Wonder how we would have coped...........?

[Carnation]

The 70s was a tough decade for most people.
Food was not so great at all. That's when additives in food really kicked in and the growth of the takeaway boom.
Donna kebab at 11pm. Pubs were full to the rafters and punters eating stale titbits off the bar.
Gastly food like Angel delight, nesquick, sausages that looked anaemic, cheap beans, Watery soups.
It was an era when it was ok to give a kid a packet of crisps with an extra packet of salt inside, with a curly wurly and a dairy lea cheese triangle and a can of coke.
And because of poor wages for most, would eat cheap offerings from the butcher like hearts, liver, chicken drumsticks, sausage-meat and mince.

And Joe, if you were able to buy a 5 bedroom house in London for cash, then you were one wealthy dude.
My mum had 3 jobs and my dad worked 7 days a week and still had a hefty mortgage on a terraced house and had to make cutbacks.
This became an opportunity for the 'HP' market. (Hire Purchase). And probably why the 'Credit Card 'was introduced in the 80s, which put most people in debt with the loss of many homes.
Property was the best investment and your dad's 5 bedroom house in London Joe, will probably be in the ballpark figure of a million plus.

As for jobs. Low pay, a 3 day week, strikes...
Tradesmen building stuff on the cheap remembering formica tables and most wives making their own curtains, cushions, bedspreads and clothes.
Men doing D. I. Y. and wives having to live with it.
Children wearing hand me downs and horrible knitted jumpers mum made.
Walking to school or work, because a car was a luxury.
Bullying was rife with no one to turn to.
The streets were full of gangs or protesters.
A Haircut was done by your mum and badly.
A dentist trip was only if you had toothache and most kids grew up with uneven teeth or a mouthful of Mercury filled teeth.
Holidays were mainly in the uk and usually involved camping or caravaning.

We've come along way since the 70s in my opinion!

[ankietyjoe]

And Joe, if you were able to buy a 5 bedroom house in London for cash, then you were one wealthy dude.
My mum had 3 jobs and my dad worked 7 days a week and still had a hefty mortgage on a terraced house and had to make cutbacks.
This became an opportunity for the 'HP' market. (Hire Purchase). And probably why the 'Credit Card 'was introduced in the 80s, which put most people in debt with the loss of many homes.
Property was the best investment and your dad's 5 bedroom house in London Joe, will probably be in the ballpark figure of a million plus.

What I'm trying to say is we weren't millionaires, I did say he was relatively well off. But, he was a carpenter turned shop owner. He managed to work hard and save money for 5-10 years to buy that house. That is not feasible for anybody these days. The house is long gone after my parents got divorced in the early 80s, but the point is that yes, that house is now worth about £1.5 million. Even if you earned £150k and saved half your earnings you could never save fast enough to do the same thing. It's illustrating that the cost of living has actually sky rocketed in the last 20-30 years where you now require both parents in a family to work 40-50 hour weeks to do ok. It's not how things are supposed to be (in my opinion).

In terms of everything else you mentioned, I don't disagree. However, there are just as many stresses these days, they're just different. And persistent. Todays stresses tend to be things that are more difficult to wake away from, or get a break from.

Of the things you listed, I only really see bullying as a stress. Everything else is just what happens in life. Would you disagree? Were you mentally scarred by knitted jumpers and bad haircuts?

[Carnation]

Yes I was scarred by knitted jumpers and bad haircuts.
For one thing The bullies latched on to that.
The other was my confidence and lack of self worth.
But it wasn't my parents fault, the money was just not there.
My parents also worked 50 hours a week plus and my dad had a trade and we lived with my grandparents so they could save just the down-payment which was 3 years.
It was tough for them and I'm not saying your parents didn't work hard Joe, but your parents wealth would definitely have made your life more comfortable.
We didn't even have central heating or double glazing, because they just couldn't afford it.
People tend to live beyond their means today and have grown up with debt that was induced by the banks.
You could have it all in the 80s, but it came with a price, debt!
Being poor or having little finances can induce many anxieties.
If you have money, you can seek private help in many ways and having a cushion of wealth does ease the mind, you have options.
And if you have money, you don't have to eat the shit*y lasagne.

[Carnation]

Lencoboy is right imo, the 70s and many other decades were much tougher than our present time.

In my household we often sat in our house by candlelight because of the power cuts. Froze in the winter with what seemed like 6 month long colds and flu.
Mum counted the pennies due to the 3 day week.
Dad blocked up the letterbox due to the IRA bombing attacks.
The streets at night were full of racist gangs.
TB was brought back to the country.
And food was disgusting most of the time with packet soup, smash, milk that had gone off and a vast amount of food colourings, to mention a few.
That's my opinion.

[Lencoboy]

Carnation, a very interesting summary of your (not-so-good) memories of the 70s.

Of course, there were also many great things about that decade too, many of which are still greatly revered today, the music in particular.

I recall the first half of the 90s being a pretty grim time both for myself and many other people.

Sky high interest rates and inflation having spiralled out of control at the start of the decade.

The economic recession that began midway through 1990 and lasted until early 1993 with overall unemployment touching 3 million once again.

The introduction of the Poll Tax in the April of 1990 and the violent disturbances in Central London during the run-up to it.

Overall crime rate at an all-time high, reaching its peak around 1993-94, especially burglary and car crime. Also accompanied by mounting hysteria over juvenile delinquency, joy-riding, anti-social behaviour, drugs, Acid House music, video nasties, etc.

The first Iraq war in early 1991.

IRA terrorist attacks in various locations across England (London in particular).

Various riots between approximately July 1991 and July 1992 (in no particular order) in Salford, Gtr Mancs; Ely, Cardiff; Meadow Well, Sunderland; Blackbird Leys, Oxon; Bristol; Coventry; Handsworth, Birmingham; Kate's Hill, (Dudley), West Mids; Luton, Beds, and possibly other places.

Black Wednesday (September 1992)

Murder of James Bulger in Merseyside (February 1993), and the mass hysteria that followed. Still remains a pertinent topic today.

Ongoing moral panics about domestic violence and child abuse, which were already very much hot topics during most of the 80s.

[ankietyjoe]

Yes I was scarred by knitted jumpers and bad haircuts.
For one thing The bullies latched on to that.
The other was my confidence and lack of self worth.
But it wasn't my parents fault, the money was just not there.
My parents also worked 50 hours a week plus and my dad had a trade and we lived with my grandparents so they could save just the down-payment which was 3 years.
It was tough for them and I'm not saying your parents didn't work hard Joe, but your parents wealth would definitely have made your life more comfortable.
We didn't even have central heating or double glazing, because they just couldn't afford it.
People tend to live beyond their means today and have grown up with debt that was induced by the banks.
You could have it all in the 80s, but it came with a price, debt!
Being poor or having little finances can induce many anxieties.
If you have money, you can seek private help in many ways and having a cushion of wealth does ease the mind, you have options.
And if you have money, you don't have to eat the shit*y lasagne.

Bad haircuts and bad jumpers aside, bullying happens irrespective of those things. You could have had an excellent haircut and designer clothes and the bullying types will latch onto something.

My Dad worked hard and my Mum was a lazy cow. She wanted more and more 'stuff', but constantly berated my Father for not being at home because he was working 6-7 days a week. She did nothing.

After the divorce we had nothing because she decided to remortgage the house and go into the exotic car business (what...) with an obvious crook who ended up stealing the money and disappearing with it. It sounds like an episode of Dynasty, but it was real. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. Bailiffs, repossession threats....for years. I've seen both sides of the fence.

However, this is getting away from the point. Your experiences of the 70s were different than mine, but you can't easily live within your means these days simply because of the cost of housing, in the UK at least. Property prices and rent have increased faster than inflation and salaries, and have done for years now. The banks have levered these rises into existence because it suits them to do so. What it means is that where a family home would require one mortgage to be owned outright, it now means that people who own their own home are now feeling pressured to 'equity release' in order for their 40 year old children to get onto the property ladder. It requires both parents to work their arses off just to keep a roof over their head, and that wasn't always the case.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Joe, you can live within your means but the issue is often because of where you live. In my city house prices are still reasonable. The issue with things like utilities and insurance span the divides across the UK but wages keep a good pace here as opposed to a place like London where you could buy a garage with what I could buy a house for in my city.

Like you say there are different challenges. Poverty was easily worse the further back you go but we have challenges to getting on in life and media.

[pulisa]

Good to hear from you, Terry.

I think we are spoilt for choice now. "Austerity" today has a very different interpretation to poverty in the sixties and seventies. People expect and want more and more and living within your means seems to be a foreign concept for many people.

I really wouldn't want to be a millennial today.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Good to hear from you, Terry.

I think we are spoilt for choice now. "Austerity" today has a very different interpretation to poverty in the sixties and seventies. People expect and want more and more and living within your means seems to be a foreign concept for many people.

I really wouldn't want to be a millennial today.

Thanks, pulisa Been away for a few days so I stay away from the internet, phone, etc and concentrate on real life. Much less stressful!

Yes, I always raise an eyebrow when we get a report about living standards being worse for this generation compared to the boomers and before them. Lots of lovely central heating and inside toilets in today's poverty. Our houses are filled with stuff compared to the likes of my parents who had second hand clothes, bathed in a tub in the front room one after each other and washing by hand.

I often wonder if they base their comparisons on the middle classes upwards. Life was pretty bleak for the working classes.

Still I have some lovely memories of train journeys to the seaside and a childhood where kicking a football around was all we needed.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Something i think is also important is the change in attitudes towards sexual crimes and abuses. Crimes against women were often unreported due to stigma and a failure of authorities to consider them crimes.

Only recently has child sexual abuse finally become a big issue. I can remember in my childhood how a parent complaining about their daughter having sex with a teacher meant he got a slap on the wrist as opposed to the sack and a prison sentence as he would today. I can remember the pervert teacher who liked watching the boys in the showers so we all timed it so he was still busy and yet the school did nothing despite everyone knowing.

And the existence of an openly pro child abuse rights group, until they were finally shut down, that was latching onto gay rights activism that only increased stigma about gay men on top of it all.

And attitudes to the LGBT+ community with Section 28.

Imagine having been affected by any of this and I know we do have people on here who have. At least now justice is moving in the right direction, public opinion has changed, stigma is changing and there is more support.