Let me just tell you that the oldest millennials have turned 42 this year. And while we’re well aware of the fact we’re no kids, we don’t feel that ancient either. Dad jokes and cargo pants seem to be a boomer thing, but what if we’re not that far from them?
So today, my fellow millennials, we’re about to feel not just old, but ancient thanks to this walk down memory lane right back to our simpler and happier childhood days.
“The Ultimate '80s Page” Facebook page is a notorious source for nostalgia–inducing content, and below we wrapped up some of the best examples shared here. The page’s whopping 2.7M followers show just how much we all relate to the long gone days, and honestly, it’s no surprise.
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Lauren McMenemy, a professional writer, journalist, and writing coach who runs workshops and training to help people get their words down right, told Bored Panda that the immediate thought when someone says "1980s" is the cliches: “neon, big hair, shoulder pads, power ballads. It was an era of multitudes.”
She commented: “There was indeed that break-out fun, bright and fluffy, everyone's excited angle - but there was also the ‘Greed is Good’ angle, the Wall Street tycoons, the money-at-all-costs which really started to dominate at this time (and still does).”
When you get a perfect picture but your finger sticks out in the corner…
Dear other generations: Just in case you forgot, we drank from garden hoses. Sincerely, GenX.
Lauren argues that what was unique about the '80s - aka her childhood - “was the sense of adventure and exploration, particularly as technology started to infiltrate the home. It was the first era of home computing consoles, of Nintendo and Atari.” So for her, as a kid, it was the absolute best time.
I got to spin the wheel once (relative works for CBS & he was giving us a backstage tour). It's *really* heavy.
Since the '80s style, from clothing to music, has been coming back to fashion in recent years, we asked Lauren why she thinks this bygone era has this enduring appeal.
Lauren believes that there isn't anything unique about the '80s that's driving this comeback. “As humans, we are inherently nostalgic, and there seems to be a trend that we go back every 30 and/or 50 years.”
In fact, Lauren argues, “in the '80s, we were obsessed with the '50s. In the '90s, it was the '60s, and so on. It's a long enough time-lapse that we can remember things with rose-tinted glasses.”
and it is resistant, since the 70s, we are in the 4th generation to play with, still works "Ding!" !
We also asked Lauren what’s her favorite '80s thing, and she said it’s “Back to the Future. Hands down, my favorite movie ever. And you get the double whammy of '80s and '50s nostalgia, too!”
“I'm also partial to hair metal and power ballads; put on The Final Countdown by Europe and I'll sing at the top of my lungs,” she added.
I recently went to a high school reunion. Those of us who are still alive are turning 75 this year. :)
We called the theatre phone number and listened to the recorded listings on repeat
I'll can tell you, as the teacher writing on and teaching from an overhead projector, that thing gave off massive amounts of heat! I pitied the kid sitting behind it.
I remember when those were called "hard disks" and floppy disks were larger and literally floppy.
Maybe, but Ford has had a spontaneous combustion issue WAY before Tesla. Think it started with the Windstar
“I have little feet because nothing grows in the shade.” - Dolly Parton Don’t you just love her. And here’s a cheesy joke. Q. How can you spot Dolly's children in a crowd? A. They're the ones with stretch marks round their mouths.
Yeah we had some, bloody horrific seeing them again. Somethings you don't need reminding of
Is this American? I think the UK equivalent is chip paper and those foam ceiling tiles!
"UUUUUUPPPPP next it's COUPLE'S skate!!! Grab your sweetheart and head to the floor!!!!" ::: Every middle schooler::::: immediately skates to the exit
OMFG! I got this toy and I loved it I was convinced that I was going to be a fashion designer. I'm not.
By the time I was a kid we were playing Cruisin' USA. We earned those book-it pizzas.
Lol it's true. There was a point where everything had to be see-through so we can see the workings inside. Phones, toys, etc.
I remember the day they replaced the blackboards in my school with whiteboards (2001)
There is always one store that sells things like these.... and it's never the same store for different items. I find these in one store, candy buttons on paper in a different store, fizz candy in a third store, etc..... they need to get them all in one shop!!!!
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Swizzles! I usually opted for the candy necklace, though. Wrapped it around my wrist/arm. Now you know why my arm was moist enough to "tattoo" with silly putty. Also, for anyone about yo hold me up as some sort of germ paragon because we were "just built stronger", I did get bacterial meningitis at 6 that nearly killed me. So, please don't do that. No, surprisingly it wasn't from the phone licking.
Or eating someones chewed gum from under a fast food table.😲
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these things are like crack, they're addictive. we get a bag of lollies etc in for halloween and you can guarantee I'll end up eating all these before the kids get a look in...
And they used to be so big you couldn't fit them into your mouth whole. Now they're tiny, can chew them up in one mouthful
I'm 81 and my sister still buys these for me as part of my birthday present.
They sold them at the church ballpark where I played softball as a kid! After every game, we got a free soda and a lolly! We loved them!
Our local brand was Lollies. Nothing could sand the surface off a tongue quite like a Lollie!
Omg there a candy store near me that sells these 3 for 50¢ and they are so good 😊
Millennials too.. we got these for a nickel and then filled up a brown paper bag with penny candy.. gosh I miss penny candy 😞
Are you in the US? If so, I saw them at Hobby Lobby yesterday. lol
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Swizzles double lollies. If you bit them in the right way, you could take off the top half in one piece. They were fruit flavoured-the orange one tasted of orange, but the rest were vaguely Berry flavoured. Swizzels also do mega-lollies, about 3 times the size of the standard double lolly, but they are a bit different. The normal ones are fairly powdery and crumble, but the mega ones are much harder and don't crumble.
They look like huge sweetarts on a stick. I don't remember ever having one
Damn, those were great. We even had them in Austria. I can taste them by just looking at that image, and miss them so much.
We had such cool candy. We remember it because we didn’t get treats every day, or had to earn the money to buy some.
I found these at an old fashioned candy store in the new town I moved to. Bought a bunch of them and while they were still good to eat holding them in my mouth like a sucker just felt weird. I only ended up eating one
I'm a gen Y and ate them too. In fact I bought some just a couple of months ago.
A lot of my pants cut off around the ankles because I have long legs. I still rock these bad boys.
Note: this post originally had 102 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I don't even care that I commented on almost every post. This was the best compilation I've ever seen on BP. I was borne in 80 and my brother in 81. We were 11 months apart. He died in 2020... I relived so many memories with him; things I haven't thought about in decades... This made my day 🥹 I miss you, man. ♥️
I agree this is the best one, took me waaaaay back. Sorry about your brother 😞
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Like always, many of these still exist, or were at least still around in the 2000s. Still enjoy reminiscing but linking them to a single generation (or this case a decade) is not factual.
And like always, many of these existed long before the 80s.
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Usually I don't like these kinds of posts; they end up being so "We're cooler than millennials" type things. But this one celebrated the sheer insanity of age without criticizing (much, anyway). Mainly I just enjoyed being feral and wearing my jelly shoes. I wouldn't go back, though.
I'm a 90s kid, there were loads of upsides, but I don't miss being called 'Gay' as an insult and I don't miss the bullying and general awful treatment of women by the media
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I’m a boomer and this was so much fun to go through. Some of this was also from my childhood. All of these are so great to remember. Smiled through the whole thing. Thanks BO. Best one in a long time.
Agreed. Why the concept was there, it took hold in the US and UK particularly and.... yeeesh. What a ....
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I wish I was born earlier y’all!!! No offense or hate to my generation, but I feel like an old soul. I loved seeing you guys talk about the good times in the old days I had no part in 😭😅 and talking about some stuff I didn’t know about… y’all probably sounded as crazy as my generation’s slang heheh
Stop acting like there's any decade that wasn't a sh*t show. Please. Warm fuzzy nostalgia for Grandma's cookies, fine. For any given decade or era as if it wasn't horrible in its own ways, no.
This generational argument over who had it best is so exhausting. Everyone's experience is relative. What I don't get is that so many adults actually have no idea who today's kids are outside of social media. They're smarter and more aware of global issues than we ever were. And our generations mucked it up for them too. We created those cell phones. We created that demon you call technology. Kids today are only living the life we planned for them.
Yes! to all my fellow GenXers... we are the most amazing generation and this post proves it!
They are missing the View Master and there miniature versions of the View Master that was the size of two flash drives which I can not remember the name of. Does anyone know?
considering I was born in '95, I can still relate to quite a lot of these hehe x3
Went to so many good concerts as a teen in the 80’s. Once I had tickets to see my fav band (besides Duran Duran -saw them in 1984 Maple Leaf Gardens - first concert ever), Platinum Blonde as part of the Kingswood $5 concert series at Canada’s Wonderland. Met Chris Steffler and Sergio Galli waiting in line at the broken down MineBuster roller coaster ride and talked to them for half an hour & they signed my tickets. Later in the 90’s would hang out with Kenny MacLean doing gigs in Toronto bars as my sister dated his keyboard player. He asked if I wanted to meet my former teen crush, the gorgeous Mark Holmes who was playing pool nearby but I croaked No because my sis had embarrassed my sensitive 22 year-old self by saying to everyone at the table how I was part of their fan club and drew pictures of him. So dumb. Who cares now? I should have said yes and I think he heard me and looked a little disappointed. Sorry Mark! Kenny was a great guy.
*inhales, it's time to be that kid* AcTuLlY aside from the technology and general safety, kids today can relate to most of these! Just because you grew up in a different time period does not mean that you miss out on the simple joys of childhood.
Me being born in 2004 and relating to most of these... This was a great list. I am obsessed with all things 80s, so much so that I want a Macintosh from '84.
So many of these were around way before and way after the 80s. A lot of this list is true for 2000s kids too. Y’all act like y’all are tougher or superior because y’all didn’t have modern tech. Calm down.
I’m a young GenXer (‘79) and I’ll say this: Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. It’s okay to look back and have fond memories but we shouldn’t think ourselves superior simply because our childhood was different. There are things we’ve lost but also those we’ve gained and that’s okay. Onward and upward.
Kids thee days will never know the true meaning of carefree play.
I don't even care that I commented on almost every post. This was the best compilation I've ever seen on BP. I was borne in 80 and my brother in 81. We were 11 months apart. He died in 2020... I relived so many memories with him; things I haven't thought about in decades... This made my day 🥹 I miss you, man. ♥️
I agree this is the best one, took me waaaaay back. Sorry about your brother 😞
Load More Replies... Like always, many of these still exist, or were at least still around in the 2000s. Still enjoy reminiscing but linking them to a single generation (or this case a decade) is not factual.
And like always, many of these existed long before the 80s.
Load More Replies... Usually I don't like these kinds of posts; they end up being so "We're cooler than millennials" type things. But this one celebrated the sheer insanity of age without criticizing (much, anyway). Mainly I just enjoyed being feral and wearing my jelly shoes. I wouldn't go back, though.
I'm a 90s kid, there were loads of upsides, but I don't miss being called 'Gay' as an insult and I don't miss the bullying and general awful treatment of women by the media
Load More Replies... I’m a boomer and this was so much fun to go through. Some of this was also from my childhood. All of these are so great to remember. Smiled through the whole thing. Thanks BO. Best one in a long time.
Agreed. Why the concept was there, it took hold in the US and UK particularly and.... yeeesh. What a ....
Load More Replies... I wish I was born earlier y’all!!! No offense or hate to my generation, but I feel like an old soul. I loved seeing you guys talk about the good times in the old days I had no part in 😭😅 and talking about some stuff I didn’t know about… y’all probably sounded as crazy as my generation’s slang heheh
Stop acting like there's any decade that wasn't a sh*t show. Please. Warm fuzzy nostalgia for Grandma's cookies, fine. For any given decade or era as if it wasn't horrible in its own ways, no.
This generational argument over who had it best is so exhausting. Everyone's experience is relative. What I don't get is that so many adults actually have no idea who today's kids are outside of social media. They're smarter and more aware of global issues than we ever were. And our generations mucked it up for them too. We created those cell phones. We created that demon you call technology. Kids today are only living the life we planned for them.
Yes! to all my fellow GenXers... we are the most amazing generation and this post proves it!
They are missing the View Master and there miniature versions of the View Master that was the size of two flash drives which I can not remember the name of. Does anyone know?
considering I was born in '95, I can still relate to quite a lot of these hehe x3
Went to so many good concerts as a teen in the 80’s. Once I had tickets to see my fav band (besides Duran Duran -saw them in 1984 Maple Leaf Gardens - first concert ever), Platinum Blonde as part of the Kingswood $5 concert series at Canada’s Wonderland. Met Chris Steffler and Sergio Galli waiting in line at the broken down MineBuster roller coaster ride and talked to them for half an hour & they signed my tickets. Later in the 90’s would hang out with Kenny MacLean doing gigs in Toronto bars as my sister dated his keyboard player. He asked if I wanted to meet my former teen crush, the gorgeous Mark Holmes who was playing pool nearby but I croaked No because my sis had embarrassed my sensitive 22 year-old self by saying to everyone at the table how I was part of their fan club and drew pictures of him. So dumb. Who cares now? I should have said yes and I think he heard me and looked a little disappointed. Sorry Mark! Kenny was a great guy.
*inhales, it's time to be that kid* AcTuLlY aside from the technology and general safety, kids today can relate to most of these! Just because you grew up in a different time period does not mean that you miss out on the simple joys of childhood.
Me being born in 2004 and relating to most of these... This was a great list. I am obsessed with all things 80s, so much so that I want a Macintosh from '84.
So many of these were around way before and way after the 80s. A lot of this list is true for 2000s kids too. Y’all act like y’all are tougher or superior because y’all didn’t have modern tech. Calm down.
I’m a young GenXer (‘79) and I’ll say this: Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. It’s okay to look back and have fond memories but we shouldn’t think ourselves superior simply because our childhood was different. There are things we’ve lost but also those we’ve gained and that’s okay. Onward and upward.
Kids thee days will never know the true meaning of carefree play.
