to want to go on a visit to the 70s

[morningtoncrescent62]

I'm not dewy-eyed about the 1970s, and I know it was a time of unchecked sexism, racism, homophobia etc., with levels of child abuse that are only now becoming evident. I don't want everything to go back to how it was then. But I do sometimes feel left behind and overwhelmed by how much has changed since I was growing up - a bit like having culture shock when you go to an unfamiliar country. I just long to have a couple of weeks in the early 70s. I'll sing a few New Seekers songs, hang out on a picket line for a bit, do some shopping in Woolworths and C&As and then I'll come back and get on with my life here. AIBU?

We had central heating in the 70s - parents weren't rich by any means. I remember power cuts, great children's TV programmes, Green Shield stamps, the Queen's Silver Jubilee - even milk bottles (no buying it in plastic containers at the supermarket) had special tops in 1977.

Many people didn't have bank accounts. People who were paid weekly were always paid cash, so that's what money you had for the week. I was a wages clerk back then at one point.
Mum had a twin tub washer, we went to the launderette - they were lots of them in those days.
In may ways life was simpler, but harder.
If you got pregnant, you'd likely get sacked, and not much chance of getting a decent job afterwards; you'd be expected to be a sahm. On the other hand, there were fewer people looking over your shoulder, judging, threatening to report you.
However, the only things I'd like back from those days are my figure and my health.

Putting the TV on earlier than you wanted to watch to 'warm the set up'.

Water cut off for 18 hours a day in the 1976 drought.

Winter of discontent - power cuts, no bin collections. Ice on the inside of the bedroom windows.

Bouncing around without seat belts with my brother in a cigarette-smoke-filled car.

Half a lamb and pig in the new chest freezer.

I was at college in the late 70's. I remember practising making Irish coffees with a friend, pouring cream over the back of a spoon because it was the height of sophistication. Also, Berni Inns being the place to go for a date.
No internet, barely a phone, had to write home. Not many clothes. I took myself and possessions to and from college on the train at the end of term. No car, either. Crikey, I'm spoilt now!

Berni Inns calypso coffees the height of sophistication

Mum had a twin tub, I got paid 2 shillings to take the spun washing down to the launderette to put it in the dryers.

Oh those cold winters, we had a Rayburn fire that heated the water and the room it was in. The rest of the house was freezing. During the summer it was only lit on a Sunday for Sunday night bath time. The rest of the week we boiled kettles as no immersion heater.

No phone at home, used to call friends from the phone box down the road and wait outside for them to call too.

Wednesday nights at the youth club dance, great live music from local bands, and early 70s a disco on Sunday night.

I think I had the best Saturday job in the world, Saturday usherette at our local picture house.

Left school in 1972 and a choice of many jobs

Would love to go back....but only for a day I think, I like my technology too much nowadays

I sometimes wish I could go back to a time where there was no internet (I say ironically posting in mumsnet), no mobile phones, shops closed on Sunday's just to take the pressure off life moves so quickly these days

My memories of the 70s are that there was lots of dog shit and people in nylon track suits. Litter everywhere and hence the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.

I remember the power cuts. We always had candles handy and sometimes used oil lamps.

My parents dressed me in my brother's old clothes, mostly dark brown and navy nylon trousers and itchy wool jumpers. Black wellies.

My mum had a twin tub too. I don't think our clothes were washed very often.

Look out for the parents considering it not just a right, but their duty to hit their children - and exercising said right in public. Help us work out if it was for the best.

I was a teenager in the 70's and can remember feeling chuffed with myself when I went to the supermarket which I believe was called 'Internationals' and managed to get my mum a bag of sugar - she was sooo pleased as it was during the sugar shortage. Does anyone else remember that?

Taping the top twenty on a Sunday night
Radio Luxenbourg (I met Tony Prince years later he was a sleaze)
Plenty of jobs, you could quit I a Friday go into an agency on Monday and be working on Tuesday
Black Forrest gateau was a posh dessert
45s cost 44p in The Big Boots branch, if they had sold out you'd have to pay 50p in Woolies or Smiths. LPs were £2.25
Freddie Laker's Skytrain (and a smidge later in 1980 I remember booking people on holidays to Miami for £99 including a day trip to Orlando)
C&As, Etam and Chelsea Girl , Biba for special outfits.......and Charlie perfume.

Kiku perfume

The Brexiteers are sending us back to the 70s - outcasts of Europe, racism not only on the rise but positively encouraged by certain politicians , poorly performing pound...

Before long we'll be overturning those pesky European safety laws which stopped our children getting deathtrap dolls with spikes embedded in them, and we can once more look forward to dangerously faulty electric blankets. We'll also be overturning human rights legislation , as it's obviously PC gone mad, now that women expect not to be beaten by their husbands and say no to sex.

Yes to the sugar shortage! And ha ha to getting useful things for xmas. The 70s were shit - nice for a nostalgic week or two but for real, everyday life - no thanks.

Don't turn this into a brexit debate please

Pick and mix huge amounts from Woolworths

Music was more inventive.

We built infrastructure and tried to make a better future.

Driving was fun.

I was a child/teenager in the 70's I remember the smell of smoke of my asthma and my mum wearing maxi dresses and wellies to walk the dog. We cycled or rode the bus hardly anyone's Dad drove them anywhere (most mums didn't drive). I do remember the sexism it's easy to forget how far we've come I wasn't allowed to do Technical Drawing as its was a boys subject. There was a huge amount of inappropriate touching and language in my teenage years and you just had to learn to deal with it. Power cuts were rife I remember being in the pub but candlelight at fifteen. It was exciting as well Greenham Common and feminist marches. The main thing I remember is there was less of everything. Less tv' channels, less people, less cars, less choices. What I'd like to revisit is my babies, I'd sell my soul for one day with a five and three year old who follow me to the toilet because I'm the center of their world. I'd like to curl up on the sofa and watch that bastard Care Bear movie from start to finish.

The dish.Your memories of the seventies sound like mine! I had an after school.job at Woolies, washed hair in a hairdressers on Saturday mornings and was a Golden Goal girl at the local football ground on Saturday afternoons. Spent my money on singles, Miners make up and tank tops!

Scorching hot summer of 1976. Drought. Water shortages. One bath full of water for a family of four. My sister and I went first. Washing with a bar of soap in the bath. No shower gel back then.

Power cuts. Dad setting out a candle in water or sand so it wasn't a fire risk as it burned. Dad singing, 'Would you like to swing on a star' so we wouldn't be scared of the dark.

Solid fuel stove, we used to have coal delivered to the coal bunker. I still remember the roar of the coal being poured into the bunker and the coaltar smell of the sacks.

Plastic table cloth. Primula cheese tube kept in the larder. Boil in the bag fish in parsley sauce. Tinned tomato soup. Strawberry mousse.

Rigid sided paddling pool, so cool in the summer mornings. Lilac tree fully in bloom. Our old Victoria Plum tree & picking plums and the one time my mum made plum jam using a borrowed jam pan and jam thermometer and buying preserving sugar especially and I've never had jam as nice as that since.

Buying records and make up at Woolworths. Going to Boots for a better range of makeup. Bourgouise (sp) anyone ? I STILL wear blue mascara. I wore it to a job interview in 1988 and can't break the habit.

We moved house in in 1975 and got central heating a year or two later. Wednesday afternoon closing which is why my Dad used to collect me from school on a Wednesday otherwise I would walk.

Yes to cigarette smoke everywhere. Home. Car. Pubs if we went out as a family.

I was 11 in 1970. Yes yes to the frost on the windows. I had a little electric fan heater in my room and dressed huddled up in front of it. Stupid flares and platform soles. Smocks and cheesecloth shirts. The Tomorrow People and Randall and Hopkirk. My fiend and I persuaded my long-suffering dad to take us to Heathrow Airport to see David Cassidy arrive. We didn't see him but enjoyed being part of the screaming mob!

Shit she was a friend not a fiend!

Washing my hair in Sqezy washing up liquid over the chocolate brown bath, rinsing with a jug. Apeel powdered orange juice, 5p sweetie mix-ups, and Angel Delight.