The Good Old Days

What conversation we had last night, me and my friends! We talked a lot about the good old days, namely the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. How times change! When I see the kids today, I almost feel sorry for them, because they are never going to experience most of the things that we have been through when we were kids. For instance, today you hear kids talking about the latest computer technology, everyone brags about their favourite game on PlayStation, etc. You no longer see kids playing in the streets, like we used to do, on some home-made skate-board (which had not lasted longer than an hour). When we were kids, we didn't even know what a computer looked like, and today six-year olds can use it better than I do.

When I was ten, and had my Holy Confirmation, my godmother had given me the most popular gift at that time - a gold name on a chain, and a gold bracelet. Today, six-year old kids ask for a mobile phone for their First Communion. When I was a little girl, my mother was never worried because I spent the whole day out, and she had nowhere to contact me. And today, I am 27 years old, and before I leave home she always asks me whether I have taken my mobile phone with me, or not, in case something happens.

We were lucky to even have a telephone when I was a kid! When we had first applied for a telephone line, first the phone company had installed on of those large, rotary grey phones, but we had to wait for one year until we got a line. I remember me and my brother jumping on each other, and celebrating because now we had a working phone.

The cartoons of those times were real cartoons, not like the ones that you see today - everything in 3D and computer generated. I used to spend hours watching Jem and the Holograms, and dreaming that someday I would have a pair of earrings just like hers. At school, everyone talked about Kiss Me Licia - and more than half of the girls - me included - had a crush on Mirko. On Saturdays, me and my brother never missed one episode of Webster. I remember watching my favourite TV programs on an enormous black and white TV. I remember how excited me and my brother were when my parents had bought our first colour TV - which is still in perfect working condition today. I used to adore The Smurfs, and my mother had gotten me a set of small Toy Smurfs with the Go juices tops she had collected, and me and my brother used to spend hours playing with them.

I used to look at the teenagers in my village, and wished I could dress like them. But in the 80s I was still a little girl, and so normally I would be wearing something that my mother had picked out for me, together with a pair of red jelly shoes. How they used to irritate my feet! I can still remember everyone wearing Girl London and Boy London T-Shirts. It was of the utmost importance, though that every single thing was adorned with red, green, yellow or blue badges, those that we used to find in chewing gum packets, and on which were written the name of a famous 80s star, such as Madonna, Nik Kershaw or Paul Young. Sometimes, when I'm going through some old junk, I always manage to turn up one of these badges - I had so many of them. And then there were there the Stars. You would buy a small packet, in which there would be 6 small playing cards, all portraying 80s stars, and the packet also including 2 small chewing gums. It cost only 6c (approx. 14 euro cents). I had managed to collect two full sets of these playing cards. And then about three years ago, I got home from work, and my mother said, "Guess what I just threw away today?" What a foul mood I was in that day! If the refuse collector had not already passed, I would have definitely gone diving in the skip to retrieve them! And at school, if you wanted to be cool, and part of the in-crowd, you definitely had to have a Madonna or Wham! cover notebook, that we used to buy from the little store called Far Out. I had bought one of each, just to be sure (they only cost 10c each). And we used to write on them with those fat pens, that contained more than 10 scented colours, and that we used to buy for 75c from the stationery near the school.

You wanted to wear the latest fashion? Then you most certainly had to have a slap bracelet. These were like flexible rulers, that used to twist themselves around the wrist when slapped against it, forming a kind of bracelet. Everyone tried to do their best to purchase the most beautiful one. I had quite a few, and I know that somewhere in my junk drawer, there is still my most popular bracelet, that everyone wanted to trade with, and that I simply refused to part from. Up to a couple of years ago, it still had its slap. And then by time I turned 10, fluorescent clothes became fashionable, and I had received four of these tops for my birthday. It was very important that these were worn with a pair of same colour socks. At least I was safe in the dark! At that time, I also had a favourite outfit. These were a set consisting of a wide short skirt, and a white T-Shirt. The T-shirt had a fluorescent print of a dancing couple on it, and beneath it was written - again in fluorescent colours - the legend Lambada Danse. And the skirt consisted of the same print, but this time in black and white. I used to feel like I was walking the red carpet at an Awards ceremony, every time that I wore this outfit!

And then suddenly, the 80s were over, and the 90s started. Now I was growing up, so I tried to understand more. Things started to change. Even music changed. The New Kids On The Block were forgotten, as their place was taken by Take That, and so naturally I hated that band. (Yes, believe me, I really did hate them - back then Robbie Williams wasn't the sexiest man alive yet.) But this hatred had eventually turned in my favour, because at that time I was crazy about Brandon and Dylan from Beverly Hills 90210, and my penfriends loved Take That, and so we used to exchange posters by mail. I had a whole wall totally covered in 90210 posters, which I had stuck with superglue. (I can still hearing the echoes of my father's swearing when I had taken them off.)

Now I could follow fashion better. Every morning before school, I used to tie my hair up in a high pony-tail with a thick towel rubber band, and then I used to wrap around this a pair of pantyhose, and then I used to cover everything up with a bandanna. It was very important that my pony-tail would tower a good half-a-foot above my head. And then after that ordeal it was time for my bangs! I used to go through a large bottle of Wella hairspray in a week, to keep my bangs as high, and ruffled as much as I could. At school it wasn't important whether I had taken my books, or my lunch with me. What mattered were the comb, the mirror and the hairspray, so that between lessons, I could do more back-combing. And on special occassions! I used to spend a whole day at the hairdresser's, so that I could come out of the salon looking as if I had just spent a week in a hurricane, and did not comb afterwards. Sometimes I used to go through my hair with the crimper too, and it would look like a rough sea in January. And then I would wear a short pleated skirt, or one of those skirt-trousers things, and a shirt tied in a knot showing off my then-flat belly. One year, I had even hung as many plastic dummies as I could find, since they were in. And I have not yet mentioned the countless amounts of earrings that I used to buy, because the Head teacher was always confiscating them, since my ears were pierced all over.

Speaking of school, I remember that when we had to do a project, we used to spend weeks going through magazines, cutting the pictures, and drawing others. Then we used to write everything in our best handwriting, and the cover titles were always done in stencils. Then by the time I was 14, I had learnt typing, and so I had started to use the typewriter to type my projects. We used to spend hours researching encyclopedias, and library books to gather the information, because back then we had not even heard of the word Internet.

On weekends, we used to go out with little more than Lm5 in our pockets (a little less than 12 Euros), but we still managed to have fun. Sometimes we would become like, totally drunk with less than Lm2, because we would buy a bottle of the cheapest local wine, and two bottles of lemonade, and we would drink them while waiting for the bus. Every Friday and Sunday we used to go to Reeds Club, the most famous discotheque in the south of the island. That was most certainly the place-to-be in the 90s. On Saturdays, we used to go to Paceville. When we got there, first we would go to Best In Town, watching the Karoake, until it was time to go to Bamboo Bar, and then later we would go to Tremors or Mirage. And all of these in a span of four/four and a half hours, because we were just like Cinderellas, and had to leave with the midnight bus. I can remember how all hell had broken loose at home, when I first started getting home at 1.30am. And it's very difficult to forget those Sunday afternoons in winter, at the Yogis. We always managed to have fun, even though we never had much money.

And now everything is made with the highest technology - and everything is just recycled remains of an era gone by. It's the time of Reality Shows, where nothing is real anymore. It's no wonder that every time we look back, we always have to say The Words - Those were the days!