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

I thought Tressy and Barbie were common.

Sindy and Patch were posh

The Hovis ad was filmed in Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset

Ah yes, I remember The Sullivans (with Mrs Jessup) and Crown Court which was very solemn. And ice cream cakes. Tiny tears and Sindy. Holly Hobbie. Sun dresses.

We had no central heating and I didn't get a portable gas heater because my room had the chimney going through it so should be warm enough. I used to make patterns in the ice on the inside windows with my Sindy doll's feet.

Friends also had an outside toilet that was a double - two seats and two holes. Suppose it saved time as they were a big family.

Ugh warm milk in bottles at school and school dinners in big trays with exotic names like Hungarian Goulash

Also my mum and dad couldn't afford a Sindy house so dad made me one out of a box and painted it for Christmas morning. I loved it

Sindy was English (not like that common American Barbie) my sister and I were only allowed Sindy! My favourite was Pippa and my Dad made a dolls house to her precise size - I still have the dolls house albeit a bit battered after my two girls had finished with it 😊

Like PP we couldn't watch ITV (I think that was because my mum thought it was common too but more probably because she didn't want us demanding toys from the adverts).

I lived in a little village in Cumbria and we had no central heating either. One fire in the living room and an electric storage heater which gave off very little heat on the landing. I woke up to beautiful Jack Frost patterns on the inside of my bedroom windows in winter and knew to put my next days clothes on my bed over the blanket but underneath the eiderdown and had perfected the art of wriggling out of my (nylon) nightie and into my clothes before leaving my bed.

I remember the long hot summer of 1976 and the ladybirds swarming and biting when we went to Southport on a day out. My Dad had installed the inside bathroom into our house and demolished the outside loo that summer and he found a load of clay when digging out the foundations and we moulded it into little figures and dried them in the sun.

Distinctly remember all the power cuts even though I was only 7/8 in the winter of discontent. We always had candles and several oil lamps around the house throughout my childhood and remember my mum cooking on the calorgas camping stove.

I'm another one who never had sun tan lotion put on and we'd spend all day every day roaming around the village with friends with not a parent in sight.

I made all my Sindy furniture out of shoe boxes. It was truly fabulous. My next good neighbour and friend had Tressy and a load of plastic furniture. Mine was far superior.

They also drank sterilised milk.

Our entertainment was hopscotch and American Skipping. As there was only two of us we had to use a dustbin as the other ‘legs’.

Or do I mean French Skipping?

In
On
Out
Together
In

Moving up from ankles as far as you could go.

and no stabbings or daily blood shed

no, but football hooliganism was rife, as was racism and sexism. We also suffered from IRA terrorism which was very, very real

Calling your parents friends Mr or Mrs Surname and never by their first name.
I went to my friend's Mum's funeral recently, and could not refer to her other than as Mrs X - it is all I've ever called her in 45 years

Love this thread it’s making me tear up a bit.
My 1970s
Growing up on a midlands council estate - everyone was poor but us kids didn’t know it and didn’t care.

Mum trying to cook by candlelight in the power cuts.

Proper snow every winter, the schools didn’t close and people just got on with it!

No supermarket in our town just independent grocers or fruit and veg shops. Shopping took ages and was a real mission.

Kids wearing plimsolls to school even in winter as their parents couldn’t afford shoes for them.

Dogs took themselves for a walk.

Our first ever holiday at Pontins Prestatyn.

Twinkle comic and a quarter of rhubarb and custard sweets from the newsagents.

Being caned at primary school

I feel nostalgic but actually life was very hard in many ways.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Shield_Stamps

I have a vague memory of us all huddled around the cooker with the oven door open, trying to keep warm, in the dark. This was when we had moved to a house that did have central heating. I think my memory must have invented this scenario. Probably conflated from various episodes during the power cuts.

redastherose Pippa dolls! I loved my Pippa dolls. They had so many adventures! Ah, happy memories of our amazing childhood imaginations

I didn’t have Pippa but desperately wanted one. My mum claimed not to be able to find her in the shops, but I suspect she just couldn’t afford it. Now I have a dog called Pippa, and dh and ds both know she’s named after the doll I never had!

My auntie bought me a princess Pippa

I have a rush of nostalgia
Weebles wobble but they don't fall down (I had a roundabout for them)
Holly Hobby dolls
Clackers
Wimsy (?) animals

Fuzzy felt!

I’d forgotten how much Pippa looked like Twiggy was she based on her?

I think there were several different Pippa dolls. I had one with long black or dark brown hair.

I loved Weebles and Fuzzy Felt!

And I still bear the scars of those bloody public information films - I remember being convinced I was going to die if I ever stepped on to the farm yard (which was a bit awkward, as we lived on a farm - whose front door hadn't been opened in about 40 years)

Did anyone else listen to Music and Movement on the wireless at school? Bit of a highlight of our week.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

YES! SAD ESSEX PENGUINS!

thank god for that. i was starting to worry that i dreamed it. poor sad penguins, and it was such a tiny village at the time. bonkers.

are you from The Village in question? that would be weird.

I am from the small town on the estuary.
I don't think I ever saw the penguins but friends of mine have reminisced. In a 'wtf?' sort of way.

I was expecting to see this

On the subject of telly, does anyone remember the Singing Ringing Tree or was that 60s? Bloody terrifying...that dwarf .
Loved this show - beautiful ending.
Had a Pippa, a Tammy and a Rosemary. Barbie , Sindy, action girl and tiny tears :).
Phone numbers with 3 digits.
Lemonade and a bag of crisps.
Star Trek- the original series.
Jon pertwee - dr who.
Space 1999 (lol)
The magic round about.
Blue Peter And Magpie.
Ivor the engine.
Captain pug wash.
Wedges.
Bright blue eye shadow.

Jon Pertwee will always be my Dr Who Robin . He was brilliant.

I remember The Singing Ringing Tree and Belle Sebastian And The Horses. I loved the theme tune of that and can still remember it.

Also have vivid memories of the snowy walk to school and back in wellies. We always ended up with chilblains. The snow was on the ground for weeks on end and ended up in filthy grey icy banks along the side of the roads. Kids made slides of ice in the school playground which I was too much of a scardy cat to go on.