Memories of the early seventies

[nsiebert]

owdlad,

I dont think my Dad picked up any sausages (yuk),

I think when I was in my teens we didnt think of the implications of skinheads, I think most people were not real skinheads if you know what I mean, we enjoyed the fashion etc.

 

Kirky, I remember the Top Rank on Saturday mornings, would have been about 1968 (oh god I'm old), I remember the bell bottom trousers and the girls tucking there blouses in the bras, so we had a bare middle, and dancing like Pams people (do you remember those dancers, and eating those crushed ice things with the flavour poured on the top.

 

I then moved to the Tuesday nights, it seemed so much more grown up, and wearing halter neck tops and dresses, than would have been the early 70's, we used to sometimes dance in the long lines

[owdlad]

Nadine, Pans people, would that be Babs, Dee Dee, Flick,Ruth, Andi and Louise..no i've never heard of them I did used to walk past the Top Rank though, and wonder why all those people were wasting good drinking time going into there.

The Claymore was open at 11 o'clock, and we never wasted a drop.

[nsiebert]

owdlad

What a memory, or did you look it up somewhere?

 

When we went to the Saturday morning top rank, when I was a kid, we used to try and dance like the 'go go dancers'.

I remember the wet look boots, and they had to fit really tight up your calf.

The real skinny girls always had wrinkly ones, and they didnt look good, white boots I think were fashionable,

I am not a tall person, and have small feet and always had problems getting shoes to fit,

Is Timpsons, Dolcies still selling shoes these days.

 

What about, Chealsea girl, Etams, C&A, Dorothy PerkinsI used to shop there for clothes, still you may not be interested being a bloke, maybe some women will know, I left school in 74, so didnt have a lot of money, so didnt shop in the expensive places

[Plain Talker]

Originally posted by nsiebert

owdlad

What a memory, or did you look it up somewhere?

 

When we went to the Saturday morning top rank, when I was a kid, we used to try and dance like the 'go go dancers'.

I remember the wet look boots, and they had to fit really tight up your calf.

The real skinny girls always had wrinkly ones, and they didnt look good, white boots I think were fashionable,

I am not a tall person, and have small feet and always had problems getting shoes to fit,

Is Timpsons, Dolcies still selling shoes these days.

 

What about, Chealsea girl, Etams, C&A, Dorothy PerkinsI used to shop there for clothes, still you may not be interested being a bloke, maybe some women will know, I left school in 74, so didnt have a lot of money, so didnt shop in the expensive places

 

don't forget "clock-house" brand, at C&A... sexy rexies, (and of course "pippy's"!)

 

saxone shoe shop had a "tall and small" department with sizes 1,2, & 3, and sizes 8, 9, & 10.... they are shut down, now, so I have to buy my "broad-fitting size 9's at Evans'.

 

and as for those plastic, "wet-look" boots,

do you remember the craze for those sock-like things, that you could wear with your ordinary court shoes, that turned them into "boots"? they were made from the same wet-look pvc material as the boots. I remember them being in black, and white, but I can't remember any other colours.

 

and who remembers "Stylo's Bargain Basement" beside the old blue bell (now cavells ) on high street? shoes (seconds, or end of range, usually), for a couple of quid a pair...

 

PT

[nsiebert]

PT

I remember Saxone's, and those plastic things,

Sounds like I have the opposite problem to you though.

There was also wet look coats, I had a red one,

It had a zip up the front, but some had poppers.

There was those caps too, that had the peak on the front,

What about hot pants, those boots reminded me,

Alas I did not have good legs, so didnt like to wear them.

[owdlad]

Originally posted by nsiebert

owdlad

What a memory, or did you look it up somewhere?

 

When we went to the Saturday morning top rank, when I was a kid, we used to try and dance like the 'go go dancers'.

I remember the wet look boots, and they had to fit really tight up your calf.

The real skinny girls always had wrinkly ones, and they didnt look good, white boots I think were fashionable,

I am not a tall person, and have small feet and always had problems getting shoes to fit,

Is Timpsons, Dolcies still selling shoes these days.

 

What about, Chealsea girl, Etams, C&A, Dorothy PerkinsI used to shop there for clothes, still you may not be interested being a bloke, maybe some women will know, I left school in 74, so didnt have a lot of money, so didnt shop in the expensive places

 

Nadine I have to admit to cheating regarding Pans People, I couldn't remember Andi and Louise, but the others came straight to mind, and just so that you and PT don't get carried away with all that talk of wet look shoes and boots, most of the lads thought they looked like Wellies

[nsiebert]

Wellies!!!

Thats another name I havent heard for ages, they are called "Gum Boots" here.

 

I suppose they did look like Wellies, we thought they looked great.

I had these white bell bottom trousers and I thought I was great in them,

 

Later on the high platform shoes came out and it seemed the higher the better, we all must have looked terrible.

 

What about the midi and maxi coats, I was given some money for my birthday and went to Attercliffe to a shop called "Banners" and bought a maxi coat, and my Dad marched me straight back to the shop saying it was ridiculous, he let me have a midi coat though, it was dark blue with a tie belt.

[timo]

Plaintalker- yes I do remember Stylo's near the Blue Bell! This thread is bringing back some long, long forgotten memories [if that's not a contradiction in terms].

Nadine, I have very fond memories of a certain Christine in Hotpants! We lads used to roll our trousers up at Concord Middle School in an attempt to satirise Hot Pants. It amused the "dinner ladies", but gained us no favours from the girls. You are right re the Skinhead culture- kids adopted the style but rarely the serious violence associated with the image. I can remember EVERY lad in my middle school class having the haircut at one point. Scotts of the Wicker was the fashionable barber then.

[nsiebert]

Timo

I remember a certain Christine in hot pants too.

She always had lots of clothes and certainly more than I had.

 

Does anyone remember the catalogues, do you still have those.

big thick things that you could buy just about anything in.

There was kayes I think and some others

I know the women like to buy things from them, you could even carpet your house.

 

I remember when cassette recorders came out and it seemed great after those spools of tape, and I remember staring through a neighbours window when they got a colour television that they won on the pools, how times have changed.

 

My Dad had a motor scooter and sidecar and I remember him looking at a reliant, because you could have the same licence, what a hideous car they were.

[timo]

Nadine, glad the memories of, "a certain Christine" in Hotpants are shared by you too. I was beginning to think they might be the product of my beautiful imagination.

Re catalogues- yes, I believe they are stll available. Of course, nowadays one wouldn't wish to shop through a catalogue, would one? Only joking! I do remember Kays, and also Brian Mills catalogues. They doubtless saved many a family a "bob or two", as we used to say.

Do you remember those truly terrible LPs in the 70s, which were called [i think] Top Pops? They always had a bikini-clad young woman on the front, and were rotten cover versions of the latest hits. You would get a version of, say, a Slade or T.Rex hit as performed by some unknown "session musicians". I recall a hilariously bad version of The Osmonds' Crazy Horses [the original was bad enough...].