What Was Wrong with the 70s????

[Menofsteel]

I wasn’t born until 1980 but my husband is a 60s child. He’s showed me public information films from the 70s and just introduced me to the original Survivors. I saw the remake with Julie Graham? Why is everything from the 70s so much creepier?!? I’m starting to believe we are a bit softer nowadays .

I remember that sport always took over everything on TV

Including the wrestling - usually Giant Haystacks v Big Daddy

My nan used to holler at the wrestling

Even as a kid i used to think .... ''and, we're sure this is real yes?''

My grandmother used to shout at the TV during wrestling. She was very small but boy could she shout at those wrestlers

I watched snooker for years before realising that I am not actually interested in it. It was just something you did, like follow Wimbledon or the football.

Happy memories - I used to be allowed to stay up with my DDad to watch Ray Reardon on Pot Black!

Wimbledon was one of the rare times that BBC2 did not go to the test card in the afternoons

Re. 1940s children in the 1970s - My dad, who was born in the early 1940s, told horror stories of the mortgage rates in the 70s going up to 20%.

That generation grew up with rationing, though, so in some ways the 70s must have seemed a time of abundance. The house my mum (also a wartime baby) was born in had no electricity, no inside loo etc. and in the 60s she lived in a wreck of a house that was condemned as a slum in the slum clearances, and was rehoused in a tower block which she thought marvellous by comparison. My dad moved into that flat with her when they got together.

When they got married they were able to buy a house - there were tax advantages to having a mortgage that don't exist now. They had second hand furniture (but then so did I when I left home in the 1990s) no television at the start of the decade, and no car till the early 1980s. Most of their savings were used on home improvements - e.g. installing central heating.

My impression is that overall their lifestyle in the 70s was much more comfortable than the 50s and 60s but it would be interesting to hear first hand stories from any Mnetters in their 70s.

I was born in 68. No phone til I was about 7 so we used to trot to the phone box on a Saturday to ring Granny. B+W tv.
I had lots of freedom.. used to ride for miles on my chopper bike, swim in the canal (ugh!) and come home when the street lights came on.
I remember when seat belt laws changed and my Dad telling me to charge him 5p each time he forgot to buckle up.
Local parks were awesome.. and deadly.. huge slides, the witches hat, I think most of us broke an arm at one time or another!
But we ate well..my Mum was veggie long before it was popular and she hated cooking meat for Dad so I grew up on jacket spuds and salad!
I remember being flashed at in the woods but not unduly scared.
I loved the drought of 76.. limited baths and a standpipe at the end of the road.. as an 8 year old it felt like a perfect summer!
My parents were both teachers and definitely not neglectful but children were expected to call for their friends and go out to play..and we did. I don't remember any obese children either..we were all so active and not constantly expecting snacks.
I feel I had a lovely childhood because it felt unfettered. Probably unsafe but I didn't know that!

A PP said that they had a lovely childhood but could see that others didn't, and I'd echo this.

DH's friend's mother died. Granny took the little girl, but the boy stayed with dad and Grandad, both of whom were alcoholics and knocked him about (when they could catch him). Everyone around knew he was being neglected and tutted - local women fed him if he turned up at meal times with one of their kids. He wasn't being fed at home. But no one reported them.

Similarly there were kids I went to school with who weren't fed or clothed properly - this was in the days before primary uniform and it was obvious that they didn't have proper clothes or shoes or a winter coat. They got free school meals, but no one reported it to social services. There were kids I remember people saying 'someone should get the Cruelty man to her mother' about because they were covered in bruises - but people obviously felt it wasn't their business to stick their nose in.

I went to school with quite a few kids who were living in children's homes.

Born in '71 and I had a lovely childhood and so did everyone around me. Of course, now as a wiser adult I'm sure it wasn't the case at all, but to me back then we were all happy.

We weren't rich but we definitely had enough and I certainly wasn't hungry. My dad was very young and so I always had fashionable clothes etc because of him. We played out from dawn till dusk and everyone looked out for all the kids, but I lived on an estate where we all knew each other. I look back on my childhood with nothing but good memories although of course it had its lesser moments like all lives. I don't envy the childhood my children are having, much as we try our hardest for them. It's definitely a more complicated world now.

Wow this has moved on! I’m still watching Survivors (70s version) and it’s really creepy in comparison with the remake! Loving reading about 70s childhoods 😄

What was the WW2 drama - the credits was a slow surge plaques over a long shot of a black and white (?) lane with dead tees on either side? Also world at war - my grandma used to watch every Saturday in case she spotted my grandpa (who had died by then). 4 year olds watching corpses piled on the roadsides and in camps, prisoners being executed...

Exactly this!

Was the WW2 drama Secret Army, that was one of my favourite programmes in the 70s

World at War must be the best documentary ever.

Born in 71. As pp's have said , think we were the last of the play out , no health and safety generation. I remember roller skating everywhere, Girls World, Smurfs on a Sunday afternoon after Brian Walden. 160 dial a disc! Telephone boxes that smelt of wee. That 5 min police programme with somebody Shaw where he said " keep em peeled"! Micheal Aspel on Friday night at 6pm. Worzel Gummidge, Metal Micky, Mind your Language, George and Mildred. Swap Shop, Tiswas. Little house on the Prairie. Victor Kiam and his fuzzaway. The Argos catalogue at xmas. CHIPS ( American highway patrol series on Saturday, i always wanted to marry the blonde one)

Everything smelt of pine! ( Wood and fake trees smell ). Brown carpets, brown furniture, brown bathrooms, everything was basically brown with a hint of orange.

Being left in a car on a hot day with a coke and crisps outside a pub!

Growing spaghetti on trees😉. Thats life on Sunday night. Knocking for friends. Leo Sayer on the radio. Blackouts, candles, Greensheild stamps. Tesco white plimpsols. Club biscuits. Ready Brek red ring around you on a cold day.

It was a bit of a serial killer hey day and also active IRA but i was not aware at the time. Was never allowed to watch the news so maybe that is why. Only in later years i became aware of the more sinister side to the 70's.

And wrestling, lots of wrestling on TV.

Wrestling with Kent Walton, remember it well

ThaliaLuxurySpa

I remember that! (Children of the stones) I also remember my blooming mother insisting us kids went to a swimming lesson on the day that that aired for the last episode! I was gutted! I wanted to know what happened.

I will have to get the DVD won't i?

FredtheFerret

Yep the good old 70's. I loved them but I have read some of those 'misery books' about children in care in the 70's and it is shocking how many times people in authority turned their backs on those kids.

So much of this sounds so familiar... born in 1970. Generally I had a great childhood... Lots of happy memories - playing out, sweets, comics, TV, nuclear family with Mum at home & Dad at work. But it was indeed a different world!

I remember shopping in C&A in Birmingham city centre when I was about 7 for a new school coat, when an assistant told us to drop everything and run because of a bomb scare!

I broke my arm when I was eight. When I was taken to hosital the receptionist pretty much told me to stop making a fuss and it was probably only a sprain. It was an adult's world most definietly!

One of my lasting legacies from the 70s is asthma. My parent's managed to (just) afford their own home in the 60s - a 1930s semi on a main road. They made it look lovely - it was immaculate and their pride and joy - BUT, it had no central heating (yes the old ice inside the windows) and my room - the third bedroom, was damp as hell. It had 3 external walls and black mould! My parents tried everything (within their means).
Their final solution (which also didn't work) was to cover the entire room in polystyrene tiles (walls and ceiling) One flame and it would certainly have been a lot warmer in there!!!!
But, the mould still came through and the wallpaper had to be attached with pins in the end to stop it falling down!! And I developed asthma at 13! That would now be considered unacceptable by anyone... but it was just the way things were - I didn't think anything of it!

@allDeathraystare - don't forget that some of those books turned out to be absolute fabrication. Like the Amityville Horror (was that the 70s?).

I remember - playing in the road, a gaggle of neighbour kids, off for 'adventures' on our bikes with a picnic (remember no mobile phones!), gang huts, walking to school and grandparents alone (when in primary 1), the mobile library at the school, mobile grocery shop, old fashioned grocery shop with butter pats, going to the sweetie shop with 2 or 5p and getting a bag of sweets, sweets by the 1/4, sitting in the boot of the estate car, always a 'good' tv show on a Sunday evening, Sunday afternoon kids shows, the first tv video games...

I was born in 1970. Luckily, my Dad had an 'executive' job which allowed us to live in a smart, 4 bed detached on a new estate and he had a shiny company car on the drive. Our house was a homage to brown, smoked glass & chrome furniture, huge cheese plants and olive green shag pile. My parents were very much into dinner parties and Mum treasured her Hostess Trolley and wore long dresses (and variety of wigs) when entertaining or going out. We always watched 'That's Life' on a Saturday tea time with a bag of sweets from the Beer-Off. Food was classic Seventies, Findus Crispy Pancakes, Findus French Bread Pizza, Vienetta or Arctic Role for pudding. Though, because my parents had lived abroad for ten years we often ate wildly exotic foods like pasta, curry and chilli. I remember my Mum had those tall glass jars filled with coloured pasta, purely for display, in the kitchen. Our kitchen was considered the last word in contemporary chic - aubergine, high gloss units and an actual breakfast bar!

From the age of six I walked to and from school which was just on the other side of the estate, and played out every evening and weekends with the other kids on my cul de sac. We did French skipping, roller skating, rounders, British Bulldog, cycle races, Dobby, building dens in each others garages. All very physical with zero adult supervision, and we'd roam up to 2 miles away from home.

Aaaaaah, the witches' hat...

We didn't have corporal punishment - I think Leicestershire was ahead of its time there.

Frozen windows was absolutely a feature of winter mornings.

My parents didn't go to the pub at all, never mind with us in the car (dad was in the Temperance movement as a teen). We didn't have a television (watched it at Granny's on a Sunday afternoon) but we did have a phone quite early - I believe it was installed in anticipation of needing to phone the midwife, in 1962. I remember when the number changed from 2132 to 392132 because the local exchange was no more.

I remember Bonfire Night was always freezing. And it seemed quite normal to expect fog next day and/or snow a couple of days later

Anyone else remember indoor fireworks? We tried them once or twice but they were a bit disappointing, possibly because we got cheap ones?

Children of the Stones is properly creepy (we bought the DVD a few years ago). Spoilers the thing that got me was that after it had all finished and Gareth Thomas got out the suggestion was that the whole thing started again, with the butler Link...

My parents' generation all seemed to be white or grey by their mid-forties. Don't know how much of that was the war and how much the seventies (my dad went grey when the interest rates shot up just after they'd stretched themselves to the limit to buy a bigger house).

Now we had corporal punishment (I was never hit though) and this was the era that if you went home and told your parents you'd got the belt, chances are you'd bet a clip around the ear for getting into trouble at school.

These days the parents would be screaming up to the school demanding the teachers had on a plate.

Not that either is correct of course.