Australia in the 1980s

I am starting to gather some classic quotes from the 1980s. Most of the ones I have found are from politicians, but I am looking for quotes from other areas of public life and popular culture. Here are some of the quotes I have found so far from real people (as opposed to film and TV characters):

‘We want to be respected again.’ (Ronald Reagan, 1980)

‘Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.’ (Ronald Reagan, August 1980)

‘The eighties will belong to the computer’. (Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter in Australia, 1981)

‘Yes … whatever that may mean.’ (Prince Charles, when asked if he was in love, after the announcement of his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer, 1981)

‘How does it feel to have blood on your hands?’ (Richard Carleton interviewing the new Opposition Leader Bob Hawke, 3 February 1983)

‘Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum’. (Prime Minister Bob Hawke, after the America’s Cup, 1983)

‘We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.’ (Leona Helmsley, hotel owner and the ‘queen of mean’, October 1983. She was convicted in 1989 for tax evasion.)

‘I guess in a way they are counterrevolutionary, and God bless them for being that way. And I guess that makes them contras, and so it makes me a contra, too.’ (President Ronald Reagan, March 1986)

‘We did not — repeat, did not — trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we’. (President Ronald Reagan, November 1986)

‘From this day onwards, Howard will wear his leadership like a crown of thorns, and in the Parliament I’ll do everything to crucify him’. (Treasurer Paul Keating, 1986)

‘By 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty’. (Prime Minister Bob Hawke, 23 June 1987)

‘I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty.’ (Imelda Marcos, 1987)

‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’ (George H W Bush, 18 August 1988)

‘That’s Lazarus with a triple bypass.’ (John Howard, on the day he lost the leadership of the Liberal Party, when asked if he could make a comeback, 9 May 1989)

Can you think of more classic 1980s quotes?

Development of the 1980s exhibition is proceeding fairly well. We hope to have it up and running by December 2009. I am having a little Christmas holiday break but have been working on a kind of ‘vision statement’ (I hate the term. It sounds so institutional but I can’t think of a what else to call it). I guess I’m trying to sum up what this exhibition is going to be all about, to get it clear in my mind. Anyhow, how does this sound for starters?

‘This exhibition takes a light-hearted look at Australian popular culture in the 1980s. It examines the cultural activities, pastimes and entertainments practised and enjoyed in mainstream society. This period shaped the so-called Generation X, and the exhibition will have a strong focus on youth culture.

‘It will interpret the 1980s through subcultures, movements and trends expressed in music, film, television, magazines, celebrity, design and street fashion. It will address the broad sweep of popular culture, placed into historical context through a timeline of newsworthy events. While the emphasis is on the everyday experiences of ‘ordinary’ young Australians, these experiences are contextualised within a global setting.

‘This is conceived as a fun exhibition, but based on a substantial framework of research and knowledge. Its content will draw heavily on the Powerhouse Museum’s collection. The 1980s exhibition will resonate with visitors whose formative years were in the 1980s.’

Some of the recent comments posted here by Wendy and Christen mention fads or crazes from the 1980s, like yo-yos, Sunnyboys and sherbet-filled straws. For me this is déjà-v revisited all over again. You see, I have to fess up to being a mouldy old, dyed-in-the-wool baby boomer. That’s why I need your help on 1980s childhood stuff. The weird thing is that yo-yos, Sunnyboys and sherbet-filled straws were all the rage at my school around 1966. Years later, Peter Allen wrote a song called ‘Everything Old is New Again’ and he was right. As well as Sunnyboys (frozen orange drink in a pyramid-shaped pack, right?), there was Razz – frozen red drink, supposedly raspberry-flavoured. These were highly prized in the school playground on a hot day. I was just wondering if they still exist, did a quick google and voila! There was a suburban myth in my neighbourhood that if you ripped open the empty packaging there was some kind of serial number printed inside that could land you a free Sunnyboy.

It is reasonable to assume that Sunnyboys inspired the name of Jeremy Oxley’s post-punk band from the early 1980s, the Sunnyboys. They had a great song called ‘Alone with You’ around 1981, but I digress.

By my definition, fads are products or practices that come into sudden popularity and disappear just as quickly. And in many cases they return and fade again some years later. Sometimes you think a product is just a fad, but it never goes away. I think the Twister game might fall into this category. It was a big craze when I was a kid in the 1960s, along with were hula hoops and Scanlen’s bubble gum cards dedicated to a particular TV show (I still have a complete set of cards from the Japanese TV series The Samurai – what a show!) And also those slightly bizarre things that were advertised on the back of American comic books – Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs and Bullworker body building kits. They were fads, weren’t they? Oh, and folk music.

Anyhow, back to the 80s and its fads and crazes. There was Rubik’s Cube, of course, Trivial Pursuit, Scratch ’n’ Sniff products and some of stuff mentioned here recently under ’1980s toys and games’. What other fads or crazes were there in the 1980s?

Before Game Boy arrived in 1989, there was Game & Watch, a brand of hand-held electronic games from Nintendo. These weren’t multi-function toys — each Game & Watch allowed you to play just one game. Their success funded the research and development of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy.

In the Powerhouse Museum’s collection there are a few Game & Watch games dating from the early 80s. The one shown above is called Octopus and came to the Museum from Barbara Palmer, who remembers playing the console in the school playground in the early 80s, when she was in Year 7 or 8.

The other four, Turtle Bridge, PopEye, Donkey Kong Jr and Fire, were donated to the Museum by a generous guy called Michael Henry, who was given Donkey Kong Jr for his 9th birthday in 1982. I wonder if anybody else has kept Game & Watch games from the 80s. Do you remember playing with them?

We also have this game called Shuttle Voyage, which is a bit of a mystery. Michael Henry said it was a cheap Chinese-made imitation of Nintendo games and we think it dates from around 1983.

Does anybody know more about these Chinese hand-held games from the early 80s?

Wow, I’ve been busy. My days have been too clogged to blog. I’ve been trying to make some solid progress on this 80s exhibition before the Xmas break. I’m really getting excited about this project.

I have been asking lots of people what they would like to see in an exhibition about the 1980s and have received some interesting responses. People who were children at that time often suggest toys and games. It seems to me that toys were shifting from being things that mimicked adult life (trains, guns etc) towards more reliance on fantasy, science fiction and TV cartoons. They were increasingly made of plastic, rather than metal or wood.

There are many toys that people talk about that we don’t have. Does anybody remember playing with any of the following things in the 1980s, and do you still have them?

Slyvanian families (plush toys), Glo Friends, Koosh balls, a corporate Barbie doll or Barbie and the Rockers, a troll doll. We are on the lookout for toys and merchandise from cartoons like Rainbow Brite, He-Man and She-Ra, Smurfs, Care Bears, Gummi Bears, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Popples, Muppet Babies, Pound Puppies, My Little Pony, Teddy Ruxpin, Strawberry Shortcake & Friends.

We want to include children’s fads from the 80s. Two things that are frequently mentioned are Cabbage Patch Kids and Rubik’s Cube. Luckily we have one of each in the Powerhouse Museum’s collection. Here is the Cabbage Patch doll.

Talking about 80s fads, I am also looking for a Hypercolour t-shirt (so many people mention these!) and flourescent clothing.

What other classic 1980s toys and games were there?