Conkers, 'car boot kids' and dodgy humour - things you could do in 1970s you can't do now

It was the decade of Chopper bikes, prawn cocktails and shagpile carpets. In the 1970s, the music was universally fabulous and the fashion was always eclectic, if often suspect, from flares to ponchos, Cuban heels, peasant blouses and DIY tie-dye. Space Hoppers were a big deal.

Homes were filled with paisleys, jungle prints and geometric shapes. Living rooms were accented with lava lamps, wicker peacock chairs and spider plants in macrame hangers. Very cool.

It’s easy to forget how awful things were too. Runaway inflation, endless strikes and the Winter of Discontent - on reflection some of that may sound very familiar to younger readers. Then there was the camp coffee and abrasive Izal loo paper in schools. Three TV channels, often in black-and-white.

But for those who lived through the decade, the 1970s holds fond memories. Times have changed, of course, so we asked readers to name “Something that was acceptable in the 1970s but has been banned now for safety”. From the rose-tinted answers, it seems many people preferred a life lived a little more dangerously.

Buckling up

Joel Wood: “Letting the baby sleep on the parcel shelf whilst driving.”
Jill Louise Kite: “Baby car baskets and child car seats that hooked over front bench seat.”
Lisa Hibbert: “Not having to wear a seatbelt. Makes me shudder now, remembering how we used to pack our kids in the back of our transit van with a pine bench for them to sit on.”
Anthony Dyke: “Sitting on your mum’s knee in the car.”
Helen Sowa: “Putting your kids in the car boot! I used to love waving at the people in the car behind ours.”
Owen Hunt: “Having kids on a Land Rover roof rack and driving carefully over rough ground!”
Karen Swindells: “In those days cars.... an airbag was the back-seat driver telling you how to drive. Good old days of dad being my taxi for me and my friends, some in the boot, some in the footwell, all jammed in like sardines haha.”
Carole Addams: “Ours was the only car in the street, now you can’t find a parking space.”

Humour

John Hall: “Comedians who told jokes that actually made you laugh. (Now) too woke to joke!”
Charlotte Brady: “They’re scared to say anything these days. Joke or not, they get backlash.”
Stephen Moss: “So only jokes about racism make (people) laugh?”
Andy Hinds: “Frankie Boyle is definitely not scared to cross the line; neither is Jimmy Carr.
Al Currie: “Slapstick in comedy and use of double entendres in comedy like in the Carry On films etc.”

Uncancelled culture

Jan Lloyd: “Light-hearted banter at work without anyone getting upset. When I worked in Chester (I’m Welsh) I was called the ethnic minority.”
Vee N Jason Walton: “Having an opinion! And no one got offended!”
Kim Roberts: “That is literally an opinion you have.”
Lee McCaffrey: “You can still voice an opinion. Just don’t expect it to go unchallenged if people don’t agree.”

Rough and tumble

Sandra Legnazzi: “British Bulldogs or clackers.”
Lesley Williams: “Playing conkers. Kids today don’t know what they are missing.”
Lisa Loop Be: “Snowball fights.”
Debbie Lenaghan: “Used to row my dad’s rowing boat..... jumping in and swimming, climbing back on the boat. No lifejackets, no adults. Swallows and Amazons we were.”
Peter Fradley: “Tying up door knocker, pulling it then running off to hide.”
John Hamilton: “Putting kids in fridges. My brother and I loved playing in fridges.”
Tina Cook: “Being able to play out in the snow whilst in school.”
Julie Anne James: “Playing endless hours outside with friends with not a care in the world feeling safe In those days now it’s all mobiles and internet.”
Julie Anne James: “I loved finding worms. Going fishing up the mountains with my father, brother and sister. Great fun with great treasured memories.”
Catherine Ruth Adams: “Going out to play all day without letting anyone know where you were. Parents going to the pub and leaving you in the car for hours with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop. Glorious freedom!”
Debbie Harrop: “Health and safety has gone mad. Can’t play Swallows and Amazons anymore. Conkers nope, knock and run nope, having races in the streets nope, kerby nope, football in the streets nope. Anything that meant that we were outside having fun was stopped.”

Youngsters used what they could find for their outdoor adventures (Image: Mirrorpix)

Living dangerously

Joe Campbell: “Sticking your head out of a moving train window (or was that just me?).”
Ian Lewis: “Jumping off the train when it was still moving.”
Paula Davies: “Indoor fireworks.”
Hilary Shepherd: “Driving my uncle’s car with a lump of wood on the accelerator round the roads in Glyn Ceiriog. I was 15.”
Philip Boumford: “Riding a motorbike without helmet.”
Nicholas Ginniver: “Cow horn handlebars.”

Is it too easy to look back and forget the problems of the past? Or are there things we can learn from the way things used to be done? Have your say in the comments below.

No longer acceptable

Alyn Jones: “Whistling at women going by.”
Sam Jones: “Golliwog on Noddy cartoons and The Fat Controller on Thomas the Tank Engine.”
Chic Stewart: “Golly on the jar.”
Peter Slawson: “Singing Delilah. How sad is that?”
Guy Lancaster: “X-ray machines in shoe shops.”
Phil Wright: “Dropping frogs off motorway bridges.....”
John Lewis Griffiths: “Saying boy or girl.”
Chelsea Elann Stubbs: “Casual racism? Casual sexism? Casual child abuse? Casual homophobia? Erm, yeah, I prefer now... Wish I was around in the 70s for the music though!”

Ashes to ashes

Lisa Williams: Driving to work without a seatbelt, having a few cigarettes at your desk and nipping to the pub for a few beers at lunchtime.”
Angela Mckay: “Smoking on a maternity ward
Samantha Lawton: “Could smoke on a plane.”
Peter Millington: “Smoking in the workplace, office.”
Andrew Gardner: “Or pub.”
Darren Roberts: “Smoking in a hospital bed!”
Embrys Erwins: “Buying tobacco for ma Taid when I was 6-7 years old.”

Disgraced public figures

Andrew Forsey: “Wanting to be in Gary glitters gang.”
Adrian Jones: “Asking to see Rolf Harris’s Didgeridoo.”
Richie McHugh: “Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, Stewart Hall, Jonathan King.

The ultimate in futurism - Wrexham's new £400,000 swimming baths opened in May 1970 (Image: Reach)

Head for heights

Zoe Hughes: “Window cleaners on ladders. Most round here have that van with a pressure washer and it doesn’t clean them properly.”
Michael Lundstram: “I still climb mine every day, have done for 17 years. No better way of cleaning windows.”

Workplace worries

Cheryl Green: “(I was) a 13-year-old working at Tranters on Eaton Park working a meat slicer. Luckily I didn’t lose any fingers.”
Conor Cassidy: “Disfiguring hand injuries. Losing the tips and, often, half fingers operating machinery in light engineering. I trained and worked with men in the 1980s, many of whom had at least the tip missing from a finger or two from accidents in the 1960s and 1970s. One had had a whole hand crushed in a machine press. They all casually related the tales of their injuries and somehow accepted it as an inevitable part and parcel of their trade. Industrial injuries still happen but not with the frequency or social acceptability of 50 years ago.”

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Playground adventures

Jean Cousins: Witches Hat. Fell off a few times but always got back on.”
Carol-lynn Robbins: “Loved it... so noisy though!”
Jake Aaron Hughes: “Those are still about. There’s one near where I live.”
Nia Carmella Jade: “There used to be one of these in Wesley Street park in Amlwch. Me and my cousin literally got stuck in the mud next to it and had to be rescued by our mams!”
Jacqui Lloyd-Jones: “A ridiculously high slide at the park, with no rubber matting or chippings to soften the blow. You either bounced or broke a limb.....but we survived!"
Andy Plage: “Used to be one near where I live In Rivacre Valley. Good 10-12ft up. We were up and down them every 30 secs. Best slide ever as it lasted what felt like ages. Grass at the bottom, always ended up in a mess when you stopped. No wonder kids were skinny using the parks.”
Kez Goode: “My brother missed his footing on one of them slides and bit the end of his tongue off.”
Margaret Bracegirdle: “I remember my little sister climbing up the high slide and falling from the top. She fractured her skull. She had got out of the house, gone to the park near us and I got the blame.”
Aly Attwood: “The whoosh slide! That’s what we called it. Sat on some wax paper from a loaf of bread was the best!
Marie Fishwick: “The merry-go-round that you pushed round and sometimes grazed your knees when falling over.”
Oswyn Williams: “Slides made of polished stainless steel that would give you second-degree burns in summer. Had a bump in the middle, so if you didn’t hit it right, you’d fly up, landing on the steel girder frame and breaking your back. Yet we’re still here. Scars and all.”

1970s fashion with trademark pot plant (Image: Mirrorpix)

Gas chair

Gary Dixon: “Having a tooth out under gas at the dentist. At least it was pain free, not like nowadays.”
Kath Paul Clarke: “Oh my, that mask and smell coming down on your face. Horrendous.”
Karen Swindells: “You could add actually get a dentist appointment in the 70’s. Can’t do that these days....”

Radio scanners

Roy Sneesby: “Used to listen to police, ambulances and cordless phones. It was so funny some of the stuff you used to hear... as well as some serious stuff.”
Hazel Collings Walton: “Loved it as a teenager. I mean the radio police chats.”
Roy Sneesby: “They have changed it all to digital, so not possible to listen to them now in the UK. But you can listen to USA police live on an app - look for the 911 app. Always plenty going on .. shootings, robberies, car chases.”

Boil-in-bag grub

Andy Thomas: “Boil-in-the-bag cod and parsley sauce. I’m sure it was a form of punishment. If it hasn’t been banned, it f#/@**g should of.”
Sarah Corfield: "I liked those! Better than baked beans.”

Smash instant mashed potato was all the rage (Image: Cadbury's/Youtube)

Home discipline

Jen Graham Jones: “Giving a child a smack (not a beating) when they are naughty. No discipline today.”
Nerys Hildreth: “A smack when you were naughty. Never had one I didn’t deserve!”
Joan Clyne: “Hitting children is just a parent taking out their anger! Disgusting! My father thrashed us or hit us on the side of the head for very little.”

School discipline

Mark Lutwyche: “Getting caned, smacked at the back of the head and having the wooden board rubber thrown at you. Also when you got into a fight at school and was being beat up, they took you into the gym with boxing gloves for another beating. All normal back in the day and wouldn’t change any of it.”
Mark Lutwyche: “I had my share of it too. Ken Brown got me a few times with the board rubber. Skippy Gilmore with his cane, Taffy Jones with his slipper. And God help us if we were sent to Mr Revil’s office. I wouldn’t change it (but) we must have been horrible to teach.”
Karen Swindells: “A smacked bottom when I was naughty and a ruler over the knuckles when I didn’t learn my spellings! Taught me not to do it again and did not damage me at all. It isn’t acceptable now but in the 1970s it happened and she was a brilliant teacher. I still have fond memories of her, no marks were left and I learnt my spellings.”
Rita Lewis: “And that’s how it should be. Never made me violent, just better behaved.”
Sue Kelleher: “I had the ruler across my fingers when I was at school for talking. It did me no harm it taught me not to talk in the classroom.”
Jack Jones: “All it’s taught (people) is that violence is supposedly acceptable when someone does something you don’t like. Violence breeds violence.”

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Miscellaneous memories

Wilf Copping: “Very flared jeans, I had a mate who got blown away in the wind.”
Nick Mursell: “Smog on a winter’s morning because of all the coal fires. And the smell of creosoted fences in the summer.”
Natasha Williams: “Doing PE on the climbing frame in your knickers.”
David Garner: “Broken glass on your walls that surround your house or business.”
Christine Crook: “Children’s gloves attached by a string through their coat sleeves then they don’t lose them.”
Beryl Williams: “Fish and chips in newspaper. I’m sure the newspaper added to the taste.”
Carole Addams: “Wearing Butlins Beavers badges, Blue Peter badges, I’m Backing Britain badges.”
Raquel Ollier: “Starting a bonfire with liquid paraffin.”
Peter France: “Affordable housing.”
Maureen Campbell: “Trying on jeans in the back of a market traders van with no fear.”
Andrew GIbson: “Getting run over by a double-decker bus. Oh, the fun times.”
Rach Jane: “Firefighters walking on rooftops to put water down the chimney!
Steve Day: “ Standing at Premier League matches. Having bonfires in your garden. Wild swimming. Camping anywhere. Don’t start me on motor car regulations lol.”
Andrew Williams: “Farting in phone boxes.”

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