Posted on 02/05/2024 3:40:25 PM PST by DallasBiff
Of all post-war decades, the 1970s has undoubtedly had the worst press, but the truth is that most ordinary families in 1970s Britain were better off than ever, writes historian Dominic Sandbrook.
The 1950s are symbolised by the television and the washing machine, which transformed the lives of so many families.
We misremember the 1960s as the decade of the Mini, which was actually invented in 1959, the mini-skirt, which surprisingly few women actually wore, and the Pill, which most women never took. We remember the 1980s as the decade of gigantic hair, shoulder-pads, the Filofax and the home computer.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Ha!! That would have been a good way to crush the armrest/console in my 71. My friend’s 72 had the flipdown rear seatback. He had several teens in that car, once that I know of, but probably not more than 6 total.
My wife’s youngest brother (she’s the baby) has yellow 73 with that paint scheme.
Pretty sure I was told there was a crisis of confidence. Kinda like now.
I had a great time in the Seventies.
You have to find a way to have a good time wherever you are, however you can. We certainly had a lot more freedom then than we do now, and the music was a LOT better.
That said, the cars did suck immaculate. Didn’t run well, covered in rust, had bald tires, and looked awful.
And the clothes did suck. And the hairstyles too, although I was in the Navy for nearly half that decade, so the clothes and hair were less of an issue for me.
Oh yeah. We didn’t have cell phones or video games either.
Thank God. I have grown to dislike them both, not for what they are, but what they have done to society.
And even the politics of the Seventies looks nearly competent in comparison to what we see today. Carter was an arrogant, incompetent dipstick, but I don’t believe he was in it for the money, or really hated his country in the way these people now are and do.
Hahaha...I was watching Bill Whittle, Steve Green, and Scott Ott recently...I think they were talking about something in the Seventies, and Steve Green responded completely deadpan with something like “It was different then. We had joy. We had fun...”
You know where he went...”We had seasons in the sun!” and both of the other guys went “GAAAAHHHH!” while Steve Green grinned madly!
I live in NY, current wage slave.
Praying that God gives an out soon.
I became an adult during the 70’s. It sucked. Gas shortages, high unemployment, high interest rates, stagflation, Jimmy Carter, the 55-mph speed limit, Watergate, disco, the loss of US prestige in the world following Vietnam, urban decay, I could on, but I think you get my point.
Good luck to you, FRiend. Living behind enemy lines in the bluest of states, my heart goes out to other Conservatives stuck in such places.
My wife is not inclined to move anywhere for political reasons, so I am stuck here. That is my lot in life...
Where she goes, I go.
Shittiest cars, ever!
If you do your research, you’ll find that most of the protestors and those burning college campuses were members of “the silent generation.” My older sister was born in 1948, I was born in 1951, we were both in HS during most of the so called “Boomer” led riots.
Good Grief...I hope I don't meet any of THOSE people...
I frickking hated Carter.
I was on a carrier up in the North Atlantic above the Arctic Circle in November for Pete's sake, and they gave us foul weather jackets good to about 40 degrees when it had to be in the 20s with thirty or forty knot winds over the bow.
I think that took the chill factor to about zero. We had to stuff rags inside our clothing (from the bales of rags we used to clean the airplanes with) and standing behind jet aircraft to try to get warm was something we all did.
Now, it is true that Carter didn't take office until a few months after we were up there, but it was the Leftists who took over in the Seventies who did the damage, and the pathetic Peanut Farmer was their gawd-awful hero.
Thank God for Ronald Reagan.
If there was one thing that epitomized the Seventies in a nutshell, it was the unbelievably crappy cars.
My dad had a 1974 Ford Mustang, with a cheesy plastic dashboard with stupid texture to try to make it look like Corinthian Leather, but all it did was look like it had plastic zits on it!
And the rust. My gosh. My brother purchased a 1977 Subaru, and in one single year, it was wholly rusted right through EVERYWHERE.
Yes. Those were the days of Rusty Jones, a totally pathetic and worthless endeavor on top of it.
And, with all that, the insane oil crisis. I didn’t drive yet in 1973, but I sure did in 1978, and driving an MG Midget with a 7 gallon fuel tank from Boston to Cecil Field in Florida during that crisis was hair-raising.
I had all my earthly belongings in soft top car, running on fumes on the Cross-Bronx Expressway, with the burnt, stripped skeletons of cars on the side of the the road...it was like seeing your own inescapable fate in real time.
I did stumble on a gas station that had gas before I ran out, but...just barely. If I had to leave that car, everything I owned would have been gone. And that car, too!
I worked in a gas station in the mid to late 70’s. High school job. Gas was 50 cents/gallon. I had a 72 VW bug that I bought for $700. The cars that came in for repairs were crap. Junk cars made with junk parts. I had to go pick up a Ford Granada POS. 4 door 4 cylinder with an automatic. NO POWER whatsoever. Real clunker.
Hahahahahaha...a Ford Granada! Yes, a REAL piece of junk!
My buddy had a Vega, and the rear wheel fell off and rolled past the car as he was going down a hill, and he saw it and laughed and said “Hey! Look...some asshole lost his tire!”
Then the car tilted and came to a screeching halt!
I was single, making $15K a year, and could purchase a practically new split level house for around $70K. In 65, my dad purchased the family home for $15.6K 3 beds, 1.5 baths, family room, two car garage and a lot double the size of today.
Disco, gas lines and rationing, the Iran Hostage Crisis, horrible fashion, Nixon's impeachment and resignation, the humanitarian disaster in Viet Nam followed by Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, Russians in Afghanistan.... oh, and the Orioles blew a 3 -1 lead in the World Series in 1979.
Usually it’s ultra-liberals that wax poetic about Carter’s policies.
For some reason they think the gas lines and stagflation were good things, that the economy being crap was great.
It’s a part of the whole “America must be humiliated” thing the left does.
Though here in NY I’ve heard one or two claimants say they were Republicans right before praising the peanutman.
In other words, what was the payback amount on the loan you took out?
Sports were the best in the 70s. I love going on YouTube and watching the vintage 70s NFL games, complete with commercials.
Baseball players were still household names then, too.
And college football was still great.
Go.
And the Cordoba, with Rich, Corinthian Leather.
I wonder who was the Madison Avenue Wizard who came up with that one?
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