Your memories of the 70s

Vinyl was king in the 70s, albums by Paper Lace and the New Seekers

The 70s was the decade of flared trousers (first time around), of glam rock and Blue Nun. Would you like to go back?

Do you remember?



Your memories of the 70s:

" I used to read Jackie mags and follow Slade around. I earned £4 16 shillings in my first office job in 1970. Happy days. " Jan

"Feathered haircut, cheesecloth top/dresses barely covering my ass. Pretty lace up grecian sandals or clogs, jeans flared and the threads undone on the bottom painstakingly. Smock tops tie die tight t shirts and RAF jackets or coats. Never could afford an Afghan coat and so wanted one! Did have love beads and a variety of very large crosses and Ankhs. 15 in love fuck it attitude and life as yet a mystery I am 55 now and wish i could go back and smell the patchouli oil one more time " carolyn grant

"I'd go back in a flash. 1975 was my favourite year. I was 19. I felt like I'd been liberated that year. The world was mine even though I hadn't two pennies to rub together. I'd go back alright, and I'd stay..... " Jan

"The 70's were the decade I grew up-literally. Surpassing both my parents' height, creeping into my sisters bedroom after she had flitted to the pub with her 6th form mates, carefully placing the LP onto the turntable, learning all the lyrics from gate fold sleeves, trying on her platfoms in order for her to be swayed into buying me a pair with her Saturday jobs' wages, cutting out anything to do with BOWIE from her discarded magazines, getting up early for my paper round, the day heating up incredibly quickly in 76,lying in the back garden with the BUSH radio blasting out Radio One, SPARKS, "Afternoon Delight\", SAILOR, Jim Croce, hanging the stereo speakers out of the back bedroom window when parents went out and playing my fave tunes.

Hide & Seek across the estate which included each others' back gardens and wash houses, going onto the "back field" (mounds of earth displaced from the M56 being built) and pretending to be on the (pre grass) moon and (post overgrown) another fantasical planet, getting 50p spends and laying on a sat. afternoon banquet for my mates, including sausage and chip barmcakes, dandelion & burdock, curly wurlys, setting up a tent like den in case of on coming rain clouds which threatened to (try&) spoil our summer holidays, travelling the Rhyl, North Wales every year for our hols and being freaked out when we travelled to Torquay in 77' and experiencing everyones grief when ELVIS passed on, "A Star Is Born" with Streisand, Dr WHO, my first X films - "CARRIE" & "The Boys In Blue", my first bottle of cider on the back fields, my first kiss, The EAGLES at Stafford Bingley Hall, BOWIE in 76 & 78, 10cc, WINGS, my inital foray into the world of punk@ The Ranch in Manchester, having my sister showing me how not to dance,"o" levels and meeting my best friend " Tom Jones

"Scientists have undertaken tests, you know, to find out when people were at their most happiest ever. The result: 1976! Yeah, but, we already knew that! Was 1976 all it's cracked up to be? " Adele Jameson

"Horror Bags (crisps), Bubble-gum football cards / Star Wars cards, Six Million Dollar Man toys, seemingly never-ending summer holidays - always hot and sunny, and 'playing out' all day long -those really WERE the days!!! " John Waudby

" I want to go back, life held so much promise then dispite all the strikes and the 'troubles' and yes summers did seem longer and warmer. A Simpler life, and we were all a lot happier " helen lowe

"they were the best days of my life,life was so simple and yet fun no worries then like we have today every thing was just pure fun and laughter, i wish we could bring them days back, i remember getting my first chopper bike in 1970 when i was 11 yrs old and my sister got the chipper bike that she rode on christmas day fell off it and broke her arm,i found a chipper bike in a skip last year have stripped it but not got round to do it up just to bring them memories flooding back,ahh they were the days " jphn

"Life really was so much simpler back then. I remember waking up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons and eating Frankenberry cereal. Sigmund and the sea monsters, Land of the lost, and H.R. Puffenstuff. Playing with all my friends and building forts in the woods. I was 12 years old in 75 and it was the best times of my life. I would hope on a time machine in an instant to relive those wonderful days. " Mark

"i remember the summer of 1976 because the canal in Alrewas dried up and you could walk a cross the buttom,but you couldnt go skinny dipping " wendy

"I remember UK holidays in Bournemouth and Looe, Saturday morning TV that included White Horses and Zorro (both in black and white), The Banana Splits and the Flashing Blade (my favourite)! Also The Wombles, The Wurzels, Slade, Gary Glitter, David Dundas, Tiger Tokens, The Basil Brush Show, Dr. Who (Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker), Blake's Seven, Van Der Valk, Eye Level, George Best, Martin Chivers, JPR Williams, Gareth Edwards, Joe Bugner, Henry Cooper, Kevin Keegan, Ally's Tartan Army, Nottingham Forest FC, Leeds Utd., Man. Utd., Arsenal, Sailing (Rod Stewart), Survivors, Grease, Star Wars, Abba, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Happy Days, the Queens Silver Jubilee, Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, going to Church, Sister Dominic, being in the cubs, Roots, A Bridge Too Far, Airfix kits, Airfix toy soldiers, Action Man (you could sit on the Armoured Car and go down a hill on it!), Tonka Toys the Saturday night movie, The Pink Panther (cartoon and films), final score, and the Green 'Un paper. Not only the Raleigh Chopper but the Raleigh Budgie and Grifter (an early BMX??), my Raleigh Arena 5-speed racer and all the people who aren't here anymore. The list goes on........ " Jason

"The 70s to me was the best time to grow up. remembering TV programmes like The Double Deckers, glam rock music, space hoppers, Raleigh Chopper bike. In 1975 I was 12 yrs old and I can still remember those days like it was yesterday. I even have the Double Deckers on DVD now just to bring back those memories. I'm always looking on retro web sites. How I would love to go back in time......" Ian Johnson

"I remember wowing on Bowie a lot, trying to get my head round Jean Genie lyrics, down came the hem lines; Chekhov, strawberries and Blue Nun in Chichester. Red sunsets from a Shoreham bus. Flower power faded but still wearing the ties and the collars as big as saucers. Big boys don't cry - but I did a lot, in telephone boxes when I couldn't get through and then I'd bury my brain in the ICA in London, sampling Bergman, Maoist agitprop from City Limits and trying to surf Dylan's Planet Waves. Best surf was at Woolacombe - playing Pink Floyd round the clock, crashing in a friends cottage, studying love all the time, hoping Proust could teach me something about it." Pop Burns

"Yes...Please take me there!...Please!..."

"I would love to go back to the 70s. It was the best time to be out discoing. German sweet wines you would never dream of drinking now. Always prawn cocktail, steak and black forest gateaux. I still do 70s night food for friends. Ah, they were the days. Take me back please." Ann Thomas

"Parents caravan, 95 degrees, 85 in the shade! really long long long days...they seem to last for ever. i was 10 years old. memories oh sweet, sherbet dib dabs, half pee chews, and my skateboard with criptonic wheels and my chopper bike! young days " Bob

"peeved off cos i am using somthing from the modern world to justify my reasons for going back to the seventies. life was so simple then (maybe cos we had our parents to wipe up after ourselves) i dunno it was just fun... tank tops, penny collar, parker coats, no do gooders thinking they own the world, i remember when we used to play properly out in the parks, up the street with your friends, having a proper childhood and not growing up to fast (something i am still doing now) these days kids think that if they are not up to date with the latest fashion then they do not fit in. it would be great to give my kids a taste of what we had. i reacon the world wood be a better place for it. " bryan berry

"I really don't belong to 70s, cos I was still at elementary, but the years left so much memories to me. I remembered my brothers and sisters played the songs of beatles all day long and got Elvis's style in many ways. While I enjoy watching Jenny (the TV movie ) every evening. It was long time ago, but it was quite the time that I always miss." ROTI

"life was just less complicated back then, the advent of the internet has taken away the innocence of the younger generation. i remember long summer holidays playing in the woods without fear till late...playing football all day ...Saturday morning tele...wrestling on world of sport.. please sir...miners strikes and powercuts...being poor but making do with what we had.. listening to football on the radio live when man utd playing ...simple foods and no takeaways....penny arrow bars.. beano.. whizzer and chips..god i am old and i hate it." Steve

"My teenage years were in the 70s. I went to a lot of concerts. Life was simpler then. Riding our bikes all day, going to parties (keggers). I love the music of the seventies." Marc

"'Take me bak home' To the 70s, best years of my life, no pc's, always out in the fresh air doing something, slim, healthy, fantastic clothes, great tv shows, super music and life was so full you didn't have time to stress or be down, you could go from one job to another wages seemed to cover our simple needs, we walked everywhere, hairstyles where wow and first love's kisses and slow smooches were the biz, so email me when you got a time machine pleaz." Bernadette,Kent

"The clothes, hotpants, platform shoes, flares, staypress trousers, ben sherman shirts. Brut aftershave, Estee Lauder perfume. Glam rock, The Sweet, TRex, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Mud and on it goes. "

"Life was more carefree, not so much violence, no binge drinking, easy to get to places. Charabang trips to Skeggy. Hot summers, cold winters. "

"Happy dayssssssssssss " Dale Shaylor

"Life was simplier and sweeter glam rock, lazy summer days, choper bikes and space hoppers. Chinese meant going to a resturant (no takeaways). Telly programmes were space 1999, tiswas, saturday night specials in the summer season. The clothes were fantastic so bright loved tye-dye t-shirts. I was a teenager in those hazy happy days how I wish I could go back " lorna, fife

"yeah, the 70's sound great but i think it sounds cool (im only 13) because michael jackson and many other fantastic singers were alive and making music!!! " Cydnei

"I grew up in the 70s and echo what everyone else is saying about those days being much better. I remember playing happily with my friends every day of the 6 week holidays - skipping games with an old washing line, French skipping with elastic, hopscotch, two-balls up against the wall or riding bikes round the neighbourhood (getting sunburnt because nobody seemed to wear sun cream!). I would empty all the tins out of my mum's pantry to play shop or make a den by putting a sheet over the kitchen table. I'd sit under it for hours with my dolls and an Enid Blyton book! I know most people look back fondly at their childhood because they were young and carefree but I really do think it was far better when people were happy with the simpler things in life and not preoccupied with political correctness! The world's gone mad :) " Kate

"The seventies were definitely the best time of my life. Bands at Sheffield City Hall. The amazing clothes, the smell of patchouli. I have to admit to still buying what now are 'vintage' clothes. Leather jacket, cowboy boots ha ha.

I played drums in a few bands then, The Stereo's from the Sheffield area being one of them. Playing the Crazy Daisy and the Black Swan in Sheffield. Lots of lovely girls..steady Kev. Still playing but not the same any more. I would definitely return to the 70s. Where's me time machine mate? " Kev Richardson. Sheffield


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tina

my decade loved it friends and dancing nearly every night of the week

great fashions and great music , northern soul, feather cuts ,bomber jackets , crombies,

reggae, glam rock, and best of all meeting and dating at dances and the pictures , not online real life socialising

James Woodruff

Just read "The Best Year Of Our Lives" by Phil Andrews, set in 1976 including that beautiful long hot summer. Wonderful times with wonderful music, not a care in the world. Politically and economically the situation was bleak and yet it was such a great time to be young. That's why so many hark back to it all these years later.

Debby
Oh to go back to the late 60s early 70s, great clubs and pubs the carefree days of my early teens to 20s. Nights clubbing to great rock music at Samantha's, pubs like bogarts, ice skating then getting changed into maxis, long hair flowing painted flowers round the eyes and a few or more drinks and dancing the night away. Night bus home and feeling safe at that long walk home to grestone avenue from the number 16 bus, a bit tipsy but looking forward to my bed but dreading getting up for work at 7.30 am. I think those were the best days of my life before marriage and children came along in my early 20s. Does anyone remember Janet who worked in the cloakroom at Samantha's, we became friends along with Jenny and Christine "Good Times" .
Chris
In my early teens i had electric green socks and red and white stripped ones..it seems just a few days ago..not 48 years, i was thin and could wear anything..now i have a fat gut and cannot get into jeans anymore..don't even mention the hair!!!
Dave Price
I was 17 in 1976, and I too would go back to those days in an instant. Great feelgood music, loads of shops on the High Street, no mobiles or internet and a simple uncomplicated life. Loads of friends - always out at cinema,pub,club or party. Great fun at work and stress was unheard of. There were strikes, ridiculously high inflation wages were poor - but we were happy, carefree and living rather than existing. Now who has the plans for that time machine?
 
   
Retrowow - vintage, retro and social history

Mid Century ★ Facts & Figures ★ Collectibles

Retrowow - vintage, retro and social history

★ Mid Century ★ Facts & Figures ★ Collectibles ★