Council Estate Slang of the 1980’s

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.