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?

I went to a grammar and so did dh in 1976, they are both still there as grammar schools.

Anyone remember being so cold you got dressed in bed

The whole council house situation was so different then. We lived in a row of four council new builds, two lots of semis. Joined onto us was a widow with her three grown up children (one daughter still lives there albeit alone now) and on the other side, not joined onto us, was an elderly lady and her two brothers, joined onto them was a family with two children around my age. They were quite well off, owned a new car which was changed every few years for a newer model and the man would go off to his office in his suit and carrying a briefcase everyday. Interestingly, three out of the four houses are still occupied by the original tenants now, almost 50 years later. It's only the elderly siblings who are no longer there.

Now the grammar school thing was a debacle round our way. Amalgamated schools, teachers used to the grammar kids unable to cope. Primary school had been a singalong happy clappy nail and thread pictures and salt dough blur.

Then into the 8Os with teacher strikes.

My childhood was good but my education was lacking. But we did have a local library which helped a lot.

Child of the 70's.

I can remember coming home and finding my mum keeping warm with the gas cooker. I can remember power cuts. Quite 'citing because you never knew when they would happen and it was a mad scramble for the candles. I can also remember massive bread queues outside the bakers I used to pass on the bus and being regularly sent to Tesco's which was round the corner from school to get the 1lb or so of sugar one person was allowed to buy.

It was all just life as normal really...

Power cuts, some planned others just shit infra structure. rampant inflation, lots of strikes meaning public services not available. The intro of VAT. Everything was a lot more expensive (except housing) double digit inflation and interest rates Meant very little in the way of disposal income. But today’s pressures are just different but just as the bad

During the power cuts my mum spent ages arranging to visit friends in low risk areas so that we didn't miss any of The Forsyte Saga. Millions of people watched it.
I remember watching A Family at War on Sunday night.
When the sugar shortage was on the seniors at the shoe shop where I worked on a Saturday sent me to the supermarket to get supplies dressed in a variety of different coats and headscarves so that I wouldn't be sussed going through the tills half a dozen times.

I remember out teachers giving us 11 plus test papers endiessly in the leavers class. One day we were warned not to mention their existence to the ‘education inspector’ who was visiting with many threats of Slaps if we did.

They locked them in s cupboard.

Nearly every girl and boy passed the 11+. Our school was known for its high pass rate

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

Seriously? Could you be any more simplistic?

I think I was of an age to be part of the first year group affected by the change. I passed the entrance exam to the local private grammar; my grandparents paid the school fees, but I remember my parents being a bit cross about the fact that the next borough council along from us still supported the assisted places scheme but our council didn't.

The assisted places scheme didn't start until 1980.

Getting dressed in front the gas fire- too cold everywhere else. One bath a week on Sunday being shouted at for leaving the immersion heater on.

Yvest you were very fancy. A daily, a bath every night, a dishwasher! Far more luxurious than most people.

It was very dirty in the 70s. Not at much litter as there is now but lots of grottyness. Lots of dog shit, and random dogs.

There were dockers' strikes too but there was a specific issue with Caribbean sugar and Common Market controls on sugar beet production in uk.

Oh yes to Forsyte Saga, I'd forgotten that and when Soames raped Fleur it was shocking.
Then there was Bouquet of Barbed Wire, that was an eye opener.

He raped Irene didn't he? Fleur was his daughter. Yes, it was incredibly shocking and everyone was talking about it.

I remember watching A Family at War on Sunday night.

There is a tv channel called Talking Pictures tv which is shows A Family at War every night.

Sugar rationing: www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jul/09/archive-rationing-sugar-shortage-looms

Oh yes, I was going from memory, yes it was Irene

I was a child in the 70s. My dad was a child in the 1930s and 40s. My mother was a child in the 1940s and 50s. It's no longer the 70s, the 30s, the 40s, the 50s. And so measuring by that yardstick is a moot point.

Did the door catch fire in family at war or have I imagined that?

Yes there was the 3 day week, power cuts and loads of strikes. Bakers went on strike which was why there was a bread shortage, it wasn't rationed like it was in the War. The other things didn't last for long. I remember being huddled under blankets on the sofa with candles for light. But all those things didn't last long and the poverty wasn't half as bad as it was in the 60's. In the 70's we had a bath in our home, a washing machine, and for a while we lived in a house with central heating (not for long though). We didn't have those in the early to mid 60's.

Schnauzer

If too bloody cold get dressed in bed

Wall mounted tin opener!! Mum had it free with a washing machine. That day I thought we were posh

Why was it awful? Now, most of it sounds trivial but the transition of the currency pushed up inflation (1972). Then the oil price soaring after OPEC was formed in 1973, which increased prices for everything. The UK elected a weak Labour government, headed by a PM who was suffering dementia (early onset). He had to be replaced but nothing could be achieved without the agreement of the unions who were hellbent on running industry. So during the winter of discontent, bins weren't emptied, funerals didn't happen because bodies couldn't be buried, the electricity only worked for three days a week, no post was delivered most days and life ground to a standstill. Racism was routine. TV was horrid sitcoms, and only on from 4.00pm to 11.00pm. But the music was fabulously inventive, art and fashion were exciting so there were high points we still love. And there was the hottest summer ever, and then everyone had to get their water from standpipes in the street and carry it home in a bucket. It was not dissimilar to what most people now would think of as life in a war zone, unless you were a child, but none of us were used to the customer service standards we now enjoy. When I bought my first flat in 1987, I was told there was an 18 month wait for a landline.

It was a different life back then. I was a child, shielded possibly.

Lived on a council estate, everyone seemed the same to me. One or two families had cars, but playing out on the streets was the norm. Being rivals with the kids from the next street was mega exciting. Raiding their bonfire wood needed espionage skills.

My DM was prone to fear the worst, saving everything incase "this time next year we have no jobs no money etc..." I can only remember extcited at the water shortage and standpipes in 76, the power cuts, were thrilling and remember well playing cards by candle light.

Music was brilliant, Slade, the Sweet, Showaddywaddy, Wizard. Being 13 the Christmas of 73 was the most exciting time. Can still remember every moment of that Christmas Eve party at school pals house, we thought we were pushing the boundaries (clearly our parents had never done anything like this).
Friday night we had stake (Undercut), it was payday for both my parents. that's when 'the Order' was delivered.

Clothes were bought out of catalogues. Or C&A, Chelsea Girl. Shoes, Freeman Hardy and Willis.

2 holidays per year, 1 in a caravan and 1 in a guest house in Great Yarmouth, Margate, Weymouth. When we got a bit posher we went to Cornwall.

Food, seems rubbish now but Findus crispy pancakes, Vesta Chowmein, Cresta, boil in bag stuff - were delicacies.

And - it was always sunny.

Op, just curious- don't you have any family or work colleagues or friends or neighbours who remember the 70s?
What do they say?