About Me

Thursday, 15 November 2012

Things never heard in my 1970s childhood

I like to think that we are giving our children a childhood not that dissimilar to our own. We do plenty of walks, tree climbing, bike riding and playground. The boys can watch TV but only after 5.30 until supper at about 6. They  learn their spellings, eat their home cooked meals, bake cakes with me, go to bed about 8 and have to do what they are told - preferably first time.

But there are some big old differences. Here are some phrases I never heard as a child in the 1970s:

1. Which squash would you like? Pomegranate and elderflower or mango and raspberry? (As far as I remember it was orange, orange or orange)

2. Of course you can listen to that song again (pressing the back button on the CD to get to the beginning of the song is far easier than trying to rewind a cassette to the perfect start of song point)

3. OK, we are on the motorway, which DVD do you lot want to watch? (as opposed to counting the number of red cars on the other side of the road, fighting with your brothers or trying to read a book and then feeling sick for the rest of the journey)

4. Did you want to watch an episode of Deadly 60, I'll just see if there is one on IPlayer. (I don't remember videos or DVDs making an appearance until well into the 1980s. The thought that you could watch something on demand and not have to wait until next week to see the programme again would have blown my mind)

5. You are right, we have been waiting a long time in the Doctors waiting room. Here, have a go on Angry Birds on my phone until the Doctor is ready. (We always got 'a tough luck sunshine, we've got to see the doctor so just carry on waiting'.)

6. Yes Chip, Biff and Kipper are quite silly. (Although a massive improvement on Janet and John...)

7. You built a model of London at school and burnt in down in the playground to learn about the Fire of London (we NEVER got to do fun things like that at school!)

8. Just eat up your chorizo/pesto/humous/couscous/insert lovely food here (I don't even remember what we ate as children. Lots of fishfingers and sausages I think)

9. Did you just fall off the climbing frame? Poor you, did you hurt yourself? No, not too badly. Ok, well just be more careful next time (remember the concrete playgrounds? We didn't bounce back that fast after a fall onto one of those)

10. Is that another enormous, unpatchable hole in your trousers? Never mind, we'll see if we can get you a new pair at the weekend. (a new pair of trousers cost a fortune in the 1970s. No way would my parents have been as sangfroid about such destruction. So much cheaper now, which is a blessing the number of pairs of trousers we go through)

Anyone want to add any?


30 comments:

  1. LOL, I remember most of those in italic! TV used to close down at 7pm and sweets were just a treat for Friday night :-)

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    1. But a quarter pound of lemon sherberts were so worth the wait!

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  2. OMG - we're on the same wavelength. I've just posted about FWP (First World Problems). I remember being at ballet classes three + evenings per week; we didn't even have a microwave at the time so my dinner plate was on a pan with an ever-increasing amount of boiling water underneath it. Let's just say it was a bit dried out.

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    1. ever - decreasing, that should read...

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    2. Don't think we had a microwave until I was well into my teens. Have to say though that we've done without microwaves before and I didn't really miss it! Just had to get organised on the defrosting front.

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  3. I'm remember desperately re-winding tapes with pencils - and a walkman the size of a medium paperback

    And there was no lycra - am only just trusting leggings again after 1980s experiences with them bagging at the knees

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    1. Winding the tapes with a pencil and then over stretching it and not being able to play them properly again... ah good times...

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  4. Oh yes! And also "well your brother is watching Octonauts on iplayer, daddy's watching formula 1, so why don't you take the iPad and watch a film". It was news or sport on tv when I was growing up - we had to put up with it or go read a book!

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    1. think a bit of just putting up with it wouldn't do my lot any harm!

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  5. Still quite a lot of sausages and fishfingers here....

    But on the rest of them I'm so with you!

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  6. 'Is your seatbelt on?' Never heard that as a kid. There weren't any in the back of our car.

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    1. hahaha

      I watched some friends wrestle their screaming kids into their car seats and wondered why I couldn't remember that from my childhood.

      Then I remembered we didn't have a car.....

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    2. And we could get 3 kids into the back of a normal size car which you CANNOT do when you have car seats. Hence the number of people carriers around. Grrr.

      GP - that's because you lived up north... ;-)

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  7. Attitudes to smoking: If I complained about a smoky atmosphere I'd have been at best ignored or, more likely, told to stop being rude about adults!
    Now it is we adults who complain about our teenage kids smoking!

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    1. So true. Everyone smoked all the time - in the cinemas and everywhere. Not sad those days have gone!

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  8. "Oh you don't like this programme? Let's see what's on the other channels." We didn't actually get a proper telly until I was 2 or 3 and there were 3 channels.

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    1. Exactly! Or lets pause this TV programme whilst you go to the loo..

      remember the start of Channel 4 very clearly. They did TV in the morning and everything!

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  9. You must surely remember Angel Delight and Arctic Rolls? Penquin and club biscuits - are they still around?

    Children's TV programmes started at around 3.30 and ended when the news came on... not anymore!

    You had the choice of Beano or Dandy comic, or Bunty if you were a girly girl.

    All sweets, crisps and chocolates were bigger, whether this is because they were in smaller hands or they really were bigger, I can't decide.

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    1. Penguins definitely still around. I find if I miss anything from the 1970s it will definitely still be available in the Isle of Wight - proper treasure trove for retro childrens stuff!

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  10. Great list! I remember trying to tape the Top 20 from the radio and listening to it back, with all the added DJ bits I hadn't manage to chop off properly.
    Our diet was a bit rubbish - we were okay with mince and potatoes but veg was usually carrots and peas. Fruit - apples, oranges and bananas. The only time we got anything exotic was in a tin of Fruit Cocktail.

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    1. I remember doing that. It was impossible to get rid of everything that the DJ was saying on the intros. Infuriating!

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  11. Just text me.
    If I had wanted to telephone someone, I had to go to the end of the street and stick in 4 pence (until we found out that tapping the bar on the top of the phone like morse code got you the call for free.) No one I knew had a phone either, so it required some logistical shenanigans.

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    1. Much easier now I can phone Mummy mates to track down appropriate playmates - or phone for people to come join us at the playground!

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  12. Flying. My 3-yo has flown to more countries and destinations than I had when I was 18. It was once-a-year car holidays to Austria, the Netherlands or Italy, if we were lucky.

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    1. So true. Hideously long car trips, with a smoker in the car and nothing to do but be carsick...

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  13. Pants, what a deprived childhood you had. No lemon squash? Lemon, so much nicer than orange.

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  14. My best friend at age 10 moved to Somerset, which was the end of the world, from Buckinghamshire. We wrote letters to each other, and I once phoned her out of the blue. She couldn't believe it. Now I suppose it would be all email and skype. But I reckon it's less easy to keep in touch, the easier it is - if you see what I mean. When it's all at the touch of a button, it's hard to find a reason to do it. When you have to sit down and pen a letter, it's hard work, so you actually get around to it. And of course then there's the excitement of getting a letter back to motivate you. Much better than an email.

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  15. Very late comment - just browsing - my addition would be "Can I see it?" when you've taken a photo. Great list! -Humdrum Mum x

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  16. (My comment disappeared sorry if I do two!). Late comment as just browsing. My addition would be "Can I see it?" when you've taken a photo. Great list!-HMx

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