You are at a school friend's birthday party in the 1980s
You are at a school friend's birthday party in the 1980s.
The games are the same as those you play at home - Tips, Hide & Seek, Statues, riding bikes, trampoline, road cricket, Totem Tennis, Frisbee, British Bulldog if it's not vetoed by an adult - except with more kids, which makes them 10 times funner.
There are no clowns painting faces or magicians vanishing scarves. There are no educational demonstrations of native wildlife. There are no jumping castles. Such things would be an unthinkable extravagance.
OK, there may be Pass The Parcel (using sheets of newspaper) or Pin The Tail On The Donkey. Those become less frequent as you grow older, though, as it's easier just to herd you all outdoors.
When it's lunchtime, you are allowed indoors again to crowd around a table laden with familiar favourites.
Golden-brown party pies and mini sausage rolls go fast, despite your pal's mother warning, "Careful - those might be a bit hot." One boy submerges his pie in a glass of lime soft drink to cool it. Problem solved.
Cocktail frankfurts always look weird and always taste delicious with their accompanying tomato sauce.
The crinkle-cut crisps are most likely plain, so as not to challenge childish palates. (You don't mind chicken flavour, but salt and vinegar are too strong, and you'll never understand the maniacs that claim to enjoy barbecue.)
Opposite the Tupperware bowl of chips, there's another of Cheezels. Inevitably, someone slides 10 of them onto their fingers and thumbs like rings, proudly showing off the bright orange jewellery...before suddenly realising they're falling behind in the sweet scoffing!
Chocolate Crackles and Honey Joys. Maybe iced cupcakes. Possibly a plate of creamy Butterfly Cakes, dusted with icing sugar and ripe for wing-plucking. Lamingtons if you're very lucky. Pink and white marshmallows. Jelly snakes that will be competitively stretched and s t r e t c h e d 'til they snap.
If there are additional lollies, they are the leftovers from those that were used to fill the goodie bags each child will receive, along with a slice of birthday cake wrapped in a napkin, when they leave. (Should there be an unappealing ingredient in said cake, e.g fruit, it'll pass to an older sibling.)
At the end of the day, there are minor breakages around the house and yard. Weary adults. Over-excited pets. New clothes are grass-stained. Young foreheads sweaty and hands sticky. Games peter out as energy levels begin to drop, and as more and more kids are collected.
Your car is waiting out the front now, so you're saying goodbye. You're clutching your take-home treats. You wish there was time for one more round of Hide & Seek as you've got the perfect spot, but your father has already beeped the horn twice and may start getting annoyed.
"Thanks for coming," says your school friend, dutifully. "See you on Monday. Oh, and thanks for the Space LEGO!"
posted by Addster @ 12:59 PM
5 Comments:
You only neglected to mention the kid who covers the gift he brought the birthday boy SO MUCH that he spends the whole party playing with it.
And eating donuts on strings from the clothesline with your hands behind your back.
Ah, yes, the covetous kid. A compelling argument for not asking one child to choose a gift for another.
To be honest, I deliberately skipped over the presents aspect so I could spring that last line on an unsuspecting readership.
We never did donut bobbing(?). However, I remember a party where you had to try to eat a cinnamon donut without licking your lips. Scientifically impossible!
Update:
My buddy DQ pointed out that there would also have been Fairy Bread at the feast. Very true.
I remember prizes were a common occurrence at parties I attended, which gave the activities a competitive edge. I don’t recall what the prizes were, but I remember at one party we took turns throwing darts at a wooden fence to pop balloons that contained prize tickets!
Two other party memories:
- I attended a party for a female classmate that I had barely spoken to so I was confused why I had been invited. It may have been the first party I ever attended; she was maybe 8? It was held at the ‘top of blackbutt’ and we all sat around a gigantic roaring bonfire her dad had built in the middle of a sunny day!
- I went to another girls party a few years later - we were maybe 12? - and her parents offered us shandys!! I didn’t get one, but thinking back I bet/hope they were 99% lemonade with a few drops of beer!
- At a mid-teens party the birthday boys dad hustled us out of whatever coins we had in our pockets over pool. He kept the money!!! Rumors spread after the party that the kids dad was a mobster :)
Those are some wacky memories.
Birthdays certainly got weirder as we got older, and it was usually the fathers who were responsible for this weirdness as they tried to appear cool or whatever. But sometimes it was both parents...
I remember a rare McDonald's party where we gathered at my classmate's house first, then his oldies transported the group to Macca's in two separate cars - and actively raced each other on the way!
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