Howdy from the REAL capital of Ireland, Cork...

This is a small look at what growing up in Ireland was like in the 1980's.
(For people reading this who are from outside of Ireland, you will probably not recognise some of the TV programs and games but hopefully the majority of things are probably the same everywhere else)

• Hide and Seek in the park,
• The shop down the road,
• Hopscotch,
• Donkey,
• Skipping,
• Handstands,
• Butcher,
• Piggy back fights,
• Stuck in the mud,
• Football with an old can,
• Dandy,
• Beano,
• Buster,
• Whizzer and Chips
• Hula Hoops,
• Tayto,
• Jumping the stream,
• Building a swing from a tyre and a piece of rope tied to a tree, (If you live in Dublin the lampost),
• Building tree-houses,
• Climbing up onto roofs.
• Tennis on the street,
• The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.
• Hubba Bubba bubble gum and 2p Flogs,
• Macaroon bars and woppas,
• 3p Refreshers and wham bars,
• Superhero chewing gum,
• Golf ball chewing gums and liquorice whips,
• Desperate dan and roy of the rovers,
• Sherbit dips and Mr. freezes,
• Marathon bars (now called snickers) and everlasting gobstoppers.
• Mars bars
• An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune
• Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe neopolitan ice cream.
• Robin hood ice-lollie

• Watching Saturday Morning cartoons
• Short commercials,
• Battle of the Planets,
• Road Runner,
• He-Man,
• Swapshop and Why Don't You?,
• Transformers,
• How do you do?,
• Bosco,
• Forty-coats,
• the Littlest Hobo and Lassie,
• Chucklevision,
• The Muppet Show,
• Fraggle Rock,
• MacGyver,
• Dempsey's Den
• Anything Goes,
• Scratch Saturday,
• Tom and Jerry,
• Worzel Gummidge,
• Scarecrow and Mrs King,
• Streets of San Fransico,
• Cagney and Lacy,
• Murder She Wrote,
• Matlock,
• TJ hooker,
• A -team,
• Gummy bears
• Disney's Snow White was brand new
• Captain Planet
• Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven,
• Staying up for Knight Rider and Magnum PI.
• When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.
• A million midget bites,
• Sticky fingers and mud all over you,
• Knee-pads on your jeans,
• Cops and Robbers,
• Rounders,
• Tip the Can,
• Queenie-I-O,
• Climbing trees,
• Spin the bottle,
• Walking to school, no matter what the weather,
• Running till you were out of breath.
• Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt,
• Jumping on the bed.
• Pillow fights,
• Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rodgers was cool
• Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles,
• Being tired from playing... Remember that?
• The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
• Water balloons were the ultimate weapon
• Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
• And don't forget the Marietta sandwiches we'd make by buttering a cupla Marietta biscuits and stickin' them together.
• And that quare oul mixture made in a tall glass with HB ice cream and Taylor Keith Red Lemonade.
  

• Eating raw jelly, orange squash ice pops.
• Rushing home from school to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters.
• When there were two types of sneakers - girls and boys and Dunlop Green Flash and the only time you wore them at school, was for "P.E.", Gola football boots.
• When it wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends,
• When nobody owned a pure bred dog,
• When 25p was decent pocket money,
• When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny,
• When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there,
• When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents
• When any parent could discipline any kid or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
• When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of muggings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!
  

And finally Remember when....

• Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo." Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
• "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
• Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly", the game of life and connect four, atari 2600's and commodore 64's.
• Super Mario Bros. was cool
• Super Mario Bros. 3 was way cooler.
• The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. It was unbelievable that Red rover wasn't an Olympic event...
• Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a biro barrel pea shooter or an elastic band. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better,
• Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable vitamins,
• Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
• Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true..
• Abilities were discovered because of a "double dare"
• St Patricks Day parades were awesome
• Ireland soccer team qualifying for Euro'88 was the best thing ever.
• Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
  

# posted by Noel Burke @ 10:22 PM