Were you brought up in the 1970s? Has it influenced you?

[Maninadirndl]

I saw a Channel 4 programme recently called "Never Did Me Any Harm" about a Dad who gets no respect from his kids who takes them all back in time to the 1970s. It struck parallels with my own life then, and has influenced me now.

When I am dressing my kids and one of them says "I don't want that pair of trousers" I go nuts when I remember how little colour coordination or fashion meant in those days. You put on a pair of pants and that was it. In summer a pair of shorts to play in and oif they got mud on another pair etc. No thought as to what designer label it was or whatever. Now we dress them quite nicely in fashionalble stuff but which comes from the spring and autumn kids flea markets which are put on by the local churches here in Bavaria. I blame the 80s era for the obssession with designer rubbish.

Elsewhere on MN I saw some debate about whether "good" parents did crafts all day with their kids. My parents were too tired to do anything like that with me, I just got on with doing stuff like model trains or farm or whatever. In summer I'd play in the trees or build dens. I remember a huge amount of freedom to roam in sometimes quite dangerous places looking back. We lived near the sea and there was a railway at the back of our garden. Sometimes kids died as a result of accidents in trees or hit by cars. Is life safer now? Or is it "too" safe? There seems to be a fixation with child perverts in Britain which you don't get in the rest of Europe.

TV was actually quite a good influence. Blue Peter was a good programme then as was "Why don't You?" in the summer holidays making you go out and do stuff for yourself. Now that there are millions of distractions like mobiles and computers how many kids can do anything for themselves?

But on the other hand was it that safe? I remember Bonfire Night being exciting but looking back pretty dangerous. We used to have our own family bonfire with the neighbours bringing along potatoes and treacle toffee. I have wonderful memories but around me there were stories of kids letting off bangers in school and getting badly burned.

So here I ask, was life better in the 70s or worse?

Cars have smoother suspension now which probably helps as you don't get jolted about so much. Also, not as many parents smoke now, and if they do the majority open the windows.

I was a 90s child but I remember travelling in my aunt's car which was much newer than ours and had the smoother type of suspension, it made me feel worse than our bumpy car! Now obviously I'm used to it but I remember saying when I grew up I wanted a car without suspension and everyone laughing at me

My cousins used to be left in the car outside the pub, in the 80s/90s, even when they were babies Apparently there would be crowds of people standing tutting around the car and my uncle would go mad at them for interfering.

I grew up in the 70's and we had much better dental care then in my hometown than my kids have now!

We were allowed a lot of freedom - but were expected home at mealtimes - and there were limits on how far we were supposed to wander (although I often wandered further..)

Fashion and clothes were not really and issue - but I do remember those short skirts and dresses and having cold legs all winter (North yorkshire)..I always wanted to wear trousers to school - but mum wouldn't let me - it wasn't proper for girls to wear trousers to school according to her!

We didn't have very much processed food at all - always meat and 3 veg - and always a pudding!

It used to take my mum a whole day to do the nappies and laundry in her twin tub washer.

We used to get a fair bit of proper snow in the winter and thoroughly enjoyed playing in it!

What a BRILLIANT thread!! Born in 1963, I can relate to most of what's on here - walking to and from school, from 7 or so on my own. Being out all day, going to places that we wern't supposed to - like deserted 'haunted house', with falling down staircases - lots of dares to see who could get in the house and upstairs.
I remember thinking the 'ladies' who worked in Chelsea Girl were sooooo glamorous, and I wanted to work there too when I grew up!
Loopy jackets - my nan knitted me a cream one, tan plastic t-bar wedges with a huge crepe sole (when i was about 14) that I tottered about school in - blazer lapels COVERED in badges, embroidering 'STARSKY' (starskey?) on my schoolbag.
The neighbours having an ansafone - well posh!! And a microwave!! (I know, in 1976!!)
Messing about by a stream, going through the tunnel, that went under the road, through a few fields to a golf course, looking for balls to sell back to the golfers (nice little earner)! Going round all the doors with your 'guy' in a wheelbarrow, literally asking for money (and getting loads)!!
EVERYONE watched Miss World and the Eurovision Song contest AND talked about it at school the next day!!! I could go on and on.....no really I could!!!

I remember playing 'Stag' and British Bulldog on our big lawn with all the other kids on Knighton Church Road.

Also, from the age of 13 or 14 I went off cycling all over the place, by myself, including several 4 or 6 week summer holidays which worked out at over 1000 miles each summer, staying at Youth Hostels, grandparents and friends, cycling 40 to 80 miles a day, and spending up to a week in any one place like Chester, Weston Super Mare (Granny), Poole (a week volunteering at the Aquarium) etc etc.

Memories!

I love this thread too..and retiredgoth2 - your post was so lovely!

I was born in the mid 60s and have nothing but 'SKILL' memories of the 70s.
Walking to and from primary school alone then the 2 miles to Middle school. Playing on building sites and in derelict houses (so dangerous but exciting), the local park pervert that you used to shout and point at (do they still have them or do they just spend all day on the internet now?), driving up north in the Ford estate with my 2 sisters with the back seats down and lying in sleeping bags and fighting, being jealous of kids who got free school meals, the most anti-social behaviour being bending car aerials that hadnt been put down or 'vandalising' a phone box, thinking David Bowie was an alien and the best music EVER: Glam, disco and punk.

I remember not being allowed to watch anything on TV that wasn't educational. (my daughter is addicted to Peppa Pig). We used to do lots of craft with my Mum and every time me went to a Museum she asked for worksheets for us. We used to get smacked (never did us any harm! ) and spend our pocket money at the shop in town that we rode our bikes to, on our own, aged 5. My Mum still has all the Janet and John books and Cathy and Mark books. my 2 year old mini- me loves them. As my daughter looks like I did at the same age and my mum insists on making dresses for her, sometimes it's like nothing has changed! Even the fashion for skin-tight long sleeved tops seems to be the some, although not nylon Thelwell ones these days.

Certainly remember going off on my bike with friends from about 8-9 years old. DD is that age now and I can't envisage her doing that. We live in a busier area than where I grew up, though.

And yes, TV before about 4pm was banned. But I didn't really care because there was nothing on! TV for kids didn't exist during the day - except in the holidays when they did put special programmes on in the morning. I think the BBC was still having "Closedown" during the day right up to about 1983.

I remember the waiting.

We had to wait for Christmas to get the new book we wanted (so it could be 10 months daydreaming for a book], 3 years for new jacket/coat, 2-3 years for bicycle ... Oh the excitement when the waiting was over. I still remember the day we went to buy my new coat or my bike. I remember all my books and my toys.

I was thinking about it the other day, our children will probably don't have these memories as they have too many

our house always smell of hairspray, my mum was going mad on it.

i remember ... Dr Who on a Saturday night as a huuuuuge treat!

I think it has influenced me in that my kids have a load more freedom than the others round here who all have mums about 10 years younger than me! (I'm 38 with an oldest of 9 - next door is 31 with an oldest of 12 - similar everywhere round where we live).

So my kids play outside for hours, dd1 (9) is allowed to go to the local supermarket for me (its a real treat for her - a total blessing for me) which is 2 mins away on her bike to get milk/bread/ice-creams etc).

Other local mums are not so relaxed. But when I was 8 I was taking my 6 month old brother in his pram for walks to the corner shop etc .........

I think it was the making of me, and my children have benefitted.

Dr Who on a Saturday night (with Jo and the brigadier) was always accompanied by a Midnight Mint choc ice which Mum had been to the "pictures" to buy for us...(for some reason you could only get them there)

Life did seem to be a lot more orange/brown in the '70s

Watching Charlie's Angels and thinking they looked sooooo glamorous (RIP Farrah Fawcett).

The things I remember most are:

The tv was dire-only 1 tv so we all had to watch Morcombe & Wise.
No video
listening to the top 40 on radio and taping the best songs on my own compilation tape.
Riding a bike everywhere
Terrible polyester clothes-yes I wore orange and brown together too!
terrible haircuts
Hot summers
Coke in a glass bottle but only very occasionally, bought by mum and dad from the pub, which children were not allowed into.
Having Amber solair oil applied as a make do suncream.
Fingerbobs on the telly.
Having very scary teachers who could shout at will for seemingly very petty reasons.

Also the ladybirds at the coast during the very hot summer of 1976. The water drought of the same year and washing my teddybears clothes at the emergency standpipes and a man smiling at me and asking if I was washing my younger siblings clothes for my mum, yes I smiled back!!

Loads of memories flooding back. Going out all day in the summer hols on our bikes, coming home when you were hungry or needed a change of clothes cos you had fallen in the brook near my mates house. scrumping strawberries. playing in the woods making dens (take my 11 year old to the same woods now).My pippa dolls that i loved. taping top 40 on a sunday on the portable tape recorder trying not to get any talking from the dj on the tape, but your mum usually coming in telling you to get in the bath while you were taping. Camping, we had a dormobile and a tent, my nan and uncle had a caravan so off we would go round the country. never had a foreign holiday when i was a kid. camp site with nothing but a hole dug in the ground for a swimming pool but loved it. Enid blyton books. knock down ginger. getting the slipper if you were bad at school

The 70's - ah yes I remember them well. Best of all moving into the old farmhouse where the only decent rooms upstairs for the first couple of months were one bedroom and the bathroom. Trouble was I was married and youngest sister was engaged (living with us) so "private time" was by mutual agreement. We had the 6 to 7 AM slot and she and husband-to-be had the 9 to 10 PM slot.

Happy days!

I turned 13 years old in 1970 so I am probably older than all of you here. I particularly remember the childhood freedom of that era. We would ride our bikes for hours, stopping whenever we liked for a picnic lunch or a swim or to explore. The rule was we had to be home by tea time. I had my school uniform, my Sunday best outfit, and play clothes. My mother sewed many of our clothes. None of us knew anything about designer labels.

Born in 1970 so feeling right at home on this thread.
So many of your posts have brought back some lovely - and some not so lovely - memories.
I remember waiting for the Test Card girl on TV to dissappear so we could watch our programmes.
Saturday morning TV was ACE - were you a Swap Shop or a TISWAS kid? (one for the TISWAS camp, here)
Riding on my Raleigh Chopper (with playing cards stuck in the spokes to make it sound like an engine!) with 5p to buy a pack of sweet cigarettes.

There's an email that's been doing the rounds for years that lists all the forgotten kid stuff that "never did me any harm"....

Keep it up!!!

I remember the screaming boredom of listening to the Football Pools results being read out while waiting for Dr Who to come on. They were read in a lovely hypnotic way that should have been as good as the Shipping Forecast, but I just couldn't wait to get to the Yettis and Cybermen and Daleks.

does anyone remember the firemans strike in the 70's and they had to draft in the army in 'green goddess' fire engines.

school dinners in which everybody ate the same, (I don't think there were any vegetarians at the school.) Chicken fricasse with a little piece of triangle shaped toast or hungarian goulash, flapjacks with golden syrup, chocolate crunch with pink custard or yucky prunes and custard, rice pudding with a blob of jam in the middle.

Battered metal water jugs
semolina
the three-day week
jumpers for goalposts
small boys
isn't it?

oh yes and matching battered metal cups too!

I remember

endless bike rides,freedom to roam

long party dresses with frills round the bottom that your mum made and you had to stand for hours whilst she pinned hems,you only had one

the summer of the biting ladybirds

Space Dust,sherbert dabs,Caramac bars,Palmer Violets etc

Angel Delight

Elvis

fruit that tasted of fruit

Nancy Drew books

that Charlie's Angels doll that came with it's own handbag with things in it(I didn't have one)

The Bionic Woman and Little House on the Prairie

my Sindy doll and her extensive brightly coloured flairs collection

Indian Toast(grilled marmite on toast) and stuffed eggs that my mother thought were the height of sophistication

my mum always coming back from parties with 2 perfume tasting After Eights in her evening bag for dsis and I

her long emerald green very 70s evening gown

my parents maroon Ford Cortina with pull out arm rest that said Sindy doll used to travel on

my dad's backside always sticking out of said Cortina's bonnet every Sat morning(you fixed your own cars back then)

ice cream vans that only sold cider lollies,Fabs,orange lollies and ice cream oysters

Mary,Mungo & Midge,Bod,Mister Ben et al.........

oops rambling on now. Don't know if it was better but it did seem less complicated, my mother thinks it was easier to parent then.

ooh, Bod.
But who remembers Alberto Frog and His Amazing Animal Band?