I AM OLD...

When is the '80s revival going to be over? We've been plundering the depths for years now. I can't stand all this nostalgia anymore. '50s or '60s nostalgia - no problem, I wasn't there first time around. Yesterday I went high street shopping with childhood friend Gracie. The music playing in the shops was Rio by Duran Duran, then Holiday by Madonna. I tried on a pair of yellow jelly shoes (just for a laugh) which took me straight back to my childhood when I had 2 pairs in exactly the same style. I thought I was the epitome of cool with my jellies and yes, I admit it - floral jumpsuit.

Can we just get into the '90s revival please? I've had enough of getting into the groove (harhar). I get it - harking back to those carefree days pushes our nostalgia buttons, making my generation with our disposable income punch in our credit card numbers like good little sheep. But please, this is winter stuff I'm seeing now and - still gimmicky '80s! I think we passed saturation point some time ago. Now we're just regressing. Yesterday after seeing only and exclusively clothes that we had already purchased 20 years ago in child sizes, Gracie and I found ourselves eating sausage, 'potato' smiley faces and peas for lunch from the childrens menu at John Lewis' The Place to Eat cafeteria.

Later on, I intermittently watched the last ever Top of the Pops. I didn't catch all of it so I missed the '60s and '70s archive footage, but of course switched it on just in time for the '80s clips. Madonna wearing a pink wig and writhing around the stage - I actually remember watching that at my primary school as we waited for our school play to start. The Womble Song! I remember that too, rushing home (I must only have been 3 or 4) to watch TOTP on a Thursday evening. My memory for trivial things like this astounds me. I can remember The Wombles on TOTP but I can't remember my first day at school. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - rollerskating up and down the hallway singing "Relax, don't do it - when you wanna come!" at the top of my voice, having no concept of what the words meant. And finally asking my dad what a virgin was when Madge's Like a Virgin video (watch it here) aired for the very first time. He told me it was someone who isn't married. Quick thinking, Pa! So here I am on my own nostalgia trip, helped along by Jimmy Saville wearing a no doubt custom made for the occasion shiny gold tracksuit and brandishing a cigar.
I realise this will mean nothing to anyone who wasn't too young to know any better in the '80s, or who missed the golden age of TOTP.

What do you remember about 1986? Just don't get me started on Rubik's cubes.