Same here - left school at 16 in 1970 and started working for a living. NZ was in a bit of a time lag - but growing up in the '50's and '60's and then being let loose as teenagers into the adult world in the '70's was heady stuff - we didn't have a clue what was going on, but it didn't matter, we just ran with it.I turned 18 in 1971 and it was amazing.
My 50 years working in the motor trade has been good - starting out working on '50's and '60's stuff, and then just rolling onto the high tech stuff of today...the best of times. But I think the perfect years for the motor trade would be from 1950 to 2,000. Starting out working on pre war vehicles, and then into the prosperous '50's and '60's, then the drama from the '70's on...and then stepping off the bus in 2,000, before things got too complicated.