On the Dole in the Seventies - Nothing on TV - Maybe next week

Nor were the Conservative party working

On leaving school in the mid-seventies and finding myself jobless there was little else to do other than trips to the careers office. The dole was shit I think it was like £12.50 which could just about help with my hobby, Cardiff City Football Club there was little spare cash so having money for the other six days of the week in my pocket just wasn’t happening.

I would sign on 9’o clock every Thursday see my careers adviser who would flick through the job cards and 9 times out of 10 sign my card and tell me maybe next week. My giro would drop through the letterbox on Saturday match day, which was handy, but not if it was an away game because I couldn’t cash it at the post office until 9am when the post office opened. So that is where most of the dole money would go during football season anyway.

Waiting for the next visit to the careers office there was little else to do but wait for the postman and the possibility of a job interview or switch the TV on and watch schools programming because that was all that was on in the morning. I remember a few ‘How we used to Live’ and one called ‘You and Me’ and the sad thing is after all these years I can still remember the opening title song.

Afternoon TV was no better ‘Pebble Mill’ on the BBC and ‘Crown Court’ on ITV although it wasn’t really that bad. Has your mates started to get jobs life just got more and more boring.

That was how sad TV was back then three channels and barely any TV. Not many jobs either but lots of competition same old faces some job interviews could be like a careers office reunion. I was not the happiest bunny in the shop window waiting for someone to buy me, give me a job, I saw my careers officer so often we could have been friends.