1974 or 2014? What's it to be?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Knowing what you do now, who would willingly go back 40 years?

 

Useless Labour government*

Every bugger on strike

Fuel crisis

No internet

No mobiles

No remote for the telly

No Ebay

 

 

But..........

 

Music wasn't shit

TV wasn't shit

Tide marked Cortinas

Cars and Car Conversions

Banger racing on World of Sport (or Grandstand)

Tobacco adverts

F1 was great

Rallying was great

Houses were cheap

Trains were cheap (but a bit rubbish)

Meadowhall didn't exist

 

 

Were folk less self centred and was life a lot less bloody complicated? My Folks say they were.

 

[Lukas]

People tend to see the past brigher than it was. All I can say, because I was born 1984. 

[MrDuke]

No internet

No mobiles

No remote for the telly

No Ebay

 

Think you put those in the wrong section?

[RedSparrow]

Rose tinted spectacles,

Over here people are always going on about what was better under communism, forgetting the popular revolution they had to get rid of it.

[steve_earwig]

What, go back and be 9 again? No thankyou.

 

Unless you mean still knowing what I do now, in which case I'd be a 9-year old inventor and a millionaire teenager.

 

And knowing a hell of a lot more about women now my teenage years would be far more interesting...

[vulgalour]

1974 has some cracking aesthetic things happening and some pretty awesome aural things going on.  But there's too much homophobia, sexism, drink-driving, shitty housing, terrible jobs, difficulty in communication, isolation of the elderly, ignorance towards the disabled and all that stuff that we've advanced on in the last 40 years for me to want to wind the clock back.

 

Give me 2014 with those things from 1974 we can all enjoy sprinkled on top and I'm happy enough.

[Negative Creep]

Not living under the threat of a nuclear war is kindof nice as well

[mercrocker]

The only thing wrong with 1974 was that I was not legally allowed to drive back then.   Didn't stop me bombing round the gravel pits in old Anglias and Heralds, tho!    We had shit government, strikes, cold houses, as NC says the threat of nuclear devastation and all that.   However, we also had women that looked like women, cars that looked like cars and you could still have one foot in the past but enjoy so much more of what passed for modern back then.   Motor Shows were worth going to, second hand car lots were full of the most diamond chod you can imagine and it was about the last time I lusted after a modern motorcycle.   I would go back there tomorrow, in an instant but armed with my driving licence this time.

 

As for peepuls, well I think they were better mannered back then.   There was more violence, kids were hit at school, if somebody wrong-footed in a pub - smack in the mouth etc.  However, the current Fuck You attitude was hardly prevalent at all, you were especially polite around older people (who had, of course, endured the War) and even the police were generally polite.   There was a hell of a lot more neighbourliness for sure - you could always turn to anybody in our street as a kid if you had a problem.   Mind you they would be straight on to your folks if you pissed them about.  And they would ALWAYS be right even if they were wrong!    No, it was better, believe me.

[DSdriver]

I think I'll stay in this space/time continuum, but keep my 1970s cars and boat and my old house with 1970s plumbing and wiring and my 1970s record player and LPs. Reason: I was married in 1973 and in 1974 was working day and night to support my new family.

[MrDuke]

I'd love to go back to 1994. Either as a 15-yr-old again, or as a fat 30something, I'm not too bothered.

[Junkman]

Not living under the threat of a nuclear war is kindof nice as well

 

They did a sterling job in 2014 to bring it back.

[Ghosty]

I'd go back. Even though I wasn't due to start life for 21 years in 1974. 

For one, uni was free!

[RedSparrow]

homophobia, sexism, drink-driving, shitty housing, terrible jobs, difficulty in communication, isolation of the elderly, ignorance towards the disabled and all that stuff

 

Hey, the Czech republic still has all of this!

You forgot casual racism.

[CreepingJesus]

The 70s were a bit shit. You can enjoy the aesthetic and pleasurable aspects perfectly well from 2014. Ditto most of the 80s. The 90s were okay though.

If I got to take my wages and knowledge from now, back with me, it might be worth a laugh. Otherwise nope.

[Bren]

For :

 

Music

Mk 3 cortina

Mk1 granada

The sweeney

Space 1999

 

Against :

 

Strikes

Power cuts

Men in donkey jackets

Platform heels

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

The 70s were a bit shit. You can enjoy the aesthetic and pleasurable aspects perfectly well from 2014.

Yah. I love loads of 70s music and television. I can enjoy pretty much all of it whenever I like on Youtube, Spotify, a hundred Sky channels, Netflix etc. 

 

If I was alive on 11th December 1974, there's not much on. 

[warren t claim]

My taxi office is still the same as it was in 1974 only we charge more and we have Mondeos and Vectras instead of Cortinas and Victors. One old timer I work with was cabbing a Triumph 1500TC back in '74 for us.

[Cavcraft]

For: Sexism

 

Against: Fannies like Delamere Forest.

[warren t claim]

As I'm in the office and the boss is here this was our 1974 fleet as he remembers it.

 

A few Ark Royal Zodiacs inc one estate.

Several mk 3 Cortinas he got on finance off a dodgy Ford Dealer.

A couple of A60s

His dad's Granada.

Triumph 1500

Triumph 2000.

An FD Victor that broke down loads.

 

2014.

A Zafira.

4 Mk 4 Mondeos.

An Avensis.

2 LPG Vectras.

A Xsara Picasso.

3 Ex Police Foci.

[Asimo]

Petrol was 37 to 40 p per gallon, I was on 25p an hour for selling it and had unlimited use of Dad's Farina Riley.

 

But the music was mostly shit on the radio and if you couldn't afford LPs at £2.50 each that was it.

I hated cigarette smoke so bus, pubs and the pictures were out.

Unemployment for school leavers was much worse, there just weren't all the shit McD type jobs there are now.

 

Bombs going off all over the place, Vietnam still being trashed.

 

But cars were looking up, wedges from BL, the new big Lotus..........

[HMC]

A narrow perspective when you could consider various global issues etc but...

 

Bad- Talking about fuel and prices etc the RPI was around 20% around then which to someone only used to recent headline figures of a tenth of that sounds painfull.

 

Good- Mk2 jags and similar were dirt cheap bangers especially after the oil crisis, even nice ones had virtually bottomed out price wise, and there wasnt much of a 'scene' or scene tax for many old cars, most exotica aside. The ads in the back of mags like motorsport are great to flick through

[Pete-M]

I'll stick with 2014.

 

Most of my memories of the 70s are pretty shit. Strikes, fuel rationing, three day week, flares, prog rock, glam rock, Demis Roussos, BL (occasionally), holidays to Porthmadog or Rhyl, three TV channels and MW radio.

 

Nah. Not for me. If I want to live in the 70s I'll move to Czech.

[Parky]

I was 1 so had nothing to worry about and no awareness of anything. It was like being completely pissed or high in a socially acceptable and cute way. So 1974 scores highly there.

 

I think the middle ground would be better which would give us 1994 which I personally consider better than either. The fact I was 21 probably helped - nothing to worry about, barely any awareness of anything and being drunk was socially acceptable. 4 channels on tv, music wasn't so bad, mobiles were rare and hooking up with girls meant being a man and going to a pub rather than just posting a pic on some website.

 

Personally I don't rate 2014 that highly. The music is atrocious, regular TV just as bad (but there are some gems if you know where to look) and politically there is no integrity whatsoever. I bet most of us of my age could identify most cabinet ministers of 1994 but wouldn't have a clue who's in these days.

 

We badly need Spitting Image back on screen!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I'm similar age to Parky, so I would probably also go back to the early '90s.

 

Still, going back to 1974 has its advantages. I'd get a shot at doing everything again. I wouldn't want to meet my young self there though; I'd be overwhelmed by the need to apologise for all the bad decisions I have made, fucking up his life!

[Bren]

In 2014 entertainment is full of talentless twats stealing a living.

 

Not many well paid jobs.

 

Large swathes of young people as thick as pigshit because they were given a "tick box" education.

 

I was two years old in '74, so I could'nt comment, however my dad told me that he had to leave Ford at Halewood in 1974 and get a job at ICI in Widnes because they were always walking out. Not good.

 

I left school in 1988, I remember the old salts in our local telling me how they had it better and would'nt like to be my age due to the lack of opportunities.

 

I have to say, I had it better than the current young people and I would'nt want to be young now.

[Negative Creep]

The problem with being nostalgic is that you only remember the best examples. It's all well and good saying music was better back then since we had Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Cream etc etc but the charts still would have been full off utterly terrible generic bands and singers that have long since been forgotten.

 

I was born in 82 but would I want to go back to 74 now? Certainly not, and I don't just mean my life would be over without Facebook but there would be no internet, mobiles, computer games, home films, microwaves, supermarkets, air con, cheap holidays, more than 3 channels on TV and so on. That said, I would have loved to have been able to drive on roads that weren't festooned with speed cameras, humps and cylce & bus lanes, something I nor anyone else will ever get to do again in the UK

[Parky]

I agree with Bren, I wouldn't want to be young now. There are few entry level jobs out there (I was thinking that if I left school today I would have no chance of getting into what I do nowadays) and degrees cost a bloody fortune. I would need at least a hundred grand to get my two through Uni without a massive loan around their necks and for what? To get slightly nearer the front of the queue to sit on a till in Barclays?

 

That said we spent most of the eighties convinced a Soviet strike was imminent so there are some improvements. Interestingly my Slovakian mate tells me how they used to have the same sort of protect and survive drills we had in case of a NATO strike!

 

They were taught that the British were generally reasonable folk and so were unlikely to attack, but the Americans were mental cases and likely to kick off at any moment. Propaganda, wonderful stuff!

 

I would love to get back to 1989 though and slap my past self around a bit. Basically:

 

Lay off the fags

Lay off the slappers

Lay off the beer

Eat less, but better quality stuff

Avoid women called Sarah or Tina at all costs - full stop

Buy a property ASAP

Put all your wages into technology stocks but get out in January 2000

When you meet a Kiwi girl in 2000, don't get her pregnant after a month......

 

Oh, and England lose the 1990 World Cup semi against Germany on penalties. Waddle misses his. Save your pocket money and get your dad to place that bet!.

[Micrashed]

Some bits were good

Some bits shite.

This was me in 1974 - not a care in the world....

School Lane Freckleton 1974 by Micrashed,

on Flickr

[Micrashed]

 

 

 

 

*Were all Vauxhalls shit back then?

They were Bedfords - but yes they were...

Not a Bedford Beagle HA Van. ERN 393E by Micrashed, on Flickr

[Lord Sterling]

Nostalgia has always been around, most people for decades have always looked on the past with rose-tinted specticals.

 

Like some here, I don't think I'd quite go back to 1974, maybe around 1992 is as far as I'd go.