In an exercise in getting the writing going again…having a topic to work with and flexing my creative muscles, I decided to just pick a year and write about my memories of that year. First randomly selected year to fall under the microscope…?
Memories of 1983:
It was my first year of high school. I was scared as hell. It wasn’t really soothed by the fact that on my first day the school wasn’t expecting me. I had actually enrolled to a different high school. I had my orientation day at the other high school. I had two friends at the time. Well, one was a neighbour from down over the hill of the street and the other girl was really more her friend than mine. We never really hung out together unless the neighbour was around. The neighbour was Ruth, and her friend was Nicola. The three of us were in the same primary school – but we were assigned different high schools. I was to go to Miller High School, and Ruth and Nicola were to go to Ashcroft High School. The way the catchment area fell, I guess. Considering that Ruth and I lived on the same street, that was quite odd. Under some coercion from Ruth and Nicola, I decided to ask mum if it was possible that we contacted the relevant departments to see if I could swap high schools. With some persuasion it was possible. I ended up at the orientation day for Ashcroft High School – along with Ruth and Nicola. The three of us excited to be going to high school together. That was prior to the final term of school in September. (In Oz – well, New South Wales anyway – in 1983, a school year was from Feb-Dec. There’s been a slight change since then and now the school year runs from Jan-Dec… due to more frequent but shorter holidays and with mid-terms now.)
Come November, Ruth tells me that her family are moving away. Shit! Apart from Nicola, I know not a single other person going to Ashcroft. I decide that actually I best off going back to Miller. Hmmm…in hindsight, a “sliding doors” moment? So, I changed back. Only problem is that when I arrived for my first day at Miller High School, they hadn’t been informed of this and I wasn’t on their books. My time in high school started as it meant to go on. School felt an alienating experience for me at the best of times and on day one it was feeling like high school wasn’t going to be any different. I was freaking out. I didn’t know my way around, I didn’t have a timetable, I didn’t know what classes I was meant to be at. It was just horrendous.
So that’s my first scarring memory of 1983 – starting high school feeling like a complete nobody. That quickly changed – for all the wrong reasons. Things never got better. They just got worse.
The second memory of 1983…still in the bad, sad stakes was losing my auntie Norma to bowel cancer aged 53. When you’re 12 years old, 53 sounds OLD, but now I’m here typing this out soon to turn 52 and know that 53 is no age at all. Nothing! It’s nothing. She used to come and visit us a few times a year. I can remember one visit she brought me a present, my first ever Barbie doll. I had only cheap knock-offs before then but this one was a genuine Mattel Barbie. I was in raptures!
Auntie Norma lived near the southern suburbs of Sydney in a suburb called Penshusrt, and it was easier for her to come to us as she had a car. We’d have to get to her by public transport which usually meant a train into the city centre and then a train to the southern suburbs, or it was 2 or 3 bus journeys. I remember taking the trip once with mum when auntie Norma was ill and it wasn’t a straightforward journey. I know we visited her when she was ill, but I don’t have any clear visual memory of it. I remember the journey there more than seeing her – I’m sure that is just the mind’s way of blotting out the pain and sadness of that.
Hers was the first funeral of a close relative I had been to and I took the day off school to attend it. In all honesty, I was more than likely not to have been at school anyway. High school became everything I feared it would do. I have the vaguest memories of the day of the funeral. Again, probably the mind’s way of lessening the pain and grief. I know mum was desperately sad. I don’t think I had ever seen her cry so much. They were much closer as sisters than my mum was with her other sister – an auntie I never met in my entire life. I had been thinking of her in recent days – my other auntie, Dorothy. She was born on the same day as the Queen. I have no idea if she is still alive.
Are there any good things I remember about 1983?
School camping trip! I know?! Who’d have thought! But yes…ONE good memory from pretty much ALL of my schooling history was a week long school camping trip during the winter of 1983. I remember sharing a tent with a girl that had a reputation for being a bed-wetter. Poor girl! No one wanted to share a tent with her. I volunteered. I didn’t care. My sister will probably KILL me for this! (Lol. She NEVER visits this blog) But…my sister was a bed-wetter. I grew up with it. It didn’t phase me. I don’t even remember this girl having a problem anyway. I remember there being a bull ant nest by the campfire. One of the teachers (male, who I just happened to have an almighty crush on at the time too – which probably helped to make the camping trip a good memory) one morning was sitting near the campfire, stoking it up for the day’s use and he got bitten on the nutsack by the bull ants. You can imagine how sympathetic a bunch of 13 year old kids were! Lol
I still have vague flashbacks of the time there. A night around the campfire and the same male teacher (Mr Bull-ant Bitten Nutsack) made damper for us – and it is STILL, by far, the best damper I have ever eaten. Not that I have eaten damper often, or for a VERY long time. The other lasting memory from this trip is the coach journey home and the driver having the radio on and the Weather Girls’ It’s Raining Men coming on the radio and the coach breaking out into song. Seriously…that camping trip was probably the only good thing that ever happened for me in high school, if not my entire school experience. Other than that, there wasn’t much of 1983 I can look fondly at.
Lastly is a selection of my favourite music from 1983. Songs that stick out from both Oz and overseas acts – in no particular order.
My Top 10 Australian singles:
Mental As Anything – Spirit Got Lost (A change of direction for them. Great video. It’s no Live It Up – thankfully!)
Men At Work – Overkill (Love what a dark song this is. Another great video too.)
Pat Wilson – Bop Girl (Just a fun catchy tune.)
Machinations – Pressure Sway (Fab video. Uplifting song. Great guitar solo.)
INXS – Black And White (It’s INXS…what else is there to say?)
Models – I Hear Motion (Couldn’t get into earlier Models, but loved them from this point on. Just great rhythm on this track.)
QED – Everywhere I Go (Jenny Morris is an awesome singer. Catchy song.)
Real Life – Send Me An Angel (Just very early 80s.)
Tim Finn – Fraction Too Much Friction (His first stuff post-Split Enz. I really liked this. A lost gem.)
Austen Tayshus – Australiana (A comedy record that was EVERYWHERE in Oz in 1983. It was number one for WEEKS. Couldn’t escape it. It’s puntastic.)
My Top 10 Overseas singles:
Weather Girls – It’s Raining Men (The school camping trip memory. I mean, what a song! And those ladies representing us big gals. Yes!)
Naked Eyes – Always Something There To Remind Me (I was 12 and had no idea it was a cover. I just loved it. Found it really emotional, tbh)
Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Don’t judge me! Lol. It was everywhere and everyone sang along to it, come on!)
David Bowie – Let’s Dance (I’m not quite there yet with the diehard Bowie fandom…but it’s starting…)
Dire Straits – Twisting By The Pool (I really loved this at the time. Probably liked the 60’s vibe of it.)
Toto – Africa (Again, don’t judge me! It’s cheesy AF, I know…but)
Wall Of Voodoo – Mexican Radio (Stan Ridgeway’s vocal on this is just fucking awesome. Great video too.)
Eurythmics – Love Is A Stranger (Speaking of great videos! I wanted to be Annie Lennox – I ssoooo wanted that tall, andrynous look she had going on. Striking. Beautiful. Just…the power to turn heads. And that voice! Geez, in my dreams! Synthpop heaven.)
Men Without Hats – Safety Dance (Nuts, novel, but timeless. Still to this day it gets people up and about and acting like loons.)
Elton John – I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (Another ‘don’t judge me!’ plea. Lol. I loved it back then. Played this song to death.)
Fave albums of 1983: War – U2, She’s So Unusual – Cyndi Lauper