Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
Relive the charm of the 1980s through these unforgettable items.
Young people today have thousands of photos and videos of their lives on their phone, but ’80s kids had way, WAY fewer photos of their lives. Why? Because getting a photo was a hassle. Film was expensive, you had to get someone to drive you to the photo development booth so they could process and print the photos (which cost MORE money), and then you had to come back later to pick up your photos…most of which were blurry or poorly framed!
Considering all of that, it’s amazing how many photos kids did take. Polaroid cameras (seen above) which immediately spit out a soon-to-be finished photo helped, but still, the amount of photos I personally took during my childhood could probably fit in a shoebox.
Schools in most places could legally discipline students by hitting them…and many did!
Growing up in California (where corporal punishment of students was banned in 1986), I never heard of anyone getting hit (although I was only 10 when the ban went into effect). But I heard about it happening in other states, and when I spent a year in Sydney, Australia, in 1989, my school there still used it from time to time.
I clearly remember a day when a kid in my class (who had “Sex Pistols” scratched onto his pencil case) got sent to the headmaster’s office for one infraction or the other where he was “paddled” (smacked on the b**t with a paddle). He later dropped his pants in the bathroom to show off the red marks on his **t (this was a boys’ school). Not something that would likely happen today!
Speaking of school, if you needed to write a report, there was no researching it online. You had to get up off your b**t, go down to the library, and find books…either with the librarian’s help or using the Dewey Decimal System (a complicated system to find books seen below that all kids were taught in school). If it sounds like a pain in the ***, it was!
Smoking was pretty much allowed everywhere…even in restaurants. In fact, most restaurants had two sections — one for smokers and one for non-smokers — so when you approached the hostess, they would generally greet you with “Smoking or non?”
For the record, even the “non-smoking” section had at least some smoke wafting into it as there was no way to keep the smoke on just one side of the restaurant.
Smoking was allowed on planes, too, which I distinctly remember seeing happen IRL. The first law banning smoking on most domestic flights went into effect in 1988 — and then only on flights of less than two hours!
There was just so much smoking in general, including cigarette vending machines out in the open.
Smoking wasn’t largely sidelined like it is today (in most states…I realize some states still smoke more than others).
There was a phone number you’d call (767-2676 or “POP-CORN,” at least in California) to find out what time it was.
Now you might be thinking, why would you need to call someone to find out the time of day? But you have to remember there was no internet back then to tell you the exact time, and no modern-style cellphone with the exact time either. So, if you had a power failure, or just worried your clocks were slow (hey, it happened), you’d call the number. I can still hear her voice: “At the tone, Pacific Daylight time will be…”
Along similar lines, you couldn’t just google a number on your phone, so if you wanted to call, say, a restaurant, you had to either look it up in the phone book or call “information” where an operator gave you the number.
But the worst part of ONLY having a landline phone to communicate was that — when you wanted to talk to your friend or, gasp, crush — you had to dial their number and likely talk to their mom or dad first. Gah!
“Uh, hello, Mr. O’Ryan. Could I p-p-please speak with — voice breaks — Stephanie.”
Speaking of kids talking to adults, back in the ’80s, you absolutely addressed adults as Mr. or Mrs./Ms. and their last name. Nowadays, kids tend to address adults by their first name.
As a dad, I don’t mind my kids’ friends calling me “Mike.” But, man, that sure wouldn’t have gone over well back in the day!
Going to the movies in the ’80s was VERY different than it is today. First, you couldn’t just look up showtimes online, so you either found them in the newspaper (like below) or called the theater to hear a pre-recorded message that seemed to take FOREVER, especially when your movie was at the end of the call.
After two long minutes of waiting: “In theater nine we have When Harry Met Sally… starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Showtimes are 10:15, 2:30, 5:45…”
But — worse yet! — you couldn’t buy a ticket or pick your seat online either! You had to drive to the theater — with no guarantee the movie wouldn’t be sold out — and wait in line to buy your ticket. If you managed to snag a ticket, you then had to hustle to the screening room and grab a decent seat so you didn’t get stuck in the first two rows because seats were first come, first serve.
If you wanted concession food, you generally had one person wait in the screening room to “save” the seats while the other bought the food.
Lastly, it maybe goes without saying, but the seats didn’t recline or warm up. They were pretty uncomfortable, to be honest. But hey — at least the ’80s had its share of pretty fantastic movies to make it all worthwhile!
There was massive anti-drug hysteria in the ’80s. First Lady Nancy Reagan led a “Just Say No!” campaign — complete with celebs forcefully telling us how dangerous drugs were — and it convinced me I was constantly at risk of a shady drug dealer approaching and “pushing” drugs on me. Like, it was a real fear! Never mind that I was 8 and broke.
No phones/internet meant that kids spent most of their time playing outside…often doing things their parents would NOT approve of. This meme really says it all:
The mall was the place to be in the ’80s. Once there you could browse new toys and fashions, listen to music at record stores, talk to friends…it was basically the internet of its time!
Speaking of ’80s kids going to the mall, it blows my mind that my parents would be like, “Meet me in front of the Sears at exactly 6 p.m.” and then have to just go on faith that their kid would be there five hours later, with no way to track or communicate with them until then!
I loved the freedom as a kid, but today, I am thankful to be able to send an “Everything good?” text to my kids when they’re away from home.