IN the 1970s certain things were of little concern to the public. Here are some that look a bit weird now.
Physical safety
If, as a child, you injured yourself, your parents would simply say: ‘Put some TCP on it.’ A dab of TCP would resolve anything from toothache to being run over by a lorry.
A good school for your children
If you were fed mashed potato from an ice cream scoop at lunchtime and did not actually die over the course of a day, parents were fine with that. The actual teaching was irrelevant, so long as you could vaguely remember your times tables. Seven eights are 56. Job done.
Going out and exploring
Not in itself bad. In fact very Famous Five. Until you discover manhole covers and 20-foot drops.
Extremely dangerous fireworks
The public safety films of the time encouraged you to keep them in a biscuit tin. No one gave a shit though so every fireworks night was a high-risk evening of crazed dogs, bonfires close to buildings and blowing your fingers off with small explosives.
Paedos
Paedophiles had it easy in the 70s. If a PE teacher liked to get a gym class to run around in just their pants, he was ‘a bit unusual’, rather than ‘a sexual pervert’.
Clothes
Parents nowadays tend to not to want their child to look like a twat. This was not an issue in the 1970s, when children were actively made to wear orange tank tops.
