The kids from the decade of the 1980’s had to come up with their own means of play. If you was from one of the local council estate you were mainly in touch with many people. Kids were living the struggle but to them, there was no struggle, they had only words and games to keep them occupied. These were days when you went out to play at 8:00 am in the morning, popped home for your dinner and went back out until 11:00pm at night. You learned a world of life experience, became witty, grew strong and evolved to survive amongst the toughest kids. Below is some of the words used back in the day.

Sign

This great word was used when someone else got into trouble, normally with a teacher or the parents. If you was the culprit standing in the corner of the school hall and another kid walked past. You would here the silent mutter of the word ’sign’ but said with a held (iiiiii) as in siiiiiiiiiign!

Chins or Chin Mc Grins

If proven wrong by a situation or factual event. The word chins was a classic. Say for example one of your friends was talking about something you all knew about. But they stated a fact that was actually wrong. Once they were proven wrong, someone would rub your or there chin and say the word “chins” or “chins Mc grins”.

Joey

Known to the adults as a baby kangaroo. But the term Joey was used If someone thought a particular person was being a prat or over silly. Even the sounding of the word seemed patronising. A great gesture for putting someone in their place. It wasnt to nice finding your name knifed into a local bench Stating, ‘Lenny is a joey’.

Bleeder

The sounding of this word seems quite harsh. But if a person was rubbish at fighting they would be known by all as a bleeder.

Well Hard or Nails

‘Well hard’ was slightly different to nails. This slang form came with a school reputation, If you was the kid known by all as ‘well hard’ then you better watch out. You never crossed the kid who was well hard. Nails was the terminology used for the local nut case. You never cherry knocked, ran across their garden or messed with their kids. The nails bloke would come out and give you a good leathering.

Fresh

If you was looking good, new clothes, shoes, aftershave. Maybe you had the latest Sony Walkman hanging off your belt or mini ear phones around your neck. You was looking fresh. You had to stay fresh for the ladies. “Do I look fresh today?”

Safe

Safe! is a classic that is still used even today. If you came to a mutual agreement or thought a particular person had done you a favour. The word safe would be exchanged verbally. You can even use the word safe in reference to a third person. As in “Yeah he is safe”.

Sound as a Pound or Sound

A phrase and word used for only a particular person who was cool. This person had time for you and was a great friend. Hence, They were sound as a pound. A pound back in the day could buy you a lot of sweets or even a bag of chips, a jumbo sausage and a pickled onion. If one of your mates had a pound. Then they were also sound, or “sound as a pound” A golden nugget back then could buy you: A packet of jaw breakers, ten pence mix up, two five pence bags of crisps, rainbow drops, one carton of ten pence juice, A marathon (snickers) and a quarter of pink frosted Bon Bons.

“Sound”.

Teff it!

“I just teffed it” another word for stole. Normally a 5p bag of crisps or a Mars bar from the local estate shop. There was plenty of people teffing back in the day.

Taxed

If you found something that belonged to a friend or maybe a neighbour had left their bike unattended and you fancied borrowing it for a few years. Then you would be taxing it. This was derived from Government legislation. The Conservative party taxed you on just about everything. This was the council estate kids getting a stab back at the big feller. “I’m taxing that”.

Scanked

When the Teffing and Taxing arrived at your door step. You would be sure to get scanked. There was always someone running around stealing stuff. If you was the innocent party but you had your bike stolen just a few days after Christmas, then you would have said. “Someone scanked my bike”.

Cotton Eye

This was more of a descriptive effort. If a person was very ugly or just didn’t quite fit in. People would just say “cotton eye” randomly. You could use this saying in front of the person and they would have no idea what was going on.

Mega

Probably used way more back in the 1980’s than in todays society. But mega was used to describe a really good day out. Maybe you just watched a great film and it was ‘Mega’.

Cheesy

A word used frequently to describe something that smelled really bad. Like “Your feet smell really cheesy”. It was never easy being cheesy back in those days. Especially when you were only allowed to have one bath per week. This was always on a Sunday because school was the next day.

Gipper or Gipping

If someone had decided to wear the same clothes all week without changing. Or maybe That person had stood in something that wasn’t particularly pleasant to the smell or sight. Then this individual would be called a Gipper. Or, “That’s just gipping man”

Old Crew

The old crew were the group of lads older than your crew. You always looked up them. Now and again in the months of the summer holidays they would let you play a game of Run-Out with them.

Run-Out was a classic game of chase but with a slight difference. One team chased the other until all were caught. You had to make boundary’s and rules to compete against each other. It was like war for the young. The old crew looked after you and made the long nights of 11:00pm worth living for.

Tagging

After ‘teffing’ a big marker pen from the local Woolworths in the photo-booth. You was ready to start spreading your tag name across any surface possible. A tag name was like your nick name but only ’sounder’. The styling of your letters also had to look ‘fresh’ with a sprinkle of funkiness about them. If you had a great tag name like: chequers, spoof, ghost or stealth then you was seen as ’safe’ round the local estate.

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