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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder if it was as bad as people say in the 70s?

456 replies

juicee2 · 03/04/2018 18:55

I am quite curious about it.

What caused the poverty? I thought the 80s were a poor decade - am I wrong?

OP posts:
Roussette · 04/04/2018 07:36

One thing I regret was having my hair cut. It was waist length and I decided in mid seventies to go for a mullet, a cross between Rod Stewart and a member of Sweet. It was never the same again Grin

DustyMaiden · 04/04/2018 07:37

I’ll phone you tonight meant walking to the phone box and queuing for 20 minutes. Having a conversation with BF whilst one of the neighbors in the queue listened to every word and had a good gossip about it afterwards.

Phone now, I can lie in bed and communicate with almost anyone in the world. Find the answer to any question. It’s like a genie anything I want to own just order, pay, it will come to me.

Yvest · 04/04/2018 07:53

Does everyone remember sheets and stiff grey army blankets made very tight on your bed.
No I had a duvet with a Paddington duvet cover. I loved Paddington

gussyfinknottle · 04/04/2018 08:06

I had a bedspread, quilt, blanket and sheets. It was a pain in the arse to make. Duvets were a revelation.

gussyfinknottle · 04/04/2018 08:08

We had a phone and an inside loo. My auntie, however, made us use the outside loo. It was lovely Hmm

BeyondThePage · 04/04/2018 08:10

Those who say it was worse than today probably weren't there.

or are not white.

gussyfinknottle · 04/04/2018 08:11

It was worse then. I just didn't notice it because I was a kid. But it really was.

CharltonLido73 · 04/04/2018 08:44

A few people have mentioned the music being rubbish in the 70's. That's a matter of opinion. Personally I thought it was great and still listen to it a lot.

I agree. I don't understand how anyone who was a teenager in the 70s could complain about the music - it's what you experienced at the time and there was so much variety: prog rock, glam rock - then later on, disco and punk. The advent of talents such as Elton John, Bowie et al It was probably the most creatively musically fertile decade we have ever known.

Bluelady · 04/04/2018 08:48

I don't think it was worse at all. It was different. We had less withour doubt but we also had far lower expectations.

There is one respect in which the 70s were much, much better and that's the way people treated one another. Society generally was far less angry and people were more tolerant of one another. We brought our children up as we were, to respect our elders, offer seats on buses, etc. People on the whole were polite to each other and not eager to take offence.

I really wish we hadn't lost that.

ItMadeMyEyesWater · 04/04/2018 08:53

I absolutely adored the 70s. I can't think of anything that was bad, but then I was a teenager, and I was having the time of my life.Smile

peacheachpearplum · 04/04/2018 08:56

Remember a girl who was an, hush now say it quietly, she was an unmarried mother. So the court awarded her I think £1.50 a week. She had to collect it from the court on a Friday, don't know when the father paid it in. The thing was the court office closed at lunchtime so she would go there in her lunch break, queue up and if she was lucky he had paid money in, then get back to work to a telling off for being late again. It had to be collected on a Friday afternoon so she had no choice.

Great times for sure.

For me contraception was a nightmare in the early 70s. No free contraception and you had to pay for a private prescription as you couldn't get one on the NHS. It cost me £5 for a six months prescription and I was earning £7.50 a week in 1970. Then I would go to the pharmacy once a month and pay my 55p for that month. Some months I wouldn't have the money.

Do I want to go back to the 70s, no but I would like to be a teenager/20 year old again but not in the 70s.

ItMadeMyEyesWater · 04/04/2018 08:57

Bluelady You are so right.

gussyfinknottle · 04/04/2018 09:01

Prog rock was shite.

RainyApril · 04/04/2018 09:09

Society generally was far less angry

I disagree with that. Sexism, racism, homophobia so rife it was on the telly as entertainment.

A blind eye turned to domestic violence, beating your kids.

Our local paedophile was just a 'funny old man' that we had to avoid and ignore.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 04/04/2018 09:14

People were more tolerant if you fitted in

But certainly not towards non white Christian English, single mothers, those with learning difficulties, those with mental health problems, alcoholics, drug addicts I am sure more can be added to the list

We were a politer society but tolerant of others no (much to do with ignorance)

Snog · 04/04/2018 09:16

Life was appallingly sexist, my mum had to leave her job at the bank because she was pregnant. TV comedy consisted of sexist jokes demeaning women which I hated even as a kid.
Men wouldn't push supermarket trolleys or prams, wouldn't wash up or do any "women's work" and if in a car with a woman the man would ALWAYS drive. If you broke these rules other men would mock you.
Once nuclear weapons were explained to me it cast a shadow of fear over my childhood.
I did like 70s fashions, we used to receive a couple of suitcases a year of outgrown kids clothes from my older cousins in America, stuff from Sears catalogues in fun colours.
School food was appalling - spam and smash instant potato. At primary school I went home for lunch which was usually Heinz soup and Angel Delight or jelly.
Adults would "go out for a drive" and just drive around because petrol was affordable and there was no congestion.

Gwenhwyfar · 04/04/2018 09:21

"I had a bedspread, quilt, blanket and sheets. It was a pain in the arse to make. Duvets were a revelation."

And in my grandmother's house (all the time, not just in the 70s) we had eiderdowns that rolled off the bed during the night.

gussyfinknottle · 04/04/2018 09:24

My 1920s born Dad always cooked. He was more adventurous than my mum as a cook. But I think this was rare.
My Dad was also happy to teach us girls DIY. And he taught me to sew.
He wasn't a hippy - he'd had to learn these things as a kid.

Bluelady · 04/04/2018 09:26

I was talking about the way people treated one another on a day to day basis. People were polite to each other, respected each others' personal space, didn't swear at each other. People generally are MUCH angrier and less tolerant now.

peacheachpearplum · 04/04/2018 09:33

No Bluelady they weren't tolerant, they were more polite to the people they didn't object to. So judgemental of "others."

HeadingForSunshine · 04/04/2018 09:37

The men in my family weren't like that. My grandad was the better cook and grandma was better on a tractor. She ran the farm during the war. My mother always worked too. And we had duvets from the early 70s - as soon as they were available in the UK. M&S were definitely selling them in 1974.

SnowJokeAnymore · 04/04/2018 09:41

There are just as many judgemental types today: human nature doesnt alter.

Surface politeness is quite helpful imho.

ghostyslovesheets · 04/04/2018 09:41

I think people were much less polite if you were not white, straight or married - I was ribbed for having a slut for a mum and no dad - chinese mates at school where name called being gay was still a dirty secret

RainyApril · 04/04/2018 09:42

People were polite to each other

Not if you were black, gay, disabled or a single mother.

Not if you were a woman who objected to having her arse groped at work.

The Asian family I knew had 'paki' spray painted on their walls regularly - people laughed and said 'well it's true, just kids being kids'.

My cousin, disabled, had words like 'cabbage' shouted at her in the street.

peacheachpearplum · 04/04/2018 09:47

RainyApril, I had forgotten the "paki" graffiti. Happened to our local shop alot. Really horrible.