A Conversation for The 1970s

Things an Aussie kid of the 70s would remember...

Post 1

Quadrapop on h2g2

You might be an Australian child of the 70s if...

You remember Hector the Road Safety Cat sing: "look to the right, look to the left, and look to the right again; then if the road is clear of traffic; walk straight across the road, DONT RUN!, walk straight across the road"

You remember the Ma-na-ma-na song - done by the MUPPETS.

20c worth of mixed lollies could last you hours...and 50c, well only older kids could afford that much.

Icypoles were 5c and paddle pops were 20 c.

Sunnyboys and poppers (boxed drinks with straws attached) were your stable school diet.

Picture this ... after your nightly bath, in dressing gown, ugg boots or moccasins, bean bag, Milo, dumadumadumaduma-COUNTDOWN!! (The ABC's teen music programme hosted by Molly Meldrum.)

Summers were long and hot.

Coke adds life!
Fanta tasted like Fanta should.
There was Tang and Tab.
Tab, so right for beautiful people, and Leed lemonade!!.

Hey Hey Hey, it's Fat Albert time.

You wondered how the Coke girls and boys got inside that big clear beach ball.

You remember the advent of AIDS, Ecstasy etc etc. (even though they really started in the 80s)

You remember spending the whole day at the beach with no sunblock at all ................ whats more, you didn't get burnt - much.

You wore a leather band around your wrist and believed that any boy/girl that broke it, you had to sleep with them.

Basketball was only played by Americans.

Dunlop Volleys were a viable option. And Puma Romes were fashionable.

Sneakers in general were sneakers and not more advanced than your fridge.

Doctor Who scared you silly.

You remember the FIRST space invaders (someone in your street had an Atari right?).

You queued up to see The Village People Movie.

You kind of felt a bit of a thing for Jeannie and Samantha ... or better yet Tabatha.

You saw Star Wars, Grease and ET at the movies.

You remember the fuss over the swearing in ET...did you hear the one about the father who dragged his kid screaming out of ET because of the"Penis breath" remark??

You went to a Drive-in with your parents...in your pyjamas.

You had a $50 walkman that had FAT headphones and chewed tapes after the first three days.

You had a Commodore-64 that took hour to load each game.

Microbees were advanced.

Floppy disks were ACTUALLY floppy.

You remember when the first people in your street got a video machine, it was top loading and there was no such thing as a remote control. You remember the Beta v's VHS wars. You remember a few years later they developed a remote control - but it
was attached by a cord to the video that was always too short to operate it from the lounge anyway.

Tommy Lee was known to you only for his musical abilities, not the ones shown in the video with Pammy Lee.

Song lyrics you would remember:
I love rock and roll, so put another dime in the jukebox baby...
I was made for loving you baby....
You can't stop the music...
Video killed the radio star....
Hey mickey what a pity you don't understand...
I come from a land down under...

You remember real water restrictions.

You desperately desperately wanted one of those cool six wheeled buggies that the Banana Splits drove.

Stubbing your toe whilst running across the road in summer barefoot, trying not to burn your feet raw was an annual experience.

You remember those plastic "Peters" icecream signs glowing at the top of the milkbar. And you collected the plastic popsticks that had holes in them so you could make things with them, and came in lots of bright colours.

You watched Hey Hey It's Saturday..... before breakfast!

High schools were high schools and Techs were techs...none of this Secondary College rubbish. And Technical Colleges weren't called Universities...

Bogans used to ride their bikes to Tech...remember the modified racer with the wide wide wide handle bars...remember the older kids popping a mono that lasted the whole length of the street.

You used to go to VFL matches to see the South Melbourne Swans.

Leopard footprints on the soles of your schoolshoes were ace!

Matchbox cars or Barbies were essential to your development.

You had cardboard dolls (or your sisters did) that came with books of paper clothes that you tore out and stuck on the doll.

Kids read children's magazines that had cartoons without fighting and guns in them... (Remember the Magic Roundabout?)

The kid with the pool was your best friend...until someone got an INGROUND pool. wow!

The only place you could get a pizza was Pizza Hut - and it was expensive.

You put chip packets in the oven to make shrinkies.

An essential part of your packed lunch in highschool was a Prima, unless you bought a frozen Sunny Boy.

You played dress-ups in your parents funky clothes that you would kill to get your hands on now.

You had a terry toweling hat that had yellow plastic sunglasses built into the brim that came down over your face.

You, or a female relative, had a see through umbrella that came down over the shoulders so you had to look through the plastic. They were totally useless in windy conditions, though very hard to turn inside out...

You weren't wearing flannelette because it was cool.

You didn't want the hairdresser to cut above your ears until late high school.

You actually went through at least one pair of thongs a year because you wore them so much.

Fags were called fags and nobody batted an eyelid when 8 year olds walked down the street with a lolly cigarette hanging out their mouth.

You got tough summer feet every summer without trying.

You remember when electric typewriters came in.

You remember when calculators were introduced at school.

You werent old enough to go to Alien.
You weren't old enough to go to Cruising.

You remember the fuss made about Gays in San Fransisco.

Music video's in the morning before school - could be Wouldn't it be good by Nik Kershaw, Antmusic, China Girl or....Safety Dance!!

BMX tuffs were the pinnacle of pushbike technology

Big M Choconana and Chocberry - and the Big M girls.....

Move flavoured milk.

The most spoilt kid at school had a Gray Nicholls Scoop Icy poles like

The Blob and Big Toff and Crazy Critters were still going strong

Whoever bought an intellivision game console had it all completely wrong...

You collected plastic toys out of the cornflakes packets.

There were swap cards in with the bread that was wrapped in wax paper.

Icecream came in tins made of metal, not plastic pots.


Things an Aussie kid of the 70s would remember...

Post 2

callye

I may have a nose ring and think I'm incredibly (actually, I don't know the cool, groovy, hip word for it) but I just realised how old I must have become without realising it. I can remember every single thing off this list. My kids are right - I did live in the olden days!


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Things an Aussie kid of the 70s would remember...

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