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??

My Mum was from the Cheshire area in the North West. My family live all over in Chester, Warrington, Manchester, Liverpool and North Wales areas. I was brought up in Chester and now live in the Wirral.

I have watched those back in time documentaries, it was about the local corner shop and how it changed over time. I will have a look for the other ones, hopefully they are on iplayer.

My Mum was from a household of you leave school, work and move out. I vagly remember her talking about a YTS scheme I think she said it was called where she worked full time in a department store and got a small amount of money. I know she moved out at 18ish and lived with my Dad before getting engaged and married and then having me in 1990.

My Dad's family were very different to my Mums. Both Mum and Dad worked, my Nan could drive which I remember being odd at the time, they enjoyed going abroad to Spain or Turkey, encouraged college/uni - my Dad was a bad lad though and never bothered. They cooked foreign food which my Mum never had - curry, Chinese food, pasta. We're a lot more social to my Mums side.

I always remember being younger and the awkwardness of Christmas and Birthdays with both my grandparents kind of hating each other!

@ludothedog I'm sorry, I was bringing up children in the 70s, and it wasn't like that in our family. Children weren't allowed in pubs until 1995, but women have always been allowed in. I think maybe this was just your family experience.
@ChickenNugget86 I'm so sorry you lost your lovely Mum. I think childhood was very much simpler when your Mum was growing up. TV was very limited, for children. It also stopped in the evening and daytime TV didn't start until 1986.
Children generally played out, and for my children, the only "clubs" were Brownies and Cubs, which were strictly gender separated. My friend's child went to dance classes in the early eighties, but I didn't know anyone else who did. I never heard of anyone having tutoring to help with schoolwork, children were generally thought to receive the education they needed at school.
Doctors and Health Visitors were generally looked up to and respected, as were teachers. If children went into hospital in the early 70s, they were lucky, in that it was just being recognised that children might be better if their parents were with them. When my daughter was in for 10 days, aged 14 months, in 1973, I was allowed to stay with her during the day. One mother was allowed to stay with her very sick child overnight, but there was no bed or even comfortable chair provided, and nowhere for her to get a cup of tea. She said some nurses included her when they made drinks, but not all of them.
You need to resolve your grief over your Mum. It seems to have been suppressed at the time, and I really understand how that can affect you. I was affected very badly when my Grandparents died. My Mum only found out when I was in my forties that when my Nana died when I was 13, and I wasn't taken to the funeral, because you didn't take children then, that for over a year, I came in from school, put a particular record on the record player on repeat, and cried. EVERY school day, for half an hour, then stopped the record player , washed my face, and pretended everything was ok when my Mum came home from work. When I was 38, I started prep classes to become a Samaritan, and on the day we covered grief, the lady taking the class asked if I had ever lost someone close to me. I started to say, "No, only my grandparents when I was a child", then astounded myself by starting to weep.
I do think you need to talk about this, probably over and over again, because it appears you have missed out on that stage of grief, which helps you come to terms with it. I'd recommend you start by phoning the Samaritans. They are not only there for suicidal people, though they will ask you about suicidal feelings.

Really sorry for your loss OP. My mum was 54 when she died and there are so many things I would like to ask her, especially as I'm not far from that age myself. My dad is still around and pretty good on life back then.

Anyway I was born in 1968 in the NW of England. My dad had a very good job so we lived in a small detached house in a suburb. One of our neighbours played for Man City - I played out with his little girl. Because of his job, Dad had a phone installed at home, and both me & my mum had cars. Dad's was an MGB. He also had a motor caravan so lots of trips when I was very young were in that.

We moved when I was 4 and my sister was 2 in the early 70s. I remember my sister had bad eczema so didn't get the measles vaccination, then caught it when she was around 5. She was quite poorly but I never caught it. My dad fell out of a tree that he was cutting down. We thought he was dead but he was just battered and bruised. He didn't go to hospital; the GP was a friend who came & checked him over. Dad was really crabby for days until he persuaded my mum to take him to work for an afternoon. He came back in a much better mood as he said the chairs were much comfier and there were other people to talk to.

We played out for hours on our bikes. We also had SIndy dolls, Lego, Meccano, Tiny Tears and a monstrous doll that we were desperate for called Baby Alive which ate "food", this powder that you mixed with water. We went to see grandparents most weekends. We used to have Saturday tea with mum's parents which was always salad with ice cream for afters. Grandma loved getting Neapolitan ice (3 colours) and wafers because she thought it was really posh.

We did get taken out for dinner quite often. In pubs on days out, I loved chicken in a basket - fried chicken and chips in a basket. If we weren't eating, we had to stay in the car with a bottle of coke and a bag of crisps. We also used to go often to the new local Indian restaurant, progressing from Korma up to Rogan Josh, based on the stars which indicated how hot the curry was. There was a Chinese takeaway and fish & chip shop. I don't think I had McDonalds until around 1982.

My mum used to do the books for small businesses so in our school holidays we used to help her by writing out wage packets and then if it was somewhere in a town, we would be allowed to go around the shops. I was definitely no older than 9 when this happened.

Our classes at school had around 40 - 45 kids in with just one teacher and no TA. I also remember the milk in small glass bottles which I absolutely hated. In the infants I remember starting off being taught imperial measurements, but this changed to metric very soon after. We did lots of papier mache making and we did sewing and weaving. We used to use a fabric called binca(?) and learn all sorts of embroidery stitches. Running stitch was the easiest, then we did a diagonal one which you could repeat the other way to make cross-stitch. There were loads more.

Like others have said, I remember the 3 day week, the power cuts, going over from town gas to North Sea gas (no heating in school that day so we had to wear coats, gloves & scarves), then the hot summers of 1975 and 1976. My mum took us to see the Queen when she travelled round the country in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee. Our school had a tree planting ceremony and because I was in the school orchestra, I remember learning lots of songs and pieces from all 4 countries of the UK. I also remember the school caretaker coming into my class to tell everyone that Virginia Wade had won Wimbledon! Happy times.

@Orchidsindoors google Jasper Carott Nuclear War on YouTube. You will need a door, sandbags and a tub of whitewash.

I remember putting the TV on to 'heat up' before the programme and sometimes all you got would be 'snowflakes' of interference; that's what they were called, so it can't just have been our house! Often had to thump it to make it work. By the early 70s, I think most (?) people rented televisions as they replaced them if something went wrong.
Cheese and onion crisps were an exciting new invention; when smokey bacon arrived I was in heaven. I can remember pulling faces over my first Ski yogurt - it seemed such a sour taste.
Washing powder came with a free plastic rosebud sellotaped to the packet. You'd see vases of them in old ladies' windows.
We played in the street or on building sites after the builders went home; (lots of post-war building going on.)
Saturday afternoon cinema with a western at the end and then the big boys would enjoy a fight and we'd all go home. Sometimes a policeman stood at the back. If you went in the evening, it was posh to sit upstairs - but all films were viewed through a blue haze of cigarette smoke.
Dolls that weed would be incontinent for a week as the water dribbled out of their leg joints. You gave them a bottle through a hole between their lips. Then Sindy and Tressy came in. And Spirograph.
Parents weren't neglectful; but they let children lead their own lives and entertain themselves. Which was much better for both sides! There was no hysteria about exam results. "Well done' if you'd passed - and ten bob as a reward - and 'Never mind, dear,' if you failed. Grannies sent postal orders for birthdays and book tokens were an innovation. Punctured space-hoppers lay in the gutter on many streets much as you find blue facemasks today. The daleks were scary and you watched Doctor Who from behind the sofa. All the girls loved Davey Jones from The Monkees; later it was Osmonds and David Cassidy. Psychedelic patterns over everything. Hats and gloves and good behaviour for church. Getting the ruler every day in primary school for talking. The naughty boys got a leather strap. I don't think any of us much cared. Burgers were Wimpy, not McDonalds. The pop man delivered Corona fizzy drinks (but not to our house!). We'd scavenge the streets for abandoned bottles to return to shops for 1d deposit on the bottle. Beechnut chewing gum from machines outside the sweetshop/tobacconist. Penny sweets (Arrow bars, penny chews, gobstoppers that were banned by your mother every time someone swallowed one and choked, Magic Wand liquorice with pink sherbet inside.) Skipping games and playground games that had been handed down for generations with regional variations; conkers and marbles for boys and French skipping and French knitting for girls. Your dad would make your French knitting gizmo by hammering nails into a wooden cotton reel. Eventually the long tube of knitting would be coiled into a mat that your mother pretended was beautiful. Glass jars of bright blue bath salts (coloured washing soda!) for mother's day presents. Making a bath cube last for about 20 baths! April Violets talcum powder. Witch hazel for spots and shiny noses and Protein something other shampoo for split ends.

I remember buying mars bars for 3p
I remember when I was 12 and on holiday in Cornwall with the whole extended family crammed into 2 chalets us kids pooled our money and bought a pack of silk cut for 50p From the bar vending machine. We all then hid out in field and smoked them between the six of us.
As I got my first part time job in our local co-op at 13 working the till. Manual till with big clunky keys. The 1/2p was still in use.
I regularly went to pubs by 15 and was never carded.
I passed my 11+ at 11 but couldn’t go as we couldn’t afford the bus pass.
By the time I finished school in the early 80’s we were in a period of depression. High unemployment and most people I left school went on to a YTS scheme for £30 a week. Out of my whole friendship group and extended family only one person went to university and he came from a more middle class family then the rest of us.

Supermarkets were smaller than now and sold mainly non-perishables, tinned, dried and frozen goods and some chilled stuff such as bacon and cheese. If you wanted fruit and veg, fresh meat or fresh bread you had to go to the greengrocers, the butcher or the baker.

Born 1971 so a bit later than your mum.
Everyones experience may be different but as a child in a working class area my experience was
i had a lot more freedom as a child, walked to corner shop by myself aged 5/6 and to school aged 7.
More defined gender roles, men did very little if any housework or childcare, once they had children most woman gave up work or had low paid part time jobs to fit around child care.
No teaching assistants in school and teachers strict and often scary, could get corporal punishment.
lots of people didnt have cars and if they did only one per household.
Casual sexism and racism.was rife and no one batted an eyelid.
Everyone we knew holidayed in uk at holiday camps like pontins and butlins .
Only 3 tv channels, childrens tv limited to half an hour or so at lunchtime and a couple of hours late afternoon.
Neighbours all knew each other and helped out, neighbours were often called"auntie" by children and older people were usually addressed as mrs x or mr y not by first names. lots of playing out by yourself,riding bikes, skipping, hopscotch etc
Didnt have a huge amount of toys, no computers!
Tennage years in 80s/ 90s blue eye shadow and flicky haircuts were the rage and everyone went to places like magaluf on holiday. Could easily go into a pub or nightclub underage
Sounds like i grew up in the iron age😆
Im sorry your family don't want to talk about your mum, do you know if she had any friends you could talk to? You maybe able to contact them on fb

1970. What I remember most, is that we had no spare money, but we always had my mum at home. I loved that. We had freedom. We had bikes. No daytime TV or games consoles, we had skipping ropes and local kids. No traffic, just a sense of freedom. Hand me down clothes, school jumpers and cardigans unravelled at the end of school and re knitted by mum as a bigger size over the summer. Dinner was always roast on sunday, stew on Monday, meat pie and veg the rest of the week. We drank tap water. Corona fizzy drinks from the milkman only at Christmas time.

I will also add, that my neighbours' experience was very different. Same age. They had loads more money available, had 2 cars, foreign holidays, electronics... . Every family was different.

I would suggest Facebook for contacts from your mums primary school. There may be some class photos available for you there.

I'm so sorry your family won't talk about your mum. X

My mother was the only one with a car, and would give lifts to as many children as we could squash in, we would be sitting on laps in the back... common to see a baby in a carrycot ( top half of a pram, that could lift off the chassis) on the back seat of a car.
We were also the only ones with a telephone for a while, and neighbours would ask to use it, and leave a coin next to it when they left , it was in the hall .
Ski Yoghurt, still in the tub, would be served as an exciting new pudding in restaurants.
Many children walked home for lunch in term time, and then back again, I did this every day. All of us walked to school, my mother only drove to get us if the weather was really atrocious.
Lots of food would be delivered by van, bread, groceries, pop etc.
We played seasonal playground games, conkers in Autumn, marbles in Spring and Summer. Games where we threw a tennis ball against the wall and caught it in various ways, skipping games with different songs. Group games like British Bulldog. Chalked hopscotch on pavements. We played outside without adults most of the time, riding on our bikes, walking through lanes, building go-carts out of old pram wheels and planks.
There were far fewer cars, so cycling and go carts were easy to use all day long.
People would let their dog out in the morning , leaving him out all day if they worked.
No cars also meant no big supermarkets, so the shopping would be done in individual shops, and carried in a string bag.
I remember being in a telephone box with my Dad, and being small enough that he sat me on the little shelf for the directory.
Old money ! Huge pennies, and shillings, and sixpences.
Wonderful sweet shops, buying a quarter of sweets with pocket money.
Girls and boys mostly wore very similar clothes, all wore the same colours. Cords and jumpers, dungarees, T shirts and shorts. Girls did have dresses and lace tights for parties, with patent shoes, or gold lurex for the lucky ones ( I wasn’t allowed those).
Far more teenagers had really greasy hair , as it was common to only wash it once a week. Ditto BO and baths. Far more teenagers had really bad acne.
We all had fewer things, toys, gadgets, clothes, this was true for all classes.
Children could buy fireworks, so boys would throw bangers at you . Children could also buy cigarettes, many newsagents sold them singly.
Top of the Pops was watched by everyone in my class as a teenager, and we would also listen to the charts on the radio on a Sunday, and tape things from the radio, using a cassette player with a microphone.

Yes to walking home for lunch- at both primary and secondary school. Not everyone, but lots did.

@ChickenNugget86

Thank you everyone! It was so lovely waking up this morning with so many comments, I wasn't expecting it! It's just what I was after.

I think the reason I want to know is that I recently had my first baby born during lockdown and I'm really missing her. I know lots about her life from around 17/18 years plus but not much before then.

She did used to talk about her childhood, but I feel like I don't know anything. I've had lots of therapy after her death and was encouraged to make a memory box. I do have a few photos but family seem reluctant to share information. When it would have been her 50th birthday I suggested a meal out to celebrate and it was shot down. I've kind of given up asking anymore as it seems to upset my grandparents and uncle.

My nan was one of 12 children but the youngest so unfortunately my mums aunt's/uncles have passed away many years ago. My mum had 1 younger brother and he moved away some time ago. I've messaged him before and he just said he feels uncomfortable talking about her so just have to respect his wishes.
My grandad does have a few sisters so might be worth trying talking to them, they might feel more comfortable. I know my mum would have had cousins but I don't really know them.

My dad had a breakdown after she died and my dad's family were good at sharing stories about her as a teenager. I've always got on well with all my dad's side but after my Nan died (dad's mum) the family had lots of fall outs over the will and its no longer the same. I'm no longer close to my aunt/uncle which is very sad.

My younger cousins remember my mum a lot and talk about her being a great fun auntie. It's lovely to hear but I just want to bang people's heads together and let them open up to me. They are the people who have the answers and it's very upsetting that they won't tell me so I have to imagine what it would have been like.

My mums friends who I'm in touch with are people she went to college with or worked with over the years. I don't really know any of her school friends unfortunately. I have thought of asking on some local fb pages but thought I'd look silly maybe.

Some bits I can remember her telling me:

Collecting football stickers/cards. She supported Liverpool but then swapped sides to Spurs as she fancied Ray Clemence and he moved!

She watched top of the pops at her friends house as her dad didn't like those type of shows.

Her parents cooked meat, 2 veg type meals. She told me when she went to a friend's house and had spag bol it blew her mind.

She had a CB radio think it was called and often spoke to random people who had code names! When I went on MSN as a teen, she said that is what it was like in her day.

Did lots of chores around the house like brushing doorstep and skirting boards, where as her brother would go fishing with dad etc...

Told me about going to Manchester for a McDonald's for the first time. It is around 40 miles from where I live and was the nearest city that had one. Sounds like it would have been a mission! Something about if you didn't get a burger within a time frame you'd get a free one or money back? Not 100% sure.

Collecting glass bottles and taking somewhere to get money.

When I asked for Ghd hair straighteners she told me about ironing her hair!

She loved me reading Biff and Chip books at primary school as she said they were more exciting then Janet and John books.

She was a bit of a tom boy and really wanted a chopper bike but wasn't allowed one as she was a girl.

She met my dad when she was around 14/15 and liked him as he went to the rival high school and was a Mod with a scooter.

Really enjoyed black jacks and fruit salad sweets.

Thank you everyone for the stories, comments it's really useful and is helping me.

I'm about the same age as your mother. Some of these details don't ring true at all to my experience (and to me sound as though they belong to an earlier generation), though of course there will always be regional and individual differences.

We arrived in London from another country when I was 5 and I have very sharp memories of my early school days. There was no uniform at my primary school. The playground was divided into a boys' side and a girls' side, though the smallest boys played with the girls. I was terrified of the dinner ladies. The teaching was excellent. Looking back now, I can see that the teachers employed a lot of Montessori techniques.

Although we were not British citizens, the NHS was available to us. One of my siblings became ill and a doctor came to the house to examine him. I can't imagine that happening now.

This is a great thread. OP I hope it's helpful to you.
I was born in December 1969 in England but my dad was in the RAF so I spent almost all my childhood overseas. However, I think I had a lot in common with others who have posted. I had a lovely childhood on the whole. We were expected to play out most of the time unless it was absolutely pouring with rain. We made dens, climbed trees, played football, rode bikes, rollerskated etc. There was little English TV until BFBS came in when I was about ten and we got Blue Peter and Top of the Pops. Toys were Sindy and Pippa dolls, Tiny Tears baby doll, jigsaws and lots of colouring books. I treasured my Crayola 64 colours box. I also read a lot, mainly from the library but saved pocket money for Enid Blyton school stories and my Chalet School collection. Lots of toys, books and clothes came from jumble sales and thrift shops. My mum made a lot of my clothes and my Nana knitted sweaters, cardigans and gloves. I was taught to knit sew, cook, change a plug and mend things quite young.
Children were expected to be independent very young. I went to school on the bus (with an escort) from nursery age and when we came back to the UK when I was 12 we walked or cycled everywhere, rarely were we given parental lifts.
We ate well but with less variety although my mum was a good cook and we had pasta dishes, chilli con carne, curry and moussaka as well as standard British food. The Sunday roast did Monday and Tuesday as well. I remember mum using a mincer to turn the lamb into mince for shepherds pie or rissoles. We also ate things like liver and hearts regularly. Snacking was not a thing, crisps were for parties and fruit was an apple or banana. Strawberries were a summer treat and I don't recall being given carrot, pepper or cucumber sticks like I gave my children.
The radio was a huge part of our lives, the news, football and cricket commentary, The Archers, the top 40. ABBA was the music of my childhood and still brings back happy memories.
As I got older politics became more prominent, the Cold War and the Northern Ireland troubles in particular. There were a lot of bombings of military targets in the late 70s/ early 80s and 'bomb scares' were common. The fear of unattended packages in public places has never left me. The famine in Ethiopia and Live Aid happened when I was 15 and profoundly influenced my life and career.
After O Levels you either went on to A Levels or got a job. Post A Level not so many went to university, there were more junior jobs available to young people than now in banks, industry etc. Obviously a huge difference was grants not loans for university but as a student on a grant life was pretty basic, no en suite bathrooms etc! I lived in shared houses until I got engaged at 28 and we rented a 2 bed terrace. Only got a mortgage in our 30s when we had two children and had to move to a cheaper area to do it. We also had lower expectations than my kids do in terms of home decor and furnishings. Most of what we started out with was second hand and I was 35 before I lived in a house with a built in shower! Dishwashers and tumble dryers were luxuries. Mind you my mum managed with a twin tub until I was a teenager and I remember the excitement of getting a colour TV ( from Radio Rentals) and a microwave!
The most obvious difference between my childhood and that of my children (born 1999-2004) has been technology, social media etc. Hugely beneficial in many ways but I wouldn't exchange my experience for theirs. On the other hand they have grown up in a society where racism, sexism and casually referring to the disabled by derogatory terms are much less acceptable.

I was born in 1967. One thing I have really enjoyed doing is building a visual record on Pinterest of all the things I remember from my childhood; often random things like old biscuit packaging or advertising from Kay’s catalogue, also pictures of toys and games I had that are long gone or photos of places where I’ve lived taken during the 70s. It’s a good way to build a nostalgic snapshot of an era; the fashions, cars, the way we decorated our homes, the foods we ate (Vista boil-in-the-bag curry anyone??!). It might give you a sense of the context of your mother’s world to do the same. You can just search within Pinterest for all things ‘70s or search by year. Or am I odd - perhaps I need to get out more?!

Here are the (very) random things I remember:
Freedom - less awareness of safety, fewer cars on the road too
Horrible manmade fibres and white knee socks that wouldn’t stay up
Not entering a pub during my childhood; no food offered in those days and children not welcome.
The same pub’s landlord selling individual cigarettes to local children from his back door.
Three TV channels and the neighbour’s children who didn’t have a TV coming in to watch Jackanory and Blue Peter.
Only making phone calls after 1pm when it was cheaper (and dialling a number on a proper rotary dial!).
Bananas being a luxury item
Wagoner’s Walk on Radio 4
The Bay City Rollers
Cigarette adverts everywhere
Riding on my mother’s lap in the front seat of the car for short journeys (madness).
When my mother discovered hair conditioner in the mid 70s the ordeal of hair wash night was over.
Clompy 1970s Clark’s shoes for school
Supermarkets being scruffy and grubby with bad lighting and a sea of receipts on the floor, not the relatively slick places they are now.
women being all shapes and sizes with no very obvious pressure to look a certain way.
Using my mother’s posh new hairdryer which had a plastic tub attached to a plastic hat which filled with hot air and did a really shit job of drying hair!
1980s Gloopy lip gloss in glass bottle
Jackie Magazine
The large proportion of teens who smoked
Trying to dress like a New Romantic and looking like a clown
O Levels and CSEs
Shoulder pads
Bad perms

Funny what springs to mind isn’t it?!

Early ‘80s when your mum would have been a teenager, the threat of - or fear of - nuclear attack was very real. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Greenham Common protests were prominent campaigns. Depending the sort of community your mum grew up in, it might have done well in the ‘80s, or very, very badly, with the growth of Thatcherism.

Could you fnd out her school and see if any of her classmates are on social media - they could give you a real version of their life and probably remember her.

I am very sorry for your loss. My parents grew up in a different country and we were so interested in things they told us. I also second watching Life on Mars and the sequel, Ashes to Ashes which I have just finished and thought was brilliant. If your mum was a true 80s girl, she would have loved some of the stuff in it.

Why don't you watch some of these old programmes (Minder, Girls on Top, old Top of the Pops, The Tube) to get a flavour and ask us specific questions - I ould be happy to.

Lovely idea, OP - we can help you fill in the gaps xx

I ould be happy to? - I would be happy to answer!

Trying to dress like a New Romantic and looking like a clown @YouokHunou

Fascinating thread!

Mid '65 here. London. Main memories are bloody freezing winters and the 3 day week in '72 or '73. The lights would just go out and we would use torches or candles. It didn't bother me or my db in the slightest!

The Rag 'n' bone man,clip clopping along our road every week with his cart and ringing his bell.

Health: I vividly recall having Scarlet fever at about 7 and being so ill I had hallucinations and thought my mum was a monster. Db and I both had measles and all sorts. There were kids at school who had withered limbs because of thalodomide - my mum had been offered it but refused, otherwise my db would likely have been born disabled.

Make up : lots of green or blue eyeshadow in the 70s, moving towards black in the 80s. Spikey hair. In the mid 80s I had a flat top and got my hair done every 3 weeks at Harry the barber's (off Lamb Conduit Street) for £3.50.

Music: early 70s was Slade, Roxy Music, Bowie, the Sweet, loved them all. Late 70s was Siouxsie, the Clash, Two-Tone and the Cure. 80s was the Smiths, Bunnymen and Killing Joke.

Buying my dad a packet of 5 - yes 5 - cigs from the corner shop at age 7 and taking them to his workplace.

The teachers: some were real hippies, some old fashioned, a real mix! I liked it like that. Endless weeks of 'projects'...

Freedoms: walking to school unsupervised from age 6 or 7, my db and I were 'latchkey kids' and got on with it when we got home from school. Once I went to secondary school I was getting the tube alone and regularly travelled up into town with my pals (or sometimes alone) from age 11. As a teenager I went out everywhere, went to hang out in old squats, half demolished houses on the Kentish Town Road, got up to all sorts...! stuff I would NEVER let my teen dc do now Regularly bought bottles of cinzano, pernod or cider in the Offy and nobody batted an eyelid. Fags too.

It will also depend where your Mum grew up - I was in Wales, very different from London for instance.
I had forgotten about CB radio. I am three years older than your Mum, a few of my friends were into it as teenagers.
As a pp mentioned, no uniform at primary school, unless you were in a prep.
Bonne Belle roll on lipgloss in different flavours, Charlie perfume, body glitter, Mary Quant lurex tights, Madeleine Mono shimmering powder eyeshadows in tiny pots. Crazy Colour hair dye, and Henna.

I was born a similar time to your Mum, in the north.

I have a brother & it was still really different boy/ girl upbringing... I remember real arguments between us growing up about womens work.

Grattens catalogue was one of the most exiting things to happen and we’d pour over what we’d like... but never get!

Foreign holidays were coming in for some.. Spain & lots of my friends had Spanish doll souvenirs.

Log dresses were still a must at birthday parties. My gran made mine & handmade knits.

We had so much freedom.. literally out after breakfast & shouted in for tea.

Grease the film was everywhere & we all wanted to marry John travolta (or prince Andrew... omg 😮).

Bullying was rife at the comprehensive I went to & teachers were disinterested or complicit. I remember CSE’s coming in as a step down to O levels & yts was introduced for school leavers not wanting to do A levels.

We all seemed to get drunk every weekend at the pub.. under age drinking seemed almost expected.. cider/ home brew.

Real anti thatcher sentiment in most of the north.. & genuine hardship from industrial decline.. pits/ steel/ mills etc

Can’t remember what the programme was called but a month ish ago on bbc2 Sarah Cox hit the nail on the head for capturing the feel

🤞

I was born in 1969. Im so sorry you are not having the chance to reminise and spend time chatting about your mum. Some of the things I remember as a child in the 70's and 80's are.
Cigarette sweets with a little red bit at the end and edible tobacco. Sherbet like a rainbow and you would ask for a 'quater of sherbert please' in the local paper shop.
Money back when you returned R Wight lemonde bottles. Green shield stamps were the loyality card of the time. You claimed glasses etc with them.
The pools and spot the ball were the old versions of the national lottery.
We read magazines called Jackie and Smash Hits.
At the disco or night club it was cool to dance to Chaka Khan on the edge of the dancefloor. Boys wore a shirt and tie and trousers wirh slip on shoes. Rollerskating was a common pastime with either rollerboots or tie on skates. 'Rock the boat' was v popular. Your mum probably listened or attended the Radio 1 roadshow over the summer.
Seatbelts were just about law but drinking and driving still common and smoking was everywhere including planes!
Getting your hair to spike up or bouffed over to the side was a thing. Opium, Dune, Safari, Poison and Shalimar were perfumes of the day. Boys wore Farenheight and Polo.
Miss French was a popular skin cleansing brand. Almay was around too. Rimmel etc were also about.

I'm a 66 child. Chris Packham's autobiography has an amazing description of growing up in the 70s and it was how I remembered it.

Mums didn't work. There was a living room and a front lounge - only for special occasions and guests. Some parents wouldn't let you in their houses because keeping the place clean and tidy was more important.

On Saturdays, we swam in those huge Victorian swimming pools and bought chips afterwards. We roamed far and wide. Took buses into "town" from 12.

I grew up where there was a Catholic/Protestant divide - I envied the Orange March: it seemed so fine. Church every Sunday and fasting before hand. Fish on Friday. Grammar school system with the 11 plus being massive at the end of Junior School. But being poor meant lots went to the secondary comp because the cost of uniform priced kids out of other schools.

We had days out - to the park, zoo or safari park - rather than holidays and then, went to Wales to B&Bs and eventually, a caravan. The Blackpool lights was a drive through with as many kids as possible piled in one car.

Most of my friends partied and clubbed from about 15. Working and living for the weekends was common.

My brother died young and my niece found part of him by doing work experience where he had worked. I think his colleagues brought him to life for her as a person rather than a Dad, husband, brother and son. As you can see from here, it is wonderful to share a collective time/experience so, do reach out to your Mum's schools, Facebook and Ancestry.com.

Hi there. Sorry for your loss. I was born in the Midlands in 1966 and lost my Mum at a young age. The TV was black and white until we had saved for colour. Only 3 channels to choose from in terms of viewing.The Sunday roast used to make a second appearance at tea time in the form of cold cuts for sandwiches and it was brought in to the lounge on a trolley. Tinned peaches and evaporated milk for pudding.
When I went to my friends house and arrived home, we would call and do 3pips to let them know we had got home safely. We wore Heather Shimmer lipstick and used Sun-In in our hair. People smoked in doors, on planes and on the London underground. Saturdays were spent browsing shops like Woolworths for the pick and mix and new vinyl records. Likewise I had a CB radio and would happily chat to compete strangers! We were allowed so much freedom. Off on bikes in the morning and home for tea - no-one worried.Seat belts were not compulsory and often you sat in the back of the car with. bottle of pop from the Offie whilst your parents were in the pub ! The list is endless tbh x

I'm older than your mum and had difficult circumstances so don't think it right to comment on most memories here, but I'm from a situation where my mother died when I was a child and no one including me was to speak of her and not allowed pictures. You expect memory to remain strong but it can be treacherous.
I found locating places she'd been and going there helped. Understanding the times and attitudes of her times helped me understand what she was up against. I did go looking for others who might have known her and it solved some mysteries for me and there was something grounding in someone else acknowledging her existence as a real younger woman as opposed to written records being the only trace left.
I'd urge you to get out and look now, time is never kind about these things. Not much worse than finding out a key person has been living close for a couple of decades but you find out after they've died!

I can however tell you about why your mum approved of Biff and Kipper, in comparison to Janet and John, who were the bane of my school life! I too thought Biff and Kipper an improvement (though kids weren't keen)
The idea back then was that you looked at the whole word while repeating the teacher reading it and you followed with your finger and weren't really supposed to look at the pictures other than to back up the words. (I liked pictures)
Apparently children did actually learn to read using this method.
I didn't, but I learnt to say the content of the book so it was decided I was being either difficult or stupid. I wasn't being difficult, butI was deeply frustrated by the non story (they always said we were going to read a story!)
Come John, come.
Look John, look.
Come John, come and look.
See the grass.

Odd cutesy illustrations of these two blonde children who were always (in my memory) clean, wearing posh clothes and surrounded by greenery and flowers and bore no relation to us.
Main colors (in my era) were white, red, yellow, sky blue and grey, and the idea that children in school books came in any color other than white would have been revolutionary. (we also had Ant and Bee but they may have gone by the time your mum was being taught)