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?

Music was pretty shite until the end of the decade.

Yes, domestic violence was rife. I remember our NDN running to our house covered in blood on her face where her husband had been knocking her about. My DM just cleaned her up whilst I played with her toddler and then sent her back home. This happened more than once.
Looking back I'm ashamed of that (I think I was about 13 or so) but that's what it was like, no one would've dreampt of calling the police.

I was a teenager in the 70s.

There was no rationing of bread or sugar!

And foreign travel was just becoming affordable, so we went to Spain & Greece for our holidays, instead of Wales & Cornwall.

And the music was ace. The era of Disco and Punk ...

My mum and dad divorced in 1975. Mum had been sacked for getting pregnant a few years previously, so we had no money. We went to live with my grandparents.

At the age of 5 my route to school involved walking alone to the end of our street where it met the main road, waiting for the bus, giving the bus driver my fare, then riding it on my own to school.

Fabulous.

"I can remember my DPs getting our first colour TV in 1970. I think I was probably one of about 6 kids in my class of 35 who had one,so I think this must indicate that we were relatively well off!,although this thought never entered my head at the time!"

Yes, we didn't get one until 1974.
I remember going to a friend's birthday party aged 10 in 1968. She lived in a "private" house (i.e. not on a council estate like most of us round my way). She had a colour TV which was just the most amazing thing - ever! We were able to watch Top of the Pops in colour. I still remember that first moment of seeing a colour TV, nearly 50 years later.

See as a kid tv was great. Morcombe and wise, 2 Ronnie, till death us do part ( I know but no one questioned it same as love thy neighbour. Different world.

Also wagon wheels and angel delight

I had a Saturday job in my local bakers in the 1970's and there was a bread shortage which meant that bread was rationed by individual shops. We had to make sure that our regular customers (those with a regular order) got their bread ahead of 'casual ' customers. I remember arriving at work at 7:30 am to help set up and being greeted by a queue of about 20 people wanting to buy bread. As staff, we were allowed to buy 5 loaves, customers could have up to 3. I think the shortage was something to do with the big bread companies because we were never short of bread, just had many more customers than usual.
I think as a child / teenager, the 1970's were OK, but as an adult they were probably tough. My parents separated early in the decade and it was a real struggle for my mum, financially. Benefits were very low, child benefit only for the second child for much of the time. Family income supplement was means tested and only paid half the difference between what you 'needed' to live on and what you actually had. We did have free school meals. My first job was in benefits at the end of the decade and if you claimed supplementary benefit, you couldn't get any e tea help like fsm as the benefit was expected to cover all your needs. So yes, I do think the fine was tough for a lot of people.

Oh I remember mom meeting me from school aged 10 so 1974 and she said we had s coloured TV.. remember the intense excitement.

We sat and watched it all evening and had the massive treat of tea on our laps.

Butterscotch angel delight was the best!

Findus crispy cheese pancakes!

I remember strikes - lots and lots of strikes, and work to rule, and being belted at school then going home to be belted again, kids being seen and not heard, walking everywhere no matter what the weather, sharing 4 to a bedroom - top and tailing in the bed.

No car, no phone, no bloody hope...

(my parents were divorced - oh the shame of it in those days - so even the church turned their back)

hesterton they really were weren’t they

There was daytime TV in the seventies. Crown Court, Harriet’s Back in Town, even Mary Berry in Houseparty.
Andy Pandy etc were on in the fifties.
And the Miners’ Strike was in the eighties.

There was no rationing in the 1970's. There were more strikes and these did sometimes lead to shortages of certain things for a week or two. The three day week was only for a few months, not a whole decade! Same with the power cuts. They don't define the decade.

We had progressive rock, glam rock and then punk! We had the summer of 76 with weeks of sunshine but it wasn't the norm. Some people seem to be mixing the 70's up with Victorian or wartime England.

I loved the 70s. Really loved it. Don't remember bread or sugar rationing. The powercuts were fun - dinner by candlelight. The three day week didn't affect my dad as he was a teacher.
Loved the music, the clothes, walking everywhere, being outdoors all the time. We had no car or phone, so if you wanted to get in touch with anyone, you walked round and knocked on their door. And since all the boys we were into lived in the next area, three miles away, my sister and I did a lot of walking.

The only downside was the binmen's strike. Banks of stinking rubbish piled up in teh summer heat. the smell was awful.

And the Miners’ Strike was in the eighties.

Actually we had Miner's strikes in 1972 and 1974 as well.

I was a kid. I have a seen a lot of revisionist history of the time.

To make one thing clear - the 3 day week occurred under a Tory government - I have seen a lot of people claiming otherwise over the years.

Poverty is relative. I always thought we were upper class when I was a child as I couldn't imagine a wealthier lifestyle than the one I had and everyone I knew was in a similar situation. Actually it was pretty ordinary - not a lot of toys or stuff, or holidays but a lot of playing with friends and a trip to the sweet shop on a Saturday.

It was cold with no central heating but apart from that it was pretty good. Showers are better now too.

Shops were shut more and when you could buy food it was more boring. We ate stuff like liver because it
was cheap and always potatoes. The Cadbury s was better but more of a treat.

I quite liked the launderette particulaly the big hot dryers.

My parents had money worries but I was fine.

Another one who was a kid in the 70s. We were comfortably off (mortgaged house, washing machine, phone, got a colour telly I think around 1973). The power cuts were something we just sort of put up with as kids - my brother and I quite liked the 3-day week as it meant we saw more of our dad.

Because we were white kids in a mainly white area (just the right side of some of the more volatile bits of south London) we weren't really aware of racism/sexism/homophobia. at least not till my early teens and post-punk and Tom Robinson.

Like any era, it had its good points and its bad points.

I was 10 in 1974 and remember the power cuts, but we had a coal fire so kept warm in front of that...no central heating and bath maybe 2-3 times week ( back boiler to heat the water)
No take aways, convenience food,microwaves or double glazing and if you couldn't afford it , you didn't get it....no credit cards or ATMs!
My parents were 40 and 50 when I was born , mum was a sahm ( she used to own a newsagents until she married my dad)and was a brilliant cook, everything made from scratch and also made all my clothes ( she used to get a book of swatches from Liberty)
We had a very comfortable life , dad was a senior manager - he retired by the time I was 13 and we had 2 cars and went on foreign holidays had colour TV
I do remember a lot of brown and orange and and nasty made fibres
I consider my self very fortunate and had a great childhood growing up in a rural market town where we used to make dens in the fields and pick soft fruits in the summer for pocket money

it was hard at times - mum was single from 1972 and we didn't have much - but no one else did really - all our clothes were home made or jumble sale, we didn't have a car or big holidays (YHA members) but we played out for hours - again on derelict land and bomb sites

I remember it being warm in summer but freezing in winter (paraffin heater on the landing was our 'central heating' - ice on the inside of the bedroom window.

I remember the ladybird plague and the Alpine Pop Man, penny sweets and sat morning cinema club

I had flares and a tank top and records from the record library that we played on a huge radiogram thing

Monty Python and power cuts

it was hard but generally fun

I was a teenager then on to uni in London in the 70s - I remember a wonderful, exciting time - great fashion ( Biba etc) , the beginning of punk, cheap flats to rent. Wasn't poor, but no spare cash but carefully budgeted and expectations were lower then, I think. And the 80s being a time of poverty ?? ? I was working very hard, climbing the ladder,earning, travelling - great energy in the air. Different experiences, different perspectives.

Yes, my Mum used to make a lot of my clothes, with variable results.

I also remember eating liver and kidneys a lot because they were cheap.

Our favourite family TV programme was Coronation Street, which was only on twice a week (Mondays & Wednesdays) and we watched it with supper on a tray.