The 1970s - The Decade That Taste Forgot?

28-09-2020 1:42pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Pretty much. Though goulash made an appearance as a new fangled food. Lots of ready meals like Smash were popular with some. The Irish salad of the time was a joy to behold. Not. Hard boiled egg, with a leaf of salad and some out of a jar mayonnaise type stuff in the corner. Maybe a bit of beetroot.

I was really very lucky that my parents were into travel beyond the wet weekend in "the country", so we went to France and Spain and Italy for holidays in the late 70's. Now even though I was a kid it did open my eyes to the wider world beyond what I saw on the TV. I was also lucky to be in Dublin and had "the piped TV" so it wasn't just RTE. The food in the above countries was a shock. Being a kid the above culture's notions of sweets for kids were muck of the highest order. I remember Spanish toy shops being so much cooler than Irish ones though.

And I hated flares with a vengeance.

You were privileged to be able to go on those exotic foreign holidays. My first time outside Ireland/Uk was to Croatia (then Yugoslavia) in 1978, (taken by my mother in Leaving cert year as she fancied a trip abroad after decades of doing without) and the hotel food was plain but wholesome, but more exotic were the seafood lunches of squid at the seaside restaurants of Opatija. How lovely was the Kvarner Riviera, and everything was spanking clean compared to Ireland. Squid in its own ink was sooo exotic!

Then I started working in 1979 and was able to find myself some trips, albeit that it took most of my money. I remember my first such summer holiday was to Russia, and oddly thinking that the food there was marginally better than that in Ireland, at least some things were good.

Ger Roe · 28-09-2020 1:57pm

ShatterAlan wrote: »

Vesta curries were a godsend for a tired mother. I liked them. They weren't that spicy but I used to douse mine in a layer of Saxa pepper until it looked like a sand dune just so I could experience being an exotic Indian eating this great dish. And I wouldn't drink any milk or water either. Just let my eardums throb. This was how it was done in far away Asia.

Vesta curries were a real treat in the 70's. We used to re-hydrate the packs of delights on a Saturday evening and sit down to watch Jon Pertwee in Doctor Who. It was the highlight of our week*.

*Apart from Thursday when Top of The Pops came on and we got our weekly fix of glam rock. My dad used to lower his newspaper down for a glance over the top, as he asked...'is that a boy or a girl?'. Usually when the aforementioned Dave Hill was on screen, or David Bowie, or Marc Bolan, or Alice Cooper, or Steve Priest, or Bryan Ferry, or Steve Harley, or Roy Wood (even with the beard) etc, etc.

The J Stands for Jay · 28-09-2020 2:02pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

At least the music wasn't shyte, like now.

Found the old person. Or the bay city rollers and chickory tip fan.

Cienciano · 28-09-2020 2:31pm

valoren wrote: »

If someone told me I could only watch movies from the 70's then I'd be perfectly ok with that.

I'd be the same with music.
I was born in 78, can't obviously remember it. Teenage years in the 90s, so that's the music I grew up with. But IMHO 90's music has dated badly. 70's is the best decade by a mile.

Zeppelin, Bowie, Sabbath, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Clash, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neill Yound all had amazing stuff in the 70s. So much other stuff. I'd listen to that regularly and never listen to a 90's song again and I'd be happy.

donegal_man · 28-09-2020 2:32pm

McGaggs wrote: »

Found the old person. Or the bay city rollers and chickory tip fan.

In fairness looking at the top 100 from the year I turned 10 years old there's a lot of variety there

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1979

ShatterAlan · 28-09-2020 2:42pm

Sardonicat wrote: »

Flicks! My sister had heated curlers to do hers with every day and as she was leaving the house would say "are my flicks alright.?" God help me if I went near her heated curlers!

Respect to your sister.

ShatterAlan · 28-09-2020 2:54pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Pretty much. Though goulash made an appearance as a new fangled food. Lots of ready meals like Smash were popular with some. The Irish salad of the time was a joy to behold. Not. Hard boiled egg, with a leaf of salad and some out of a jar mayonnaise type stuff in the corner. Maybe a bit of beetroot.

I was really very lucky that my parents were into travel beyond the wet weekend in "the country", so we went to France and Spain and Italy for holidays in the late 70's. Now even though I was a kid it did open my eyes to the wider world beyond what I saw on the TV. I was also lucky to be in Dublin and had "the piped TV" so it wasn't just RTE. The food in the above countries was a shock. Being a kid the above culture's notions of sweets for kids were muck of the highest order. I remember Spanish toy shops being so much cooler than Irish ones though.

And I hated flares with a vengeance.

Oh come ON, now.

My memories of a salad were a massive platter of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, scallions, rolls of ham, beetroot on the side because everyone thought that crap was weird, slices of cheddar and a boiled egg clipped in one of those little wire things. A dollop of salad creme on the side, by the beetroot and a mug of tea.

What concentration camp did you grow up in?

28-09-2020 3:25pm

JupiterKid wrote: »

Now, I’m reckoning that that the vast majority on the boards here won’t even remember the 1970s - I myself only vaguely remember the very end of that decade as I was born half way though it - but does it really live up to its reputation as a decade of appalling taste?

The evidence:
Flares
Platform shoes
Bathroom carpet
Fabric/wooly toilet seat covers
Avocado, pink and chocolate colour bathrooms
Garish, bold patterned wallpaper
The all-electric house
Urban motorways
Mock Georgian style suburban houses
Wood paneled pub interiors
Bungalow bliss (blitz, more like)

Anyone else agree - or beg to differ?

An amazing time. Great music. Great fashion. Great weather. Holidays in Tramore. 10CC and Wings on the juke box. The Indians in the Atlantic Ballroom.

the purple tin · 28-09-2020 3:32pm

Those Christmas jumpers that the youngsters wear ironically on their twelve pubs of Xmas, we used to wear them nearly all year round.

Sardonicat · 28-09-2020 3:38pm

the purple tin wrote: »

Those Christmas jumpers that the youngsters wear ironically on their twelve pubs of Xmas, we used to wear them nearly all year round.

With photos to prove it! The old snowflake design was NOT just for Christmas and it wasnt just for you either. At least three children could get two winters each out of one jumper. 6 years of wear before it ended up dressing a teddy or dolly.

BattleCorp · 28-09-2020 3:43pm

I'm from Carlow. The 70's didn't arrive here until about 1984.

Ger Roe · 28-09-2020 4:33pm

Sardonicat wrote: »

With photos to prove it! The old snowflake design was NOT just for Christmas and it wasnt just for you either. At least three children could get two winters each out of one jumper. 6 years of wear before it ended up dressing a teddy or dolly.

This exactly..... Pre covid, I met up once a quarter or so, with some old friends that all started in junior infants together - we formed a new bond when attending our primary school's 50th anniversary, as we were the first class formed in the school... on looking through some old grainy black and white class photo's, one of us was in a Christmas jumper, in a photo taken in summer... and it was a handed down jumper too, that had previously belonged to his older brother(s).

It was a very 70's thing... wearing second hand Christmas jumpers in the summer. They were simpler that the lavish productions these days, just a stick drawing of multiple Christmas trees in a pattern, do doubt ran up by his ma on the swishing knitting machine... remember those? Swish back and forth enough times and a jumper gradually emerged.

Wibbs · 28-09-2020 5:57pm

Deleted User wrote: »

You were privileged to be able to go on those exotic foreign holidays.

Oh and well I know it C. I even knew and appreciated it at the time. Even growing up in and around a middle class background, private education and all that, among my peers I was one of the very few who had gone on foreign holidays and would have been ahead of even those on the number of places I was taken. It hit home more for me in the arly 80's when there was a school trip organised to France and I was one of the very few kids that had been on a plane before. My parents just prioritised the travel thing and they only had me so that made a big diff financially too.

ShatterAlan wrote: »

Oh come ON, now.

My memories of a salad were a massive platter of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, scallions, rolls of ham, beetroot on the side because everyone thought that crap was weird, slices of cheddar and a boiled egg clipped in one of those little wire things. A dollop of salad creme on the side, by the beetroot and a mug of tea.

What concentration camp did you grow up in?

And my point was the above wasn't close to what's generally going on in a Spanish, Italian or French salad. Irish salads were bloody boring. Nutritious enough, but bland.

Wibbs · 28-09-2020 6:02pm

BattleCorp wrote: »

I'm from Carlow. The 70's didn't arrive here until about 1984.

Actually one thing I noticed back then on fishing trips with my dad to the West and such was how things were often a year or six months behind Dublin. The films in the local cinemas and the like. Given that often enough especially in the early 70's films were often already 6 months old before they got to Dublin. Concerts by major acts, especially American were another difference. Very rarely did they venture beyond the Pale, if they even bothered to show up in the first place.

r3nu4l · 29-09-2020 9:32am

You only have to watch Life on Mars and you know the seventies were cool

whisky_galore · 29-09-2020 9:37am

McGaggs wrote: »

Found the old person. Or the bay city rollers and chickory tip fan.

Not that old. No one's getting any younger, not even you.

The Tetrarch · 29-09-2020 11:20am

If this thread was in the 1970s

The 1920s - The Decade That Taste Forgot? :rolleyes:

Zelka · 29-09-2020 11:28am

It is easy with hind sight The trick is to be able to see the awful fads of the present. Pick out present day fads that will be thought in the future.

the purple tin · 29-09-2020 11:31am

Zelka wrote: »

It is easy with hind sight The trick is to be able to see the awful fads of the present. Pick out present day fads that will be thought in the future.

Groucho eyebrows and those earrings that leave a massive hole in your earlobe :pac:

Tony EH · 29-09-2020 12:16pm

Everything about the 70's was shite, except the movies.

JupiterKid · 29-09-2020 1:29pm

More dashing men's fashion from circa 1972.

Things happen when you wear Eleganza....

ohnonotgmail · 29-09-2020 1:44pm

^^^^^^^^
the lapels in the first pic are really something else. far out.

29-09-2020 1:49pm

Yer one's a bird though..

the purple tin · 29-09-2020 1:53pm

They had big flappy trousers in the 20s, again in the 70s and once again in the 90s and early 00s.
It's all just a big fashion wheel turning non-stop.

the purple tin · 29-09-2020 1:56pm

r3nu4l wrote: »

You only have to watch Life on Mars and you know the seventies were cool

Deutschland 83 and 86 make the 80s look really cool too.

It was nothing like that in this country however

Acosta · 29-09-2020 2:08pm

I think the current tattoo fixation is the worst fashion craze in my life time. And unlike a mullet, a dodgy brown coat or ugly dated looking carpet it's pretty much permanent.

Justin Credible Darts · 29-09-2020 2:23pm

Acosta wrote: »

I think the current tattoo fixation is the worst fashion craze in my life time. And unlike a mullet, a dodgy brown coat or ugly dated looking carpet it's pretty much permanent.

I got mine back in 89, when really the only ones you would see here were old homemade or prison ones, or guys that came back from abroad.

I even had a labret piercing and a tongue piercing in 89.
In fact i never seen anyone with it before I got, and it got me some strange looks back then, as the years went on and obviously got older, and it then became more fashionable, i stopped wearing them, because it was no longer unique, which was possibly part of the point of having them.

As for the tattoos, thankfully mine were all in area not generally seen (like back, chest, leg) bar one sleeve type on a arm.

As said I got them because it was different, today I would chose to not get them to be different...if that makes sense.

Sardonicat · 29-09-2020 3:34pm

JupiterKid wrote: »

More dashing men's fashion from circa 1972.

Things happen when you wear Eleganza....

I love those shoes. I'd wear those shoes. Red and cream or purple and white in those shoes would be amazing. ..

ShatterAlan · 29-09-2020 5:08pm

Acosta wrote: »

I think the current tattoo fixation is the worst fashion craze in my life time. And unlike a mullet, a dodgy brown coat or ugly dated looking carpet it's pretty much permanent.

Just about everyone has tattoos now. Well I don't but sitting outside during the summer having a pint and I'd say 8 out of 10 adults walking by had some form of tattoo that I could make out.

Edgware · 29-09-2020 6:32pm

Sardonicat wrote: »

I love those shoes. I'd wear those shoes. Red and cream or purple and white in those shoes would be amazing. ..

What those photos miss is the dude smoking a No 6

The 1970s - The Decade That Taste Forgot?

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