Any memories from 1984?

frobisher

I'm working on a story about two 15 year old kids in 1984. Does anybody have any interesting stories or memories from then?

Anything from:
favourite TV shows
music
favourite sweets
clothes
the Olympics
sports
hobbies
news stories
school activities
toys
gadgets
cars
comics
news items
local issues

Anything at all from the funny to the sad to the mundane!!

Blisterman

I wasn't alive then, but based on a book I read about the time, the world was a nightmarish dystopia, where everything you did was monitered by the all seeing "Big Brother".

frobisher

Hhmm, that's very interesting blisterman but to be honest I can't really see that whole "Big Brother" concept catching on myself.

stag39

frobisher wrote:

Hhmm, that's very interesting blisterman but to be honest I can't really see that whole "Big Brother" concept catching on myself.

cctv for one...george bush for two...CIA having rights to control what we in our country do for three....shall i go on

Chong

w00t it was the year I was born.

loofa_meister

* War Is Peace
* Freedom Is Slavery
* Ignorance Is Strength

Litcagral

frobisher wrote:

I'm working on a story about two 15 year old kids in 1984. Does anybody have any interesting stories or memories from then?

Anything from:
favourite TV shows
music
favourite sweets
clothes
the Olympics
sports
hobbies
news stories
school activities
toys
gadgets
cars
comics
news items
local issues

Anything at all from the funny to the sad to the mundane!!

Did the Inter Cert that summer.
Re BB - the film '1984' - Eurythmics "Sex Crime"
Carl Lewis at the LA Olympic Games and USSR boycott.
DART begining.

tabatha

i can remember yo-yo's being a big thing that year. something about coco-cola and some yoyo bunch of people coming to kilnamanagh shopping centre and doing a whole aray of tricks for people.

as for sweets, booty bags were cool. they were bags with a variety of sweets in them. trebor made them.

cloths, well leg warmers and puffer skirts were huge!

was that also the year that a magazine called "just seventeen" came out? think it was and remember it being big. top of the pops was also huge as was eastenders.

Litcagral

tabatha wrote:

was that also the year that a magazine called "just seventeen" came out? think it was and remember it being big. top of the pops was also huge as was eastenders.

Eastenders in 1984?? you must have had a sneak preview. The rest of us had to wait until 1985 to watch these miserable people.

tabatha

lol, must be getting old!!!:D

jonny68

Remember it well

Top Films:

Beverly Hills Cop (Brilliant)

Ghostbusters

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Terminator

Once Upon a Time in America

Paris, Texas

Gremlins

Police Academy

The Woman In Red

The Karate Kid

Music:

Simple Minds

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Culture Club

Howard Jones

Queen

Madonna

Duran Duran

Madness

Cyndi Lauper

Prince

Billy Joel

Bananarama

Depeche Mode

UB40

Human League

Kenny Loggins

Bronski Beat

Wham:o

Spandau Ballet

Ultravox

Bruce Springsteen

Style Council

Dan Hartman

Tina Turner

Billy Ocean

David Bowie

Chaka Khan


Jaysus that's all i can think of for now

Litcagral

Bob Dylan in Slane and the subsequent riots.

j22

I was born. It was an absolutely brilliant year.

BrianD3

One of the biggest events of 1984 was the Miners Strike in the UK. I was only 6 at the time but I remember the news coverage. Another big event was the Brighton bombing by the IRA.

The biggest band of 1984 was probably Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Bettyboop

aids broke out,
bandaid bob geldof
apple introduced first home pc
bmx mania
micheal jacksons hair caught fire doing an advert for pepsi
desmond tutu gets noble peace prize
record of the year Tina Turner "whats love gotta do with it"

Bettyboop

oh yeh!
Dallas
Falcon crest
A team
Legend of tarzan Greystoke
cosby show
Dynasty:)

Vokes

January 23 - Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship, thus beginning Hulkamania.

January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.

May 8 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

June 8 - The film Ghostbusters is released into theaters -- becoming a summer blockbuster hit with the song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. becoming a Top 40 hit.

June 27 - France beat Spain 2-0 to win Euro 84.

July 28 - Opening day of the 1984 Olympics

September 4 - The Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series was first broadcasted on ITV.

October 11 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

...+ lots more from Wikipedia

frobisher wrote:

I'm working on a story about two 15 year old kids in 1984.

I think Wrestlemania, the Olympics and the space shuttles and Reagen vs the Soviet Union would be interesting talking points for your characters

Litcagral

valerie wrote:

apple introduced first home pc

Are you sure?? I thought the Sinclair Spectrum? and the Commodore 64 came out before 1984.

Bettyboop

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/bhm05/years/1984.shtml

Litcagral

valerie wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/bhm05/years/1984.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

monkeyfudge

I think my family got it's first video recorder in 1984.

I remember the only place you could rent videos at the time was the Golden Discs in the recently opened Ilac Centre.

I remember I saw Scanners on video that year... great film with exploding heads.

I also remember going to see Gremlins and Ghostbusters in the Grand Cinema in Fairview, which is no longer there. I used to see a good few films in the Adelphi cinema too... that's gone now as well..

BrianD3

On the subject of videos, wasn't 1984 the year when the whole "Video Nasty" hysteria exploded.

It might be an interesting topic to include in the story with the 15 year olds eg have them trying to get their hands on some video nasties.

Had I been 15 in 1984, that's what I would have done

Siogfinsceal

dude I was 4 then,. my memories stretches as far as bosco and poochie ;-)

finlma

John Tracey won a silver meddle in the LA Olympics. A great day for Irish athletics.

Kersh

Star wars toys were just on the downslope then. Jedi came out in 83... emmm, nothing more to add...:o

mad woman

was the goonies 1984? oh and i made my first holy communion then aaaaahhhhhh

20 Times 20 Times

I was born ! What better memory has my mother got

frobisher

Great posts everybody! Definitely some stuff I can use there. And talk about a trip down memory lane, I was laughing out loud! Brilliant!

tj-music.com

1984 was the year in which Purple Rain took the cinemas by storm and turned Prince into a megastar.

In 1984 George Michael had a number 1 with "Careless Whisper", Billy Idols "Rebel Yell" album rode high in the charts and if I am not mistaken "Miami Vice" was aired for the first time.

Duran Durans "Wild Boys" became Video of the year and I spent 9 weeks in the States at my aunts house and my uncles German bakery. KISS played in my hometown in late 1984 and in general it was abrilliant year!!

DublinWriter

I was 14 and went to a school near the DART line. I remember everyone being 'wowed' at the first green train appearing during line tests and our year-head calling us for assembly telling us that if we went anywhere near the railway track (yes the track!) that we'd be electrocuted.

I was a little disappointed. The older trains had toilets and tables at the seats. I was pining for the past, even then!

boneless

BrianD3 wrote:

One of the biggest events of 1984 was the Miners Strike in the UK. I was only 6 at the time but I remember the news coverage. Another big event was the Brighton bombing by the IRA.

The biggest band of 1984 was probably Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

The miners strike is my dominant image of '84. I remember collecting for their fund and putting Welsh miners kids on holidays to Ireland. Ah! The formative years of my political life...

Santana played on the Slane ticket that year too.

Zebra3

Yeah, remember the British miners strike and Thatcher so nearly getting it in Brighton. The riots at the miners strikes were something else. :eek:

Rememeber Spain beating Denmark on penos in the Euro84 semis. One of the Danish players had his shorts ripped. The other semi between France and Portugal was one of the greatest games ever. Platini scored two late goals as France came from behind to beat Portugal 3-2 aet in Marseille.

Rememeber thinking Carl Lewis was such a legend, only to find out years later that him and the rest were nothing but junkies.

Rememeber watching Ireland beat the USSR 1-0 in the first Mexico86 qualifier. Then Ireland were humiliated in Oslo and Copenhagen.

coyote6

I was a junior in High School in Indiana. Had a big van me and my buds would go "hill hopping" in. As for the other things from those times... I have a right to remain silent....

FatherTed

1984 was when I did my Inter Cert... I remember Platini and the European Championships, I think it was a good Summer weather wise, the big music hit of the Summer was Careless Whisper. Also later that year was Purple Rain. Plus Born in The USA (I think). Linda Martin almost won the Eurovision. Ghostbusters, Band-Aid. MT-USA on Sunday afternoons with Vincent Hanley.

More stuff here: http://www.rte.ie/tv/reelingintheyears/1984.html

kittenkiller

Learning to walk.

Good times!!!

Rockee

My first solid memory was in 1984, t'was a beautiful summers day in Dublin Zoo! I was 3 and my sis was only 4 months old....she's still a noisy little
sh1t!:D

Houston Griffin

I was only eight and in the States, but for what it's worth... My favorite TV shows were "Charles in Charge" with Scott Baio, "Family Ties" with Michael J. Fox, and "Silver Spoons" with Rick Schroder (he was callled Ricky then). My mom was a huge fan of "Dallas". I remember it was the year most people in my neighborhood got VCRs or Betamaxes. The neighborhood had been wired for cable just a year or so before. There weren't many video rental shops back then and they were small. When we went to rent our first tape, there was literally only one left. It was Elvis' "Blue Hawaii". A terrible movie, but I watched it several times in a row just because I was so fascinated with the new VCR. My babysitter was the age of your characters. She was into Wham!, Duran Duran, and Prince. She wore big Esprit shirts and leg warmers.

coyote6

I was 17. Dating a German exchange student. Got a motorcycle ('76 Honda 550 four) and a leather jacket (after we broke up and I spent the money I had saved for a plane ticket to Germany on a bike!). I had a funny haircut like Bono...a weird sort of spiky mullet thing. I was into Billy Idol, U2, and the obligatory Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and Hendrix (yeah, your right I smoked that stuff too)

riptide

frobisher wrote:

Hhmm, that's very interesting blisterman but to be honest I can't really see that whole "Big Brother" concept catching on myself.

I remember Radio Ga Ga by Queen... and Dancing in the dark by Bruce Springstien...

jupiterjack

john treacy winning sliver medal

bennyineire

Now this mempory really is mundane, but I was 7 at the time and for some reason I can always remember RTE's christmas promo ad for 1984, I remember the ad showing all the movies that were going to be on, and for some reason I remember "King Kong" (the original) been one of them.

kelle

Jupiterjack, you've done it again!

"Farewell my Summer Love" by Michael Jackson. Nik Kershaw, Nena, Howard Jones, Laura Branigan, Wham, Prince, Band aid

Studying for my Group Cert, or Day Vocational Certificate which we had to do at the end of 2nd year in secondary school!

Discussing which country we were going to live in when we left school - even though none of us had ever been abroad, apart from one guy who was born in UK then came to live here at 6 months old!

We finally got Channel 4 tuned on our TV so we now had 4 TV channels instead of 3 - even though it was like viewing it through a snowstorm!

"V" started that Autumn, a horrible series which I didn't watch myself but my brothers did. Dynasty was essential TV viewing on a Tuesday night! Our teachers were furious that we were allowed to watch "this rubbish", but my father reckoned they knew it was rubbish because the watched it themselves!

little swift

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_in_Ireland

kelle

I forgot about Ann Lovett

jupiterjack

kelle wrote: »

Jupiterjack, you've done it again!

"Farewell my Summer Love" by Michael Jackson. Nik Kershaw, Nena, Howard Jones, Laura Branigan, Wham, Prince, Band aid

Studying for my Group Cert, or Day Vocational Certificate which we had to do at the end of 2nd year in secondary school!

Discussing which country we were going to live in when we left school - even though none of us had ever been abroad, apart from one guy who was born in UK then came to live here at 6 months old!

We finally got Channel 4 tuned on our TV so we now had 4 TV channels instead of 3 - even though it was like viewing it through a snowstorm!

"V" started that Autumn, a horrible series which I didn't watch myself but my brothers did. Dynasty was essential TV viewing on a Tuesday night! Our teachers were furious that we were allowed to watch "this rubbish", but my father reckoned they knew it was rubbish because the watched it themselves!

sorry there but i do like all things retro and all these zombies should all be awakened at some stage.

chakotha

Right. I was in 2nd year to 3rd year. Shoes that were 'in' - white Nike basketball boots with the big blue swoosh, Adidas roms, Doc Marten soled beetlecrushers, the suede ones with the side buckle (can't remember their name), the hard soled ones with the leather weave pattern on the front (can't remember their name either).

Frankie Goes to Hollywood were on a roll. Two Tribes was the chart topper of the Summer - on it's 9th week at number one (I'd never heard of that long a stay at the top), Holly Johnson went for a stroll through the audience while doing the song in Top of the Pops.

Ben Johnson winning the 100m sprint at the olympics and getting done for steroids and the medal going to Carl Lewis.

When flush a mars bar and a can of coke on the orange double decker bus home from school was d job :-)

It was a brilliant hot Summer.

kelle

jupiterjack wrote: »

sorry there but i do like all things retro and all these zombies should all be awakened at some stage.

I can see that , and there's nothing wrong with it. It's not as if the threads posted here become "old news"! I must say you always reactivate the most interesting threads!

nlgbbbblth

A great year for me.

First trip abroad - five days in London. School tour.

Irish college in Ballingeary for three and a half weeks.

Lovely weather during the summer (almost as good as 1983)

Started secondary school in September.

Bought a different version of Two Tribes each week. It was number one for nine weeks in total.

RTE1 on Friday nights from September. Hammer House Of Mystery and Suspense. When that finished we got a new series called Miami Vice.

The Smiths reaching number one in Fanning's Fab 50.

Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Top Secret in the cinema.

Cicero

If you went to Belfast you would still be frisked going into shops by the RUC.
Big news was Christmas 1984 and Bandaid do they know it's Christmas?

1984 was also the year the series of Frankie Say ... T shirts came out...they were totally Chav even then..

The USSR boycotted the Los Angles Summer Olympics

Charles Mitchell, RTE newscaster broadcast his last news.

John C

The year 1984 is long long over. Vague memories are:
- Vincent Hanley (RIP) had a show MT USA (or similar) on RTE on Sunday afternoon. Music videos became more widespread.
- Michael J: Billy Jean, Beat it, Thriller.
- Cindy Lauper, ZZ Topp, Lionel Richie.

Ben Johnson did participate in the 1984 Olympics in LA. He was tested in Seoul in 1988.

- There was some disturbance at Slane during/after a concert. A mate told me that the media report was all hype.

- The dollar became a very strong currency. At one stage 1 USA $ = 1 Irish Pound.

It is many moons ago and many bus rides away from me here today.

Degsy

I started secondary school that september....there was a heightened Cold War tension around that time due to the deployment of US Cruise missiles in Britain.