Hi! My name is Mike (or Michael to use my Sunday name) I was born in Leeds in the North of England in the UK where I’ve spent the vast majority of my life until about 5 years ago when I moved with my wife Dawn to the wrong side of the Pennines (Manchester) which is where she is from.

I was born in the late 1970s and spent most of my pre-teen years living through the (mostly) glorious 1980s with my mum and dad and my older brother and sister and various pets. Here I am in 1978 in my Baptism Gown.

Whilst I obviously didn’t appreciate it at the time, looking back I feel very fortunate in many ways to have grown up in 1980s Britain which is an era that still generates a lot of interest and nostalgia even for those who weren’t born at the time.

I know I probably look back on those years with heavily rose-tinted glasses but I remember a simpler time where some of the biggest stresses in my life involved things like choosing a film to watch in the local video shop, what to take for bring a toy to school day or what I was getting for Christmas that year.

We were also blissfully unaware at that time how close we were to the “always on” world we live in today. There was no social media, no world wide web to speak of and best of all no mobile phones at least for the average person and most certainly not for children or teens!

My aim for this site is for it to become a personal trip for me down memory lane in my favourite decade to have lived through so far. I’ll be talking about films and cartoons, toys, electronics family life, school and whatever else comes to mind.

I really hope anyone who grew up in the 80s in the UK and discovers this site will find some memories to relate to and would love to hear comments on your own memories about what sticks out for you from that time!

See you later, alligator!