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

[juicee2]

I am quite curious about it.

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

No, peach, it's you who doesn't get it, despite my having spelt it out in words of one syllable but it seems some people could have an argument in an empty room. Perhaps you'll see what I mean the next time some phone zombie barges into you and then swears at you.

Years after we moved into our council house, my dad told me a neighbour had tried to get a petition going in the street to stop us moving in because we were mixed race.
He'd be charged for race hate for trying that crap today.

I loved the 70s. I was 10 in1971 and for a teenager it was bliss. Music was fantastic, The best films were released (The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars!).

The miners strike was 1973/74 and the 'Winter of Discontent' was 1979 so it really wasn't grim all of the time.

It was a simpler time. My dad grew all our vegetables and food was less varied, but we did eat out. There was a Chinese restaurant in Bath called Chopstick that was fantastic. McDonalds hadn't arrived but there were Wimpy Bars.

Numberfaker yes, I remember cold! I know those blankets as duvets didn't exist! Our bathroom was a tack on flat roof after thought on the back of the house and the taps used to freeze in the winter! Everything was always damp. There was mould growing on the walls and there was a bar heater thing on the wall which you had to pull the string to get it going. It made no difference though. At least I now massively appreciate my en suite!

I was a child in the seventies. It really was a different world.

We would have been considered reasonably comfortably off, but by today's standards we had very little. We wore hand me downs, had one black and white telly, didn't get central heating until midway through the decade and knew hardly anyone who went abroad on holidays.

I also remember strikes, power cuts and bomb scares.

Nearly everything was closed on a Sunday and children didn't really play out. It was a quiet family day. Going 'for a drive' was a popular activity.

But I remember far more freedom. From the age of seven I was travelling to school on public transport with no adult around. Children were allowed roam around, disappear for hours, cycle for miles, and find their. own way to and from various activities.

We had less variety of food but most of what we ate was home cooked, and our family sat around the table together every single evening, as did most other families I knew.

Families also watched television together and because there was so few channels popular programmes gained massive audiences, with everyone talking about the same programme the next day.

Maybe for adults they were worrying times. And yes, there was a lot of prejudice and ignorance around.

But there was also stronger communities, closer knit families and far less consumerism and materialism. I think children nowadays have very little freedom, and many own a shocking amount of toys and gadgets and it's very hard to give them a present or an outing that will really excite them. That's quite sad.

People wasted less stuff. One small metal dustbin was big enough for a family.
There was less choice food-wise but there were not as many overweight people.
Less obsession about looks and thinking you maybe should have a boob enhancement or other cosmetic work.
Children didn't need to be constantly entertained because they played out all the time and learned life skills and gained self confidence without everything being organised by their parents.
I think if you weren't alive at that time it would be difficult to understand the difference. It was a different society and very different culture.

I was a young adult in the 70's.
The power cuts only lasted for a few months over one winter.
There were shortages from time to time, due to all the strikes, swiftly followed by panic buying.
Perhaps I was lucky, but apart from all the things that computers and the internet have done for us, life wasn't much different. We had showers every day, (why do some people seem to think we didn't wash?), we had fridges, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, colour tv's, phones and central heating. We ate food that wasn't much different to now, at least in our family, i.e. plenty of mediterranean type food, fresh fish etc.We had cars and foreign holidays, and I worked abroad in the mid seventies as well. Not everyone had to use standpipes during the summer of 76, our water supply never failed.
There was also tv in the daytime, shock horror!. I remember watching 'The world at war' in the afternoons, and that was already a repeat then.
You could walk in and out of jobs, they were so easy to get, although the pay was often poor, and always less for women.
I don't miss the rampant inflation though, I seem to remember it was running at 10 - 15%, and prices used to go up weekly. Food was very expensive compared to now.
I certainly can't ever remember being bored. I had a great time.

Tainbri - just saw your post. Duvets did exist in the 70's. They were first marketed by Habitat at 'continental quilts', and I first had one in about 1970.

We had showers every day, (why do some people seem to think we didn't wash?), we had fridges, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, colour tv's, phones and central heating. We ate food that wasn't much different to now, at least in our family, i.e. plenty of mediterranean type food, fresh fish etc.We had cars and foreign holidays, and I worked abroad in the mid seventies as well

You were quite lucky. Most people I knew didn't have dishwashers or showers or central heating in the first half of the 70s at least. Many didn't have colour TV yet either. Most young people didn't drive or have a car. As for foreign holidays, the majority probably didn't do that.

Prog rock was shite.

Yes it was - not that I remember - my mum used to listen to Abba, Boney M, Barry Manilow, Elton John and ELO.

Less packaging on food....fruit and veg in paper bags from greengrocer
Milk in glass bottles from milk man
Meat in brown paper from butcher
Less food waste in general ( meat bones made into stock and big pan of soup made with whatever was lying around in bottom of fridge
Clothes were mended, rather than thrown away
I remember getting a duvet from habitat in 1973 when I was 9...a revelation!

Yes to the playing outside, the fresh air, roaming around in a pack of kids ranging in age from teenager down to 5. Freedom.

But god the boredom. Let's not forget that. Brownies or guides once a week and that was it. (I'm talking the 60's now probably as I was a teen in 70s). I can remember being bored out my brain at times, awful weather couldn't go out, and watching a fly crawl up the window was the only entertainment as I'd read every single book three times, there was no kids telly on, not so many toys or games etc.

In the 70s everything was dingy, not much effort was put into the presentations of anything. They built the M25 near us, and the environment went from near-rural to noisy and grimy. Food was uninteresting, TV was rather good and you were expected to be polite.
I remember bath pearls, Aqua Manda scent and Vesta 'curry' meals. David Cassidy's hair and the radio barking dog (Arnold?), long stripy socks with toes worn with Swedish clogs and blue fountain pen ink on my fingers.

Happy Days!

snog as the equal ops act was passed in 1972 I doubt your DM being sacked for being pg was true, or at least that it happened in the 70s

What equal ops act was passed in the UK in 1972?

Gottagetmoving - yes, I was lucky, I know.
With regards to rubbish, I do remember that we had two metal dustbins (for a family of 6), and one of them was for ash alone! The other one was never full. There simply wasn't all the packaging you get today. I wish we could get back to that. Veg. was bought loose, meat was wrapped in paper, bottles were returnable. The world is disappearing under a sea of plastic now.

Perhaps you'll see what I mean the next time some phone zombie barges into you and then swears at you. The next time? Hasn't happened the first time yet whereas abuse about the colour of my family happened in the 70s. Where do you think abuse wasn't rude? Where calling someone a Cripple or a nigger or a mong was good manners?

Prog rock was brilliant! Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd..I loved it.

We also had Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc.

Queen when they were actually good, Roxy Music, 10cc, Slade, T Rex, Bowie, also The Eagles, James Taylor, Steely Dan, Carole King, Carly Simon and all that good American stuff.

Bliss

The exchange between a couple of posters here reminds me that in the 70s if some people had an argument they would take it outside, and then no more was said

I was 2 at the start of the 70s. I didn't really know about the three day week. When you're a kid you don't really know if you're rich or poor, working class or middle class. It's just your family.

But it was just totally normal to play out without parents or adults. I had a sister who was 2 years older and played out from before 4 years old! It wasn't seen as abnormal or bad patenting. So very rich in that way. Kids now are much more articulate and tech savvy etc but crap at entertaining themselves.

All these references to panic buying bread would explain why my mum has about 53 billion loaves in the 204 freezers she has .

I remember being quite lucky that we had our own phone (early 70's) but that it was a party line, which meant that someone else could be using it if you picked it up. How on earth did that work?!

No worries about obesity as we were out being active whenever possible (my knees still bear the scars!).

And TV was shit after midday on Saturday (sport, sport & more sport, usually racing, thanks Dad) so no point staying in.

Don't get me started on how boring Sundays were...

As a white child born to a working class family in 64 I remember my 70s childhood and teenage years as idyllic.

The freedom the lack of stress at school, very few exams or tests, no cyber bullying or relentless pressure to be thin or perfect, totally womderful.

However I can quite see it was much different for other people.

Yes Sunday’s were quite depressing really. Mom did the ironing and dad mowed the lawn.

Most people I knew didn't have dishwashers or showers or central heating in the first half of the 70s at least That is a good point, things changed massively and what was unheard of in 1970 was commonplace by 1979, prices, wages, consumer goods. It was a decade of rapid change.

We bought our first house in 1973, we applied for a mortgage at one rate, by the time we got the offer it had gone up, by the time we completed the purchase it had gone up again and the month after we moved in it had gone up again and we really couldn't afford it, we just wouldn't have got the mortgage at that point. I worked with someone who had got a fixed rate mortgage in the 1960s and we were all amazed as they didn't seem to exist in the 1970s and we lived in fear of another rise, I think at one point I was paying 15% and she was paying 4%. Water rates on the other hand were very low and didn't really register with me even though money was tight.

The 3 day week meant that in the heavily industrialised midlands we saw blue skies far more often and had far fewer pea soupers in the winter. Personally I loved a thick fog, it seemed so exciting and you walked along in your own little world, sometimes you would hear footsteps as someone passed but you couldn't see them. No so nice for people with breathing problems.

I went to boarding school in 1974, aged 11.

One girl in my dormitory of 12 had a "continental quilt" - she was considered very advanced.

The rest of us brought an eiderdown from home, as per the school uniform list.