So on balance… were the 70’s better than now?
Personally, for me … I think so.
Yes it was grim at times and I guess these thingss go in cycles, particularly regarding economics but I don’t think there has ever been so much uncertainty in the world.
I could just be turning into a miserable old biddy but I think the future looks pretty bleak on the whole.
I wonder if you asked a 20 year if they think having kids is a good idea or not.
if you wernt around in the 60s,then i supose the 70s was better
Growing up in the 70s was harsh but fun. Easy to look back with nostalgia now. But at the time everyone hated Abba, there were lead fumes belching out of cars - you blew your nose sometimes and the tissue might be sooty. Nobody had any money, even the people with money fell on hard times. There were shortages, strikes, rubbish on the streets, inter-racial tension, sexism was the norm. Women were considered stupid. Jimmy Saville was on TV putting his arm around children every weekend. Oh yes just remembered many people only had a black and white telly so when Anthea Redfern came out to do her twirl Bruce would have to tell people with Black and White tellies what colours she was wearing that night. We had absolutely no decent restaurants and food outlets. Cafes were greasy spoons with rubbish food. There was no competition anywhere. You were expected to be happy with the rubbish on offer be it service in shops, late trains, rude bus drivers, car mechanics, builders, you name it. I don’t know whether the consumer rights act even existed then. I remember electricity being very dear and my dad going around switching all the lights off to save money. He also complained about paying the rates. The milkman would still deliver milk. Perhaps they will start that up again someday. Nobody was gay, nobody even knew what trans was. The boys played football and the girls played skipping.
There were so many kids everywhere, even though this was just after the baby boom. We used to cycle on the pavements all over town. Chopper bikes were the in thing. We watched Charlie’s Angels and ate Angel Delight.
Roads were dangerous for children. One of my earliest school memories is a boy’s father coming in to donate the toys of his dead son to the school - he had been knocked down by a speeding car crossing the busy road outside the gates. One of our “fun” going home games was to run in front of a car just before it knocked you over. Driving was dangerous for people, nobody had to wear a seat belt. Of course Saville was also on TV telling people to clunk click every trip. You have to wonder how he ever ended up on TV working with children.
@AnnieS … blimey … I’m beginning to feel traumatised reading all that.
I wonder if anyone remembers the 80’s, 90’s so vividly.
Were the 80s worth remembering? Eastenders, Neighbours and Maggie Thatcher sums it up.
I was an electrician in the 70’s.It was noticeable that white goods like washing machines and freezers became cheaper and more readily available with the opening of discount warehouses.And the microwave oven started getting popular.
True … and whilst i’m sure there were recessions before, the 80’s and 90’s really did wallow in the boom and bust cycle.
I read an article the other week where it recokoned kids born between 1980 and 2000 would be remembered as the wealthiest generation ever … mainly through the accumulated wealth of their grandparents .
most people were scared of microwave radiation. Which reminds me, we lived in the shadow of the cold war in the 70s. At school we were taught about the 4 minute warning. Buildings were also full of asbestos and nobody cared because nobody knew how harmful it was until later years.
For me 50’s early 60’s were the best time, In 66 I was married, in 67 with a young son, a daughter as well in 71. So didn’t get to wear fashion or go to discos etc. I was really too old to appreciate the Beatles too, my music was Country & Jazz in my young days.
Most of today’s music is rubbish I think. 50’s,60’s & 70’s was the proper music. 
You didn’t enjoy the 70’s much,did you?
One of my most abiding memories of the 70’s was the drought of 76, not forgetting the plague of ladybirds.
We had an asbestos shed in our back garden when I was a child & I used to climb on the roof & play camps on it. I could also spy on the neighbours there.
No, no one realised how dangerous it was to health, but it didn’t seem to hurt me.
I did and I didn’t - I look back now with nostalgia but at the time life wasn’t so easy. Having lots of friends and being able to stay out all day playing was the good bit. That all changed in the 80s when stranger danger combined with health and safety removed any freedom for kids. We were told not to speak to any strange men offering you a sweetie. But nobody really focused on that. We had adventure playgrounds and giant climbing frames with only tarmac underneath. My best friend and I decided to go exploring behind the railway depot. We got into terrible trouble for that and being out until 9pm. I was grounded for the rest of the Easter holidays that year.
I am pretty sure our maths hut at school was full of it. It also had loose electric wires poking out of the wall. I am pretty sure we had an old ironing board with an asbestos section to rest the iron. I have no idea how many years would it take to become sick. I sometimes wonder whether I’d have been more intelligent without all the lead poisoning and the fact that I bit the GPs thermometer in half when I was about 4 or 5…
I remember the 70’s for the strikes with Red Robbo at British Leyland culminating with the ‘winter of discontent’ and Prime Minister Jim Callaghan saying if he was a young man he would emigrate.
Just as a matter of interest what is a “colourguard mum”? It’s an expression I haven’t come across before except in connection with the military perhaps.
I had a goatskin waistcoat I bought in Afghanistan. The 70s were a great time for travel when you could still visit places like Iran and Afghanistan. I travelled from the UK to Australia (mostly) overland.
I ruined more Big Wheels than any kid of the 70’s. Bank on it.
Iran must have been fabulous before the revolution. Did you see the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan?
I most certainly did, as well as many other ancient buildings and tribesmen with flintlock rifles
It must have been fascinating to visit these lands at that time. Everything changed before I was old enough to go. I know that people go there of course but it’s so oppressive for women now. Were you able to move about freely in those days? I’d love to visit Iran if it was a free country. It’s so rich in culture and history.
