Can you tell me what it was like in the 1970's recession?

amcluesent

For that, quite literally, nostalgic taste of the 1970's, get hold of an orginal copy of Delia's "Frugal Food" from 1976. Possibly mince was called for?



NB Delia did look quite a bit like Joanna Lumly!

bo_drinker

We had a party line, but posh to have a phone back then.

Oblivion

Eee, you lot don't know your born.

I remember Granny knitting us socks from the cobwebs we'd collected from the hedgerows that morning.

We couldn't afford a tele, so Grandad, who'd had his head shot off in the war, used to keep us kids amused telling us stories about the good old days. I think it was a bit unfair of my father to keep inferring he was talking out of his @rse.

Only one meal a day ... supper ... when we'd all gather round our makeshift cardboard box dining table and share a plate of gravel in a broth. "Roughage is good for you" my mum would say. Not very appetising, but you really could pebble-dash a wall the next morning.

Six sharing a bed, at least two of whom were serial bed wetters ... there was a permanent rainbow over the end of the bed, but the crock at the end of it certainly didn't contain gold.

We were that poor, next door's cat earned more than us, and when we walked in the park, the tramps on the benches would throw us money.

But we're British ... were we downhearted and defeated? Bl00dy right we were.

Dave. (still wearing a pair of Grandma's knitted socks)

Birdy12

However, I do believe that next doors cat became a victim of the 80's recession...

Oblivion

Birdy12 wrote: »

However, I do believe that next doors cat became a victim of the 80's recession...

He had it coming ... never once shared his bowl of kit-e-kat.

Dave.

StevieJ

mewbie wrote: »

Can you tell me what it was like in the 1970's recession?

No. It passed me by. I was having far too much fun.

So if you're young now, and employed, then enjoy the best times of your life. It's not all about shares, investments and planning for the future!

sorry. Not very MSE.

mewbie, The smartest thing you ever said :beer:

Hardup_Hester

I still worked full time during the 3 day week as I worked for a barn erectors, the guys in the drawing offices could see to work as their office had huge windows, it was freezing though with no heating & they all looked like Bob Cratchit, hunched over their desks wearing coats, scarves & fingerless gloves. I sat in an internal office in complete darkness answering the phones, I had a hand crank on the side of the switchboard that enabled me to put the calls through to different extensions. The best thing about the job was people phoning up saying 'I've been waiting since February for an erection' it reduced me to hysterics for the first week, but the novely then wore off.

lilac_lady

I remember being pregnant in the 70s - sitting freezing in the candlelight because of the power cuts, knitting baby clothes and planning when I could cook a meal. No credit cards or debt though!

PasturesNew

lilac_lady wrote: »

No credit cards or debt though!

This is fairly true. In the 70s there was a quaint thing called cash.

I do remember the Provident Lady calling at our house every week though.
And poor people bought things from catalogues more towards the end of the 70s.

sb44

I was born in 1961.

I remember as a kid how exciting it was looking through the Green Shield Stamps catalogue to see what we could get when we had enough full books to exchange.

As we didn't have a car (not because we couldn't afford one which we couldn't but nobody in the family could drive), we had to catch a bus into town if we went shopping and it seemed to be miles away and take forever to get there.

I was shocked when I started to drive a couple of decades later and found that town was actually only 2½ miles away!

:rolleyes: