Growing up in the 70's

A cricket phone in my Dads study.

The Generation Game. The sugar strike. The TV ending at night time and the National Anthem being played. My aunt standing to attention as soon as the drumroll began.

If the TV went wrong, a man (always a man) came out from Radio Rentals to fix it. Not many people owned their TV. It wasn't economic to do that because they went wrong so often. Radio Rentals gave you a replacement set while they tried to fix the old one. We got a colour TV in 1976, a year or so before we got central heating for the first time.

Our insurance man was from the Prudential. He called every Monday evening without fail.

Getting dressed in front of the coal fire in the living room in the winter.
Itchy, wet wool tights.
Toilets that cost 1p
Anything that cost 1/2p, 3d or 6d.
Green Shield Stamps
Jimmy Osmond, Tiny Tim, the Clangers, the Onedin Line theme music.
The "hot chocolate, drinking chocolate" advert.
Singing "Morning has Broken" every day at school assembly.
Weekly baths and only 2 painfully short dresses.

Electricalbanana, that's familiar! I peddled off at 8am after a full English aged 8 and a sandwich box ( crisps, apple, sandwich spread) saddle over handle bars, and got home at dark. My parents knew I was at the farm ( no adults present, just a barn) or on the ranges ( yes, the ranges where the army practised! Don't go where the red flags are love, alright?)

Every weekend, even in winter. And after school- straight to the barn and back for dark.

No one ate foreign food either. Pasta, noodles, rice, no. That was for holidays and to be laughed at.

I also remember my df staring at the jam on totp and bemoaning the loss of Elvis, Des o Connor. And rubbishing rod Stewart ( who does he think he is?) before switching off in disgust.

AllMimsy my grandad was an insurance man who called at people's houses every week.

My grandmas always wore hats.

Avon lady. Insurance man calling every week to collect the premium in cash. Huge printed Littlewood's catalogue circulated amongst the neighbours. If you bought anything from that, it could be paid for in weekly instalments over many months.

Having to get up and walk across the lounge to change channels on the TV or change the volume.

TVs were huge wooden things like a piece of furniture.

We had a radiogram that was huge and bigger than a sideboard. It sat in our woodclad diningroom instead of a sideboard.

The Tufty club!
Tupperware parties

My mum had a fur coat too. My dad bought it for her in the 60s

The Two Ronnies on a Saturday night.
Bazooka Joe bubble gum
My mum making boeuf bourgenion (sp?) for dinner parties
All the things you would get free with petrol tokens
Alessi Brothers - Oh Lori
Baked Alaska
Being at guide camp when Elvis died

Oh, I remember the library tickets. What a blast from the past. And the way they stamped your books!
Dad had a car with one wide front seat so db would sit in the middle of that with no seat belt while the other 4 of us piled into the back seat!
Older db played Subbuteo, we had Sindy dolls and board games.

My mum had a mink coat

A memory i have from 1979 is the day when the telly man came round with our first colour telly and took the black and white one away. i was five or six and for some reason had been kept off school that day.

Slide shows. No one had photos and everyone had slides and used projectors.

I remeber a boy in my class had been to California on holiday and it was just jaw droppingly amazing to us all. The teacher made him bring in his Dads million slides and we had a whole week of afternoonswatching James family holiday slides. I remember being amazed at the big sequoia/redwoods and the fact they drove under one - they has a photo of them sat in their car under it.

Soul - Rotters, Tiffany's, Pips, later Placemate 7.

Lavender, I was lucky. I went to a girls' school and there was no gender stereotyping like that (except that we didn't get the chance to do woodwork, which was fine by me). Half the girls in my year did science A levels and most of those went on to do something scientific at university. My best friend became an astrophysicist.

Matteus Rose and using the bottle as a lamp base afterwards. Pogle's Wood and Hector's House. German Shepherds were called Alsatians and were the Staffies of their day while the family dog shared his space in the back of the estate car with you if the seats were all taken only it wasn't called an estate back then, it was a shooting brake. Next door were called Auntie and Uncle because it's rude to call them Jane and Brian and your mittens had a string tied to them and threaded through your coat so you didn't lose them. Idiot mittens!

Living in sin
Budgie

I had one of those shabby. I forgot.

Austen Maxis and Morris Marinas

My Brownie dress with a yellow crossover tie/neck piece, brown leather belt that you could hang things on and of course the Brownie pom pom hat