onceuponatime70s

Thirty Things That Make (Made) Me Happy … in the 1970s!

Today, the good people at WordPress suggested we blog about ’30 things that make you happy.’

Well, you know me – I’m kinda stuck in The ’70s, or so my darling wife keeps suggesting. (Hmmmn. Maybe she has a point … )

So, inadvertently backing her case, I’ve compiled a list of:

30 Things That Made Me Happy – In The ’70s
(Of these, I reckon all, with perhaps the exceptions of #2 and #27, I’d be up for all over again.)

Here we go, then – you’ll see they are listed in roughly chronological order:

1. Playing football.

We’d play anywhere: the street; the playing field; the area around the pylon. The farm fields, even!

2. Climbing the pylon.

I know, I know – what was the point of the Public Information Films?!

3. Bogey races. (Homemade wooden carts.)

They didn’t last very long – and getting insurance for them was a nightmare! 😉

4. Watching the football team I supported with my grandparents &, my dad.
5. Playing with my pals at the local farm.
6. Christmas morning.
7. The smell of Beano & Dandy annuals … on Christmas morning.

There was something so intoxicating about the smell from these annuals.

8. ’Summer Special’ editions of my favourite comics.

Eagerly awaited – they’d be treat on the car journey to our holiday destination, and would be read, cover to cover, many times during the fortnight.

9. Family holidays at the seaside.

Yup … that’s me! 😀

10. Batman – the ’66 TV series.

The best programme of the week! (I still watch the DVD set.)

11. Gerry Anderson TV21: Stingray; Thunderbirds; Captain Scarlet; Joe 90 etc..

No, wait … this was the best TV programme of the week. Oh – I don’t know! 😀

12. School! (Really! I did enjoy my schooldays.)

Bearsden Academy.

13. School discos.

Yes – I am that sad. I kept my ticket. I must have ‘got off with’ a girl I fancied that night! 😀

14. Underage drinking beer in the woods before a school disco!

A couple cans of this and maybe a half bottle of Lanliq, fortified wine, and we were ready to rock!

15. Glam Rock

16. Punk Rock

17. Rockabilly / Rock ’n’ Roll

Teddy Boy Rock ‘n’ Roll with Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers.

18. My motorbike

Suzuki TS 125 – ‘Trials Bike.’ I stuck with it two summers and one winter – that one winter was enough to convince me a car was a better option.
(Hmmmn – see below.)

19. Athletics training with Garscube Harriers.

It was run down and dilapidated, but it was ‘home.’ The Garscube Harriers Clubhouse. I’ve been a member since 1972, joining when I was 13 years old.

20. Playing darts on a Saturday night in The Peel, a pub in Drumchapel.
21. Curries in the West End of Glasgow.

It was all ‘new’ to us back in the mid-Seventies. And yes, we did queue up sometimes to get into our favourite, The Shish Mahal in Gibson Street, in Glasgow’s West End.

22. Rory Gallagher concerts.

My ultimate musical hero. Sigh!

23. ANY concerts at the famous Glasgow Apollo.

Glasgow Apollo

24. Seeing The Ramones play live in a small venue.

The Ramones backstage at Strathclyde University, May 1977. Also on the bill , co-headlining, were Talking Heads. (Apparently, in the audience were Blondie who were to play The Apollo the following evening.)
Not being a student, I had to really pester my pal to sign me in to this! 🙂
(Picture from Lost Glasgow.)

25. The White Elephant disco in Glasgow.

White Elephant flyer.

26. Listen Record Shop, Glasgow.

One of the famous Listen Records bags – used by many to carry their school books in an attempt to look ‘cool.’

27. My first car.
28. Getting rid of my first car – what a pile of rusting crap that was!
29. Berni Inn Steakhouses – classic ‘first date’ venues.

The advert says it all!

30. Prawn Cocktail followed by Gammon Steak and Pineapple, washed down with a glass or two of Blue Nun  – to show a ‘first date’ you were (a) loaded and (b) had sophisticated taste.

Classy, or what?

There you go – I’m happy all over again!

_____

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31 comments

  9. Loon pants and great coats, new LPs from Listen,
    Hot pie and Bovril dodging cans that have piss in,
    Tanked up on cheap cider for the Ski Club flings,
    These are a few of my favourite things……………………………………with apologies to Julie Andrews !

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  11. great list and great memories! It was a fantastic decade to be a kid. You’d never get a Gen Z to understand it but without computers, internet or video games we had to play with other real people and go outside and explore. I wouldn’t trade that for a modern childhood! On ’70s topic, I was quite surprised this weekend when walking around the Walmart, what do I see back on the racks in force? That’s right , retro-’70s corduroy pants and jackets!

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      • upto about age 14, I had a lot of cord pants because my Mom wouldn’t buy me jeans. She said the denim might irritate my skin but I think she thought jeans were too ‘common’ or something. Thankfully Levis did make cords back then and I wasn’t the absolute only one in my classes wearing them!

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