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?

Oh and my cousin failed all his O levels in the last year of them.....late 80s?

We were young parents in the early 70s. Money was really tight, DH was unemployed for a short time, we lived in a private rented run down house with an outside loo and a coal fire. We'd moved away for a work opportunity (it went downhill after a year) so had no chance of council housing.

My DM knitted for the DC, we used cloth nappies, hand washing or using the laundrette. DH got on his feet, we bought a house in a mining village, but didn't stay there long. It didn't feel like home, the school was pretty poor too. I got a job, and bought an automatic washing machine. The DC and I sat and watched its first full cycle. By the end of the decade we'd moved to a suburb full of outsiders like us. Nice school, nearly all the kids walked there, and played out in the culdesac which felt safe. We had a great street party in '77.

Our holidays were usually going back home and visiting grandparents. We had days out, and the occasional treat at a Berni Inn. Used DHs van before we got a car. Cushions in the back for DC on long journeys. We always had a phone, my mum paid for the first one. Even with both of us working, we didn't have much spare cash, we had a black & white tv long after colour came in. I remember buying stuff for the house at the scouts jumble sale. Inflation was a killer, but we were definitely better off at the end of the 70s than the beginning. Mainly because we had two wages.

Who remembers "Plant a tree for 73." Then the amazing follow on, "Plant some more for 74." The first was an official government campaign, not sure about the second.

Food wasn't officially rationed, IYSWIM, but some shops would limit how much you could buy to deter panic buying. I'd forgotten about it until I read the PPs.

We had great school dinners they would come in little metal serving boxes and the head of the table (oldest children) would serve the food up. Then it changed and we had to queue up and get if from the school kitchen it wasn’t so nice

Butterscotch tart was delicious and another pudding was a pink mousse tart no one seems to remember that, it was lovely. And a ginger sponge with a lemon sauce

Pink strawberry lumpy custard 🤢

Everyone’s house smelt of chips or curry in my circle of family/friends apart from my posh friends house her house smelt of garlic and she had never had spaghetti on toast until she had tea at mine

I remember O'Levels up to 76 as ABC fail, then it became: ABCDE Unclassified. We were told you had to pretty much spell your name wrong and not answer a question to get a U. A U didn't appear on the certificate.

I think one thing that was betterbin the 70s is that nobody was too fussed if you got only a few O'Levels. I knew lots of stockbrokers without any and up to the late 70s you could still become a qualified accountant/solicitor without a degree. Lady Diana Spencer didn't have any O'Levels.

People say the rash of self harm is about social media. I think not. I think it's the crippling exam pressure put on young people. 50%+ of young people aren't academic yet they are all being shoe horned into a round hole.

Many many borderline people with ADHD/ASD could make their way, at their level, in their time a few generations ago, never being forced to keep up or to feel failures.

To the OP - we can't say if "it was as bad as people say" if you don't stay with the thread and answer pretty reasonable questions like "depends,.... what did they say?"
Obviously, we'll have had different experiences, just as today - everyone on here has different experiences. However, there are a lot of memories, fond and 'glad I'm not back there'.
My dc find it hard to believe some of the things that occasionally come up in conversation. For example the fact we had 3 outfits (as, I think, did most dc - we weren't 'poor' or deprived, it was just normal). You had your school uniform (those that wore it, fewer Primary schools did than do now), you had your 'Sunday best' and you had your 'playing out' clothes. Same with shoes..... school shoes (that polished up for best), trainers or pumps, wellies and slippers.
Lovely to sit and read through the whole thread this evening, - although amazing how many people repeat what others have already said (for example the rationing of bread and of sugar...... already explained what was meant, that local shops did ration it out because of the shortages, that no-one was saying there was Government rationing.... then about 15 posts further down, same thing repeated, over and over).

I do agree that it is difficult to compare with now. There was loads that I wouldn't choose to get rid of now - the internet/ mobile phones / central heating / lack of ice and condensation on the bedroom windows...... or to return to ..... cars without seatbelts, or at least the compulsion to wear them / people driving after several drinks / only going out for a meal (Berni Inn anyone?) once a year / football hooliganism / racism.
Of course medicine and knowledge has advanced so much - you can't compare an ambulance driver with the highly skilled paramedics we have today, let alone all the treatments and awareness and prevention of diseases.
But, as most have said, although we had a lot less materially that our kids do now, that wasn't an issues because nobody else had them either.
I did enjoy the two heatwave summers (despite the water shortages). I think as kids things like the power cuts were adventures rather than worries - if we had them now we might look at them differently. Things like the strikes and the 3 day week and the ridiculously high inflation passed us by mainly, but again, as an adult I wouldn't want to have to live in those times, with those worries.

Who remembers "Plant a tree for 73."

Me
My dc went to my Junior school - I often looked at that clump of trees and wonder which one it was I planted!

I remember O'Levels up to 76 as ABC fail, then it became: ABCDE Unclassified. It varied from board to board. Another board had 1 -6 pass, 7 - 9 fail and U unclassified.

Most people didn't have any O-levels because secondary moderns didn't do them. Somewhere in the 60s they introduced CSE for secondary moderns. But employers didn't rate CSEs, so eventually (and perhaps as a result of comprehensives) they brought in a single exam for everyone, GCSE, with a C and above at GCSE theoretically equivalent to an O level pass.

To progress to 6th form and A levels, you generally required 4 or 5 O levels, including English Language and Maths.

The ghosts of these hurdles live on in the school league table targets.

Well done BackforGood, did you plant some more for 74?

I planted 2 apple trees, I bet they are great now, I feel like going and sneaking a look at my old back garden.

Don't remember and 'planting some more in 74', but that's not to say it didn't happen

Landlords notices No blacks No Irish No dogs was legal until 1976 or 7.

I remember asking my mum if I was Irish and her slapping me and telling me I was British.

She was Irish but even though I looked like a leprechaun larvae and had her stereotypically Irish name, I was born in England and so I was British.

Benny Hill. Dick Emery. People (including us) laughing at stereotyped stupid Irish jokes.

Love Thy Neighbour. Mind Your Language. Bernard Manning. Jim Davidson. All telling us we were thick.

Or bombers. Dad having to individually wrap all his tools (including saws) with newspaper in case he was searched and accused of carrying a weapon.

Kids in my Catholic primary school being told to walk together in groups for fear of racial abuse or worse.

Bread shortages and mum's bulletproof baking.

Cheap food boiled to death as that was all we could afford.

Power cuts - when my parents died we cleared the cupboards out and found the kerosene lamps my parents used. They stank.

Pools closing down because of the water shortages.

The 70s were shit.

Does anyone remember the foil collection for Blue Peter charity appeal?

I remember them showing us how to seperate the paper and foil from chewing gum wrappers.

Princess Diana and the City Stockbrokers didn't go to the secondary moderns though or sit CSEs.

CSEs are back anyway aren't they? Don't they extrapolate to NVQs?

Intelligent

I never saw a sign that said no blacks, no irish, no dogs and I spent a lot ofntime in London during the 60s and 70s.

I remember seeing the “no Irish” signs, still common in the 80s.

I was a teenager in the 70s.
I agree that there was a lot more freedom for children, and more responsibility, too. We took ourselves to and from school ( though that would have been in the 60s), and I remember being allowed to have friends home at lunchtime at about 8, with no adult present. We'd cook ourselves a meal ( something on toast) make a cuppa, have a chat and go back to school.
Not many of the Mums worked - mine did, she was a single parent, which was very unusual, and all the other Mums used to say how much they admired her.
It was much harder for working women then - shops shut at 5 or 5.30, plus half-day closing on Weds/Thurs, and food shops would often close around 12 on a Saturday. Nothing at all open on Sunday. We didn't really have big supermarkets, so would shop for a day or 2 at a time, going to individual local shops. I know i used to help a lot with housework/chores/shopping, but even so, wonder how my Mum managed. i think she used to do food shopping during her lunch break, and then carry it home from work. If you worked 9-5, it would be very difficult to deal with all the things ( house admin etc)we now do online or later in the evening/weekends.

*BlueLady

Twisting my words again. Where did I say the 70s were a time of manners, consideration and selflessness? Nowhere, that's where*.

Blimey I thought I responded quite pleasantly, but I can see I've managed to offend you.

Fwiw, I didn't attribute those words to you as a quote, but I did think that your comments inferred that that was your opinion :

*People were polite to one another

People are much angrier and less tolerant now

People on the whole were more tolerant of each other

Society generally was far less angry and people were more tolerant

..widespread rudeness, selfishness and lack of respect I see every day*

So maybe you can see why I thought, on a thread about the 70s, I took your words above to suggest that people then had better manners, more consideration and were less selfish?

I'm really not trying to get into a row, and apologise if I did indeed twist your words.

But I don't really know why you're trying to tell me - and pp who disagreed with you earlier - that we're 'wilfully misunderstanding' or 'conflating two issues'. I for one understand the point you're making, but disagree and I think that's probably ok isn't it?

The other that strikes me as very different is that people seemed very competent back then - if you had a car, you would maintain it yourself; everyone could do things like changing oil and spark plugs. Same with DIY - I don't remember anyone I know getting decorators in, home maintenance would be something most people would have a go at.
Most people I knew had biggish terraced houses in London, but in very shabby condition - it wouldn't be unusual for there to be buckets catching leaks. No one had matching furniture and interior design just wasn't a thing - I don't recall any new furniture till I was well into my teens, apart from a few tables my dad made.
My mum very rarely had new clothes for herself, and she made most of mine until I was about 12. We had lodgers until I was an adult to help make ends meet, as did many of our friends.
We rarely had sweets as we couldn't afford them, and never food or drinks out at the cinema or on day trips. I don't ever remember going for coffee or lunch with my Mum if we were out and about; we'd take sandwiches if it was a museum trip, but if it was a rare shopping trip, we'd just get what we'd gone out for and then come home.

A lot of bills would be paid at either the post office or in the utility showrooms which had counters at the back.

Al ot of the stuff we do instantly today took the better part of the week as a posted letter had to be sent, received, acted upon and a receipt sent and received.

It was commonplace to have bank and building society accounts as the laws determining what they did were very strict.

Banks looked after your 'day to day' money and building societies lent money for mortgages.

People standing and watching televisions in shop windows.

Only being able to buy a phone from BT or a cooker from British Gas. They had a complete monopoly and you couldn't buy those products anywhere else. I remember going into the British Gas showroom where they had just three models to choose from.

Yes, a bit of misunderstanding, April.

if you had a car, you would maintain it yourself; everyone could do things like changing oil and spark plugs

Or if you broke down, it wouldn’t be long before a couple of blokes driving by would stop and offer to help. This just can’t happen now because of the relative complexity of modern cars and the fact that many of the components are in sealed units which need to be replaced rather than fixed.