The Seventies - Three Things About Them You Won't Know If You Weren't There

For no other reason than it popped into my head, here are my recollections about a decade that doesn't get much attention.  History usually concentrates on the big picture and ignores what life was like on a day to day basis, and certainly has no way of telling what it was like for the people at the time.


History can't be blamed for this because ordinary people don't bother to write down what they thought.  So here is how the seventies seemed to me.  I was 10 in 1970 and 20 in 1980, so this was the time I grew up and consequently is the base against which I judge everything else.

Everything seemed really futuristic.  The Moon landings were just the tip of the iceberg.  Everything from digital watches to instant curry in packets was evidence of the triumph of technology over, well, just about everything.

People thought about the future a lot.  There was no consensus on whether we were heading for utopia or disaster, but it was a certainty that things were going to be really different in the decades ahead.

Everyone was drunk a lot of the time.  Binge drinking may have been less common - though even there I wonder if it was simply that nobody had phones to record it and by the next day could no longer remember it.  But it was not remotely uncommon for people to have a few drinks at lunchtime, spend the afternoon at work not really capable of doing very much and then head to the pub after work.

So although a lot of bad stuff happened in those years, I think everyone was pretty happy or at least oblivious.

 Photo credit: Gray Lensman QX! via photopin cc