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?

Veg. was bought loose, meat was wrapped in paper, bottles were returnable. The world is disappearing under a sea of plastic now

This is how I still buy veg and meat (and fish and cheese) in the supermarket, and bottles are returnable here.

For anyone wanting a 1970s, BBC Iplayer is showing some Fanny Cradock shows at the moment. She airily assures viewers that the food (including fresh cream) will keep for weeks and weeks.

I was a kid in the 70s. It was bloody brilliant!

In the 70's/80's adults were always telling kids how much harder life wa for them in the 60's/50's but the music and films were much better and young people today didn't play out enough or know they were born. How times change...

FGS why all this talk about racism in the 70s. If people really want to talk about racism, look at the decades before the 70s, now they really were bad. I know exactly what Bluelady is saying, there isn't the respect there once was in certain areas of society. When was the last time you saw someone give up their seat for an elderly person or pregnant woman on public transport, neighbours were called auntie or uncle, or for older neighbours Mr or Mrs. It all comes down to respect, regardless of where that person was born.

It's because they're conflating two completely separate issues, Itmade, and are wilfully refusing to see it.

I was 12 at the end of the 70's. I remember:
no central heating, no washing machine, no phone, not enough to eat.
no wellies/winter coat that fitted. never went out to eat till I left home. a takeaway was chips only (fish too expensive) as a rare treat. food home cooked except my mum was fond of smash, angel delight, and frozen foods from FineFare supplemented with veg/fruit from the allotment. I spent a lot of time in the garden / on my bike/ reading.
I was aware of being poor and of my parents money worries. They talked politics a lot and so I was aware of 3 day week, strikes, etc At election time one put a Labour poster in the window and one put a Conservative one in. I despaired at their despair that the ony hope was to' Win the Pools' (we were so poor that collecting the pools money was one of my mothers many extra part time jobs).
I also remember that you were very much at the mercy of adults. If you got the cane at school, or a belt round the ear from your Mum, or a hand up your skirt from your Uncle it was very much 'your own fault'.

Remember Massive street games of British bulldog, rounders, Cow boys and Indians, war, and not a helicoptering interfering organising adult in sight. Older kids organised and younger kids followed.

Bloody brilliant

When was the last time you saw someone give up their seat for an elderly person or pregnant woman on public transport

A few weeks ago on the Underground, when I was last in London.

Don’t swallow all that stuff the Daily Heil feeds you...

Definitely there was far more open racism and homophobia in the '70s and children with special needs were often jeered at, dismissed as 'odd', or ignored at the back of the classroom.

But I agree with BlueLady that there is far more day to day rudeness, selfishness and lack of consideration around nowadays. More and more people seem to live in a bubble where they don't know their neighbours and, when out and about, spend most of their time plugged into music or staring at their phone.

In the 70s elderly people and pregnant women were offered seats on public transport as a matter of course. Nowadays you see healthy young adults looking through them, children remaining sprawled comfortably in their seats, and parents not bothering to take younger children onto their lap to free up a seat.
Also, back in the 70s, an adult could tell off someone else's misbehaving child. Nowadays you're likely to have an indignant parent descending on you telling you their child 'has rights' and is 'only playing'. As a result there's an increasing number of children who think they can do whatever they like and react with rudeness, unconcern or increased bad behaviour to anyone who dares to ask them to show a bit of manners or consideration.

We really need to connect more as communities and re-learn how to live together.

There were many bad things about that decade (you could easily leave school illiterate without anyone noticing) but I wish I’d been able to give my children the freedom I had, living in the suburbs of a small city. Unfortunately I’d have been reported to social services. I live on a very safe estate in a relatively well-off area but there are plenty of parents here who won’t let their children out unsupervised until they are at secondary school. Not even allowed to go to the local shop on their own 🙁

But I agree with BlueLady that there is far more day to day rudeness, selfishness and lack of consideration around nowadays. But the abuse certain groups got was day to day. What you and BlueLady really mean is if you were in an acceptable group there was less rudeness.

i remember plenty of racism, sexism and disablism in my white w/c community. And Yes you'd play out / get sent to the corner shop for fags but if you got flashed on the way there/back it'd be your problem, not the grown ups. There was plenty of 'respect for your elders' but if you were a kid, a minority (inc plenty of women) then you were not one of the respected groups sadly.
Things wrong with current society too, just some of them different (and some still the same under the window dressing)

I'm not denying that Peaches. I agree that certain groups of people were treated shockingly by society back in the 70s. My own father used to tell me about the time he was trying to book a friend from India into a hotel and no hotel would accept the booking. Total ignorance and intolerance.

But I also agree that there is more general rudeness, and lack of consideration in society nowadays e.g. parents letting kids shout and scream in restaurants, elderly people being left to stand on public transport, drivers aggressively tailgating and so on.

We have come a long way in one regard, and we have regressed in another.

I remember being flashed at by a neighbour and told my dad who went round and punched him.

That was the end of it. Now imagine that today.

User yes agree with your post

Spot on, user.

I was born in 71. Loved the Raleigh Chopper and Grifter bikes, Sindy doll and accessories and freedom to play out and roam around with groups of friends.

Funny to see pp getting quite angry whilst simultaneously bemoaning the lack of manners and tolerance today.

Oh look
another DAILY MAIL POST AND RUN
the OP asks a goady question and vanishes
this one will be in the
racist, sexist, tax dodging Daily Heil soon

I haven't seen any rudeness from posters 'bemoaning the lack of manners and tolerance nowadays' RainyApril. Robustly stating your argument is not bad manners.

So where's the anger, April? I haven't noticed any.

It was my normal as a kids and we were happy. Everyone our way had the same, food wasn't plentiful but there was enough. Very few treats and there wasn't much to buy in the shops anyway.

We had so many kids to play with and lots of freedom, we played out all day, everyday, in our streets there was a good sense of community. There wasn't the individualism there is today.

However all the stuff my kids take for granted were very very special.

Highlight of my childhood was when our community centre ran a bus to the cinema at Christmas and we all went on the trip and were also given a bag of sweets.

I liked the power cuts. They were cosy. And it meant we could have sandwiches and crisps for school lunch instead of horrible 'healthy' stews. Bleuchh.
I don't recall the three day week... a tiny bit too young, and besides my parents were self employed so just found ways to keep busy and working!
Food (apart from aforementioned sandwiches and crisps) was in retrospect grim. I cause constant eye rolling in our house with comments like 'Avocado was a bathroom colour' and 'I never ate spaghetti that wasn't in a can until I left home'. Likewise black pepper, mangoes, mangetout, curry or anything vaguely interesting.
Sundays were proper boring. Not just in retrospect but in reality too.

User, where did I say I'd seen rudeness?