Growing up in the 70's

Being a wrinkly I started my first job at 19 in 1974. This was all pre digital and I had one of the first golfball typewriters. Photocopiers were not common so I used a mimeograph stencil machine for copies. I used to walk across the road with a bread tray full of punch cards to the computer "house"; feed the cards into the machine then wait 3 days for the print out to appear.

I remember wearing a lot of bright yellow with huge collars on my shirts. I flat shared with 5 other girls (one of whom was a Bond girl - Octopussy) and Blue Nun seemed to feature a lot! As for Aqua Manda, I loved that stuff. Wish they still made it!

We didn't watch itv at all, my mum thought it was common I desperately wanted to watch stuff like Magpie, Tizwaz etc.

Lets, yes, I had a schoolfriend who told us very smugly that her family didn't watch ITV because it was common. More fool them!

Lump, yes, far less debt. Lots of people were paid in cash, having a bank account was less common, credit cards weren't so easy to get, mortgages were very strictly controlled. You had to save up the deposit over at least two years with the building society you intended to apply to, and then submit full details of your income. The amount you could borrow was limited to a maximum of three times your salary, I think. For married couples it would be three times the higher income (almost certainly the husband's) and once the lower one, or possibly 2.5 times the joint income. I think there was, however, plentiful use of hire purchase to buy furniture, catalogue shopping to spread the cost of buying clothes, overdrafts (for those who had a bank account) and no doubt loan sharks were just as predatory as they are now.

this thread makes me nostalgiac and i wasnt even around in 70s! it sounds fun

i know its often said and it may be bullshit but, to me, things were simpler then. if you were skint you were skint and had nothing just like your neighbours and friends most likely. now if youre skint then you look to your neighbour with their fancy clothes and car but riddled with debt and you are silently encouraged to do the same. go to brighthouse for furniture and catalogues for new clothes. then have that horrible debt hang over you

But people who watched Magpie instead of Blue Peter were terribly common

Magpie was the ITV rival to Blue Peter.

One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl and four for a boy,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be tooooold,
Maaaaaaaagpiiiiieee!

I was a massive Sindy fan, although this was probably early 80s.

I had the big house which was my pride and joy. Collected lots of furniture over the years. Mum used to take me to Fenwicks in Brent Cross, they had a fab toy department with a whole wall devoted to Sindy.

If you went to a party you just got a bit of cake.

But sometimes you got a plastic thing with some wool. You had to d some sort of weaving and you'd get a long tail of twisted woven wool. WTF was that all about.

Papier mâché was HUGE round our way.

The Blue Peter Christmas lantern that was a tinsel covered pair of wire hangers with actual candles.

I had a Sweet April doll. And a Carrie. Also a Sindy but only random bits of her equipment like a horse a bed and sideboard but no actual house.

Chilblains

Brownies

Watching Kojak with my dad and pleading for peanuts from his bag of KP

I used to put my Fruit Gums on top of the electric heater to make them less hard

Lots and lots of fillings. As an adult I haven't got a filling in my head. Did dentists get a kick back for every filling?

Dancergirl - that's the one! Although I also had a bath for her that had a working shower (proud emoticon).

I washed her hair with Fairy Liquid and it was never the same again

Ha, here is the doll, vintage 70's

I remember only having orange juice as a very special treat, and when we did have it, it came in glass jars with a screw top and was really really sharp tasting.

Also remember our first washing machine in 1978 - we put it on and sat in front of it as a family, totally captivated. We didn't even have a twin tub back then, my mother used to wash all our clothes in the bath.

Does anywhere else remember daylight being "different" to what it is now? I remember sunny days literally being hazy (maybe pollution?) but all my friends think I'm making it up. Don't think I am

I've still got my Tiny Tears. I also still have a massive doll dressed as Alice in wonderland! It has a little record player in the back and I had little coloured records which I lost sadly! It "spoke" lots of phrases and I thought it was the best doll in the world.

Blake 7,funny feet ice creams, long party dresses. I had a tiny tears that Mum knitted outfits for, we took her camping. Big orange canvas tent, don't touch the sides when it rains! My dad made a bed in the back of our car when we went camping and we would roll about on it or go to sleep while driving down motorways!

Spangles - my husband confirms there was a flavour labelled Old English.

Marathon bars - later re-named Snickers.

Opal Fruits - later re-named Starburst.

Fox's glacier mints, advertised by a polar bear standing on a giant glacier mint.

Polo - the mint with a hole.

Trebor mints are a minty bit stronger!

PG Tips were advertised by chimps.

Nimble slimmers' bread.

Gonks! Something else I'd forgotten about. Loved mine.

I remember the original A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, think it was on Friday nights. I was absolutely forbidden to watch it. Everyone would talk about it at school though.

Lamps covered in seashells
Chopper bikes
Mojos and black jacks
No electric due to the strikes
Being able to travel in the boot of our estate (everyone seemed to have an estate!
Home made ice lollys
Trouser suits (in synthetic fabrics)
Nylon sheets yuk

Gonks.

One of my absolute favourite TV programmes was The Persuaders which I think was on on Friday teatimes. It had a fantastic opening theme/credit sequence. Tony Curtis and Roger Moore were in it.

Sunday evening drama serials - I think that was where the Onedin Line fitted in. Later in the 70s there was The Brothers.

There was always a short programme for very young children on just before the 6pm(ish) news on weekdays. The Magic Roundabout was the best known. That may have been where The Clangers fitted in too. Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog - just the sound of the theme music reduces me to mush.

And then there were the weird foreign children's serials the BBC put on (although that may have been more in the 60s) - Belle and Sebastian, White Horses and the daddy of them all, The Singing Ringing Tree. I think they dubbed them, as you couldn't really expect tiny children to read subtitles. But somehow you could still hear the original dialogue underneath - is that right?

fairnotfair was Sweet April a really small doll and came with a swing to put her in?

Lava lamps

Pull down overhead lights with brown shades

Fibre optic UFO lamps

OP, I remember the accordion playing old woman in Chester too, she was up on the Rows not far from the Cross. She seemed to just play random notes. Terrible.

The ' Watch out there's a Humphry about ' campaign to get kids to drink milk. You got milkshake filled paper straws from your milkman.

Jumble sales and Sales of Work.

Tortoises with the owners address painted on their back.

Jesus Sandals.

Tiny Tears and Teeny Tiny Tears dolls.

Children did not swear.

Remedial class in school for children who needed support.

Having lessons outside when the weather was nice.

Going on Nature walks and having a Nature table in every class.

Chopper Squad, Space 1999, The Beachcombers.

It was the norm to go to the school closest to you.

Watneys Party Seven

Polaroid cameras. Oh the excitement as the picture darkened

Having two examples of every clothing item and wearing them in rotation.

White tights with plaid tunic

Mum turning our drainpipe jeans into flares by inserting a triangle of flowery material into the leg seams.

Sewing budgie bells onto my jeans.

Collecting sew on badges from every tourist attraction going and putting them on anoraks or bags

Anoraks

Tank tops

Long collars and puffed sleeves