What era/decade did you miss out on or want to relive?
Discussion
Inspired by the 'Things you can't get now but wish you could' thread:
I thought I would ask the bigger question of which era or decade(s) do you feel you were too young to enjoy, missed out on altogether, or would relive tomorrow if you could?
For me, I'm going to say the 80's and early 90's. I was born very early 80's, so as a child, I didn't get to experience them like my parents generation did, and when I listen to them talk about the 80's with their friends after a few glasses of wine, I really feel I missed out.
For them it was the decade of excess. Proper Gordon Gecko stuff. It was cocktail bars, restaurants, Discotheques, pinstripe suits, carphones, briefcases, widebody 911's with whale tails, the explosion of computing, offices in the city, flying by the seat of your pants building a business without having clue what you were doing, buying property, holidaying abroad, and so on. Seemingly anything was possible if you reached out to grab it, or moved to a big city, or just had a go.
It was an exciting decade of change. The governments foolish introduction of 'Section 28' legislation encouraged a huge uprising in gay rights, and it was a time when men could wear makeup and dress like women, and women could dress like men. Culturally the 80's were a massive shift for the UK.
Love the music, the cars, the culture, the attitudes. There was plenty of great technology, but not to the point that it invades our lives 24/7 like it does now. The kids of the 80's had a great mix of computer technology and 'outdoor' hobbies like BMX, skateboard, radio controlled cars and so on.
Satellite TV arrived in 1989 with only 10 channels, but it was glorious, and MTV was just amazing.
I sometimes wish I could be working on a green screen monitor in my office, in my pinstripe suit, using a proper desk phone, with a copy of The Times, before grabbing my briefcase and my 'brick phone' and heading down to a flashy cocktail bar to get pissed on Pina Colada with a bunch of other obnoxious braying office workers, all wearing Rolex Datejust's, before all hitting TGI Fridays and having a loud discussion about which Porsche I might be buying next..
I appreciate there is always an significant element of rose tinted spectacles going on with this sort of thing, but it's still fun to think about.
What did you miss out on? The roaring 20's? The Sixties? The Disco era?
I thought I would ask the bigger question of which era or decade(s) do you feel you were too young to enjoy, missed out on altogether, or would relive tomorrow if you could?
For me, I'm going to say the 80's and early 90's. I was born very early 80's, so as a child, I didn't get to experience them like my parents generation did, and when I listen to them talk about the 80's with their friends after a few glasses of wine, I really feel I missed out.
For them it was the decade of excess. Proper Gordon Gecko stuff. It was cocktail bars, restaurants, Discotheques, pinstripe suits, carphones, briefcases, widebody 911's with whale tails, the explosion of computing, offices in the city, flying by the seat of your pants building a business without having clue what you were doing, buying property, holidaying abroad, and so on. Seemingly anything was possible if you reached out to grab it, or moved to a big city, or just had a go.
It was an exciting decade of change. The governments foolish introduction of 'Section 28' legislation encouraged a huge uprising in gay rights, and it was a time when men could wear makeup and dress like women, and women could dress like men. Culturally the 80's were a massive shift for the UK.
Love the music, the cars, the culture, the attitudes. There was plenty of great technology, but not to the point that it invades our lives 24/7 like it does now. The kids of the 80's had a great mix of computer technology and 'outdoor' hobbies like BMX, skateboard, radio controlled cars and so on.
Satellite TV arrived in 1989 with only 10 channels, but it was glorious, and MTV was just amazing.
I sometimes wish I could be working on a green screen monitor in my office, in my pinstripe suit, using a proper desk phone, with a copy of The Times, before grabbing my briefcase and my 'brick phone' and heading down to a flashy cocktail bar to get pissed on Pina Colada with a bunch of other obnoxious braying office workers, all wearing Rolex Datejust's, before all hitting TGI Fridays and having a loud discussion about which Porsche I might be buying next..
I appreciate there is always an significant element of rose tinted spectacles going on with this sort of thing, but it's still fun to think about.
What did you miss out on? The roaring 20's? The Sixties? The Disco era?
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 13th September 17:31
eyebeebe said:
Born in 1980 and think the same as you, with the added element of the rave/acid house culture and trips to Ibiza.
Yep.House music alone is a reason to love the 80's. I'll also had Hip-Hop, New Wave, and Synthpop into the mix. What a hell of an era to be going to a nightclub!
I was born at the start of 1971 so grew up through the 80s and 90s and enjoyed 20 years of superb music, so no real complaints. Other than the racism, riots, strikes and power cuts (ok some of that was the 70s). Food was awful and so was the booze, however smoking in pubs was cool if you were a smoker and we used to talk to/go out with real girls, instead of staring at them on our mobile phones which hadn’t been invented. If you wanted to contact somebody, you went to a phone box with a stack of 2ps. Happy days 
The mid 90s were ace, I’d relive it in a heartbeat. The music was amazing, you could be at a Brit rock concert one day, watching Fat Boy Slim the next, every genre was just incredible. Culturally it wasn’t high brow (Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and erm, Loaded magazine, but who cared, New Labour getting stronger, the nation riding a wave of optimism…. And a very horny young man in Bristol….
Gary29 said:
I was born in '81, I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but those first 20 years of my life were absolutely PERFECT, couldn't have asked for a better childhood, despite us being cash poor, I was rich in every other department, and would gladly go back and start all over again.
The world really did change for me in September 2001, all that innocence and joy seemed to be lost and it's never come back, despite becoming a father and now having a few quid in my back pocket (compared to previous!) I really don't have the same joy or zest for life anymore.
I realise there is a large chunk of rose tintedness in there, but I do think the world changed on 9/11.
Or, is it to quote the Manic Street Preachers "There's nothing nice in my head, The adult world took it all away"? Personally I don't think anything changed as such on 9/11, but the transition from no resposibility to adult responsibilities is slow and unperceivable. It is only when you stop and look back at when you were younger that you dream of those times again.The world really did change for me in September 2001, all that innocence and joy seemed to be lost and it's never come back, despite becoming a father and now having a few quid in my back pocket (compared to previous!) I really don't have the same joy or zest for life anymore.
I realise there is a large chunk of rose tintedness in there, but I do think the world changed on 9/11.
I think this is the main reason people are into cars and music from earlier eras, it just takes them back and nostalgia sells.
Not sure about 9/11 but things definitely started to feel rubbish around the 2008 banking crisis and we’ve never really recovered. Before that we had sub prime lending and an economy built on debt and after, wage stagnation and more debt. Austerity to lower the national debt, after 2008 was pants, Brexit was also rubbish and then Covid which has put us back to around 1945. Poverty, high taxes and low wages. What’s not to like?
steveo3002 said:
id not mind a look at 50s-80s USA if i could avoid all the bad stuff like getting sent to Vietnam etc
You’d really enjoy Bill Bryson’s book “The Thunderbolt Kid”, it’s is early life which is basically this period. There’s another good similar coming of age book called Rocket kids or something like that, I’ll find it…Rocket Boys by Homer Hickan, turned into a film called October Sky apparently
I am quite happy in the current era, I just wish I had enough money to not have to worry or care about anything. All this Woke/Covid/Inflation/Supply shortages/eco Armageddon stuff is just noise, just turn off your TV, delete social media, stop reading the news and it no longer becomes a problem. It is ultimately pointless worrying about it as you have zero control over it anyway.
If I had enough money to live a life where everything was taken care of and I literally didn't even have to get out of bed if I didn't want to I would be a much happier person.
I would imagine all eras in mankind have been great as long as you had enough money.
If I had enough money to live a life where everything was taken care of and I literally didn't even have to get out of bed if I didn't want to I would be a much happier person.
I would imagine all eras in mankind have been great as long as you had enough money.
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