A happy memory photo for the more mature MN poster

[MargaretOfAnjou]

Not the real Hovis lane ...,but just as emotive.

Grab your loaves and remember happy carefree 1970's days gone by.

#derbyshire

Happy happy memories. My mum made my brother, sister and I queue up separately at the bakery to buy a loaf of bread as each shopper was limited to one each. Also remember the shortage and stockpiling of sugar.

Power cuts. We had biscuit tins of candles and old fashioned candle stick holders, the ones with a sort of saucer around the bit for the candle, and a handle at the side. It was years before I realised we didn't have power cuts any more. I grew up thinking they were a normal part of life.

Tarmac melting in the summer of 76. The plague of ladybirds. Again, it took me years to realise so many ladybirds is not the norm. The plague of stag beetles. Ugh! I was so scared of them. Probably summer of 76 again as I remember walking home from school, and there were squashed beetles everywhere where they had been run over by cars or feet.

Everyone watched the same tv programmes and talked about them at school the next day. My favourite memory in that regard is discussing Not the Nine O'clock News each week, quoting sketches we had only seen once.

TOTP on Thursday evening. My mum always made dinner to clash with it which was annoying as we wanted to find out what was number one. I know the charts came out on Tuesday, but we only found out the number one when TOTP aired. Then recording favourite songs off the charts on radio on Sunday evening.

I loved the power cuts. So exciting to have candles and to be toasting bread on the fire. I remember being cross though when it was a 3pm to 6pm power cut and I missed children's television .

I remember the sugar shortage and at one point, for some reason, there was a loo roll shortage and they were rationed . My mum made us go to the till in Liptons with a pack each which was embarrassing enough but then, to cap it all off, we were accused of being one family and had to put the surplus packs back! Can you imagine? Today we'd be in the Daily Mail with our sad faces about being mentally scarred for not being allowed to buy enough toilet rolls...

Harold Wilson - "super tax" I think: but only on certain sorts of income. As my folks didn't pay it, I'm not sure why they were so obsessed by it

Hefzi my mum put sultanas in everything, including syrup sponge pudding boiled on the gas. The syrup sponge was lovely but we picked the sultanas out!

My mum is irish if thats relevant. I think irish mums ruin. put sultanas in everything!

Oh lord, I remember a lot of all this. I guess this means people must now think of me as 'mature'.

I'd forgotten all about the stag beetles - I was terrified of them as a small child.

And remember standpipes in the summer? There was never enough water despite all the rain!

Making paper chains each Christmas. We also had crepe paper streamers which you hung up around the walls in loops.

Margaret ha, maybe you are right! Mine didn't stop at spotted dick either - they showed up in everything, including jam roly poly!

And remember green shield stamps, too? We mainly ate out of the garden or what had been canned/stored from the garden, so going to a shop was a huge treat - I loved and cherished those bloody stamps! I craved having enough for a Teasmaid for my parents, as it was the height of sophistication to my mind

Oh yes, stand pipes. The heat wave of 76!

Mum and Dad bought me a red lilo for the garden. Before trampolines and paddling pools were invented, we cooled off with the left over cooled down kettle water flung at us!

Kids these days don't know their born!!!

Does anybody remember the European butter mountain? People on limited income were encouraged to go to the local youth club and get a packet of butter FREE! There were six children and my brother was allowed TWO because he had a disability. I do remember the filthy look we got from the horrible volunteer when I pointed out he was allowed two.

Ah yes green shield stamps at a time of extreme inflation. My memory of that is that just when you had enough stamps to buy something, you discovered the number of stamps needed had tripled! We did get a 2 man play tent with them though, which we used to supplement sleeping space when we went on holiday with our ancient, too small, caravan. And it was always a treat to be allowed to stick the stamps into the book.

Then there were glasses you could get free with petrol. I think my dad still has one or two of those glasses!

Saturdays !

My gran is in her 90s now and still stockpiles sugar. My mum does her shopping and she always has 3 bags of sugar on the list, every week.

Hefzi my gran used to make that. I used to gate those horrible soggy sultanas! It was like a hot coronation chicken curry. Awful

@S1naidSucks yes.. butter mountain and there was a WINE LAKE.

Where is that damn wine lake now? Give us directions and we can drain it!

Frangipane DH's first job out of university involved a lot of driving and filling up with petrol so we still have loads of Esso glasses

Great thread OP, but why in 30 days only??

Only if you were allowed to watch ITV Margaret. My parents thought ITV was only good for Upstairs Downstairs, so we had to watch BBC. To this day, I know which programmes were on BBC and which were on ITV because I know all the former and almost none of the latter.

Petrol prices rocketing. I remember my dad going off on one when petrol first rose above 60p. That is 60p a gallon, not a litre.

Oh, the glasses, yes! DPs still have some at home. They also used to go to a garage where you got smurfs, but I don't know if that was a local thing or not.

The butter mountain butter used to have special wrappers, I remember.

We used to run the hose down the lawn and scoot a lilo along it. We were a farm, so on a meter and not subject to shortages in the same way people in towns were - but you'd never allow this today: wasting water when people were going without...

And when was it they flooded communities to make new reservoirs? I remember that being on the news.

Exactly, JonSnow! It must have been a recipe from the Institute of Domestic Arts/Good Housekeeping. When the wind is in the wrong direction, I can still taste it

I hated growing up in the 60s and 70s. Grim northern city and lived in a freezing cold, horrendously damp house. I missed a lot of school due to bad health and have a mild learning disability and was just left to my own devices in the lessons I really struggled with. No extra support whatsoever. Consequently my maths level didn’t get beyond basic addition, subtraction etc.

I remember doing evenings at school during the electricity cuts as we all went in different shifts. I associate those two decades with discomfort and national and international unrest. Give me the 90’s and 20’s.

Not that we have national and international peace and harmony however .

@thenightsky i thought it best to disappear when i originally posted.

Just like the 1970's .... it will remain forever in our memories... along with Dennis Waterman .... in the Sweeny!

I did O-level home economics at school and because icing sugar disappeared out of the shops, my mum whizzed granulated in the coffee grinder. It took hours to grind enough. Strangely the icing came out much better than it would have done with real icing sugar... it sort of glistened and sparkled.

Margaret Oh please get it moved

@Chopinaround it was brilliant in London! 😉 We had candles.. sugar... eggs... running water, Barbara Windsor and inside khazi's !!!

Just like the 1970's .... it will remain forever in our memories... along with Dennis Waterman .... in the Sweeny!

And Minder. Also, Bodie and Doyle in the Professionals. God, I loved that drivel.