Yuppie!

My wife recently bought this 1986 work of fiction in a charity shop, thinking it might bring back a few memories of the mid-'80s era to me.

Diary Of A Yuppie is about a yuppie who likes making money, and having boardroom meetings, and eating lots of posh food, and wearing lots of posh clothes.

At least I assume it is. The first few pages certainly indicate it is.

In 1986, I was having the time of my life, dancing to the Pet Shop Boys and Nu Shooz, and wearing shoulder-padded jackets over cerise mesh vests. And I didn't wear socks - it was Miami Vice trendy not to (stupid fool - I wore canvas shoes and they rubbed nearly all the skin off my feet).

I was also trying to grow designer stubble (it simply made me look dog rough), glutting on hair gel and mousse, and fancying myself with blonde streaks. On top of all that, I was boozing and bedding like there was no tomorrow.

But I wasn't a yuppie. I was working like a dog at... I'll call it Primrose Cottage, a Social Services home for the elderly, so the experiences related in the book don't meld with my own, arouse no nostalgia, and so I've stopped reading after page four.

Also, it's American and I'm English. Bog standard, financially poor-as-can-be English at that.
The book's cover makes an interesting "sign of the times" for the blog, though!

20th Century Words by John Ayto, traces the yuppie name back to 1982 and defines a yuppie thus:

a member of a socio-economic group comprising young professional people working in cities of a type thought of as typifying the ethos of the 1980s: ambitious, go-getting, newly affluent, young, class-free, owing no debt to the past. Originally US; a hybrid word coined probably by grafting an acronym based on "Young Urban Professional" (or "Young Upwardly mobile Professional") on to a basic model suggested by hippie.

Some people, of course, spell it "yuppy".

I have read on-line that the yuppie word was first coined in 1981, whilst 20th Century Words, as seen above, traces it to 1982.
 
The yuppie acronym probably comes from Chicago. An article by Dan Rottenberg in a May 1980 Chicago magazine called "About that urban renaissance.... there'll be a slight delay" (which I've seen on-line, not in original print), is the first ever found to mention "yuppies" - however the name was simply applied to the upwardly mobile set, gentrifying certain areas, and the associated problems, not the Reagan/Thatcher adoring huge money makers of later in the decade. Those type of yuppies, the ones the tag are now associated with, were prevalent in the mid-to-late decade, and the yuppie tag "took off" during the early Reagan years - the US President was elected in November 1980 and inaugurated in January 1981.

In the UK, I think we started to move into our "yuppie era" around 1984. I remember 1980, 1981 and 1982 as being financially-poor-as-church-mice years. In 1983, things perhaps began to alter a little... and I think 1984 was getting distinctly upwardly mobile. Funnily enough, although people now like to categorise the entire 1980s as being "excess unlimited", I only remember the years 1984 to 1987 as being truly like that. Black Monday in 1987 sent out huge shock waves throughout the financial world, and in 1988 Acid House was distorting the 1980s' "stylish" image more than somewhat.

And '80s "stylish" garb (which I loved) and yuppies were far from being the full story from 1984 to 1987, either. Who could ever forget the Miners' Strike? The Left were very vocal, and environmental concerns were on the rise. I always recall the 1980s as being uproar. And that includes the "height of yuppiedom" years.

I've been having a little delve into the world of yuppiedom, and discovered that as well as plain and simple yuppies there were buppies (black yuppies), Juppies (Japanese yuppies), guppies (gay yuppies), green yuppies (environmentally concerned yuppies - tree hugging dosh chasers - amazing!) and "yuppie puppies" - (upwardly mobile kids, under twenty or the offspring of yuppies).

A yuppie with a yuppie toy in the 1980s - a brick mobile phone. Yuppies also liked filofaxes and wine bars. Oh, yes, I almost forgot - and money.

"Hello, darling, it's me. Listen, I've got a meeting with the chairman of the board in twenty minutes, and my shoulder pads have gone all funny..."

1986: TV Snacks And Soap Opera Stars...

Here's a nice piece of 1980s kitsch - it's 1986 and from your friendly local newsagent you could buy a copy of this handy little booklet - 90 TV Snacks - Ideas, Recipes And Soap Stars' Favourites.

On the cover was the adorable Angie Watts - Anita Dobson - of EastEnders, with big hair, big shoulder pads, and sparkling pearlies.

EastEnders had first burst on to our screens in February 1985, with Lou Beale (Anna Wing) "doin' her nut" over daughter Pauline (Wendy Richard) and her late-in-life pregnancy, a grim discovery at Reg Cox's place, and a fist through the window at the local boozer, The Queen Vic. English soaps would never be the same again...

The 1980s were an interesting time for snacking: microwave ovens had debuted in the 1960s but were not affordable to the vast majority of people until the 1980s, and the possibilities they opened up (if you weren't terrified by tales of radiation poisoning) were endless. And then there were those natty sandwich toasters. YUM!

So, what did Angie - or Anita - favour in the TV snack line?

"A bag of cheese and onion crisps".

Nice 'n' easy.

And hubby "dirty" Den Watts (Leslie Grantham)? "Mexican Tacos for me, and a glass of good wine."

Classy!

Coronation Street had debuted on ITV in December 1960, and was going great guns in the 1980s. What TV snacks did two of the regulars from The Rovers favour in 1986? Well, Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) was into a cheese or mushroom omelette, whilst Ken Barlow (William Roache) liked "A good salad sandwich - lettuce, cucumber and tomato in granary bread."

Scrummy.

As a quick aside, I always thought that mid-'80s Kev had modelled himself on the dark haired bloke from Hall & Oates (see inset pic).

Brookside was the first of the new breed of 1980s subversive soaps, and blasted on to our TV screens in November 1982, on Channel 4's opening night. Asked for her favourite TV snack in 1986, Sandra Maghie (Sheila Grier) went for French bread with cheese or paté and salad, Damon Grant (Simon O'Brien) favoured tuna in oil spread on brown toast, Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson) said "Give me a chip buttie every time", and Sheila Grant (Sue Johnston) opted for home made chicken soup.

Typically original, Brookside sent the character of Damon Grant off into a spin-off (or "soap bubble") in 1987 called Damon and Debbie, which ended with the death of the character.

Crossroads was on our screens from November 1964 to April 1988 - an often mocked but now fondly remembered soap based around life in a Midlands motel. In the mid-to-late 1980s, shortly before its end, the show was revamped but, despite rising ratings, still got the chop.

Jane Rossington as Jill Richardson/Harvey/Chance - or "Jilly" as her hubby Adam (Tony Adams) once called her - starred in the show, with a few breaks, from beginning to end.

Her favourite 1986 TV snack was cheese with slices of apple.

Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry) liked egg and bacon sandwiches.

Me too.

And finally, Dolly Skilbeck (Jean Rogers) of Emmerdale Farm gave us her recipe for tuna and sweetcorn bake. Jean Rogers made her screen debut as Dolly, taking over the role from Katharine Barker, on 1 April 1980.

Emmerdale Farm began as a lunchtime serial in October 1972. The show underwent several momentous changes in the 1980s, dropping its seasonal breaks and being shown nearly all year round from 1985 onwards (it was not shown during the Christmas season until 1988) and being networked - shown on the same day and at the same time across the country - in January 1988.

In November 1989, the show dropped "Farm" from its title, becoming simply Emmerdale.