Did anybody grow up in the 70s?

[floraloctopus]

The 50s and 80s threads are fascinating. Can anybody shed light on the 70s please?

[Egghead68]

Worrying about the threat of nuclear war (with the “clock”) at a few minutes to midnight.

Lots of mince and jumble sale clothes.

Playing outside all day with minimal supervision.

Brown swirls for home decor .

[kalinkafoxtrot45]

Vesta Chicken Curry (still miss it)
Cremola Foam
Getting a 10p mixture from the sweetie shop
The long hot summer of 1976
Power cuts and strikes
Wearing a lot of brown polyester
Getting my first long party dress: it was burgundy and had tiers
BBC2 showing the Test Card half the day
No shops open on Sunday except the newsagents for the Sunday papers

[MirkwoodMiss]

• The Silver Jubilee and getting my silver coin!
• The Alpine man delivering Dandelion and Burdock fizzy stuff
• Crackerjack!!
• Jumble Sales (getting buried in piles of clothes!)
• Take Hart with Tony Hart
• Trying to carve a suede for Hallowe'en
• Girls World (best gift EVER)
• Evel Knieval - my brothers fav toy!
• white dog poo

[potter5]

Cherry jublees
Jamboree bags
Wedge shoes
Wembley market on a Sunday
Junior school
Milk in primary school - orange in the summer
School dinners were the best then
Travelling all over London on a red d/decker in the summer holidays with a 'Rover' ticket.
BIBA
Oxford Street
Christmas was magical as a child
I had a chopper bike (lucky me, lots of kids wanted one)
Scrubs Lane funfair
Richmond Park
IRA
Strikes
3 day week

[BrokenWing]

Coal fire/coal bunker, no central heating, fire made up every day
Bread or rolls toasted on a big fork at the fire was a huge treat
Power cuts
5 siblings in one bedroom
Walked to school by yourself from P1
Mum stayed at home while dad worked was the norm
Mince/casseroles and boiled potatoes was standard, followed by huge rice puddings or tinned fruit with custard made with custard power. spaghetti bologanse was exotic foreign food 😂
No sunscreen, you just burned at the beginning of summer
Hand me down clothes (from brothers!) and rag n bone man
Grocery van came round every day
Every week mum, sis and me would go to butcher, fishmonger, green grocer, bakers, chemist, and grocery store and bring home the weekly shop for 7 on the bus.
Dad never lifted a finger, we made him tea on command from an early age
Holiday every year was visiting relatives in argyll for a week
Highland games every year was big in the town
One TV and one radio in house, controlled by dad
Played out from early age, had to be home before lights came on.
Only music in the house was brat pack or country

[Topseyt]

I was born in 1966, so the seventies formed a large chunk of my childhood. I remember so much of the stuff people have already mentioned. Some of it would be viewed with horror today, but it was a different world back then and totally normal.

I remember sweet cigarettes. They were sweets sold in the shape and colour of cigarettes for children, and were in their own cigarette packets too. I used to like them and my smoker parents would buy them for us. I've never actually been a smoker myself though.

Summer of 1976 stood out as it was so long and hot. I don't think we had any rain between May and September.

Racism and sexism were everywhere. Nobody gave it much thought and it was considered totally normal. Sometimes I look back and wonder how we ever could have got away with it.

[Nat6999]

Living in a terraced house, not having an inside toilet, we only had a postage stamp piece of garden, being the only child in the yard, having lots of " aunties" who spoilt me rotten. My mum did washing on a monday,she had a twin tub washer, shopping on Wednesday & Friday, scrubbing the front & back steps on a wednesday afternoon, she didn't do all the shopping at the supermarket, we went to the green grocers, butchers & bread shop, called at the co op for milk tokens, going to town by bus on a Saturday morning to meet my Nan & Grandad & queuing outside BHS to go & buy cheese & bacon then to the market. Going home for dinner from school, boys not allowed to wear long trousers at infant school, a boy who was a pupil being brought to the nativity on a stretcher, he had perthes disease & had been in hospital for almost a year. Living next door to a sandwich shop & 3 doors from the paper shop, the lady who owned the paper shop shouting out the window to tell me to be quiet because it was Sunday afternoon. Walking up to the end of the next block to the off licence to fetch a bottle of double diamond beer on a saturday night, kids sat on the steps of the working men's club with a bag of crisps & a bottle of pop with a straw while their parents were inside. The rag man who gave goldfish for rags, waving to people on the buses that went past our house. The rent & insurance men calling to collect payments, the milkman & bin men. Watching children's television from 4 00pm to 5.40pm then the adult programmes started. Play school, Jackanory, Blue Peter, Magic Roundabout, Crackerjack on a Friday.

[BrokenWing]

One TV and one radio in house, controlled by dad

When I say controlled by dad, I mean he would choose from 1 of 3 channels and one of us would get up and change it for him!

[eaglejulesk]

Nothing to add, except that I loved being young in the 70s (born in 1959). I grew up in New Zealand so we didn't have the worries of power cuts, the IRA, 3 day weeks etc. Certainly we have moved on in many ways, but I don't think any decade has been as good as the 70s. Life was simpler, people didn't work the crazy hours they do now so had time for sports etc, less choice wasn't always a bad thing. Getting a bit nostalgic .....

[LidlDonkey]

Ice on the inside of the windows in the winter. My grandparents only having an outside toilet, so having to use a chamber pot at night.

Fridges with an ice box at the top. Having to light the gas fire and stove with matches.

The Wombles, Bay City Rollers and John Travolta. Going to the local yearly funfair with friends, aged about 10, and being chatted up by the fair boys (who must have been 16 or so ).

Playing board games with my friend who lived next door all day long. Seeing an Atari games console for the first time (I still have one!)

[ListeningQuietly]

Petrol hitting 50p a GALLON due to nasty Sheikh Yamani
big cars that took 4 star were hit hardest

Cut "crystal" wine glasses from the green shield stamps

Creme eggs being on sale for two weeks before Easter only

Family hitch-hiking across the country

[Jux]

Freaks and skinheads. Greasers. Long dresses, long hair. Waiting for the bus to school in the dark. Bomb scares (probably more in 60s though); Harrods bomb..

Having baths in candlelight, Sitting in the dark having conversations with family as no TV (it was quite fun actually).

T-Rex, The Sweet, Little Feat, The Kinks, Roxy Music (first iteration)
Red rover bus passes
Bayswater Road
Flares