nostalgia isn't what it used to be

Life has been cancelled for the week while we gaze in wonder at the  white stuff that has fallen from the sky. We are not good at snow in Ireland. It astonishes us. We're in a perpetual state of: Jaysus! Snow, is it? It is, be the living hokey, it's SNOW, so it is. (Pause. Repeat.)
There's no other news. Our adoption meeting was cancelled.

I do have something to while away the time, however. I found some relics from 1981 in my mother's old knitting basket:

[Expensive-look, expensive-feel! Why didn't that expression catch on?]

The eighties! A more innocent time, you might think. When we (or at least I. I am really quite old) amused ourselves with roller discos, vinyl records, wore pour-in jeans and had to make appointments to see one another, mobile phones being far in the future. As was lycra. And tabbed browsers. In fact, at the time, a browser was someone in a book shop with time to kill.

Mohair was huge. I mean that literally.

This young man would have been referred to as a "hunk", a word that makes me want to resign from the human race. Note the glowing visage. He is melting from being enveloped in this nuclear-powered neon garment.

Food was co-ordinated brown and beige:

Mmm! Grapefruit and Crab cocktail! Smoked Mussell and Leek Soup in a fish-shaped soup tureen!

Magazine copy displayed brilliant, sabre-like wit. Not to mention the cutting-edge page layout:

Kipper pasties! Tuna in (in?) pasta shells!
Quick, invent a time-machine - I'm going back.


The brown and beige food was ingested in obsessively patterned, migraine-inducing rooms like this.

It's a mystery, really, how we grew up at all. We used to play with mercury out of a thermometer, for instance. (This is before ideas like Health and Safety or Adult Supervision were invented.) Between that, and the headbanging, we are walking miracles.

Modern times, eh.  Not so bad, maybe. What do you reckon?

Comments

[a]

OMG - the polka dots! Those pictures are hilarious! But, who would pair crab and grapefruit? That makes my stomach churn!

Thanks for the return to the 80s...

[Twangypearl]

Sardine and onion spread, a? Mmmm.

[Bionic Baby Mama]

i'm sure you've seen this, but just in case: http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/czarina.html

after a decade of snappy mackerel casserole and frankfurter surprise, a little beige and brown must have seemed so calming....

[katie]

Hilarious!

[conceptionally challenged]

Oh my, that glowing mohair sweater... amazing. Thanks for quite literally brightening up my day ;)

[Womb For Improvement]

To be fair that Angling pun is one I would be proud of. Love the graphic design.

I might suggest a beige buffet for our works Christmas do (especially as all our students dress like it is the 80's and call it retro *shudder*).

[May]

Oh no no no that sweater MY EYES *clunk*

[Twangypearl]

Hee! Hum. Sorry?

[Andie]

Chicken and apricot casserole anyone? Hee hee. Oh my, that bright yellow jumper...errrrgh. I love looking at all that eighties food, it just amuses me no end how bad it was.

PS. love your new header.

[Valery]

Uh oh, I have a sweater like that in red. with snowflakes knitted in. My mother made it for me in 1993 and sometimes it is the only thing that gets me through x-mas. Can I keep it? please?

[Adele]

I loved playing with mercury. And now? They shut down entire school districts over a dropped thermometer. It was a crazy time, I'll give you that. Rubber bracelets. Lopsided hairdos. Wings (though, that's going waaaaay back to the dawn of the 80s). I'm with you, though. Hurrah for polychrome food:)

[Amanda]

Ohh I haven't had such a good laugh in ages (except about teh adoption meeting being cancelled - that didn't make me laugh at all :(

[bunny]

OH MAH GAAAAAWD, I must find mohair man and marry him at once! He is so utterly dreamy and reminiscent of an Easter chick! I can just imagine him peeping seductively into my ear! THANK YOU for sharing these glorious gems.

It finally snowed for real here, too, and we're also awe-struck. Despite it being a regular item on the program. But hey, it really is a miraculous phenomenon.

[manymanymoons]

Thank you so much for the comment on my blog.

This post cracked me up. How I did love some Mohair! :)