Here's another random photo I found of the house I grew up in. There's an Indiana Jones sticker on the door, and a bunch of Return Of The Jedi stickers on the side of the wardrobe to the left of the picture. I don't know what all that crap is underneath the dressing gown; I guess that's just the corner where I piled random shit since I never really used that wardrobe: there's another one to the left, out of shot. It was quite a big bedroom - you can see the foot of the bed in the bottom right hand corner and it's a double. Through the door is the landing, which was in the middle of the house, with doors leading off to the bathroom, shower, and toilet (yeah, they all had a separate room... I have no idea why). My parent's bedroom was at the other side of the house. Anyway, the landing had no windows of its own, which is why there's an internal window from my room to let a little bit of daylight through.
The thing I appreciate seeing the most in this picture is the TV set. It was an old second hand one, but it was colour (before that, I'd had a black and white portable) and depending on which way I turned the ariel on top, I got could either Yorkshire TV or Tyne Tees. Sometimes they showed different films late at night, and sometimes the Tyne Tees films were better. But I did have to sit through news bulletins about Newcastle before I got to watch them.
I was maybe 14 when I got that TV. I remember watching Moonlighting on it, and the first season was made in 1985, though I doubt it premiered in the UK until 1986. There was often a long wait before American TV shows made it across the pond. Friday night, I'd always watch Cheers. And then whatever horror or sci fi films they showed on BBC 2 at the weekend. They used to have seasons of the old Universal Horror films, Hammer, and 50s sci fi like The Day The Earth Stood Still. And I'd watch them all, loving every minute. No choice fatigue like there is now. There were 4 channels (only just - it took a while till Channel 4 was available in Yorkshire), 5 if you counted Tyne Tees. Occasionally I'd catch a film that had a bit of sexy-time in it, and what a bonus that was... but that seems incredibly tame when you consider what kids these days are exposed to.
I don't remember my parents ever coming in to tell me it was too late, that I should turn off the TV and go to sleep. School nights, I seemed to do that for myself anyway. Weekends, if I was watching the late horror films... maybe occasionally I'd end up dozing off, and waking up in the wee small hours to static, long after the National Anthem played.
I miss those days. As children of the 80s, I imagine we were the first generation to get TVs in our rooms... I dunno, were any of you 70s kids so privileged?
This is from 1980, when Billy Joel was older than a teenager, but still using his TV to help him get to sleep...
You were lucky!. My folks didn't have a TV til I was in my early teens. I did however have a record player in my room - a hand-me-down from my older sisters. Before TV I had to make do with the wireless as we called it in those days. Nowadays, as Bruce would say, it's 57 Channels (And Nothin' On)
ReplyDeleteI'm sad to say I can't find photos of either of my teenage music systems. My photography was very haphazard.
DeleteThat wallpaper, so 80s.
ReplyDeleteYou were definitely lucky - No tellies in 70s teenager bedrooms but it was a real treat if your parents were out for the evening and you had the living room telly to yourself. I got a portable black and white in 1981 for my student room - what a lifesaver that was after 2 years of nothing on the small screen. ToTP of course but it was also the era of Fame and Hart to Hart - we all packed in to watch this tiny screen, but happy times. Lovely nostalgic post Rol.
(Alyson)