Last week I came across a British TV series called Life on Mars. The basic premise is that a youngish police officer is involved in an traffic accident in 2006 and wakes up in 1973. For some unknown reason everyone then assumes that he is also a police officer. The fascinating thing is seeing the 70's that I grew upon in recreated on the TV screen in all its mordant glory. It got me thinking about what I remember from the decade so here is my list.
The Seventies for me meant
1 Wearing hand - me down donkey jackets and chocolate brown flairs.
2 Eating chicken with rice and peas on Sunday. As a change from the usual meat and two veg of English tradition my mother would cook Caribbean jerked chicken using a recipe our Jamaican neighbours gave us.
3 Scrambling around in the darkness looking for 50 pence pieces to feed the electricity meter.
4 Making Airfix models which I saved up for with my pocket money. The local shop must have thought I had a glue sniffing habit considering the number of tubes I went through.
5 Calling all our neighbours and my parents' friends "uncle" and "aunty".
6 Sitting in the car park of pubs drinking shandy and eating crisps whilst my dad was inside with "uncle" John and "aunty" Joan.
7 Being mad about Star Wars and madly in love with Princess Leia. Alas, I never did get taken off world by a rebel alliance to save the galaxy from the Dark Side. This wasn't for lack of wishing I must add.
8 Reel to reel tapes through which we heard the latest news from our uncle in America. We would play the tapes then record our replies and send it to back to the States.
9 Being asked if I was a punk or a mod. Since I knew virtually nothing about either, besides the fact that one lot stuck pins through their nose and the others wore nice suits, I would always answer mods.
10 Interminable car journeys with my two younger brothers. Most summers we would drive from Bristol to Thurles in Ireland to stay with our grandmother. Twenty hours stuck in the back of a tiny car with two fractious siblings is enough to make you think that Satre had a similar experience in mind when he said, "Hell is other people."
4 comments:
Do you remember that incredibly naïve and well, racist TV series "Love Thy Neighbour" about the difficulties and the comedy of having Jamaican people next door in the '70s. It seems incredible now.
#5:calling all the neighbours and parents' friends "uncle and aunty"
...that is so very Filipino.
We grew up like that and that is now how we raise our daughters.
Have you kept the tradition yourself?
Is there a man who did not have a crash on Princess Leia at the time? I just wonder!
I do remember the series, Lesly and when I saw an extract a few years ago I was horrified that I'd ever found it funny.
Ex, Lydia doesn't usually say that as it is not really a Greek thing to do. However, I still call my mum's friend Aunty Mary.
Me and the rest of th world, eh, Theodora. It was the haircut that drove us wild. LOL.
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