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Growing up in the 70's

712 replies

morethanpotatoprints · 01/02/2014 21:34

I bet there's been one of these before but who remembers stuff about the 70's, looking back to me it was all a bit weird.

So some of my memories.

Mary Mungo and midge, the music in the lift. my orange space hopper, gridsy marbles and clackers.
Dehydrated potato, free milk you had to drink at school.
Playing out from after breakfast until dark or tea.

OP posts:
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tb · 02/02/2014 19:11

Also, if you pushed the choke in too soon before the engine had warmed up properly, the car would stall.

Gapping the plugs when you put new spark plugs in an engine, and our bloody Vauxhall Viva had such a weird gap that you had to use 3 or 4 feelers out of the feeler gauge set to get the correct thickness for the gap.

I used to love Old English spangles, there were also opal mints.

Living in Wirral, there were also opal toffees for a while, but they didn't last, must have been a trial product that didn't go into full production.

The 11 plus being scrapped in Cheshire, and being replaced by the 9 plus and 10 plus.

Knitting wool being sold in ounces - about 10p or 2/- and ounce.
First class carriages on the electric trains in and out of Liverpool - they had carpet!

Tressy dolls - bit like a Sindy, but a long piece of hair coming out from the middle of it's head. You were supposed to be able to do all sorts of different hairstyles, but I could never get them to work.

The school-leaving age being 15 - and us all muttering that we'd leave and go and work in Woolies. Was at a direct grant school, so that was never going to happen.

The second Mersey Tunnel being opened.

The M53 motorway from Liverpool to Chester being opened.

The local mission running services on the sand in summer with 'uncle' Stan - I wonder a bit about this now.

Outdoor swimming pool - they used to post the temperature of the water every day, can remember swimming when it was 56F. Freezing.

The Bon Marché becoming part of G H Lee in Liverpool

Robb Bros in Birkenhead as well as Beatties.

Cripps in Bold St with what seemed like elderly saleswomen all wearing black dresses, probably pearls too, coming up to my dm and saying "Can I help you madam" when she just wanted to look at stuff and not to buy - we used to go to Lees.

Phone boxes being 2d, and having to ask for a different operator if you wanted to make a long distance phone call.

Having to wait for an operator to connect your call - for local calls, too. If no-one came, you could joggle the receiver rest, and you'd get a cross "There's no need to flash, dear" as it must have started a light flashing at the exchange.

Local calls having a flat rate charge - so you could talk as long as you wanted, and my df going beserk at me talking to a friend from school for over an hour, and muttering darkly about the phone bill.

1/3 pint bottles of milk at school and being forced to drink it. What was even worse, was it being heated up and poured back into the bottles in winter and having to drink hot milk through a straw - and half gone sour milk in the summer.

The locks on the doors of public toilets - and those in Kendal Milne - needing a penny, 1d, to open them. Hence 'spending a penny'.

Mivvy ice lollies I think they were called. They were either banana or strawberry and had a sort of fudgy centre.

'Spinsters' of the parish, wearing lace up shoes with little square 1" heels, gloves, almost hobble skirts, and hats, secured with a hat pin, and often with lace veiling.

The almost shock of getting a Christmas card with a 10/- note in it. It seemed impossible to imagine spending that much money.

Tax relief for mortgage interest being given via an increased tax code. The first year we were married, dh got a new tax code nearly every month the interest rates changed so often.

Conductors on buses, and the introduction of 1-man buses.

Steam trains.

Only1scoop · 02/02/2014 19:23

Loved the oblong huge speedometer like a ruler on the V Viva....
The Chevette just was not the same Hmm

Only1scoop · 02/02/2014 19:26

Tb yes the phone operators

We also shared a 'party line' with the neighbours over the road....
You'd pick the phone up and hear them yacking away and have to wait to make your call

MardyBra · 02/02/2014 19:29

Just found this thread. It's probably all been said now.

Has anyone mentioned Space Dust?

morethanpotatoprints · 02/02/2014 19:35

Oh I love this thread, I didn't think there would be so many of us.

All the kids in our neighbourhood went to sunday school we had aunties who taught us simple bible stories, and we did colouring in and sang Hymns.
I remember getting a prize book every year and helping to run jumble sales Grin
I don't think so many dc go to sunday school now.
it wasn't really just for the religious aspects parents used to send kids so they had time to shag, without dc around

OP posts:
Only1scoop · 02/02/2014 19:37

More than Grin

Only1scoop · 02/02/2014 19:38

Wondered why I always got the Sunday School Prize Grin

alemci · 02/02/2014 19:47

yes chokes on cars. remember one on my grandmother's vauxhall viva.

remember Tressy and Sheena

Boaty · 02/02/2014 19:52

So many memories here....
There was a fashion amongst us kids for shiny nylon bomber jackets, I had one that was blue and white with a poppered granddad cuffed collar...loved that jacket...The first trainers..wore plimsolls until I persuaded my mum to buy trainers.
Spent hours out on my bike..a shopper style unisex bike with a basket on the front and carrier on the back. My mother wouldn't/couldn't afford a chopper..

SleepPleaseSleep · 02/02/2014 20:04

You can still get Spirograph, at least I've seen it here in belgium. Several times. Always saying 'are they old enough for it yet'- dh 'no'. Me -'oh. Are they old enough for it now?'.
They still close for lunch in the villages here too.

Porridge made with five pints Dried milk for breakfast. Hate porridge know.

Anyone else have a series of books about Jennifer yellow-hat, roger red-hat and so on?

Old and middle aged women always wore head scarves. That was in midlands and north.

My dh says 'urt ya' boys and 'bovver' boots. He's a Londoner. Elastic belts with a clasp like an s.

SleepPleaseSleep · 02/02/2014 20:07

Donkeys on the beaches!

Boaty · 02/02/2014 20:08

Those elastic belts were part of DS1s school uniform in the 1990s (small prep) along with cord shorts..
The boys bungee jumped teddies out of the windows with the belts Grin

SleepPleaseSleep · 02/02/2014 20:10

My dh nodding with delight! I don't remember, but then he is the old one (2 years in it!)

Coconutty · 02/02/2014 20:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

awaynboilyurheid · 02/02/2014 20:26

great thread
lots of parties at our house my mum and dad loved a party, and they all drove home even the drunk ones
my brother and sister going in the hatchback of our estate car squashed up to the glass and as someone else said no seatbelts
playing big ropes at school when two or three joined in, loved that game
playing ball up against school walls when you got good smaller girls came to watch you great moment in your school career!
thinking I would be Mrs david cassidy
getting sunburn badly especially when my mum put olive oil and vinegar on us at the beach, she took a lovely tan we all took after my dad and burned badly my sister still remembers the blisters! happy days!

awaynboilyurheid · 02/02/2014 20:32

More than , we always went got sent to Sunday school too !

Marcipex · 02/02/2014 20:56

I always tanned, but little sister is very fair, and always burnt badly. Our mother then put calamine lotion, which dries white, over the burnt red skin. No thought of prevention apparently, and our mum was a nurse!

No seat belts, we all wanted to be the one to travel in the boot with the dog.

Baby aspirin, it was a lovely orange flavour. We used to nick then for sweets.

Darkesteyes · 02/02/2014 21:52

There was an outdoor swimming pool next to the allotments just down the road from my parents house. I remember seeing two blokes in swimming trunks sitting dangling their legs in the water. My dad had one of the allotments there.

Pan · 02/02/2014 22:09

Streakers. Memorably Erica Roe? And the US country song celebrating them.

NearTheWindmill · 02/02/2014 22:22

Erica Roe was 1981 wasn't she? Goes to google. No, it was 1982 Grin. I remember some colleagues going to the match and coming in on Monday talking about it. I remember precisely which colleagues they were too.

Pan · 02/02/2014 22:26

ah. The 70's streakers, in cricket and footie, and in US games were mainly men. The streaker record was about 1976.
Cameras used to follow any invaders on pitches but no longer, as they didn't want to encourage them with nation-wide exposure.

theporkofpie · 02/02/2014 22:30

can anyone remember Romper Room? The woman on it would look through a mirror and say the names of people she could see. We would wait with bated breath for our name to be called and think she had seen us when she did. Kids on it would walk around holding cardboard cars around their middles and drive them.

Oh happy days. I still feel the kids today are missing out. Our lives were so much simpler

catadeli · 02/02/2014 22:37

Went to sunday school and played out round the village on bikes, bright orange ford, sitting in the boot of the car
Loved The Flumps

Catherine1932 · 02/02/2014 23:01

Aqua manda

AllMimsyWereTheBorogroves · 02/02/2014 23:12

I've asked for this to go into Classics.

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