This video is wild. I was born 10 years after it was taken. Belfast is my home and it’s gotten so much better. I’m glad I grew up there. Divisions remain but the same locations look a world away today. Still, this video is just from my parent’s generation. https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1197516451227283456

Some things I remember from growing up in Belfast:
- Crying on a school bus when it accidentally took a wrong turn and drove into a Protestant area.
- Not ever seeing half of the city except from behind a car window.
- School books decorated with IRA & Republican slogans.

- Bomb scares. Including checking washing machines at the electric shop I worked at when there was a threat phoned in. Can’t even remember now if we were serious or not!
- Satirical political impersonisation comedies on tapes being shared around at school (Spitting politics).

-Army signals interfering with the TV reception.
- Soldiers in camouflage with rifles patrolling up and down streets, occasionally along with ‘Meat wagons’ aka ‘Army Jeeps’.
- Massive armored army barracks.
- Missing a job interview because of protests about Orange marches.

- The day my uncle was shot a few days before Christmas just because he was having a drink at a Catholic bar at the wrong time.
- The boy in my school who lost his eye at the same shooting.
- My friend explaining why he wore his father’s wedding ring.
- Irish and British flags.

Funny old town. Things were much better for my generation than my parents and now there are many adults alive who were born after the Good Friday agreement. Things are far from perfect now but gives you hope.