The 70's

[Glasseye]

 

 

 

[Butch]

It mentions no "GPS" or phones. We relied on local knowledge and a "sense" of direction that was basically developed by exploring and being situationally aware. For example, there was a local stream that served as a meeting point for us kids, so depending which direction we went, finding and following the stream , we knew it would lead us home regardless. We were also blessed with common sense, knowing that keeping a "waypoint" in line of sight (however distant) would again, ensure we never got lost.

Without repeating what the (great) videos say too much, they're 100% right in the fact that today, the emphasis on kids getting their dopamine hits from social media is very much at the forefront.

When I was a kid, like many, I was motivated by the adrenaline rush of jumping off a ramp we had made on my bike, riding at stupid speeds down steep hills, making a den in the woods, or exploring the local area, even the construction sites (which, if you were a kid in the UK in the 70's were an adventure playground albeit with added lethality) were there to be climbed, explored, jumped off of and generally used as a free, giant adventure park.

However, even during the 70's growing up, we were still berated by the generation before us for not being serious enough, being out of control and reckless.

**Edit in

I often stop and realise that I was born less than 25 years after the end of WW2. looking back now, I remember the turn of the millennium like it was yesterday, and still think, in my head, 2000 wasn't really that long ago (although that was the last time @Nightcrawler was seen to pay a barfine).  

Vive la difference!!

Edited December 15, 2025 by Butch

[Glasseye]

15 hours ago, Butch said:

It mentions no "GPS" or phones. We relied on local knowledge and a "sense" of direction that was basically developed by exploring and being situationally aware. For example, there was a local stream that served as a meeting point for us kids, so depending which direction we went, finding and following the stream , we knew it would lead us home regardless. We were also blessed with common sense, knowing that keeping a "waypoint" in line of sight (however distant) would again, ensure we never got lost.

Without repeating what the (great) videos say too much, they're 100% right in the fact that today, the emphasis on kids getting their dopamine hits from social media is very much at the forefront.

When I was a kid, like many, I was motivated by the adrenaline rush of jumping off a ramp we had made on my bike, riding at stupid speeds down steep hills, making a den in the woods, or exploring the local area, even the construction sites (which, if you were a kid in the UK in the 70's were an adventure playground albeit with added lethality) were there to be climbed, explored, jumped off of and generally used as a free, giant adventure park.

However, even during the 70's growing up, we were still berated by the generation before us for not being serious enough, being out of control and reckless.

**Edit in

I often stop and realise that I was born less than 25 years after the end of WW2. looking back now, I remember the turn of the millennium like it was yesterday, and still think, in my head, 2000 wasn't really that long ago (although that was the last time @Nightcrawler was seen to pay a barfine).  

Vive la difference!!

 

I lived on my bike. We all had them and we went everywhere. If we got out into the woods we would stash the bikes in some bushes and hike. I was always in some creek, pond or lake - looking for crawdads, frogs/salamanders. Finding a turtle was the ultimate. 

Often covered in mozzie and chigger bites.

Always found my way home, never had a curfew. Music was King.

Mom and Dad never gave me shit as long as I did decent in school and cut the grass.

[Zambo]

3 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

I lived on my bike. We all had them and we went everywhere. If we got out into the woods we would stash the bikes in some bushes and hike. I was always in some creek, pond or lake - looking for crawdads, frogs/salamanders. Finding a turtle was the ultimate. 

Often covered in mozzie and chigger bites.

Always found my way home, never had a curfew. Music was King.

Mom and Dad never gave me shit as long as I did decent in school and cut the grass.

Hi Glasseye, continue with your stories - love it. Just tell it as it was i'll do the translation.

Crawdads and chiggers are two completely different types of creatures: one is an edible aquatic crustacean, while the other is a microscopic, biting arachnid larva. 

[Glasseye]

3 minutes ago, Zambo said:

Hi Glasseye, continue with your stories - love it. Just tell it as it was i'll do the translation.

Crawdads and chiggers are two completely different types of creatures: one is an edible aquatic crustacean, while the other is a microscopic, biting arachnid larva. 

 

Chiggers would often come in August when it was real hot and dry. "Can't see ems"..... They get you on the ankles and lower legs. The only thing that itches more is Poison Ivy.

 

Sperate paragraphs mate. lol.

Crawdads were for hunting. Chiggers were for itching.

 

---------------------------------------

 

Loved sitting with my buddies listening to albums on our stereos (whoever's house we happened to be at). We cranked those things LOUD. Parents never bitched about it. They were just happy we were happy.

 

 

[maipenrai]

22 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

I lived on my bike. We all had them and we went everywhere. If we got out into the woods we would stash the bikes in some bushes and hike. I was always in some creek, pond or lake - looking for crawdads, frogs/salamanders. Finding a turtle was the ultimate. 

Often covered in mozzie and chigger bites.

Always found my way home, never had a curfew. Music was King.

Mom and Dad never gave me shit as long as I did decent in school and cut the grass.

My childhood memories are from the '60s but much the same - as soon as the snow was gone and the bicycles came out, the world was ours and we explored it all; summers were generally a lot warmer then although the winters were brutal so we made the best of our short summers while we could. Our parents all worked and didn't give a damn what we got up to in the daytime as long as we were home for supper - after supper we went out again but were usually home by 9:00PM or so - couldn't key this to night time as at our latitude it didn't get dark at night in the summer. 

Winters we coped with as best we could - our TV was rudimentary and we were all outdoor kids anyway - if it was cold we just didn't go out for as long. I used to drag my toboggan three kilometers to go sliding all day and then drag it all the way back again, usually half-frozen on the long trek home but it didn't stop me. We didn't have the fancy outdoor clothing you can buy today and our parents probably couldn't have afforded it anyway but we layered up and did the best we could and I like to think that this early exposure to the elements came in good stead later when I entered the workforce doing mostly outdoor work. 

[Freee!!]

On 12/15/2025 at 2:22 PM, Butch said:

[...]

I often stop and realise that I was born less than 25 years after the end of WW2. looking back now, I remember the turn of the millennium like it was yesterday, and still think, in my head, 2000 wasn't really that long ago

I don't really think about it, but I was born 20 years a months after WW2 (or a couple of months depending on which end of that war you count). And 2000 was only yesterday (and I was in Pattaya when it arrived).

[coxyhog]

I was 17 & joined the RAF in 1970.

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).That was good because it got me into spannering etc,which would form the basis of my career.

There were some woods near us & we spent a lot of time mucking around in them.

The one thing I really appreciated & am still heavily into was the music from the 60's & 70's.

Real music crafted by real musicians.

[richy65]

2 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

I was 17 & joined the RAF in 1970.

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).That was good because it got me into spannering etc,which would form the basis of my career.

There were some woods near us & we spent a lot of time mucking around in them.

The one thing I really appreciated & am still heavily into was the music from the 60's & 70's.

Real music crafted by real musicians.

Happy days in the school of hard knocks. I remember making go carts from old pram wheels and planks of wood. 
Never had to make my own bike but used to ride over 10 miles to the river Severn with my mates and all our fishing tackle, we’d fish all night and sometimes sleep under a bridge. No worries 

[coxyhog]

15 minutes ago, richy65 said:

Happy days in the school of hard knocks. I remember making go carts from old pram wheels and planks of wood. 
Never had to make my own bike but used to ride over 10 miles to the river Severn with my mates and all our fishing tackle, we’d fish all night and sometimes sleep under a bridge. No worries 

In the late 60's me & some mates used to cycle the 20 miles or so to LHR to do some plane spotting(I kept quiet about being a spotter when I joined up😎 & very quickly stopped)sometimes during the school hols every day for a week or longer.

Most of us in that group went on to careers in aviation.

[Derek Dangleberries]

28 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).

You beat me to it mate!

There was a Council Rubbish tip about 3 miles from where we lived that anybody could dump stuff in .. we'd go there and make bikes and carts out of stuff that "normal" people threw out !!

A "Trophy" football was a real find because we'd inflate it, find the puncture and use a hot spoon to melt it closed ..!!

[Butch]

7 hours ago, coxyhog said:

I was 17 & joined the RAF in 1970.

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).That was good because it got me into spannering etc,which would form the basis of my career.

There were some woods near us & we spent a lot of time mucking around in them.

The one thing I really appreciated & am still heavily into was the music from the 60's & 70's.

Real music crafted by real musicians.

 

7 hours ago, richy65 said:

Happy days in the school of hard knocks. I remember making go carts from old pram wheels and planks of wood. 
Never had to make my own bike but used to ride over 10 miles to the river Severn with my mates and all our fishing tackle, we’d fish all night and sometimes sleep under a bridge. No worries 

 

7 hours ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

You beat me to it mate!

There was a Council Rubbish tip about 3 miles from where we lived that anybody could dump stuff in .. we'd go there and make bikes and carts out of stuff that "normal" people threw out !!

A "Trophy" football was a real find because we'd inflate it, find the puncture and use a hot spoon to melt it closed ..!!

ahhh...memories!!

The old Go- Kart

1 plank of wood, usually discarded pine (front of 1 drawer from a chest of drawers) Nailed to a square piece of flat wood (we used half a wardrobe door) and another bit of wood the a bit shorter for the front axle, hinged in the middle by a bolt sourced from god knows where, then the axles, 2 pram axles attached using nails bent over themselves which would also stick out from the top, rear wheels have to be pram wheels, props if they were bigger than the front as you then had a "dragster".

Steering done by a long bit of twine, attached by 2 bent nails to each end of the steering plank, where you would rest your feet.

here are @Derek Dangleberries (Front, steering) , @coxyhog ( rearmost, brakes)  @richy65 (inner rear, inertia balance) and @Butch (inner front, screaming) Testing out the Thailand247 Road Rocket with little or no concern for their own safety or indeed, anyone elses.

Edited December 17, 2025 by Butch

[Lantern]

^ Made loads of these when I was a kid.

[Glasseye]

On 12/17/2025 at 7:10 PM, coxyhog said:

I was 17 & joined the RAF in 1970.

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).That was good because it got me into spannering etc,which would form the basis of my career.

There were some woods near us & we spent a lot of time mucking around in them.

The one thing I really appreciated & am still heavily into was the music from the 60's & 70's.

Real music crafted by real musicians.

 

Yes... The music was the key. So much good stuff that we will never see again. We came up at a good time. Looking back it was great.

[Butch]

21 minutes ago, Glasseye said:

 

Yes... The music was the key. So much good stuff that we will never see again. We came up at a good time. Looking back it was great.

Agree. Although I was a teenager in the 80's, I'd been brought up on 70's music by my 2 elder brothers. Every night , especially in winter when they got home from school, after dinner and homework, the record player came out. On went T Rex, Floyd, Black Sabbath and everything in between to Andrew Gold , Yes, Allman Brothers and Rainbow. I've still got all the old albums on vinyl, and while they may or may not be worth anything, I won't be getting rid of them. Even the Album art itself is a pleasure to look at on some.

It's an odd feeling listening to some of the old albums these days, although I do it via Youtube or spotify as I no longer have a record player. I'm still hearing riffs, sounds, melodies and harmonies that I never heard before in some tracks, despite having heard them many times. Seems odd, maybe my hearing now is more sensitive to certain sounds than it was when I was younger.

[Glasseye]

3 minutes ago, Butch said:

Agree. Although I was a teenager in the 80's, I'd been brought up on 70's music by my 2 elder brothers. Every night , especially in winter when they got home from school, after dinner and homework, the record player came out. On went T Rex, Floyd, Black Sabbath and everything in between to Andrew Gold , Yes, Allman Brothers and Rainbow. I've still got all the old albums on vinyl, and while they may or may not be worth anything, I won't be getting rid of them. Even the Album art itself is a pleasure to look at on some.

It's an odd feeling listening to some of the old albums these days, although I do it via Youtube or spotify as I no longer have a record player. I'm still hearing riffs, sounds, melodies and harmonies that I never heard before in some tracks, despite having heard them many times. Seems odd, maybe my hearing now is more sensitive to certain sounds than it was when I was younger.

 

Oh dear Lord Buddha how I wish I had held onto my old vinyl !

[richy65]

Certainly a  great decade for music. I grew up listening to my parents record collection. Elvis, Beatles, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochrane etc

Fantastic stuff and still love it all. Mom has got a spare room packed full with Elvis on vinyl, early recordings and photos etc

[Glasseye]

11 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

Oh dear Lord Buddha how I wish I had held onto my old vinyl !

 

At least I passed them on to my Nephew so they will stay in the family. He was able to develop a real good understanding and appreciation because of his father and me turning him onto the good stuff. Just like we picked it up from our older brothers.

If it wasn't for my brother I'd be sitting here listening to Janet Jackson and K pop.

[maipenrai]

My own older brothers bought lots of the popular stuff in the '60s but both had basically left home and town by 1973 or so and gave all of their records to me when they left - I dragged them around for some years but finally donated them all to a small start-up radio station in a small town where I was living at the time; there was some good stuff in there, and a few rare recordings as well but they were mostly in pretty rough shape anyway so I don't regret it that much -  cassettes and then CD's were just so much more compact and handier to deal with, and I was never a real audiophile anyway...

[Glasseye]

4 hours ago, maipenrai said:

My own older brothers bought lots of the popular stuff in the '60s but both had basically left home and town by 1973 or so and gave all of their records to me when they left - I dragged them around for some years but finally donated them all to a small start-up radio station in a small town where I was living at the time; there was some good stuff in there, and a few rare recordings as well but they were mostly in pretty rough shape anyway so I don't regret it that much -  cassettes and then CD's were just so much more compact and handier to deal with, and I was never a real audiophile anyway...

 

They weigh a ton !  I shipped a lot of stuff over here. But, I could not justify the weight. I left them in good hands though.

[Glasseye]

 

[Derek Dangleberries]

On 12/17/2025 at 7:10 PM, coxyhog said:

In the 60's we built our own bikes(couldn't afford new) & carts(using old pram bits).That was good because it got me into spannering etc,which would form the basis of my career.

There were some woods near us & we spent a lot of time mucking around in them.

A post by @Stillearly reminded me of following the Boxing Day Hunt on our bikes and on foot. Riding up lanes and tracks then running to get a glimpse of the hunt! The highlight was watching the fox run across fields pursued by the hunt jumping over fences, the sound of the hunting horn far in the distance.

In my youth I thought foxes were gratuitous murderers that needed culling even if it were ripped apart alive by a pack of dogs .... and I haven't changed my mind on the subject either.