Electric Dreams

paulwf

As part of the BBC Electric Revolution series they are showing a programme called Electric Dreams, this week recreating a 70's house: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n4yqn

When the family house was transformed into a 70's house they seemed horrified by the lack of dishwasher and microwave. Without these and only a small fridge and freezer they were faced with - shock horror - having to cook meals from scratch.

It made me feel like our household is still living in the 70's...we don't have a microwave or dishwasher and only a small fridge/freezer and we cook from scratch. To make it worse we still use a red telephone with a dial from the 60's and have a tiny TV.

We're not luddites (we have enough netbooks, mobiles and laptops to sustain a small country) but it brought home how old style we really are in our kitchen, we'd fit in well in the 70's

Olliebeak

I watched this with interest last night and found it oh so nostalgic! I got married in 1972 and we lived with my in-laws for the first three years.

My m-i-l had a twin-tub washing machine (but the 'water heating' bit of it didn't work), a coal fire with back-boiler (as the only means of hot water - no immersion heater) and no fridge (never mind a freezer). Like most people, they had a B&W TV and a plug-in radio (but no record player or tape deck). I do remember my m-i-l shopping every day for fresh meat/bread but I had startd to buy convenience foods (dried packet soups, Vesta meals, dried dessert mixes or tinned pie fillings) and if I did buy anything frozen (fish fingers or beefburgers) it would be in the late afternoon and they'd get cooked that evening for tea. No shopping on the way home from work either, as everywhere closed at 5.00 or 5.30 at the very latest, and we STILL had 'half-day closing' in most towns

My parents had only had an outdoor wash-house converted into a downstairs bathroom (always cold and very damp) in 1971 (until then there had been no running hot water as there was no back boiler to the coal fire OR immersion heater). Mum DID have a twin-tub w/machine that heated the water for laundry. Dad refused to get a phone installed until 'them girls' (my sisters and myself) had got married and left home :rolleyes: - I'm sure I don't know what he was referring to as NONE of my friends' families had one either. Parents had a B&W TV but grandad (who lived in the parlour) got himself a colour one (1973) - one of those where you couldn't control the colour properly and everything was bright red/orange/green/blue!

I had my own portable record player (plug-in not batteries) - portable only meant that it could easily be moved from one room to another - NOT that you could have 'music on the move' :rotfl: ; I took it with me when I got married - much to the :eek: of my younger sisters who then had nothing to play THEIR records on then.

I have to say that I was surprised to see the green two-tone phone in the house in that programme (we got one of those when they first 'came out' in 1975) as my in-laws had a 'very modern beige/grey trimphone' in the early 70's - with the extra-long non-curly lead attached to it, so you could wander from room to room while chatting :rotfl:.

Nobody ever mentioned 'technology' apart from it being used in offices/factories and there was certainly no thoughts to it being used to enhance 'home life'. I remember getting one of those 'flick-over' electric clocks and my father-in-law reckoned it was a waste of electricity as it was 'plugged in and switched on' all the time :eek:.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We still live like the 70s now.
I have a combination microwave,in the loft and can't stand the thing,we used it for about two weeks and got bored.
I have a breadmaker(hate it)and food processor (too much of a phaff),I just hate gadgets and prefer to do things by hand.
In my kitchen I have a fridge and freezer,my range cooker and a washer that's it.
I don't cook meals and freeze them as I prefer my food freshly cooked each time.
I married in the early 70s and to be honest did'nt have a washing machine until the mid 80s,I just washed by hand.I was so used to doing things that way it was second nature.
I only got a washing machine as after an operation I could'nt wring the clothes out very well.
My husband is the opposite to me and would have every gadget going,why I'll never understand.

anguk

I think I must still live in the 70's because quite a few independent shops still close on a Wednesday afternoon up here!

I also had one of those "portable" record players, it was my parent's old one that they gave to me & my brother when they upgraded to a long flat music centre.

My dad was a policeman so we had to have a phone, my friends thought we were so posh. When Newcastle was in the cup final in 1974 we were the only one's from the police station who had a colour tv so all the off-duty policemen (and a few on-duty who just happened to be passing ) came to our house to watch the match.

My mam had a twin tub then upgraded to one of those "new-fangled" top-loaders. My MIL still had her twin-tub in the 80's when DH & I first moved in together, we didn't have a washing machine so I used to take my washing down there to use hers. If it wasn't for the fact that they're more time-consuming because you have to stand over them I think I'd go back to a twin tub, they wash and spin better than any automatic I've had.

vitamin_joe

when I first moved into this flat, I had no electricity and no gas. I still feel kind of nostalgic for that- I'd eat homemade sandwiches, and stay up till midnite reading by candlelight. I slept in a thermal sleeping bag on the floor.

My family got together, and set me up a gas and leccy supply. they gave me a kettle, a small oven, a mattress and a toaster (all second hand). My neighbour moved out, and I ended up with his fridge and his cooker.

I do appreciate everyone helping me, but I still miss the simplicity of owning nothing, and being unable to even light my flat. There were such simple pleasures, like watching the sunset from out of the window, and then lighting the candle.

Olliebeak

Oooooh another bit of '70's technology' - we DID get a lava lamp just after getting married - made you feel stoned, even if you weren't !

anguk

It's repeated tomorrow on BBC4 at 8pm and again on Sunday at 9pm for those (like me) who missed it.

Episode 2, the 1980's is on next Tuesday at 9pm BBC4.

fitzroy

I watched it last night and my experience of some aspects of the decade was very different to that shown in the programme.

We moved from London to the West Country in 1970 and the owners from whom we bought our cottage left us their chest freezer (kept in the garage) full of fruit etc from the veg plot. I'd never even seen a chest freezer except on U.S. tv shows/films. But by 1974 (by which time we'd moved to a larger property) we had a front loading washing machine, separate tumble drier and a dishwasher this last item was purchased as a "bulk buy" with 4 families getting together to buy one each to get a discounted price. With 4 children and lots of rugby/football kit the tumble drier was a boon.

The furniture/furnishings in the programme were early 1970s; by the mid-70s we had neutral carpets/curtains and cork tile flooring in some rooms and bathroom (the tiles had to be sealed with 3 coats of sealer) and then pre-sealed cork tiles became available.

From memory the model of the car shown on the programme never seemed to change: by the mid 1970s the vauxhall cavalier was the rage for a while and there were other more up to date cars on the road.

We bought a tape deck/radio in 1974. I didn't have one but a few of my friends had a "magimix" (I think it was called) which I think was one of the first food processors. I'd had a kitchen blender, for making soup etc, since the early 70s.

As for central heating, the house in London didn't have it but from 1970 onwards our houses in the West Country had it albeit oil fired.

I enjoyed watching the programme but the overall impression I had was that the research could have been more thorough.

Butterfly_Brain

I miss the 70's we seemed to have so many more freedoms than our kids have today.
I remember our family (7 of us ) moving from a Two Roomed Flat in London with only a coal fire for heating - to a Four Bed house in Stevenage with parkray central heating, ok it was still coal fired but the whole house was lovely and toastie it was like winning the pools for Mum and Dad.
We had a black and white coin operated telly and Mum got her first twin tub and chest freezer while we were there.
We lived on the edge of Stevenage and were surrounded by fields and we had a short walk and we were in a village called Aston.
There was a Farm there with a Farm shop and if we helped the farmer he would let us have some fruit and veg as payment. I will never forget the smell of the Apples when we walked into that little shop - lovely!
We had a few white Christmas's when we lived there and I remember Dad getting us up to push the old Ford Consul to get it started - It was a heavy old car built like a tank.
We also went Carol singing and everywhere we went we got mince pies and cocoa for the kids and mulled wine for the adults.
My first car was a bronze Vauxhall Viva but that was in the late 70's.
All in all I think we had a happy childhood without any of the trappings that today's kids have.

amtrakuk

anguk wrote: »

It's repeated tomorrow on BBC4 at 8pm and again on Sunday at 9pm for those (like me) who missed it.

Episode 2, the 1980's is on next Tuesday at 9pm BBC4.

Fantastic... Will be recording then... Thanks

lushlady

is anyone watching it again!!

he's driving a car from 78'....its supposed to be 1971?

good prog though...are they repeating Gameswipe too?