Lonely hearts ads from 1970s, thankfully things have changed!

actuallylike · 12-08-2012 02:29PM

Has blue eyes and is considered attractive

Considered? She's considered attractive? Sounds like she looks like an arse.

byhookorbycrook · 12-08-2012 02:30PM

Ads in the Farmer's Journal still similar enough to some of those.

kneemos · 12-08-2012 03:05PM

Divorce is a big issue amongst farmers,if they break up they can split the farm.I wonder do mom and dad keep a close eye on who thier kids are "courting"they could be marrying into a sizable fortune in some cases,would'nt want any goldiggers.

Ah_Yeah · 12-08-2012 03:08PM

My grandmother reads "Ireland's Own", and tbh the ads in there still look like these.

Although most of them are looking for companionship more than dowries, marriage, and young wans. It's all older people looking for the chats.

Sea Filly · 12-08-2012 04:08PM

Reading that makes me glad I didn't grow up in the 70s, or earlier.

I felt stifled enough growing up in a small town (actually about 5k outside the town in the countryside) as an 80s/90s child, 90s/00s teenager, can't imagine what it would have been like earlier than that. Claustrophobic stuff I feel quite depressed for a lot of the people in the OP. Many would be tied to that life. Of course some probably enjoyed farming but it must have made meeting people hard.

Sea Filly · 12-08-2012 04:09PM

Malari wrote: »

"Snaps" is hilarious :pac: Took me a minute to figure out what that meant!

Enlighten me.

Rovi · 12-08-2012 04:10PM

Sea Filly wrote: »

Enlighten me.

Snaps = photographs

Ella · 12-08-2012 04:11PM

This thread is hilarious. Got proper belly laughs out of some of those lonely heart ads

Neyite · 12-08-2012 06:18PM

"you had me at hot and cold running water"

:pac:

DublinWriter · 12-08-2012 06:21PM

I've a rake of Irish Times from about 1974 - the situations vacant sections are particularly jaw-dropping, things like 'Attractive young female needed for reception of busy office...applicants must be single', etc etc.

kneemos · 12-08-2012 06:33PM

DublinWriter wrote: »

I've a rake of Irish Times from about 1974 - the situations vacant sections are particularly jaw-dropping, things like 'Attractive young female needed for reception of busy office...applicants must be single', etc etc.

Not very PC but at least you knew what they were looking for.

ahnowbrowncow · 12-08-2012 06:47PM

kneemos wrote: »

Not very PC but at least you knew what they were looking for.

A ride?

I wonder how much things will change in the next 40 years

kneemos · 12-08-2012 06:56PM

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

A ride?

I wonder how much things will change in the next 40 years

Can't even say they want a female these days.

12-08-2012 07:00PM

is that cos of the "cant work if married" thing

Ambersky · 12-08-2012 10:52PM

bluewolf asked
is that cos of the "cant work if married" thing

As far as I know the marriage bar applied to married women only in the public service and ended in 1973 and the ad is from 1974.
Women in other sectors were allowed to work after marriage but it was expected that women even if they were doing the same work as a man would earn less than him. This was said to be necessary to protect the family as a man would be expected to be able to provide for a wife and child, or to court a woman and pay for dates etc. before they were married. A man therefor needed more money than a woman.
Average womens earnings were approx fifty five percent of average male earnings at that time. Never the less a woman earning a professional wage as a teacher, nurse, or secretary was considered a fine catch and girls doing their leaving cert that year were setting their sights high if they aspired to a profession.
Free secondary education came in 1967 so many young people looking for work in 1974 had parents with primary cert only and things were only just beginning to change.
An ad in 1974 looking for an attractive single female was just considered a normal set of requirements. Receptionists were expected to be attractive and if you were single and that also was taken to mean you had no children, you would be available for working odd hours and wouldn't have to be taking time off for your children.

By the way I was that gay girl in 1974 Horrendous.
Gay most definitely meant happy in common usage, although in the big cities like Dublin things were slowly changing and a language was developing, most often people said ho-mo-sex-ual.
If you look in the gay girls ad you will see she is looking for a fella. You had to really listen to what people were saying or you could pick things up very wrong.

ladylost · 12-08-2012 11:12PM

Ambersky wrote: »

By the way I was that gay girl in 1974 Horrendous.
Gay most definitely meant happy in common usage, although in the big cities like Dublin things were slowly changing and a language was developing, most often people said ho-mo-sex-ual.
If you look in the gay girls ad you will see she is looking for a fella. You had to really listen to what people were saying or you could pick things up very wrong.

Were you the person who sent in the ad?

Ambersky · 12-08-2012 11:15PM

Ah no sorry I didnt mean it that literally.:D
I am gay and was a teenager in 1974 trying to figure things out, thats what I meant by I was that gay girl.
But as I said I didnt use the word gay to mean sexual orientation at the time because I had never heard it used that way.
I know its hard for someone nowadays to get their heads around all this but the Gay Girl -in the ad - was looking for a fella.
She was saying she was a happy go lucky kind of girl looking for a fella. Gay = Happy go lucky in this context.
I was an actual gay girl but I wasnt looking for a fella cos I am actually gay. Get it?

kneemos · 12-08-2012 11:16PM

DublinWriter wrote: »

I've a rake of Irish Times from about 1974 - the situations vacant sections are particularly jaw-dropping, things like 'Attractive young female needed for reception of busy office...applicants must be single', etc etc.

Sounds like a Rose of Tralee application.

12-08-2012 11:37PM

These are hilarious.

Madam_X · 13-08-2012 12:13AM

actuallylike wrote: »

Considered? She's considered attractive? Sounds like she looks like an arse.

No it doesn't.

"I am attractive" sounds too vain and conceited (and no doubt you'd say that if it's what was written) so it's a way of toning that down.

ashes79 · 13-08-2012 10:33AM

I actually was really impressed with the guy who said he wouldn't mind if the girl had a child. I'd say there weren't too many farmers that open minded in th 70s!

LittleBook · 13-08-2012 11:19AM

Reminds me of that old Wurzels song:

Cos I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key
Come on now let's get together in perfect harmony
Oh I got 20 acres and you got 43
And I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key

:pac:

kneemos · 13-08-2012 11:27AM

ashes79 wrote: »

I actually was really impressed with the guy who said he wouldn't mind if the girl had a child. I'd say there weren't too many farmers that open minded in th 70s!

He struck me as being kinda desperate.You would have to feel sorry for any single at that time,I'd imagine thier choices were very limited.I was born in 67 and can remember a stigma attached to a single mother during the 70s and even the 80s.

seamus · 13-08-2012 11:46AM

kneemos wrote: »

He struck me as being kinda desperate.You would have to feel sorry for any single at that time,I'd imagine thier choices were very limited.I was born in 67 and can remember a stigma attached to a single mother during the 70s and even the 80s.

"Over 30" struck me as odd phrasing, probably means "Over 40" in reality, and realising that he can't afford to be picky, he'll happily take on a woman with a child provided that she's still young and attractive (i.e. 20 to 32).

kneemos · 13-08-2012 07:50PM

seamus wrote: »

"Over 30" struck me as odd phrasing, probably means "Over 40" in reality, and realising that he can't afford to be picky, he'll happily take on a woman with a child provided that she's still young and attractive (i.e. 20 to 32).

Or he lived in a shack on the side of a mountain with three sheep and a goat.

JamJamJamJam · 14-08-2012 12:04AM

This was really interesting! Thanks for posting OP! I can't believe these are just from the 70s! Love the, eh, nicknames or titles or whatever (the pieces in bold before each ad)...

'Lonely hearth' (because fireplaces want company too?), 'Man'... and 'On His Own' were good :pac: But I think my favourite was the guy who decided he could best define himself with the word 'Beard' :pac:

iguana · 14-08-2012 12:35AM

The big thing that strikes me is the rural-urban divide that seems evident to me. My parents met 2 years after this ad was published and they met in a poolhall that they'd each gone to with a group of friends. They flirted, my dad stole my mum's ring and said he'd only give it back to her on their first date. Neither were concerned about the other bringing a business or land or dowry to the relationship and neither would have seen hot and cold running water as big deal as they'd both grown up with it. Apart from the lack of electronic communication I doubt the beginning of their relationship was all that different from one that would happen today. In fact when my grandmother talks about the early days of her relationship with my grandfather, back in the early 50s, it doesn't sound as alien to me as these ads do. (Apart from how he'd pick her up on his motorbike and she'd wait in the frontroom until she saw him pull up, then run out the door, hop on the bike and make him drive off fast as she was embarrassed to be seen by the neighbours as she was wearing pants.)

I wonder if many of the men writing these ads were already experiencing what many men in rural communities so often experience when the society modernises and the women get new opportunities. I suspect that many of the local women may have left their communities to pursue jobs in the cities and had little interest in giving up the freedoms and comforts of urban life, so the men left behind on the farms were finding it harder to find wives.

kelle · 14-08-2012 12:57AM

confusticated wrote: »

I'd love to know if any of them met anyone as a result of the ads.

A girl at school placed an ad in the penpals section of the Journal Juniors page, and got about 70 replies! Not all were from farming backgrounds, it seems people from all backgrounds read it.

So I'd say a lot of these adverts got replies - maybe some got together who knows? I know I certainly wouldn't boast about having met somebody in the Farmers Journal!

Honey-ec · 14-08-2012 10:07AM

I can't believe someone's parents are actually offering a dowry in this day and age. The whole point of a dowry was to offset the cost of "keeping" a wife in cultures where traditionally she wouldn't work after marriage. I don't know any women who have already given up work by the time they've gotten engaged in this country.

Malari · 14-08-2012 10:10AM

iguana wrote: »

The big thing that strikes me is the rural-urban divide that seems evident to me. My parents met 2 years after this ad was published and they met in a poolhall that they'd each gone to with a group of friends. They flirted, my dad stole my mum's ring and said he'd only give it back to her on their first date. Neither were concerned about the other bringing a business or land or dowry to the relationship and neither would have seen hot and cold running water as big deal as they'd both grown up with it. Apart from the lack of electronic communication I doubt the beginning of their relationship was all that different from one that would happen today. In fact when my grandmother talks about the early days of her relationship with my grandfather, back in the early 50s, it doesn't sound as alien to me as these ads do. (Apart from how he'd pick her up on his motorbike and she'd wait in the frontroom until she saw him pull up, then run out the door, hop on the bike and make him drive off fast as she was embarrassed to be seen by the neighbours as she was wearing pants.)

My parents would have got together around this time too and no waay would have been as backward as the descriptions here

It must have been a rural thing to still be that old-fashioned in the 1970s.

Lonely hearts ads from 1970s, thankfully things have changed!

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