What I Don’t Miss About The 1970s

~ beetleypete

I was 18 years old in 1970, and 25 when I got married in 1977.
By the end of that decade, I was already an EMT in London.
It is easy to look back with fondness at some things from that era.
But I am also reminded of what was not so good in Britain at the time..

The awful sliced white bread.

The Christmas Gifts.

State of the Art portable televisions.

What was on those televisions for most of the day, and after midnight.

Some of the sweets.
(Mostly good)

(Mostly not so good)

The ‘long-bonnet’ British Leyland Mini.

Police Officers getting off the beat, and into silly-looking patrol cars.

Limited options for ‘eating out’.

Fashionable clothing for men.

The 1960s were pretty cool, as well as ‘Swinging’ of course.
But something went badly wrong on the 1st of January, 1970.

82 thoughts on “What I Don’t Miss About The 1970s”

    1. You would have fitted in very well anytime from 1967-1979, Dani. The Summer of Love, Flower children, Woodstock, Long dresses, Kaftans, and lots of beads. You missed your ‘era’, honey. 🙂 x
      Glad you enjoyed reading this one.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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      1. I know! I love all of those things!😍 I still wear kaftans, loads of stones and beads on each wrist, sandals year around, long flowy dresses and skirts(I have skirts that our made from vintage patches put together that spread out 5 feet wide so flow A Lot!), and even hairbands with flowers or ones that dangle with feathers. Everyone always says I looked like a flower child or hippie but I am who I am. I definitely missed my era! *sighs, how awesome it would have been to go to Woodstock and hear Jimi Hendrix.❤🎶 I also love over music from around that era. CCR & Fleetwood Mac. If only I had a time machine and could visit that era.😍✌

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  4. The seventies for me were an interesting time as I worked abroad in Geneva and Norway, travelled overland to India and ended up in South Africa. I had three children in that decade and two husbands! I wore mini skirts, platform shoes, loons, maxi dresses, smocks and velvet coats. I missed a lot of TV (didn’t exist in SA) was more into modern Jazz than the glam rock stuff, lived 5 minutes walk from a fantastic surfers’ beach in Cape Town, saw whales, lived in Kent for 9 months of the last year of the decade and moved back to SA on the 31st December 1979. Remember listening to Capital Radio, having a B&W TV in England, seeing punks for the first time in London with piercings and Mohican hairstyles in 1979. And didn’t make it to Australia… my one regret.

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  5. The 70s were rubbish. Unfortunately they coincided with my teenage years so I had to wear the awful fashions – and worse still go out with men with awful haircuts. The only good things about the 70s were David Bowie and Roxy Music. Bowie was the only guy who could get away with a Bowie cut.

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  7. You could have been in America were you got everybody’s version of the Leyland Mini…the Renault Le Car, the Honda Civic, the Chevrolet Chevette…I could go on. But at least those all had four wheels unlike those god-awful Reliant Robins.

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    1. Thanks, J-Dub.
      I loved the original Austin or Morris Mini, and learned to drive in one. But the later big bonnet’ versions produced by the British Leyland amalgamation were just ugly, and horrible inside too.
      The reason for the 3-wheeled Reliant Cars, and the later Bond Bug, was because of a loophole in driving laws here. If a car has only three wheels, it can be driven on a motorcycle licence, so no need to pass a car test. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  8. Ahhh, the 70’s – my era. It is always strange to look back and see the fashions and surroundings of such pivotal times in our lives. I enjoyed looking at the picture of the candies and seeing which I could identify although the American names were different. E did not have many of those you showed.

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  10. I was 16 in 1970, too young to have fully engaged with the Swinging Sixties so the 70s were my growing up years and I have some good memories. I quite liked bell bottom jeans! Some awful things from then were man made fabrics like crimplene and nylon sheets. And worst of all, at the very end of the decade we got Margaret Thatcher!

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    1. Yes, I don’t miss Maggie. By a strange coincidence, despite hating her with a vengeance, I ended up working for the department of the Met Police that supplied her armed protection in old age. I used to often speak to her daughter, Carol, once the nasty old woman had become senile. Carol was much nicer than her Mum.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. We bought a Sony portable as our main TV, in 1977. It was very expensive, but very reliable, like yours. I wanted a much bigger screen, as watching films seemed pointless on the tiny set, but my ex-wife didn’t want the TV to ‘dominate’ the living room. When we spit up in 1985, she still had the Sony, and I bought a 21-inch screen TV as soon as I moved into my new house. Within six months, I was regretting not paying more for a 24-inch screen, at that time the biggest screen available in mass-market products.
      Now I am typing this onto a 24-inch monitor, and watching TV on a 40-inch flatscreen that still feels a little ‘small’. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  16. I was 13 in 1970 and loved the whole decade. We didn’t know it was cheesy at the time! Heavy rock came out of that decade and some wonderful films (The Godfather is my favourite film of all time). I was the disco queen of Sidcup in 1976!

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    2. A lot of the music and films were great, which is why they are not listed. 🙂
      (I’m not including AC/DC in that comment, naturally. 🙂 )
      I put the Spangles in as ‘bad sweets’ because of the awful flavours they started to bring out at the time.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. 🙂 I really missed reading that, Pete. I try to read the short nuggets you share everyday. Committing myself to a serial that I cannot put down can cause turbulance in my daily life. During your last serial that I read, I was accused of not sending my work projects on time, delaying my daughter’s bath… 😀 Once I am in, I get all crazy with the stuff you write.

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    1. John, that is a ‘Ronson Varaflame’, a gas-filled lighter with an adjustable flame that was a ‘premium’ product’ from the late 1960s, until this very day. It is still available, and now costs £90 to buy! It was my Dad’s lighter of choice, and my parents bought me one when I was 19. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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