Dangerous Playgrounds

When I was a kid in the seventies we went to the park on our own and played on the climbing frame, monkey bars and swings however we wanted to. There was a concrete floor and if you bashed your head on it then it was your own stupid fault. Under the big climbing frame [...]

Milk bottle tops and carrier bags

Environmentalism became a big issue in the seventies, with 1970 marking the first Earth Day. It was something that started being taught in primary school, the idea being that if children were brought up to respect the earth then they would a) guilt-trip their parents into doing so and b) grow up to become responsible [...]

Seventies Bank Holiday

Apart from the staycation (which is when you stay at home on holiday, except that we didn’t know that this was what it was called then), on a seventies Bank Holiday it became traditional to go off somewhere to explore. Pack some sandwiches and a flask of squash, squeeze ourselves into wellies and raincoats, and [...]

Do You Wanna Touch Me? (No)

Garry Glitter, though now a dirty old man, was marvellous on stage in the Seventies. He stomped around in giant high heeled boots, sparkly suit and a huge mop of curly hair. His permanently raised eyebrows gave him an air of being a little bit scary when he stared into the camera.
I thought he was [...]

Penelope Pitstop

Penelope Pitstop was so girly that I’m surprised I liked her, but it may well have been The Hooded Claaaw that drew me in. I thought that she was ridiculous when she ran with both legs in the air but was compelled to watch as she escaped his clutches one more time.
Oh Penny, why didn’t [...]

Spangles

The sweets formally known as Spangles don’t exist any more, sadly. They were phased out in the early eighties. They are such an icon of the era that they have their own Wikipedia page which makes reference to the mystery flavours. This is where JKR got her idea for the ‘every flavour beans’ from, I [...]

Council Pop

In the seventies, if you wanted a drink on an ordinary day then there was only one option: tap-water. This was referred to as ‘council pop’, meaning that it was pop for poor people, or that it was the only pop that we would get from our miserly council.
 
If I was ill or just recovering [...]

Books with no Cover

When was the last time you bought a book with no cover? I don’t mean that it literally had no cover, but that the cover was plain, with only the title and author name, which amounts to the same thing.
My betting is that unless you are a second-hand bookshop aficionado, you haven’t bought a plain [...]

Lulu

Lulu was really cool. For one thing at least you could pronounce her name! She sang with a throaty voice and great gusto. She presented programs and acted in panto during the Seventies as well as being a singer. The original all round star.
According to Wikipedia, she was part of a show where the viewers [...]

Vesta Curry and Two LPs

Laura McWhinney sent me her post after reading the article in Mensa Magazine.
I was born in 1966 and remember the 70’s as my formative years- maybe that explains a lot.
As far as food went anything goes was the attitude. A Vesta dehydrated curry on a Saturday night, reconstituted in a frying pan for 20 mins [...]