Can anyone tell me honestly that back in the 70s they didn't know.....

[Jux]

... that hitting your head badly could result in brain damage? And that hitting your head repeatedly, badly or not, could also result in brain damage?

I was 12 in 1970; it seemed self-evident that head bang could lead to brain damage. Like a punch the lower back could injure something inside (wasn't sure what, mind, v ignorant of biology at the time!).

Credit cards weren't really widely used until the '80s, though - it was much harder to get credit before then. Although lots of things were bought on the never never (hired purchase.)

My first task in my first job, office junior, was to type the names/clock numbers of shop floor employees onto brown pay packets, and their names, clock numbers and pay date onto pay slips.

The payslips/envelopes then went to the cashier who processed them via a very primative accounting machine which printed out the gross, overtime, tax, NI, and net amounts.

As the office junior, I was also paid weekly in cash. Once I was promoted to 'accounts clerk', I became 'staff' and was paid monthly by cheque. Fortunately, the bank was at the top of the road where I worked and was opened late (until 6:00pm) on a Thursday. By then, I was engaged so I never withdrew any cash as my fiance got paid weekly and we shared his pay 50/50 to pay our respective board etc. and to spend.

We continued that system when we got married, my salary into an account from which all household bills were paid, and using his weekly pay (by that time paid direct into his account) for food, fuel and 50/50 spends. There was enough left over in my account after bills were paid to accrue regular savings for larger purchases, holidays and general rainy-day fund.

Money was probably the only thing about which my ex-husband and I never argued! lol

I was a student in the 70s. I had a cheque guarantee card so I could pay by cheque in shops - which most allowed - and the bank would guarantee to pay the retailer up tomtje amount of the card even if the account was empty.

I also had the new fangled cash cards. These were a plastic card with a series of holes that we put into a cash machine, entered a long number (7 or 8 digits) and out would pop an envelope containing £10 - which was a lot. The machine kept the card and the bank would post it back, I actually had two cards (with different numbers) so if one was with the bank I had another.

Er, we weren’t using carrier pigeon!

there was always medical research, and just because the materials/paperwork was posted, or handed over in person, doesn’t mean that data wasn’t collected!!

Also, hospitals and universities were using computers by the end of the 70s. Mostly for data collection-type purposes.

Yes it was known in the 70s and before, or at least strongly suspected based on relevant knowledge available at the time, by at least a subset of doctors and scientists and sportspeople etc. Some people have very enquiring minds compared to their peers, but if they don't have the leverage, or have vested interests acting against them, then these things go uninvestigated for far too long.

I remember when I was a kid it was a 'thing' to ask someone "were you dropped on your head!?" There was a teacher in school who would say it to children misbehaving, my dad would say it if we'd done something he considered to be stupid. People obviously knew there was a link between head injuries and damage to the brain but risk assessment and analysis then wasn't the same as it is now.

"He's a right heid the ba'!" was a phrase in Scotland back then to describe someone who was "slow".

Heid the ba' = head the football. Footballs were still made of leather, capable of absorbing a lot of water which substantially increased the weight of the football, and so increased the impact to the player heading the ball.

So yes, I think it was widely known by ordinary people that repeated impact caused brain damage. But, it wasn't 'officially known' by anyone who had the power to put a stop to it (Scottish Football Association, public health doctors, government etc.).

Heid the baw we used to say to mean bloody crazy 🤣 that's one I've not heard in a long time

@StressedToTheMaxxx £10 was quite a lot in those days. I was earning £50 a week in a semi professional job, paying rent and bills on my single person flat and having a reasonable lifestyle for that. (No car, internet, tv or mobile phone! )

Cars and TVs were available, in fact owning a TV was common. I just didn't have one until the late 1980s.

@Jux So glad you are happily remembering "libre, solide, denari... We DID all know the money by rote didn't we 😁
all together now... 12 pence one shilling 18 pence one and sixpence, 20 pence one and eight pence 24 pence, two shillings ...... (don't forget the stress on the four! 😂)

It's not just the 1970s though. I worry for my kids when they watch all these Hollywood movies where characters get bashed on the head and fall unconscious only to see them wake up a short time later, shake their heads and carry on. How many times have you seen films where a character says 'knock me out'? It gives the message that you can deliberately knock someone unconscious withour any real risk of harm to them. It's really dangerous and I worry that my kids think you can do this without repercussions. In reality all our skulls are different and one solid blow to one person could be fatal to another. Suggesting its harmless is irresponsible.

A lot of people didn't have a landline even in the 80s, now phones are imbedded in our very culture.
A remember the parents of a friend debating (after a small windfall) whether they should get a landline or a video recorder - they decided on a video recorder as there was a payphone on their street!

How many people today are aware that

“A growing body of data suggests that female athletes are at significantly greater risk of a traumatic brain injury event than male athletes. They also fare worse after a concussion and take longer to recover. As researchers gather more data, the picture becomes steadily more alarming”

It's not just the 70s most films with fight scenes bare little relationship to reality. Indiana Jones would have died lots of times, most characters would.

Wages were often paid in cash. Not cash in hand as we know it today, tax was deducted and proper records kept. There were many more bank branches then than now!

I can honestly tell you without a shadow of a doubt that yes, they did know that hitting your head could result in brain damage.

I know this because when I was 13, my best friend died following a head injury.

Gosh, EndlessMagpies I'm so sorry, that must have been so traumatic and awful

It is extraordinary how much difference tech makes to day to day life. I remember the endless search for a working payphone, and if you were meeting friends, making arrangements either over the phone or before one went home when seeing each other last time (iyswim). If someone was late, you had no way of contacting them- are you on the way, are you coming at all? etc, impossible. You could run to a payphone and ring their home and their mum/dad may tell them your friend had left some time ago, meanwhile they could have arrived at the meeting place and YOU'RE the one who's not there so she could go to a different payphone in a different direction to phone YOUR home where your parents say you'd already left, meanwhile you've got back to the meeting place and she's still not there so you think you'll ring another friend to see if the one you're meeting has popped in there and got held up so you go off to the payphone and she gets back to the meeting place and you're not there....... etc. That didn't happen too often, mostly one just had patience and waited.

And way way way back, with the introduction of say, running water - no more chatting at the well for instance (I'm talking out of my bum now as my grasp of the introduction of these sort of basic amenities is small) but that must have been a massive massive change to normal life isn't it? Bigger htan internet do you think?

Payroll would sort out all the deductions and they would be listed on the envelope, so you weren't getting paid cash in hand. Every year you would get your P60 so you could see how much had been deducted in total.

In the 70’s we knew hitting the head caused brain damage. Amateur boxers wore head protectors.
Bike riders wore helmets. Boxing gloves rather than bare knuckles. Lots of examples.

No, getting paid in cash in a pay packet was not cash in hand. It would have tax and NI deducted.

Getting paid weekly was in cash and you did pay tax. It was written on the envelope how much you were paid, then reductions then the bottom line was your take home pay.
Salaried staff were paid monthly either by cheque or into your bank account.
I was paid in a brown envelope.
Id come home and put my money on a table.
My keep in one pile.
my weekly bus fares in one pile.
My spending in one pile.
The rest was for the bank for a rainy day.
Never anything owed.
Id take my savings to be the bank and they marked my balance in my bank book.
Some people never ever had a bank savings account.
my aunt worked for the GPO who decided all wages were to be paid monthly into the bank. She cried as she didn’t have a bank account and didn’t know how she’d cope getting paid monthly.
Most people were not too keen to buy a house because they felt the repair bills would be their responsibility. ‘Better renting dear’
It was a big deal getting an apprenticeship.
I could go on for ever but I’ll not. All changed when the 3 day week happened and MT became the PM. Debt became a way of life. Then things changed again with Sunday opening….

When I first started work (1976) most people were paid weekly, in cash, in little brown envelopes. You paid for your general shopping in cash too. In 1981 I started getting paid monthly, straight into my bank account. To get cash, you had to go into your branch and write a cheque to yourself. It was not long after this the ATMs started appearing - the first one I ever used being in Piccadilly Circus.

In 1973 I was employed as a CA in the Civil Servant and received my weekly wages (£11) in cash after deductions for NI & Income Tax. I used to pay board to my mother, save something into my savings account and keep the rest for clothes, petrol, and socialising. On promotion to CO 6 months later my wages were paid into directly into my current bank account which came with a cheque and guarantee card. I used the same principles as when I was paid weekly and wrote a cheque to withdrew cash from my account for day to day living expenses. Most communications were by post or in person. We didn’t have a home phone until the mid 70s and then it was a party line. Prior to that if I needed to phone anyone meant a trip to the red phone box at the end of our street!

This thread has been very interesting in both the info about head injuries and a look back to the 70s.

My mum was born in 1958 so she was 12ish when decimalisation (sp?) Came in and she remembers lsd from school. Imagine my surprise when she said that!

I also remember going to collect her family allowance for me from the post office with a book that was like a cheque book.

Then my gran going to the gas shop and electric shop to pay her bills. This was late 80s/early 90s as I was born 1984.

Then when I got my first full time job in 2002 I was paid into my bank obviously but the wage slips came in a little brown envelope like the cash payments. A whole 115 a week for 36hrs. Gave my mum 15 a week and used the rest for going out/top up phone etc.