back to the 70s

[Viper]

We just had a power cut. Hubby left for France at 6.30 and 7.15 all our electricity went off. Looked outside and npticed everyone else was ok. The man next door checked our fuses, all ok. I called our electricity company, they said someone would be out by 10pm.

someone turned up about an hour later but they went right past so DD chased them and they said it was every other house in the street.

 

Well it's fixed now.

 

The most stricking thing was that my kids were totaly lost. They resorted to ringing people on their mobiles cos they were bored. How would they have survived in the 70's?

For those too young to remember, we had a lot of industrial strikes and power cuts every night for quite a long time. Of corse I can't remember much about it cos I was only tiny then but I still remember the candles everywhere.

[hev]

i always say im going to get prepared and leave candles and matches in a safe place but i never do,we had a power cut few weeks ago and i was in the bath,it was horrendous!!was you prepared for your power cut viper?

[justamom]

If that happened to us I would have been blamed for not paying the bill!! Not good a remembering to pay things on time!!!!

 

Good job they are all ok, in our house we probably would not even have been able to find a lighter or the mobile phones so they would be very bored in the dark!!!

[phasmid]

My mum went out and bought a gas powered camping light (which I finally 'did for' on a night fishing trip many years later) so we had light. We had a gas cooker so that was OK. We thought thet were great fun.

 

Who remembers the TV strike one summer (76?) ?

[Brook]

Viper,

 

I know what they would have done in this house! either got the torches out and shined them on their

DS's, or watched the portable dvd player.

 

Phasmid,

I dont remember the TV strike, but I do remember that 76 was a scorcher, my mum took us to

Butlins that year, maybe the strike was on when we were there.

 

Brook

[Paula]

Weve had power cuts also.And its daft but youre sort of left wondering oh god what do we do.

 

Kids whinge coz theres no tv,so you think ill shove on the pc,radio,cd player and then realise all these things require electricity.I always think its a good idea to do the ironing !!!!!!!!!!! againe cant.

 

You only realise how reliant we are on electricity and stuff when its cut of.A minute seams like an hour.We all end up argueing and thinking please come back on.

 

Makes you relaise how lucky we are that we dont have daily power cuts and stuff.

[lil_me]

We get them all the time

 

And they have a planned one tomorrow, power will be off at least 9am-5pm possibly longer according to the letter, they are trying to reduce the amount of power cuts we have, but they've done it before and it hasn't worked. I could keep them occupied, but it also means we have no heating so we're taking them out for the day, just hope my lizard will be ok without his heaters and my freezer will stay cold

Edited February 22, 2006 by lil_me

[lancelot]

I like power cuts!! Off they all go to bed with a torch, because they don't like the dark. No chance of TV or computer squabbles, no distractions -- I'm often tempted to flick the main fuse switch and fake one.

 

We had a cut two nights back, and after about five mintues, I realised a concerned little voice was saying from the downstairs loo, 'It's very very dark in here, mum, and I can't see my bottom.'

 

My youngest is a remarkably unflappable little girl!

[DaisyProudfoot]

When hubbs and I first got married and the eldest was born our electricity was condemned and we went without for six weeks with a newborn in the house.

 

We cooked on the open fire, bathed the baby in front of it in water heated by the back boiler and lived life by candle-light.

 

This was not 1950, this was 1990!

[Jill]

Don't remember the tv strike in 1976, but then again we didn't really watch much telly. Reckon it's cos most of it was rubbish!!

 

Daisy - you really don't have much luck with electricity do you? If it's not "getting" you it's failing!

 

We've (luckily) only had one power cut since The Boy was born. He really didn't like it so just "glued" himself to me. Everywhere I went I had this little hand clutching mine. He wasn't even keen when we finally found the battery powered camping light & insisted on sitting squashed right up next to me.

[LKS]

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the power strikes of the 70's mainly because the schools had to take it in turns to close down to conserve power I was absolutely delighted as I hated school. Also the local electricity showroom used to post a list of when your street was due to be turned off, We became quite organised. Can't really remember a tv strike but remember tele finishing early

[Brook]

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the power strikes of the 70's mainly because the schools had to take it in turns to close down to conserve power I was absolutely delighted as I hated school. Also the local electricity showroom used to post a list of when your street was due to be turned off, We became quite organised. Can't really remember a tv strike but remember tele finishing early

Oh yeah, the tele finishing, oh I wish it still would.

 

Do you remember they used to play the national anthem!! and also the test card with the little girl on it,

cant remember if she was holding a toy or writing on a blackboard.

anyone know?

 

Brook

[DaisyProudfoot]

She had a little ragdoll AND she was writing on the blackboard

[Brook]

She had a little ragdoll AND she was writing on the blackboard

Thanks Daisy,

 

I was nearly right.

 

Brook

[Jill]

I always found that girl with the blackboard a bit scary. Something about that smile.............

 

Been watching "Life on Mars" on a Monday night. The testcard girl comes out of the telly & talks to the hero - you have to watch it to understand (it does make sense in the context of the story). She's quite sinister in that too, which made me think the writer of the series must feel the same about her as I did!

[Paula]

Jill

 

I love that programme life on mars.Its the best thing on bbc 1.

 

I laugh at the outrageous copper called Gene.Hes brill.

 

I wonder how its going to end if its going to conclude.Dont think it will coz theyll need another series.

 

Hes defo in a coma though isnt he.Not actually gone back in time.

 

 

Made me think if maybe policeing went back to those old fashioned un pc methods maybe crime wouldnt be as bad.

[Nemesis]

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the power strikes of the 70's mainly because the schools had to take it in turns to close down to conserve power I was absolutely delighted as I hated school. Also the local electricity showroom used to post a list of when your street was due to be turned off, We became quite organised. Can't really remember a tv strike but remember tele finishing early

Those were the days When the TV finished early we used to play cards and board games. The power went off at a friends birthday party - in the dark with a house full of young kids. Can you imagine

Does anyone remember not being able to get loo roll - we used to cut kitchen rolls in two but they blocked the loo Couldn't get bread either - had to queue for it when it came in.

Nemesis.

[DaisyProudfoot]

Why do I feel this is turning into a KITCHEN ROLL ... you were lucky...when we were little all we had was a handful of moss with a sprig of holly sticking out..... and we were grateful......type threads

 

Eeeehhh them were the days!

[Viper]

not quite the moss but I do remember we had newspaper hanging from our toilet roll holder. And during power cuts it was the only time we had lights in our bedrooms. We were very poor and were only allowed to have a bulb on the landing. We used to argue about who was going to turn off the light before hurtling through the dark to get back in bed before the bogey man got you.

[Jill]

Jill

 

I love that programme life on mars.Its the best thing on bbc 1.

 

I laugh at the outrageous copper called Gene.Hes brill.

 

I wonder how its going to end if its going to conclude.Dont think it will coz theyll need another series.

 

Hes defo in a coma though isnt he.Not actually gone back in time.

Made me think if maybe policeing went back to those old fashioned un pc methods maybe crime wouldnt be as bad.

 

Paula

 

I hope it doesn't end tonight - I'd love another series. Parts of it really make me laff - like the episode when they were chasing the bad guy out of the swimming baths & they were all in swimming trunks. Coma Guy whips out his police badge and looks at Gene expectantly. Gene looks down at his (very 70's) swimming trunks and says the immortal line "no badge in there son, altho it's tickled a few doors open in its time".

 

I think he's in a coma too, but it is odd how he's created such a perfect scenario. Apparently he comes face to face with his dad tonight. Can't wait!