1970s babies are about to feel very old. Do you realise that your life already spans five decades? Work it out. Yep. I didn’t like that interesting fact either.
If you were born in the seventies like me you’ll probably remember a lot of these childhood memories. Can you add any more to the list?
Top 50 childhood memories from a 1970s baby
- A Tiny Tears doll with one eye that always stuck, neither opening nor closing fully. My doll was called Tina. The monsters under the bed would never have got me as I’d have hit them with her and she’d have killed them instantly, so hard was her body.
- The Muppet Show
- School dinners…
- … with Spam
- … and Butterscotch Tart
- Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks
- The Royal Variety Performance
- Lots and lots of comedians before the days of political correctness came along
- Fingermouse
- Wordy
- Making kites out of newspapers and flying them off the balcony of our flat
- Ringos
- Evil Knievel
- The very first Now That’s What I Call Music
- The launch of MTV
- Televisions with no remote controls
- Televisions you used to hit in order to make them start/work
- Just one television which had only three channels and they only broadcast for certain hours of the day
- The Test Card. The “x” on the noughts and crosses board showed the approximate centre of the test card.
- Spangles (Mike remembers these but I don’t)
- Summers on the pebble beach at Brighton…
- …and a holiday at Southend-on-Sea
- Party line telephones
- One rotary dial telephone in the hallway
- Blackboards and chalk
- Making dens from blankets and sofa cushions
- Fisher Price toy record players
- Real record players
- Vinyl LPs
- Space hoppers
- Dad treating me to a copy of Dandy and The Beano then reading them first
- Commodore 64 computer which took ten minutes to load a game (which came on a cassette)
- Teasmaids (we never had one but posh houses did)
- Betamax VCRs
- Choppers and Raleigh Budgie bikes
- Nitty Nora
- Warm, gloopy, disgusting bottles of milk in the classroom. The teachers left it until the end of the schoolday before allowing us to drink them.
- The Kids From Fame and legwarmers
- Bucks Fizz (the band and the drink)
- Babycham glasses in the glass cabinet
- My nan’s candlewick bedspread (I’d love one of those now!)
- Baths in a tub in front of the fire in the living room in winter because there was no central heating and the rest of the house was so cold (I was very young I might add!)
- Twin tub washing machine and spin drier which moved across the kitchen floor as it spun
- Huge and heavy vacuum cleaners
- My dad’s Morris Marina
- Visiting Windsor Safari Park, driving through the monkey enclosure and the monkeys ripping the Morris Marina apart. Dad had to buy a new car
- Dad’s new Vauxhaull Viva
- And his Magnum PI moustache that really didn’t suit him but made him think he was cool. He wasn’t.
- Polaroid cameras
- Ra-ra skirts. Mine was white and blue with polka dots. Fashionable or what?!
I could have gone on far longer but what a trip down memory lane! Do you remember any of those? What memories do you have? Please leave your childhood memories in the comments below and share them with us. It’s so much fun to think back!
1. Long skirts- mine was polka dot !
2. Donny Osmond
3. David Cassidy and the Parrridge family
4. Golly wog nightie cases ( I still have mine )
5. Nylon nighties with a life of their own.
6. White plastic knee high boots
7. Hot pants ) to wear with the boots )
8. Crocheted ponchos and hats ( still have mine )
9. Crocheted bridesmaid dress – so foul ! And bonnet !!!!
10. Wimpy bars
11. Shaker maker
12. Space hoppers
13. Paper neon dolls houses
14. Gogo girl dolls
15. Pop up pencils
16. Bunty and Jackie magazines
17. Morris minors
18. Typing pools ( mum worked in one )
19. Short hand at school
20. No computers, mobiles , hand held toys , making yogurt carton and string telephones that reached two streets away !
21. Skateboards
22. Pick and mix at woolies
23. Top of the pops Xmas compilations at woolies
24. Bata shoe shop ( still in Prague )
25. Berets , summer dresses, and blazers
comprehensive school.
I was 7 at the start of the 1970’s.
What’s a nitty Nora is that a knitting Nancy?
My ra ra skirt was white with a small flower pattern on it.
Pacers sweets loved them!
Lolo ball
Fisher price cassette recorder with yellow recordable cassette tape
Riding in the boot of the car before seatbelts!
my rara skirt was red lol
Knickerbocker trousers (kind like long shorts)
Metal roller skates that fit over your shoes and adjusted to fit most sizes.
Most everything i remember has been mentioned lol
I was 6 at the start of the 70s – I remember:
Clackers (banned because they broke your wrist)
Pippa dolls (Pippa (blonde) Britt (dark with white hair – my favourite), Tammy (ginger)
Maxi skirts (mine was patchwork-patterned – worn with a yellow tank top)
Platform sandals from Freeman, Hardy, Willis (later on -1977ish, wedges – oh, how I loved them)
Birmingham bags (navy, worn for school when I was 11)
Aztec bars (purple wrapper)
Cherry brandy or Cider ice lollies
Bay City Rollers
Hardly any cars
Cork-lined riding hats with a drawstring inside so they “fitted” your head
Bird’s Eye trifles (we had these a lot – my mum loved them)
Fondue sets
Mini frozen pizza
Cheesecloth shirts
Wrangler jackets with fur collars
After “Grease” – Olivia Newton-John’s satin pants and high-heeled leather clogs
Gypsy skirts (still got mine – brown cheesecloth with crocheted lace at the bottom)
My brother’s Morris Marina (blue – we made him some tiger skin seat covers from tiger-print blankets)
Oh my goodness what a brilliant list of additions! I remember ALL of these – especially the hardly any cars!