Last Sunday we invited a group of friends around for lunch and, just for a bit of fun, I decided to have a seventies theme. I knew that all of our guests would have some memories to share about The Age of Aquarius and that we’d all been living in various countries around the world during that decade.

I offered nuts, olives and an old ‘70’s favourite – a grapefruit studded with cubes of cheese, tiny pickled onions and gherkins and slices of cabana, which brought howls of laughter from our friends. Jack poured beer for the men and we ladies sipped either sherry or vermouth and soda as we started exchanging memories of nearly 40 years ago.

Seating everyone around the table, I served halved avocadoes, filled with prawns and homemade seafood sauce. We talked about such meals as fondue parties, serving the traditional roast dinner to the family(including our parents and in-laws) each Sunday, the introduction of such fast food outlets as Hungry Jacks, Colonel Sander’s Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut to Australia.

Ben talked about working on a kibbutz in Israel as I brought the Beef and Guinness pie to the table and Sue remembered serving gratin potatoes as her ‘dinner party’ potato specialty as I cut slices to serve with the pie. Geraldine talked about the various pies she’d eaten around the UK – Beef and Stilton, Star-Gazy Pies in Cornwall, Chicken and leek pie in Wales and Eel pie in London.

I’d really dithered about what to make for dessert – Australia’s perennial favourite Pavlova with strawberries and passionfruit, Crème Caramel, an old fashioned Sherry Trifle? In the end I decided that a light mousse would be ideal and settled for fresh lemon mousse was preferable to the much richer Chocolate version.

Over coffee we discussed music from the 70’s and favourites ranged from Rod Stewart, Elton John, Abba, Kate Bush, John Denver, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bread and Neil Diamond. Movies such as ‘Midnight Cowboy’, ‘The Sting’, ‘Love Story’, ‘Cabaret’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Rocky’ and ‘Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid’, ‘The Godfather’, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Catch 22’ were amongst our top films from the decade. The women recalled wearing Laura Ashley frocks, crocheted vests and chucky shoes, while Jack and Ben talked about such fashion horrors as flares, body shirts, floral ties and ‘Che’ moustaches.

Do you remember the 70’s? Were you at Woodstock or perhaps at the Sunshine Pop Festival in Melbourne? How did you wear your hair? I’d love to hear some of your memories about that decade.