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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what you were doing in the 70s?

191 replies

PossiblyPattio · 04/10/2020 17:35

I feel like having a nostalgia moment. I was a teenager in the 70s and I remember wanting to be like Patti Smith, I idolized her much to my mums disapproval... I was Patti and my friend was Stevie!! Grin
Looking back I was quite cool!! Grin
Any mumsnetters who were teenagers in the 70s? What did you enjoy doing? Who did you want to be? I'm looking back and I miss it so much!!

OP posts:
Knittingnanny · 04/10/2020 22:09

Reality, wish I’d kept my midi and maxi dresses! Some in Next at the moment just like mine!

wizzler · 04/10/2020 22:10

Cheesecloth, skirts with petticoats showing, lucozade with crinkly paper when you weren't well,

Doliv63 · 04/10/2020 22:10

@Runningdownthathill

I loved the seventies. I was a teenager. Loved the music, the much simpler life . No internet, no phones. Just the top 40, and what seemed like a lot of excitement. Punk , school discos, great TV on only three channels. I loved the fashions.The world seems a much worse place now.
Everything here ...my idol was David Bowie ! Cheesecloth shirts and going to jumble sales every Saturday. It was my Mums favourite past time ...she loved a bargain 😊
CalmYoBadSelf · 04/10/2020 22:11

The 70s were the best! Hanging around with friends, great music, amazing fashion, lots of freedom and even the bad stuff wasn't like today because everyone was in it together
The Summer of 76 was amazing, that was my best year ever (just don't tell my children or they'll be offended they don't feature in it Grin )

IdkickJilliansass · 04/10/2020 22:11

I was in the beano fan club in the 1990’s 😀

TooTrueToBeGood · 04/10/2020 22:12

No seat belts in cars.

If you were lucky enough to get a seat. I spent half my childhood traveling in the boot because the older kids got first dibs on the rear seats. I suppose I should be grateful we at least had an estate.

Other random memories......

Taping the top twenty off the radio with a seperate tape recorder because the music centre hadn't been invented.

3 TV channels and they all stopped broadcasting at about 11 pm.

Being babysat by some random 12 year old that was a friend of a friend's cousin.

White dog shits.

Prawn cocktail and scampi in the basket was the height of sophistication.

Sheets and blankets for bedding because duvets were unheard of.

Clarks Commandos.

Raleigh Chopper.

The heatwave of 76 (the year we actually got a summer and the whole country went wild).

Punch and Judy shows - (let's normalise domestic violence for toddlers).

TV shows that were so sexist, homophobic or racist if they were aired today the producers would quite rightly be jailed.

Dirty old men (because peadophiles hadn't been invented and if "Uncle" George was a bit too touchy-feely that was just his way).

Being hit, a lot - by parents, teachers and pretty much any adult that felt like physically assaulting a child for the hell of it.

Bin men that could actually lift a bin.

Hand-me-down clothes, and we didn't bat an eye. Can you imagine a teenager today getting half their clothes from their cousin? They'd be straight on the phone to Esther Rantzen.

The weekly bath.

Milk in glass bottles.

Those turquoise 3-wheel invalid carriages.

The chancers on Swap Shop who wanted a brand new Grifter in exchange for their Bucking Bronco that had bits missing.

Mary, Mungo and Midge. The Herb Garden. Hector's House. Mr Ben. The Magic Roundabout. Black Beauty. The Banana Splits. The Doubledeckers.

The closest kids got to porn was a 5 second shot of a nipple on BBC2's Saturday night French film.

Answering the house phone by saying your phone number. Why?

Cigarette coupons and Green Shield stamps.

keeprocking · 04/10/2020 22:14

I remember the excitement when a Body Shop at last opened in town

We were living abroad but I had to come to Brighton where the first Body Shop was and a friend asked me to go and buy a few things there. I was so embarrassed, asking for directions, I thought it was a version of Ann Summers!

Ragwort · 04/10/2020 22:17

Some great memories here, I was 18 in the summer of '76, best year ever Grin. I was at college having a great time & then off to Uni in the late 70s. A good time to be a teenager.

Ragwort · 04/10/2020 22:18

TooTrue I still answer my landline by saving the number, didn't realise it was so old fashioned Blush.

Remember shared party phone lines?

tobee · 04/10/2020 22:18

I was 12 when the 70s ended but I have much fonder memories of that decade than the 80s when I was an actual teen; feel "at home"with the 70s.

As pp said, I played out for hours (especially summer '76!). I also dreamt of being a grown up and living in a flat (a la The Liver Birds?). Occasionally went to Biba with my sister and mum which was like a wonderful fantasy place to me! Reality was page boy haircuts, long Laura Ashley style dresses for parties, flared jeans and cheesecloth for weekends and holidays!

So much more fun ott ness than they 80s which was largely self indulgent Thatcherite materialism in my opinion.

apostropheuse · 04/10/2020 22:20

Don't judge me - I had a Purdey haircut. It showed off my bright blue eyeshadow and eyeliner, to be fair.

Echobelly · 04/10/2020 22:21

Mostly I was being under 3!

keeprocking · 04/10/2020 22:21

No internet, no phones.

Consequently a lot less unhappiness, if you wanted to be bitchy about someone you had to do it to their face and take the consequences, it also didn't 'go viral', the world and its dog didn't know your business.

thenightsky · 04/10/2020 22:22

@apostropheuse

Don't judge me - I had a Purdey haircut. It showed off my bright blue eyeshadow and eyeliner, to be fair.
I won't judge. I was the lass with a Coup-Savage!
Ragwort · 04/10/2020 22:25

Biba in Kensington High Street was fabulous, my Grandma used to take me there, she was so kind and always up for something different, I'm now about the same age as she was then and can think of nothing worse than trailing around with a teenager.

IdkickJilliansass · 04/10/2020 22:25

Children are safer from predators now than they were in the 70’s even with the advent of the internet.

apostropheuse · 04/10/2020 22:26

thenightsky I had that at one point too. Grin

SamanthaJayne4 · 04/10/2020 22:30

Chelsea Girl clothes shop. Platform shoes. Mini, midi, maxi clothes. Blue eyeliner , whether it suited you or not. Wash in hair colour, think it was called Harmony. Mullet haircuts for him and her. Findus crispy pancakes. Corona van delivering round the estate. Engagement rings with small diamond in centre surrounded by coloured stones. Chokers.

Tumbleweed101 · 04/10/2020 22:32

I was a baby/toddler. Remember the 80's but not the 70's.

thenightsky · 04/10/2020 22:39

I've still got a Laura Ashley dress from 1978. Its a size 12. I am current a size 12. I can't even get it over my hips. If I remember, I'll post a pic of it tomorrow.

sassafras123 · 04/10/2020 22:40

Spending all day out with friends in the holidays climbing trees swimming exploring. Getting bullied at school. Avoiding homework till the last minute. Watching Top of the Pops much to dad's disgust. Food = Angel Delight crispy pancakes, Vesta curry, garlic bread. Flared jeans cheesecloth tops and wedges. Those were the best days !

TheSandman · 04/10/2020 22:52

I'm surprised at the nostalgia. I was a teen then and I remember the 1970s (in Britain at least) as being more than a bit shit. Watching films from the era confirms it. The Oil Crisis, The Three Day Week - Pop music so fecking awful the Sex Pistols looked good, Power cuts...

The food in Britain was crap - my parents had lived in Italy for a while and we ate spaghetti, and artichokes and dangerously exotic stuff like hummus, salami, and olives and my school friends thought we were weird. Trying to get anything that tasted like a good cup of coffee outside of an Italian owned coffee bar was impossible.

Watney's Red Barrel and Double Diamond beer.

I had friends at school who Idi Amin had kicked out of Uganda and everyone thought it was perfectly acceptable to call them 'Pakis'.

The British film Industries biggest grossing films were the 'Confessions of...' ultra soft core 'sex comedies'.

People smoked everywhere!

The BBC seemed to think The Black and White Minstrel Show - in which white people painted on blackface and sang and danced was acceptable family entertainment.

Benny Hill, people. Benny fucking HILL!

British television was wall to wall creepy middle-aged men pretending to be 'with it' and barely hiding how really creepy and pervy they really were.

The Seventies were SHIT.

wishfultinkerer · 04/10/2020 22:54

I wanted to be Chrissie Hynde and I lived for the roller disco every Saturday. Biggest moment for my 16 year old self was Saturday Night Fever and I still love the music.

Mimilamore · 04/10/2020 22:58

LPs, patchouli, Biba, loons, smocks, clogs, later 70's, tweed jacket, floral skirt with embroidery anglais petticoat, platforms... getting married, first baby

Ginfordinner · 04/10/2020 23:04

David Cassidy vs Donny Osmond
Glam rock
Prog rock
Punk rock
Melody Maker
Kensington Market

O levels in 1975
The long hot summer of 1976
A levels in 1977
Elvis dying

Meeting DH in 1978 - and we are still together!