If you were born late 60s/early 70s please could you help me...

[ChickenNugget86]

I know this is really random but I'm at a point in my life where I'd love to find out about life growing up for my mum in the late 60s early 70s.

She was born in 1967 and unfortunately she passed away suddenly aged 42 when I was still living at home age 18. My family totally broke down from it and never talk about her, which really upsets me.

When I got married I asked about her wedding got nothing back. Had my first child they wouldn't speak about my mums labour to help paint a picture etc....

I understand people grieve in different ways but it's been over 10 years now and no one will talk about her which makes me sad. I often wonder what it would have been like being a child during these times - foods, hobbies, school life, toys etc...

Her parents are still alive and refuse to acknowledge she died. I know it must be horrible to lose a child but id love some answers about her life. My dad's family don't speak to me and I no longer have a relationship with my dad. (they were married when she died)

Her friends and work colleagues have told me bits but it's mainly things I already know.

I feel silly for asking but was hoping some people could share their experiences, might help me to get a picture??

I think there is a thread in Classics about growing up in the 70s.

I don’t recognise the description of childbirth by @cafenoirbiscuit. I was born in ‘66 and my sibling in ‘67, like your mum. We both had our children in the ‘90s. Fathers definitely were in the delivery room, the NCT was a big thing, so were water births and Lamaze breathing techniques- all in the NHS. The natural birth movement was quite big, moving away from the more intervention and medicalised ways of previous decades. Breast feeding was definitely encouraged. Virtually everyone did, at least for a short time. Everyone had car seats in the ‘90s too. Weaning was earlier, though, starting at four months.

I was born in 65 and my sister in 67.
I remember that we always had music on. My mum loved glam rock. I remember her and my aunts going out clubbing on a Saturday night. They loved. To dress up and do their make up at my house and my dad would drop them off!
My mum wotke part time.
Fashion was hugely important to mum so we were always fashionably dressed
My dad liked his motorbikes and his pals would call round and he would go off on rides with them. I loved going in the back.
The cinema was important. Often dad would pick us .up from school to go the city to dpsee a new realise. I remember Herbie and also going to see Star Wars.
Mum and dad loved buying the latest technology. We got the ping pong video game. I remember getting a VCR. So exciting! Mum says when we got a front lid washing machine we were happy to sit and watch the clothes go round.
Mum liked to try out latest foods! Findus pancakes and vienetta was something special back then!

I second pp’s suggestion of asking your Mum’s friends and looking at threads on here

Also, it’s only fiction but Sue Townsend captured the teenage years of someone born in 1967 in her ‘Adrian Mole’ books - ‘the secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 & 3/4’ and ‘the growing pains of Adrian Mole’

I'm sorry to hear about your Mum.

I was born in the late 60's. For me there was a fair bit of freedom, very different to most childhoods now but certainly not neglectful. We were able to play out a lot, there was so much less traffic and most children walked to school with friends from an early age. Most Mums worked but much more part-time (working class area).

Food was more seasonal, meals out a rarity or limited to a cafe on a day out. We had public transport. Lots of corner shops. We knew all our neighbours and all the adults in the village seemed to know who my parents were.

TV, I remember the start of day time TV and Emmerdale showing repeats in the summer.

Have you seen any of the 'Back in time for...' programmes that are usually on BBC2. Some of these have really resonated with me. For me though the changes seemed to happen more slowly, there was no mass move to frozen food for us (lots of fridges only had an ice box). Lots of local shopping and I was often sent to the shops.

I think it was a wonderful time to grow up.

I was born in ‘66, my brother was two years older. We lived on a newly built estate and all the kids played together on the grass strip that separated some of the houses. We were in and out of each other’s houses all the time and called the other parents auntie and uncle.
When I started school, my mum would walk me and my brother to the bus stop and we would get the school bus. ( Aged 4&6) No coming to school with us on first day.
Saturday was always spent visiting relatives, ending up at Grandmas for tea, if we were lucky, some cousins would be there too.
Sunday was church in the morning and a proper roast dinner at lunch time. Tea was sandwiches and cake which we were allowed to eat in the sitting room.
My mum made most of my clothes (not sure about my brother) I remember a very natty jeans and jacket combo when I was about 7. Thought I was the bees knees in that.
When I got older if I wanted to phone a friend, it had to wait until after 6pm and I had to sit on the stairs. Phones were always in the hall.
Went to uni in 1984, weekly rent was £12, we complained when the LL tried to increase it to £13.😂
This has brought back some lovely memories, we had a lot more freedom when I was a child.

Alongside reading this thread look up something like 'kids of the 70s' on Pinterest - visuals can be really helpful.
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The book 'where did it all go right' by Andrew Collins' is a lovely nostalgic timetrip about growing up in the 70s.

I was born within a year of your mum.

A night out at the weekend was when my parents went to the pub and me and sibling stayed in car. We were brought a bottle of coke, a straw and a bag of crisps.

Holidays at Pontins - cigarette firms sponsoring which 'house' you were in for competitions, so hundreds of people screaming 'Embassy' etc. Cine racing at lunchtime. 'Baby crying in chalet 232' style announcements in main hall in evening.

As a teenager Fame was a must watch TV programme, and when I got to college I followed the trend of wearing skinny jeans, legwarmers and heeled boots. So cool! (then!)

Agree with other pp re Sunday night bath, we all shared the same bath water, I was last out of 6, but glad as it meant I could stay in longer and have some alone time in my crowded house.

During the 80s, we would all rush home from school to watch neighbours. On a Friday night, we would head down to our local video shop and rent out a couple of VHSs for the weekend, maybe the latest Schwarzenegger movie.

I was also born in 1967, my parents were middle class, educated, slightly hippy. We used to shop at the health food shop, wear Clothkits, and weren't allowed to watch ITV. We did play out on rough ground at the age my DCs are now (8 and 6) which boggles my mind.
We wouldn't have gone to a pub except for a meal on holiday. We had an allotment, my mum made (rock hard) wholemeal bread. My dad had a desk in the TV room (or, we had the TV in his study!) and he used to come and watch Magic Roundabout before the news.
We spent the summers reading in the garden, playing out, we had loads of Lego. My mum is not British so we were SO WEIRD and we used to spend some summers at her parents (but they were also middle class), going on a PLANE when most of my friends would not have been on one.
My GPs came to us once and took us to Spain. We went to a resort that was really undeveloped but is all skyscrapers now. They took me to the Alhambra and that's one of my abiding childhood memories.
We went to my grandfather's huge house in the West Country some holidays too. He was a medical consultant and also had a huge vegetable garden; we had actual vegetables that tasted nice and meat from the farmer who paid in lieu of rent for a field.
I liked my primary school but it was sexist and racist. I was catcalled aged 10 while changing for PE. My friend was called the N word. Boys had the whole top playground for football.
I went to a private secondary but it was still sexist. Girls telling me "oh I don't want to go science, it's not for girls". I did science A levels and a science degree...

You could read The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy. I was born in 1967 and it resonated with me. It was adapted for TV as 'The Kennedys'

At primary school I remember doing a lot of crafts. This was in the ‘70s. We knitted teddy bears, made weird vases with egg cups from cardboard boxes stuck on bottles and papier-mâché, we made flowers out of tissue paper and we hand-sewed bags from hessian and felt.

Have you seen ‘Blinded by the Light’, based on a true story. I think it gives a good portrayal of 80s life, clothes, fashion etc . Your mum would have been a teen around the same time so similar ages to the people in the film.

Watch some of the TOTP programmes from the 80s being repeated to get a flavour of the music also.

I’m loving this thread.
I buy Vienetta and Arctic Roll for my kids as a taste of my childhood.

I feel so lucky to have grown up in the 70’s and 80’s, it really was a great childhood for me.

I'm more your age than your mums but I also lost my mum early, when I was 23 and she was 54. At that time I hadn't really taken much interest in her life before she had us, and like you I felt a need to fill in the gaps. I just wanted to say that I connected with a couple of my mums friends on Facebook and they shared some lovely memories with me - things I've never heard before. It's really nice to have the connection. I've also visited a few places like the church my parents got married and things like that. Xx

I'm sorry that your family won't talk about your Mum, OP.
I grew up without my Dad and his family wont talk about him.
It's hard. xxx

OP I was born in 72! I had a wonderful childhood and I often look back on those days.So far removed from todays mad world.Here is a snap shot for you!
If we wanted anyone we had to go to their house! Or use a telephone box to call them..10p for 3 minutes!
Very few people had cars so it was safe for kids to roam miles and play out safely.
Foreign holidays were just starting out.Air travel was just not available to the masses,Although we did go to spain on a coach one year...36 hrs to go camping..it was awful lol
We had artex ceilings and fancy velvet striped wallpaper !!!!
Dads seemed to work in heaving industry such as mining etc round our way mums stayed at home.
You bought things by weight...so a quater of boiled ham was about 2 slices cut off a machine in front of you and a 10p mix up bag of sweets got you 20 sweets if you were lucky cos some were 1/2p each!!!
No pound coins..you had a paper £! note and the money was bigger!
Every year our village had a club trip where dads would pay the subs each week and 30 coaches would set off for the day to blackpool where the kids would get £2.00 in an envelope and popand crisps free on the way there and back!
Dads went to the pub on their own and on sundays there were strippers at lunchtime!! oohh saucy!!!
Mums got dressed up and went out on saturday nights with dads only if there was a good turn on in the club..and were treated to the cockle man coming! Fresh cockles and mussles from a man who would go round with a tray on him,,,very swish!
No microwaves and dvds ...cassettes and vynal records and if you were lucky a beta max video player now they need a serious google!!!
Everybody was your auntie or uncle..who ever they were!!
When the icecream man used to come you could take a dish and ask for 50ps worth..you got 6 scoops ! whoo hoo!!!!
Just some of the happy memories of mine and they were very happy days,nobody had much,nobody cared and everyone seemed happier back then.Life was simpler I guess. The 70s and 80s were really happy days for us not that they arent now but life is faster and more demanding now I guess. I could ramble all day sorry!
I am so sorry you lost your mum its heartbreaking to read. Take care and best wishes sent

OH and if you had a baby you were in hospital for 2 weeks with strict visiting times! Coal fires..hot summers cold winters! Oh the summer of 76 ..standpipes sent out to the streets! Twin tub washing machines..Knitted swimsuits..yep really lol ok when you first went in but a dead weight when you tried to get out !! Most of the people I knew rented houses too..the landlord used to ome round on a friday when dad had his brown pay packet envelope from work and they came to the house to collect it and they wrote it in your rent book!!

OH and if you had a baby you were in hospital for 2 weeks with strict visiting times!

You really weren’t. Maybe if you gave birth in the ‘60s. But that’s the wrong generation. The OP’s mum was born in the late ‘60s. She herself gave birth in the ‘90s.

@daisypond

I don’t recognise the description of childbirth by *@cafenoirbiscuit*. I was born in ‘66 and my sibling in ‘67, like your mum. We both had our children in the ‘90s. Fathers definitely were in the delivery room, the NCT was a big thing, so were water births and Lamaze breathing techniques- all in the NHS. The natural birth movement was quite big, moving away from the more intervention and medicalised ways of previous decades. Breast feeding was definitely encouraged. Virtually everyone did, at least for a short time. Everyone had car seats in the ‘90s too. Weaning was earlier, though, starting at four months.

Are you describing childbirth in the 90's? Things had progressed then.

My father wasn't at my birth in 1966, although I was breastfeed. He waited at home and was phoned when I was finally born. We were left in our prams in the garden in all weather's to get some air. Prams with sleeping babies were left outside shops when mums were shipping and dogs were tied up outside too. Supermarkets were only just developing in the 70's. Certainly in the earlier part of that era, there were individual shops that you had to visit. We were often sent to the local corner shop to pick up bits and that included taking a note from your parent to buy cigarettes for them.
We were also served alcohol in pubs from about 15. If we were asked our ages we said 18 and it wasn't questioned. At lunchtime in the sixth form, we used to go to the pub across the road from the school. Later on in the 90's when I was a teacher, we used to go to the pub on a Friday lunchtime, have a half pint then go back and teach the class...

I remember arguments about what we wanted to watch on tv as a kid. My dsis liked Zorro and champion the wonder horse which I considered for boys. She liked all the cowboy and Indian films too. I liked things like lassie and black beauty. Rhubarb and custard was a particular favorite.Children's tv was only on for two hours after school and finished for the 6 o'clock news, so factor in the programmes you didn't want to watch, there wasn't really a lot of tv watching.
Saturday morning it was either swapshop or Tiswas. I liked swapshop and spent hours on the phone dialing the number laboriously on the circular dial that you had to rotate for every number. I never did ever get through to offer what I wanted to swap.

I had a Barbie although everyone else seemed to have a sindy. We made dolls houses out of cardboard boxes. My dad fitted an electrical light in mine and it had real carpet. We made furniture out of old matchboxes. They were in plentiful supply as they were used to light the gas cooker.

I hated that school milk in miniature glass milk bottles at school, especially when it was warm and they'd been sitting out all morning. We were forced to drink it but I would surreptitiously give it to others if we could sneak it past the teachers eyes. Some kids loved it. I still don't like milk even now. Unfortunately Maggie Thatcher the milk snatcher was too late to save me from the dreaded experience.

I was born in the late ‘60s and had my DC in the ‘90s and early ‘00s - like the OP’s mum.

Are you describing childbirth in the 90's? Things had progressed then.

Yes, because that’s when the OP’s mum would have had her children and that’s what the OP wants to know about - what it was like for her mum. Childbirth in the ‘60s isn’t relevant - that’s the OP’s grandparents’ generation.

I may be wrong so I just phoned mum! She gave birth to my brother in 76..a two week stay and I was able to visit one day a week on the saturday with my nan! your right though @Daisypond I got the wrong era! This whole thread has been amazing reading from everyone.I so hope OP has gained an insight and its helped her too in someway.

Apparently all the women were given enemas and were shaved before giving birth at the time your mum was born. I don't know when that started changing.