by Faith Eckersall.

If you’ve ever heard the questions: ‘What was it like before the internet?’ and ‘What do you mean, there wasn’t an X-Box?’ it’s time to take the young questioner for a trip down your particular memory lane, to Dorset Museum’s newest exhibition.
The answer to the above inquiries and many others can be found at the new I Grew Up 80s exhibition, which is stuffed with 200 treasures of the era, from Atari computer consoles to Rubik Cubes.
Along with the answer to many a mystery; including why people of a certain age still call Starburst ‘Opal Fruits’ there will also be a beautifully-preserved 1981 Mark 1 model Golf GTI, on loan from the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
Dorset Museum will be the first to have this iconic car displayed within this touring exhibition.
The displays have been curated by collector and social commentator Matt Fox, whose passion for the era he grew up in remains undimmed.
“Those that grew up 30-40 years ago, before the internet, can genuinely state that life was very different then,” he says. “In my view, the 80s were a remarkable time to be a child.”
He says the exhibition contains things that children owned or would have wanted to own, such as Dunlop Green Flash trainers alongside some achingly cool Adidas High Tops.
“There’ll be toys and electronic games you once dreamed about on shop shelves or in the Argos catalogue, and iconic albums you played to death on vinyl and cassette,” he says.
There will also be examples of vanished goodies, such as Peanut Treets and Sweet Cigarettes, along with boom boxes, Swatch watches and purple shell suits.
Exhibitions manager at Dorset Museum Lucy Johnston said: “This exhibition promises to be big, bright and loud. It will bring the new as well as the nostalgic to our exhibition programme, enabling visitors to experience the ‘I remember that’ moment.”
I Grew Up 80s runs from December 3 to February 26, 2023.
More details, including prices, at dorsetmuseum.org.