The 60s and 70s

[PinkFinal]

Society was less divided and there were less unhappy people
I would hate to be young now

Though of course society was riddled with problems as ever

 

[Ancient Citizen]

When the mini skirts came out, following behind the girls walking up
the steps of double decker buses was a proper bonus in the '60's.

Met first real girlfriend after necking 6 Blue's, (see Quadrophenia), in the Blue Candle
club in Warrington, wearing a black mini dress. Her, not me.
Bloody gorgeous she was, green eyed Blonde, great music playing, lots of Spencer Davies group,
Small Faces, and the brilliant soul music of the Temptations and other Motown groups.
Happy days.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

Another bonus of those times was nobody walking around like land whales,
it's amazing how society has changed so rapidly. As a poster has mentioned though,
it wasn't all great, Sundays were dire, towns were palls of smoke and blackened
buildings, and plenty were skint, including me.

 

[The perfect fumble]

I wasn’t around for either decade but the threat of imminent world destruction from the USA and USSR wouldn’t exactly have been a good time to be alive.

Like Roger Daltry said; “No wonder so many good bands came out in the 60s. When you’ve got three days to live, you just go for it and come out with something nobody ever would in any normal times.”

Manchester was grim as fuck n’all. They pulled down all those beautiful terraced houses that just needed sprucing up like they’ve done to many terraces in the last decade

and they replaced them with rubble for years on end

and eventually the shittest looking housing stock known to man.

Hulme looked like Hiroshima after they knocked down all the houses

and then looked like something from behind the Iron Curtain when they threw those flats up

By the time the early 1980s came along, Manchester had never looked so bad in its history. What people did to this city in the 1960s and 70s was fucking criminal. The buildings were a disgrace.

My Mother grew up in Moss Side and she said it used to be a nice area. She said almost over night it went from being nice clean place to being a sea of rubble and having cars burnt out regularly and mattresses and sofas regularly left in ginnels. Then by the mid-70s she said it was a hell hole. She had prostitutes on her street 7 nights a week and there were regular muggings.

I was there and you're mostly wrong.

The 60's and 70's were a period of genuine optimism, mostly full employment and year on year rising standard of living. Those beautiful terraced houses! You're having a laugh! We all wanted them gone. My family would have done anything to get a flat, away from the damp cramped shit holes and in to a centrally heated home with an indoor toilet and a bath.

As for the Cuban missile crisis, it didn't worry folk too much in Lower Broughton.

 

[mexico1970]

I was there and you're mostly wrong.

The 60's and 70's were a period of genuine optimism, mostly full employment and year on year rising standard of living. Those beautiful terraced houses! You're having a laugh! We all wanted them gone. My family would have done anything to get a flat, away from the damp cramped shit holes and into to a centrally heated home with an indoor toilet and a bath.

As for the Cuban missile crisis, it didn't worry folk too much in Lower Broughton.

The houses they pulled down were slums that needed tearing down, outside toilets and infestations of every kind of vermin. Weirdly though it was a happy time for most even though we were genuinely piss poor.

 

[The perfect fumble]

The houses they pulled down were slums that needed tearing down, outside toilets and infestations of every kind of vermin. Weirdly though it was a happy time for most even though we were genuinely piss poor.

My family was piss poor, but they valued a good education for their kids. In 1975 I went to university with a grant and my fees paid!

 

[Bill Walker]

The houses they pulled down were slums that needed tearing down, outside toilets and infestations of every kind of vermin. Weirdly though it was a happy time for most even though we were genuinely piss poor.

Mould, those old terraces were full of it, dampness and mould.
They were slums. With outside toilets.
When I was around 18 it was embarassing for a young bloke to be walking round town on a weekday, meant he was unemployed, something to be ashamed off, now nobody gives a shit.
Manufacturing has gone to China.

 

[red 2 hats]

Born in 66, I grew up in Middleton, they demolished the house I was born in to make way for the arndale centre.

Loved growing up there and despite moving away all my proper mates are lads I grew up with, we all had nowt but we didn't know any different.

Music was great, takeaways were a very rare treat, special mention to tommies chippy, we wore hand me down clothes, my Mam brought us up on her own and did a fantastic job under shit circumstances, she taught us respect which is sadly lacking in todays society of self entitlement.

 

[dobingsdobber]

woah,you cant leave it at that, spill the beans, name the band

Not one you'd have heard of but very successful all the same. Both my parents were singers and had a showband.The two of them plus my sister and me and a backing band,aptly named Family Affair.Even though it was the "hippy" period,show bands were still big business and we regularly worked five nights a week for about ten years,good money and adults doing all the hard work!!My interests were always towards the folk-rock genre and later on I moved more in that direction,and went on to work with Martin Carthy,Dick Gaughan,Julie Felix,Jake Thackeray among others too numerous to mention.

 

[BrianW]

Society was far less divided and more equal. You could pretty much leave one job and walk into another. The NHS worked well, you could usually get to see a doctor same day. Train fares were reasonable - no need to book weeks in advance. If you went sick your giros came through regularly, it was not seen as a crime against the state.

We were, in absolute terms, rather poorer than now - I am talking about people with jobs. Cars were unreliable and most young people couldn't afford one - if they could it was a banger. Racism was more mainstream and unchallenged. If you were gay, you would probably be persecuted and have to live on the margins. Women were (compared to today) definitely second-class citizens - although a woman who wanted to stay home and look after her kids would not be seen as a scrounger but quite normal. Food choice was much poorer - eating out in an actual restaurant was quite a big occasion for the average Joe, and the main "takeaway" was fish and chips. The housing stock was shocking - typically full of draughts, and freezing cold in winter. It was "posh" to have central heating.

If I was young, I would sooner be back there - more opportunity and in most areas of life fewer puritanical wankers telling you what to do. Being my actual age, I prefer the here and now.