of the other countries supported by the programme.

Going back to competitions I thought I’d also let you know about Hawkins Bazaar’s Do You Remember? competition where you can win £100 worth of their goods, which I highly recommend as they have a lot of cool retro toys and stuff available.

To enter the competition is pretty simple. You must play the conveyor belt game from TV game show The Generation Game. A number of products slide across the screen, and at the end you have to try and remember as many as possible. Follow this link to enter.

Definitely worth a go I’d say. I’ve already submitted my entry!