Living In The 70s

…no, not the Skyhooks song..

I was at the shops recently, when I wandered into a clothes shop.. there were clothes there that reminded me, both in form and fabric pattern, of what we wore (or wished we were old enough to wear) in the 70s. Then I realised that the music playing was “Funky Town”
I used to think the lyrics for that song were “Your toothpaste tastes too… Funky Town!”
Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. But, it was the 70s…

I was born in 1969, so the 70s were my formative years… it’s all a bit of an orangey/sepia type of haze now, like the colour photos from the time..
I’ve been looking at some old photos from the early/mid 70s – here’s one of me on my Space Hopper –

Remember those?
Here’s a clearer image..

I don’t remember mine having a face like that. That’s a bit creepy.

I wanted to note down all the things I remember from that era, but there are so many…
The clothes, of course. I wanted so much to have a flared pantsuit, and eventually a family friend gave me one of her old ones. It was nylon, in some sort of animal print. There are, thankfully, no photos in existence of me wearing it.

As far as I know.

I remember my first pair of jeans. They were bright orange, and I wore them with a lime green t-shirt. I was so hip in those days…

It always seemed to be bright sunshine, and I remember walking down to the (newly built) supermarkets down the road, on my own, on a Saturday, and getting a tiny bag of dolly mix, or a cone of hot, buttered, salted popcorn. Then I’d go home and read Trixie Belden, or watch one of the corny, but somehow exciting, TV shows of the period. There were too many to mention, but I did lean towards the “Little House On The Prairie/Waltons” type ones, or the sci-fi shows. There seemed to be so many of them, in a time when we still thought we might soon be living on the moon, or discovering our innate superpowers (Tomorrow People, anyone?) Tom Baker was “my” Doctor, and I started watching an exciting show called “Blakes 7”, which I still love.On the nights I wasn’t allowed to stay up to watch it, I could tune in to the ABC on my old mono (as opposed to stereo) radio, put in the earpiece, snuggle under the covers, and listen instead. The reception wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing…

I had bits and pieces decorated with Holly Hobby, and Strawberry Shortcake. There was tie-dye, and paisley, and orange and brown furnishings… Tupperware in olive green, cream and orange..

ABBA, of course. We gave Nanna and Poppa the ABBA:Arrival double album for their wedding anniversary one year.
I’m not sure they were particularly thrilled.

Looking through Google hits reminds me that I also had a Growing Up Skipper Doll. Here she is..

She was meant to be Barbie’s little sister… but this version had a gimmick. Her upper torso was covered by a flexible rubber sleeve, so when you twisted her arm in one direction, her torso lengthened, and her breasts popped up. When you twisted it in the other direction, they went down again… It was endlessly fascinating, although the wire mechanism that pushed the rubber up eventually wore through. I’m not sure, either, if it prepared me for the realities of growing up..

I’m sure there are many other things I’ve forgotten.
The 70s were a… different… time. I remember them being more innocent, but I’m not sure if that was childhood, or the era..

It was a galaxy
far, far away…