What do you remember of your teenage years [see details]?

The Scorpions

Fashion – Pierre Cardin Jeans and pointy toed elephant skin Tony Lamas.

Music – Styx Grand Illusion, Queen News of the World.

Movie – Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Family – Feud.

News – CNN’s Lynn Russell. I fantasized about sexing her up. Might still.

Fashion: Those huge freaky pants with a thousand pockets.

Music: Rammstein – Sehnsuct

Movie/TV Show: The Matrix/The X-Files

Family: Parents got divorced

News: 9/11

Yeah, I was a little weird back then. I’ve come a long way.

Fashion: jeans and music tshirt (Bauhaus, PIL, Joy Division, etc.). Yep. Had no style.
Music: Ministry’s “Land of Rape and Honey”. wore it out on my walkman at school
Movie: Eraserhead and Brazil (on VHS. Lots of VHS.)
Family: Didn’t see much of them.
News: The Reagan nightmare

1) Fashion: Cargo shorts. They were great because we all had big phones. Ooh, and khakis. Remember those Gap commercials with all the dancing khaki-wearing Friends lookalikes?
2) Music: the Hootie and the Blowfish album. You know, the one you owned too.
3) Movie/TV show: the Mummy. I saw that movie dozens of times.
4) Family: Got nothing here, really.
5) News: Columbine High School shootings.

Fashion: Satin jacket and leg warmers.
Music: REO Speedwagon’s Hi Infidelity
Movie: Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Family: Challenging
News: Ronald Reagan being shot and no nukes concerts.

Fashion: I had a long white jacket (kind of like a doctor’s jacket) that looked like something Boy George wore. All of us girls had big chunky geometric shaped earrings in neon colors and we would wear a medley of 3 different colors of eye shadow to get our eyes to look like This We also wore a lot of leggings with several pairs of layered socks and these weird high topped canvas lace up shoes (not high topped tennis shoes). Or Michael Jackson-esque jazz shoes like the ones in This Picture

Music: Culture Club, ABC, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Doors (which made a huge comeback in the 80’s) U2, The Police and Spandau Ballet.

Movie/TV: M*A*S*H, Hillstreet Blues, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The original Star Wars movies

Family Events: Backyard BBQ’s, going to the beach

News: Paul McCartney was jailed in Japan for bringing a small quantity of marijuana into the country. Thousands of fans camped outside the jail for days. The Japanese Wings tour was canceled. John Lennon was murdered. Ronald Reagan was shot.

1) Fashion: A Frank Zappa T shirt
2) Music: Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel
3) Movie/TV show: Popeye cartoons.
4) Family: Nothing of general interest
5) News: President Kennedy being shot

This is around 1984, when I was 14–15 years old:

1) Fashion: An item of clothing that belonged to you. I had a white cotton snap-button top where the buttons were asymmetrical; they laid to the right side of the shirt, but the top button was at my neck and there was a weird collar that sat really high, like I was in a Flock Of Seagulls, or something.

2) Music: An album you owned. I had two cassettes that I hid away from my fundy caretaker: Duran Duran’s self-titled first album (the British version, so it didn’t have “Is There Something I Should Know?” on it), and R.E.M.‘s first EP Chronic Town, though both bands had each put out 2 more albums by then.

3) Movie/TV show: A personal favourite. From those days, I loved Red Dwarf and Black Adder. I was also able to see the early series of French & Saunders on the Comedy Channel on U.S. cable before it became Comedy Central

4) Family: Events close to home. Oy, gevalt. Pass!

5) News: Something memorable in world events from that time. Oy, gevalt! the Reagan Administration’s support of the Contras in Nicaragua. It was a mess. Those dudes were killing their own and foreign civilians left and right, and I remember seeing footage of a soldier blowing away an NBC reporter point blank. That’s when I decided not to go into news or politics.

Fashion” Bell bottoms and Levi 501’s, and ‘Ditto’ jeans

Music: All the 70s greatest I was a major Deadhead for years

Movie/TV shows: Little House on the Prairie, M.A.S.H. Bob Newhart, Charlies Angels, The Six Million dollar man, The Star Wars movies

News: Watergate scandal. Patty Hearst kidnapping, the first ‘Earth Day’, The beginnings of ‘Greenpeace’, the end of the Vietnam war, Legionaires disease, ‘Son of Sam”, The Susan B. Anthony dollar and Roe vs. Wade…big stuff in the 70’s!

Fashion: Bell-bottom hip-huggers
Music; Rubber Soul
TV: Original Star Trek
Family: meh
News: ‘Nam

1) Fashion: An item of clothing that belonged to you. Nothing I can remember; I could not have cared less about style.

2) Music: An album you owned.- Rush- Subdivisions.

3) Movie/TV show: A personal favourite.- Quincy, ME

4) Family: Events close to home.- Not much to say here.

5) News: Something memorable in world events from that time.- The fall of the Berlin Wall, the Iran hostage crisis, the death of Elvis Presley, the Bicentennial.

Hey, I forgot to list mine, how remiss of me. Let’s put that right…..

Fashion: Several pair of skin tight, pin stripe jeans & an equal amount of Dr. Martens boots.
Music: The Hurting by Tears For Fears.
Movie/TV show: The Young Ones.
Family: Lost all contact with my so called “Dad.”
News: Live Aid concert, which I attended.

Cheers folks, good stuff! ;¬}

Fashion: Red and black motor jacket.
LP: Kiss – Dynasty
TV: Avro’s Toppop Show
Family: They were all still alive, the grannies and grandpas.
News: First Space Shuttle to go up must have been around that time.

forgot TV: MTV used to do “120 Minutes”, Flying Circus, and The Young Ones all in a row (if I’m not mistaken). Didn’t get any better than that.

The viagra ads tell us to see a doctor if we have an erection that lasts more than four hours. I must have spent my teenage years in the hospital as I seem to recall having a boner for five or six years

Fashion: I’ve always been clueless, but I do remember wearing my Dad’s white dress shirt to school

Music: The Beach Boys, and of course The Beatles and Elvis Presley

Movie/TV: original episodes of I Love Lucy; Ozzie and Harriet see list

Family: I got hit by a dodge ball at school which ruptured my appendix. The doctor botched the operation, and I nearly died. My whole family gathered at our house that Christmas, and no one expected me to see my 13th birthday in January.

Going to Disneyland on it’s one year anniversary. I was also there for it’s 50th anniversary

We went from all our Aunts, Uncles and cousins living with in walking distance to spread out across the country. It was a sad time for me. My parents were the first to move, into a better high school district, and one by one their brothers and sisters also moved away, to exotic places like California, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

Our vacations took on Marathon proportions, traveling three thousand miles round trip in two weeks, staying in tents every night.

News: Sputnik; transistor radios; Korean War; TV dinners; gasoline for 25 cents a gallon.

@YARNLADY Fantastic, I was genuinely fascinated by your story, thanks for that.

I had a scarf [even if I did not use it].
I had a Sugar Hill album [cant’ remember if it was the one from 1980 or 1982].
Bill Cosby [I loved “The Cosby show”].
We all got together for the weekend [every weekend and all the family except those in hospitals].
Georgi Markov was murdered in London with an umbrella by poison. [was something cool and one didn’t hear such things every day… at least the umbrella pellets].

1) Fashion: An item of clothing that belonged to you.
Black leather boots will metal skulls for the buckles

2) Music: An album you owned.
AC/DC’s Highway To Hell

3) Movie/TV show: A personal favourite.
G-Force

4) Family: Events close to home.
We didn’t do family stuff.

5) News: Something memorable in world events from that time
Mt. St. Helens erupting.

1) Fashion: Preppy clothes – Cheeno slacks, button-downs, loafers and a Bermuda handbag with changeable covers.
2) Music: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors
3) Movie/TV show: Soap(TV_series)
4) Family: The marriages of my sister and brother. NO, they didn’t marry each other.
5) News: The assassination of John Lennon. I’m still not quite over it.

@Pied_Pfeffer the assassination of John Lennon is one of the very first national events I remember. The next day at school about half of the kids wore black or at least black arm bands and a bunch of kids were carrying boom-boxes and playing Let it Be. It was a very sad day.

@SuperMouse Your response made me a bit weepy. I’m not a vengeful person, but if I outlive Mark David Chapman, I may add to my Bucket List to tinkle on his grave. It won’t bother him, but it would make me feel a bit better.

1) Fashion: An item of clothing that belonged to you.

My first pair of jeans. God I loved them. I remember going to the underground markets in Manchester with my friends to buy them. I wore them to death.

2) Music: An album you owned.

L A Woman – The Doors. I still love this album. Don’t think my dad liked it much!

3) Movie/TV show: A personal favourite.

The Exorcist. Not a favourite. Scared the shit out of me and I couldn’t sleep with the light off for weeks. My dad was not impressed. Then there was Emmanuel. I worked at a shoe shop and a few of the juniors decided to go to the movies and were deciding what to see. Our boss said .. “oh go and see Emmanuel. It’s a beautiful love story. You will really like it”. So off we went to the cinema. Thought the place looked a bit dodgy but we were 13!!! Had no real experience of seedy cinemas OR understanding of why the audience appeared to be made up of dirty old men. We went to seats in the front few rows and then were too stunned and horrified to move for the rest of the session! Funny now… not so much then.

4) Family: Events close to home.

The fair each year. We would go and flirt with the guys who worked on the fair and ride on the Waltzers for hours.

5) News: Something memorable in world events from that time.

Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.

1) Fashion: A long denim skirt that I drew skulls and crap all over with a marker. Wasn’t really part of the hot fashion of the mid nineties, but I loved that skirt lol.

2) Music: Metallica Justice for All

*3) Movie/TV show: * For TV shows, it was The Simpsons, Xena Warrior Princess and…Sailor Moon. Favourite movie then was Dawn of the Dead. That’s when I first learned of it and I wouldn’t stop watching it.

4) Family: Events close to home. I won tickets from the radio to the premier showing of Halloween H20. My dad always used to take me to movies, so this time I took him. XD But we had a really good time, despite him totally hating movies like Halloween. Not a real event, but nothing really eventful happened to us much.

5) News: Something memorable in world events from that time. The whole OJ Simpson thing.

1) Fashion: Bell bottom jeans and flannel shirts!
2) Music: Aerosmith Toys in the Attic…still have it too!
3) Movie/TV show: Gilligans Island
4) Family: Xmas eve family celebrations
5) News: Landing on the moon and Vietnam war protests outside my school.

1) Fashion: a Daniel Hechter sweater
2) Music: two: INXS’s Kick and Erasure’s Innocents
3) Movie/TV show: LA Law
4) Family: My oldest sister having my nephew who was the only the 2nd boy born in my family since 1966
5) News: Muammar Gaddafi

My teen years were the late 60’s to Mid 70’s.
1) Fashion: I had an Oakland A’s jersey. I wore it to games. Now, my son wears it.
2) Music: Beatles Beatles Beatles.
3) Movie/TV show: I loved Banacek, Diamonds Are Forever, and the Night Stalker.
4) Family: My father had a massive heart attack just before Christmas, 1972. He survived it, severly weakened.
5) News: Watergate, Viet Nam, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Landing on the Moon.

@filmfann HS!! Banacek!!! Major way back machine trip with that one!!

I really had the hots for George Peppard…yum.

Fashion: 20 eyelet Doc Martins/Pink hair and thrift store finds.
Music: NOFX white trash two heebs and a bean
Movie: Pecker
News: Monica Lewinsky gave the president head…

Fashion: Deck shoes, Izod polo shirts, skinny jeans (They came back. I own new ones now!)
Music: Michael Jackson’s Thriller
Movie: Prince’s Purple Rain, Red Dawn
Family: My uncle, the sexual abuser, left the state. I was FREE, baby!
News: The Challenger explosion and John Lennon’s death.

1) My idea of fashion as a teenager was anything that had a slight 60’s or hippy feel. I would often wear a big, bright flower in my hair and sunglasses that would have made John Lennon proud. This sense of “style” didn’t always go down to well with other teenagers.

2) As a teenager I was a music snob. I, more or less, refused to acknowledge anything that was popular in the 90’s and 00’s. I was a Dusty Springfield, Abba and Meat Loaf fan (still am but I’m a little more open minded). My favourite album at the time was A Very Fine Love by Dusty.

3) I’m ashamed to say that my favourite TV show as a teenager was probably Neighbours (Australian soap opera). Nowadays I hate soaps but can still tolerate Neighbours.

4) My mum was unwell for the majority of my teenage years. She suffered with an eating disorder and I always felt like the “grown up” in the family.

5) 9/11 was very memorable.

This is an awesome question!

@Leanne1986 Cheers, I think so too.

Anyone remember Doc Martin shoes?

Doc Martens? Required shoes in the 80s. You could get the steel-toed ones that would save your toes at shows.

@Symbeline – Of course! I had the red boots, the mary janes and the regular black ones. I’d get a pair now if they were from the old days. The newer versions are shite.

@tom_g I heard that those started out as shoes made for dock workers. Resistant to wet surfaces, and steel toe makes sense. I’m more familiar with the 90’s brands, including purple knee boots.

@aprilsimnel Haha, I had black ones too, and dark red ones. I saw some green and purple ones, too. And the imitation brands people would laugh at. XD

And those still exist today? I mean, newer versions. Originals must too, and aye, I would also get some.

Only in the last few years has the some of production been brought back to the UK, to one factory. That factory produces the “vintage” line of boots made to the original specs.

The cheaper ones you can buy today are made in Thailand and China, and the difference in quality is very noticeable. Companies in the UK that also manufactured Docs for years have sprung up with their own brands: Tredair and Solovair.

Interesting. Yeah I guess you can find imitation brands all over…but what are those other brands like? I need myself some real hardcore punk boots, here.

Of course, real punks would laugh at me for paying 200 dollars for footwear, but I have a thick Goth history so…XD

Solovairs are awesome. Mind, these are the same UK companies that Doc Marten outsourced to back in the day, so they still have all the same machinery and specs.

Tredairs aren’t too shabby, either. They even make Creepers.

@aprilsimnel Oh shit. Solovairs are really cool. If it’s a UK company, I might be hard pressed to find that in Canada? I’m gonna have to search around on the net. :/

Err, yeah I remember them. I mean, they’re up there in my answer that’s all.
I’d put coloured laces in em, & fasten multiple D rings onto the tag at the back…...so i’d rattle when I walked. Kind of like spurs only more friendly to ponies.

I have mentioned here before that my first job was in a shoe shop. We were under strict instructions not to leave the Doc Martens unattended because people would flog them so often. People would come in, try them on, then ask for another size and bugger off with the other pair. So we had to take the first pair with us when we went to get another size.