Growing up in the 60 & 70s

Ok ids- the kids

Yes, we were thinner and our parents lets us go off and have fun.

I did not know about job opportunities---I was a kid.

I read somewhere recently that young males now spend 90% of their free time on video games.

They're going to ruin their eyes, bodies, social skills and future success if they don't know to read, write, learn and communicate.

Bullying was rampant in schools and was not addressed at all.

I grew up in the late '50's and '60's (H.S. and college in the 70's). Yes, our parents let us play outside a lot - riding bikes all over the neighborhood, playing chase, etc. Much more physical activity than kids today. Of course, it was also a much safer time then.

There were standardized tests in the schools I went to in the '60s and '70s. We took Iowa tests yearly, and in high school in the '70s I took PSAT and SAT and AP tests. I was given Stanford-Binet IQ tests, too. These things weren't so different.

You didn't have to have a college degree to get a job you could live on, and college debt was very low. It was easy to rent an affordable apartment or little house, and you didn't have to provide much of any personal info.

A huge difference in schools and attitudes was that adults looked the other way when kids were bullied. Adults bullied kids quite a lot, too. That part was much worse than today.

We played outside a lot more, had more freedom, and were expected to manage ourselves and entertain ourselves. The adults had their own lives to lead.

We were made to eat balanced meals, but also had a huge variety of processed junk foods, except the ingredients were different--things weren't full of soy and high-fructose corn syrup. People didn't expect to snack all the damn time, as they do now. Portions were smaller, too.

A child being even a little overweight was rare, to the point that I can think back to then, and remember the one or maybe two fat kids in the entire school. And what were considered "fat" kids then were, by today's standards, only slightly pudgy.

It was a bit soul crushing to be "different," not straight, whatever. You spent a lot of time feeling like a monster and trying to hide your real self.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Yes, we did play outside all day. We didn’t have air conditioning, so being outside was preferable to being inside an insufferably hot house. Television consisted of only ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and two local channels - so if soap operas weren’t your thing during a hot summer day, you were screwed. No such thing as videos or computer games, either. Just cards and board games.

So, we’d ride our bikes to the local recreation center, parks or to the river and play outside all day. No arranged play dates. We were on our own and responsible for ourselves and frequently our younger brothers and sisters.

We did have annual standardized tests, which sucked because they were boring as hell. My two older sisters left school in 10th and 11th grade. Both returned years later, got their GEDs and went on to get their bachelor’s and one got her master’s.

I went in the military, which paid for most of my undergrad. I wound up redoing it again to get one in computer science.

Zero percent helicopter parents. My dad was fond of going to parent-teacher conferences and telling the teachers “give him more work to do”

R5, much safer? Not really.

But it was before media exaggerated the number of children kidnapped and abused. It was rare then and rare now...but people seem to think it happens more now.

There was no greater disgrace than to be known as a homosexual. Same as today! Fish, lesbos, didn't count.

It must’ve been heaven without the 24 hour news cycle and fake media.

I don’t think today is any more dangerous. We just didn’t worry about the bogeyman so much.

Thanks for clearing up my misconception about standardized tests, I honestly thought that didn’t happen til the early 80s. I forgot that no air conditioning also made everyone get out more. I read an article that said these were safer than because every single person was sitting on their porch. If you did something wrong there is always several people that saw it. Apparently crime rose after air conditioning because more people are inside

As kids we actually played together, hide and seek and whatever we came up with. In the countryside we played in the forest a lot. Some kids were overweight but it wasn't common.

R8 - agreed that it wasn't safer, but I would say that things just didn't get reported. Child sex abuse and physical abuse was much much worse - but it was considered more a private affair or something people didn't want to talk about or believe. Sexual harrassment was commonplace.

Crime rates in cities were much higher then too. Children were a byproduct of marriage and sex - they weren't planned as much and it wasn't considered so special to have kids.

Adults reared children, but with a LOT less supervision. Kids made their own fun and were more responsible for themselves.

R6 and r7 thanks for sharing that

I graduated mid 90s which was right before or maybe just the start of helicopter parenting. I think that a lot of these parents grew up when some of the teachers were sadists and it was seen as OK, or they Realize had their ass beat every day by their parents didn’t make them stronger adults, just made them hate their parents and limit contact with the grandchildren

I was a kid in the 1970s yeah kids were thinner they played more there wasn’t so much television culture and there wasn’t social media and portions were smaller.

This was also normal through the 80s and well into the 90s.

For teens -We weren't as driven as most kids are now. Not everybody went to college. And this was NoVA - most kids had very successful parents. Our clothes were preppy and no style.The school had strict dress codes. Girls could not wear sandals of any kind. Toes had to be covered! Everything was centered around getting a drivers license and we drove around mostly to hear the music on the car radio. Lots of school dances. I don't remember anyone overweight now that I think about it. Laugh In was a must see. But tv wasn't everything.

R5 Statistically, society is safer and has less crime than ever. It is a myth that the good ol' days were safer. Strife and violence sells, so the media focuses on those stories which lead people to believe the world is more dangerous than ever, when in reality the opposite is true...

What is NoVA?

I grew up in the 70’s and early 80’s. We played outside until it got dark. Rode bikes, skateboards, roller skates, climbed trees, did cartwheels and invented games. There weren’t helicopter parents at all. Kids had maybe one or two activities outside of school if they were lucky—usually piano lessons and scouts. Parents sat on porches smoking cigarettes. Kids weren’t fat, even though they ate bologna sandwiches on white bread and little Debbie snack cakes. We spent entire summer days at the pool. There wasn’t much on TV. We listened to music a lot. Records were a big deal. I read a lot, too. Probably several books a week, checked out from the library. There was a lot more careless cruelty to children, animals and the environment. Most mothers stayed home, unless they were divorced, in which case they were secretaries or real estate agents. They had frosted hair and wore panty hose. Dads were more invisible.i have no idea what they were up to, other than mowing grass and watching football games.

Kids were hit / spanked all the time. There were lots of fights after school. Teachers would degrade certain students. There was actually a lot more drinking and drugs by adults and teens.

There was a lot more emphasis on fashion, but not necessarily having a perfect body or perfect face. Fashion changed pretty frequently, which was kinda fun.

Music was only available on the radio, so records were a big deal. Concerts were cheap then too.

We smoked our first pole at age 12! He was 13, german/italian and had the most magnificent 8-incher we have ever tasted! (He said that he had just fucked his first fish a couple of months before, which made it even hotter)

God I hate Erna and his juvenile posts. Nobody thinks you're funny Erna - you sound like a creepy old perv in every post.

r25=fish?

We weren’t overwhelmed with information and all the choices!

The world seemed a lot smaller then. My hometown was my Universe. The nearest city, Boston, I knew well, but other cities might as well have been on Mars. You couldn’t just pull up a million photographs of Paris on your phone, you had to actually go there, or read about it in a book. Most of the world was a mystery.

I also grew up in the 60's and the 70's. Agree with what the vast majority have said

. Yes, there were fights outside of school but not with weapons and no school shooting. Makes me wonder if there is a correlation?

[quote]No standardized testing

Where did you get that idea?

Typical 1970s teens

NoVa- Northern Virginia. Shorthand for a very wealthy, highly educated for the most part.

I remember missing the bus in Jr. High, on occasion, I’d just hoof it back home, a couple of miles away, walking down a fairly busy road, and cutting through the woods to get there. Being self reliant was certainly more prevalent then.

I live a few blocks from a "charter" school, whatever that is, and every weekday traffic grinds to a halt with cars parked everywhere, across pedestrian crossings, blocking side streets, as parents pick up their kids, many of whom are teenagers. The only time my parents picked me up at school is if we were headed off for a long trip somewhere.

Cars were huge in the 60’s. My friends and I would hang on for dear life as cars turned corners, otherwise, we’s Slide across the seat to the other side.

I walked several blocks to elementary school with a 6 year old neighbor and classmate. No chaperones. Not a big deal.

In the 60’s it wasn’t unusual for young, college-educated families to have only one family car. I don’t recall our family having two cars until the late 60’s.

I occasionally rode my bike 8 round-trip miles to visit my grandmother until I discovered a shortcut through the woods. My parents found out my visits after the fact.

I built forts, climbed trees and caught tadpoles deep into heavily wooded areas all by myself as a child. No one worried about that.

The homemakers would hurry to finish housekeeping chores and dinner preparations so they could gather to watch Dark Shadows or hang out, smoking and chatting. Only the men worked in my neighborhood and they tended to be remote compared to mothers.

On summer nights, we had no air conditioning so we would watch TV in our open garage (Sonny & Cher, All in the Family). Neighbors would stop by to chat and watch TV with us or we would join them in their garages. The whole suburban neighborhood knew each other, would sit in lawn chairs in the evenings to chat and wave. There were no built-in pools in my Midwestern neighborhood but lots of big assembled pools in yards. Kids were everywhere, playing outdoors. To stay inside was considered a punishment.

Cocktail hour took place after our fathers came home from works. After our parents had a couple cocktails and discussed their day, dinner would be served. We always ate a large sit-down family dinner and dinners included desserts. My mother was considered exotic in the late 60’s because she always served a salad (iceberg lettuce, of course).

R35 sounds like a wonderful childhood. Are your parents still with you?

I grew up in the 2000s and all the neighborhood kids used to play outside everyday as well. It’s really only in the last 5 years that parents have started shoving iPads in their kids faces instead of letting them have fun.

Yes kids walked to school by themselves at an early age - I did it in 2nd grade. And this was the generation of latch-key kids who were home unsupervised after school until their parents got home. But we watched a LOT of TV - even with only a handful of channels.

Now it is illegal to let children under the age of 14 alone and unsupervised. THAT is crazy.

There were a lot fewer restaurants then - people didn't go out to eat that often. Grocery stores were also a lot smaller. There weren't as many food choices and it wasn't that convenient.

The 70s were fun as hell, until the white trash, knuckle-draggers had to murder disco. And it's been all downhill since.

Yep. We were out all day, unsupervised. I grew up in a rural area and we wandered through fields and forests all day. We rode bikes, climbed stuff, picked up rocks to see what was underneath. If we got a scratch, we'd rinse it off in a mud puddle. Good times!

People didn't really think about food so much. Take snacks - you had the choice of potato chips, pretzels or Cheetos. One flavor each. Ice cream was vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. Not whole aisles of choices, like today.

TV - three channels. Everyone watched the same shows. Not much on for kids, except for silly sitcoms like the Beverly Hillbillies, which I loved. We got Saturday morning cartoons, and when they ended around noon, that was it - you turned off the TV and went outside to play.

I know every old geezer glamorizes his own era, but I'm really sorry today's kids don't know that world.

I love these stories so much! I wish people still sat outside and talked on summer nights.

I remember we rode in the backs of pickup trucks back from the pool. Wet hair drying out in the wind. It was a treat to stop at Highs and get an ice cream cone.

[quote]kids were thinner

Then why did I have to wear husky pants?

Oh and sunscreen - there was hardly any of that. Some people put zinc oxide on their nose - but other than that, I think the highest SPF was 6 and you were considered a puss for using it. Most people used SPF2, if that.

Sun burns were common. And playground equipment was not kid-friendly. There was no rubber padding to fall on - just hard concrete. Rusted old swings, steel slides that would get to 150 degrees in the sun, and metal playground equipment with rust and broken ends that you could cut your hand on. I don't recall anyone getting seriously injured - but then again, stories like that weren't popular news items.

It is amazing, but you really had no resources of what it was like to live in other cities or countries. You had to visit - books only showed so much.

R35

Sound like my childhood to the T except my parents didn't do cocktail hour.

[quote] Were the kids really playing outside for six hours a day?

As a kid in the 60's during the summer I would often get dressed in the morning, eat breakfast and often leave the house not to return until lunch, if I was thirsty a drink could be had out of any of the neighborhood hoses. After lunch the same thing until around dinner time, then it was watching a black and white TV until bedtime. Father picked out what we would watch, no one else got a vote. Us kids were required to change the channel as we weren't rich enough for those new fancy TV's with remotes, which was called a clicker then, we were the remotes there were only three channels. No one worried about anyone getting abducted or kidnapped.

R21 Northern Virginia

OP, I didn't play outside, because my id wasn't ok.

In school while we didn't have school shootings, we had nuclear wars drills, the signal would go off and we were trained to get under our desks and cover our heads to protect ourselves when the nuclear bomb went off. Later they decided it was a better idea to have all the kids line up in the hallway so we wouldn't get cut by the windows when they exploded inward from the blast. They actually taught us that would protect us from the nuclear blast.

No bottled water either. You would drink out of hoses or water fountains.

To clarify, when I said playing for six hours, I was thinking after school. Was there a lot of homework back then?

LOL - yep R48. That nuclear fallout didn't stand a chance with those desks as protection.

On the flip side of things - we were a lot more naive and, dare I say, stupid and ignorant about things and the world.

Racism was the norm. Gays were fired and beaten up. Women were sexually harrassed and beaten by their husbands and bfs. Populations were almost 100% segregated. Women couldn't own things - couldn't get a credit card or mortgage without her husband's signature. Without a husband, good luck!

We all knew about the neighborhood Chester Molester and avoided him. Someone missed the memo on the groping Boy Scout pack leader, though. Bullying was more rampant and it was considered uncool to tell parents. It just wasn’t done. Summers were spent outside all day at parks or people’s houses until nightfall, and then kids would gather in backyards. My parents had no idea who some of my friends were and I hung with a rough crowd for a time, doing things that could have hurt my future if I got caught.

I am white and while my father was always a huge racist, my mother never seemed to have much to say on the subject. In the 60's we lived in a small all white town but when we went into the big city were there were blacks, as soon as my father would even see a black person, the command went out to lock the car doors. That has a lasting effect on kids.

We took a vacation to Washington DC, saw all the sites and had a great time. I remember my mother and I getting on the elevator of the hotel in DC, everyone else on the elevator were staff of the hotel who were all black. They were laughing, joking, smiling and having a great time, I remembered laughing with them and everything seemed cool. When we got off the elevator and the doors closed my mother said, "I have never been so scared in my entire life". I was puzzled and asked why, she said "We were the only white people on that elevator", it seemed like such a crazy thing to say, to be scared of smiling happy people only because their skin was dark.

Yeah we played the woods a lot until a friend got was once the tool shed in her barn and that became a clubhouse. We would build snow forts in the streets. Went home when I heard my mother call out the back porch. Then my parents bought a small cottage by a Massachusetts south shore beach. We would put on our bathing suits and they just about stayed always.on except for Sunday. We hit the beach at 9 and stayed til we got hungry and then ran home barefoot and grabbed a sandwich and then back again. Mom might be at the beach or hanging with a neighbor. Friends would have a boat and we would go exploring the bay. Lots of poison ivy on kids. Sunburns all the time. We would run behind the DDT fogger when it drove up our street.

Fricking heaven.

More bullies back then but you could fight back. I beat the piss out of my bully and my parents never found out.

'60s and '70s here - moms didn't work (maybe one or two, like part time jobs at Sears or something like that). Divorce was unheard of (Catholic neighborhood for the most part.) Catholic school uniforms so no competition for fashion choices. We had a school bus service, but actually preferred to walk most days except in winter. Our parents wouldn't THINK of driving us to school - later, in high school, we started car pools with 4 or 5 other moms alternating driving.

Catholic schools were nearly 100% staffed by nuns; was excited in 6th grade to get a "lay" teacher. Academic standards were pretty high; teaching was different, lots of vocabulary and math drills. Nobody gave a fuck about your "feelings" - no grading "on the curve." We had "singing" as a class, with a regular songbook, where we learned three and four part harmony songs, many of which I remember to this day. (That's not counting church music for those of us who joined choir.) Believe it or not, when we were taken on field trips on the school bus, we often spontaneously sang songs - things like "Oh They Built the Ship Titanic" and "Bill Grogan's Goat" - the whole fucking bus of 30 or 40 kids or so. Kids would say "damn" or "hell" but NEVER dropped the F bomb - we had stupid expressions like "cooties" or "dork" or slang we heard on our transistor radios. We all listened to the same radio station, where you could call in and win a 45 record, or leave a message for your boyfriend or girlfriend. NOBODY smoked in the grade school I went to - it would have been tantamount to first degree murder. We took Iowa tests every year and were drilled relentlessly for these a few weeks ahead of time. We also had a class called "Health" which we all liked because the textbook featured little vignettes of kids in various situations that covered things like grooming and relationships with parents and friends, which we would then discuss in class. I remember a chapter called "Why Don't They Ever Ask Me?" about a girl who felt excluded. We got a very good education in those days, even with all the church. We started at 7:30 am and went until 3:30 pm. Now the little fuckers, even in high school, get out at 2:15! And that's with no church! Also 100% white population in a middle class suburb, although in 6th grade or so a family moved in who had "escaped from Poland" and their son and daughter joined our class even though they spoke pretty broken English. They did well quickly. We were always afraid the "Communists" were going to "take over" and our Catholic faith would be tested. This seemed like a pretty remote possibility until the Cuban missile crisis, which none of us really understood, but we thought either the Communists were finally coming or they were going to drop the bomb on us. We all loved President Kennedy. I was in 8th grade when one of our "lay" teachers, a black woman no less, told us that Kennedy had been shot and killed.

Growing up in the 70's was great. We used to attempt to jump impossible distances and I broke my leg once and my arm twice (plus several concussions) my parents would be charged with neglect (or abuse) now.

My parents were pretty cool though and even bought my cigarettes after I was about 13. I never really saw much of them though to be honest, I was never in the house.

Mom used to send to the store to buy her smokes. My parents would ask me to pour them their cocktails. I was 8.

Seems like there was less of parents being chauffeurs and short order cooks. Kids either took the bus or walked to/from school. As far as meals, less going out to eat, more eating at home. My mom cooked one meal for everybody in the household. A friend of mine, who grew up in circumstances similar to mine, cooks separate meals for her kids (frozen chicken nuggets, McDonald's, etc.). I think my friend's kids will struggle with weight later on in life.

[quote]On summer nights, we had no air conditioning so we would watch TV in our open garage (Sonny & Cher, All in the Family). Neighbors would stop by to chat and watch TV with us or we would join them in their garages.

Could your neighbors hear your TV and your blabbing?

It must have been nice to come home from school and your mum was actually there and she had cooked a real meal for you.

Were people really better dressed back then or is this a movie thing? Did they have better manners?

We also got fuck up the ass at 13...loved it !!!

Until the early 1970s, my mother wore a dress, make up and heels to the grocery store. The *idea* of going in public without her face and hair was just not thinkable.

She was a lady. We were poor, but we weren’t trash. Well, mother wasn’t trash .

[quote] Until the early 1970s, my mother wore a dress, make up and heels to the grocery store. The *idea* of going in public without her face and hair was just not thinkable.

My neighbor's mother would always go out of the house in hair curlers. She also wore curlers inside the house. Her hair was in curlers more than it wasn't in curlers.

It’s true what previous posters have said about everyone riding bikes. We rode everywhere. You always looked forward to Saturday morning for cartoons and the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evening. There wasn’t the gun violence of today and when a teacher said something to you it was law. People weren’t naive about sex, just guarded. When a girl became pregnant she was out of school. Now to some not so great things. I am white and we lived in a middle class suburb. My mom stayed home (but did odd jobs when she wanted extra money) and my dad was the breadwinner. For minorities it was a different story. Mexicans lived in their barrio and blacks their’s. It was difficult for my family as we had immigrated to the USA and didn’t understand the inherent racism. We lived in the south for a time and had some run ins with southerners who didn’t take kindly to my family treating blacks as equals. It bothers me today when I hear people longing for the good old days. Just like today there was good and bad. I appreciate the progress we continue to make even with the upheaval. As Carly Simon said, ‘these are the good old days ‘.

[quote] Were people really better dressed back then or is this a movie thing? Did they have better manners?

That would just depend on how much money you had (the clothing part). There were very poor people and single parents back then as there are now. Manners, that would just depend on what your parents taught you or what you decided for yourself to be good manners.

^^^ I got spanked if I forgot to say “may I be excused” at the dinner table. We sat down for dinner every night st the same time. I can’t stand it when people don’t know how to hold a fork or don’t put their napkins on their laps.

r36, it’s r35 here. Yes, I did have a happy childhood for the most part. (As I get older, I have a harder time recalling my parents’ faults and an easier time recalling their gifts. Funny.) My parents weren’t much older than me, which wasn’t unusual for that time. My mother had me at 18 and had three more kids by age 23. My dad was still an undergrad student when I was born. After never being sick her entire life (except when whole family caught the Hong Kong flu in the late 60’s), my mom died from lung cancer a couple weeks shy of her 60th birthday. I missed her most the night Obama became president. I wanted so much to call her. As for my dad, we’ll be celebrating his 80th birthday (and 10 years of sobriety) in Boston this August.

Thanks very much for asking.

Sorry about errors on earlier post, too. My phone was about to cut off.

Just watch any 60s or 70s TV show that had kids in them. You can easily see that kids were amazingly independent and autonomous back then compared to the way they are now. Of course that wasn't always realistically portrayed, but still nobody watching thought anything of it.

Born in 1960, graduated high school in 78. Thinner, perhaps. In grade school, I only recall one or two "overweight" kids. By high school, my small class of under 40 had 6 ana girls. Though it would be a few years before I heard the word anorexic, I knew there was something wrong with them. We took PSATs and SATs, so there were standardized tests. I grew up in a big city, so there wasn't a lot of running around outside on our own. That happened in high school. There were no cell phones, no apps like "Find a Friend," so your parents couldn't trace where you were. We had meat and potatoes on occasion, but also fish, lots of vegetables and fruits, vitamins, cod liver oil, no sugar cereals, because my mother read health food books. When she was away, my father let us have Sara Lee, french fries, and canned soup. We had to eat everything on our plate and say, "May I be excused?" If we went on an airline, we were dressed up--my mother dressed to the nines.

We sat down to eat together when we were kids but as we got older and had activities it got harder but my mother made us eat together at least once a week. I agree that it taught us table manners and I know young adults today who smack their food and eat with their mouths open. Obviously, good table manners have gone the way of the Dodo.

Grew up in the 70s and yes we would be outside all day. (There was one girl on our street who stayed inside reading and watching TV and she joined the military and achieved some decent rank and never married.)

There was maybe one chubby kid in every grade, and looking at old yearbook photos, they weren’t actually nearly as fat as the kids today.

R69 Funny that you should say that you didn't stay out much because you lived in a big City. I was born in Manchester UK very shortly after a series of terrible child murders (The Moors Murders) and it didn't impact upon my 'freedom' in any way.

I never experienced any kind of 'Helicopter' parenting.

We lost all our trees to Dutch Elm Disease. The neighborhoods were targeted for white flight and the bigots lost a lot of money selling out. Oil, steel, and auto would die by 1983.

I grew up in the 80s and had the same experience. All the kids in my neighborhood played outside after school and everyone took the bus or rode their bikes to school. My father was really involved in our upbringing though and regularly took us on trips on the weekends or after work to give my mum some time off. We would go fishing, to a sports event or visit family or friends and after that watch the Cosby Show or Miami Vice while he was holding us in his arms. My father also changed our diapers and got up at night to feed us, but my mum still complained a lot that he wasn't doing enough (although she was a stay at home mum). I guess I should read to her some of the stories here. Seems like 60s and 70s fathers were not very involved in their children's lives.

My brother now lives in a suburb and complains all the time that all of his neighbors drive their cars right into their garages and he never sees anyone outside. All of his neighbors have Mexican gardeners so he doesn't even see them in their gardens mowing the lawn or anything. All the kids in the neighborhood stay inside and they have to make play dates a week ahead to not have "scheduling conflicts" with the other kids. Most of the other kindergarten kids only hang out with their mom's or siblings and spontaneous play dates are seldom even if they live right next door or the same neighborhood.

I remember one fat person in my elementary school. I felt fat in junior high, but when I look at photos-- I was thin. Yes, we had freedom. We roved day and night. In packs, in smaller groups. On bicycles, on foot. I don't remember anyone's parents. They were just -- not there. At garden club? work? I remember everyone's black housekeepers' names. They were who fed us, who switched us. One friend's housekeeper who was really nice, vanished. We learned she shot her boyfriend. I wasn't shocked just sad I'd never see her again. As an adult I went to my housekeeper's funeral in my hometown, and all the other black ladies I'd known as a child were there. So yes, that was terrible for those women-- but for me it was so so much better than having my narcissistic mother and John Birch Society father around.

It is the generation that grew up in the 60s or 70s (or even older) that have dictated the government/social policies which collapsed the very “idealic” childhood they all got to have for themselves. Can someone please explain why this is? Why did they grow up to ruin it for everyone else?

R76 With respect, those of us who grew in the 60s are old enough to be grandparents now. We aren’t “dictating government/social policies” and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Perhaps you can explain what you mean by this.

I remember standardized testing. We had a test that would provide you not with an IQ score but the grade that you were performing at in a subject. I was reading at a college level in sixth grade, apparently.

Probably mentioned upthread but the 70s were really the last decade where a majority of the moms were at home. People were less concerned about letting their kids run around the neighborhood all day, because you had a set of eyes everywhere. Few people had an unlisted number, so if you were being a little shit, Mrs. So and So would call your mom and narc on you.

I was teased incessantly in grade school for being fat, but when I look at my pictures from then today I would be fit compared to most kids. Kids were super thin then, though, and I'm convinced it has to do with processed foods and additives.

There might be a half hour of homework.

I grew up in the late 50s and 60s. So different. We lived in an average NYC suburb, average family income -- maybe $15K a year, which made us middle class. One car, one one-week vacation a year to a friend's cottage in the Berkshires. A dog. Two kids, each of us had our own bedroom.

On Saturdays my mother would basically open the door after breakfast (which consisted of Lucky Charms with sugar, maybe two eggs and bacon, and orange juice) and tell me to come back at lunch unless a neighbor gave us lunch. Half the time I'd be out till lunch, which was a bologna sandwich and a coke. Or, at a friend's house, for maybe PB&J. Then the afternoon was spent outside, someplace -- usually we played ball in the street -- either kickball, football (touch), or spud or some such game. Then inside again for dinner (something like lamb chops with potatoes and boiled spinach). Then if it was warm, outside again till bedtime. If not warm, then tv.

In the summer, this was pretty much the routine every day. During school, days consisted of walking three miles to school (unless it was raining, then someone's parents gave everyone on the block a ride in their station wagon). Coming home after school and playing outside, unless it was cold. On cold or rainy days, we'd end up in someone's basement, watching a black and white tv or playing some kind of indoor game, like sardines or hide 'n seek.

I didn't realize how much exercise we got until I started reading this thread and thought about it -- but we were playing all the time. So if our diets weren't so great -- junk food, white bread, french fries, sodas -- we burned it all off with our constant movement. I guess that's why there were maybe only two or three fat kids in my class -- and they were considered weird.

We spent little time with our parents. Think Madmen -- we had polite meals with them and then rushed from the table. But the amount of time I spent with my father was minimal -- either he was working, or at work, or sleeping or, as I later found out, drinking. My folks had two or three martinis a day, maybe more. Cocktails meant everything to them. And smoking. The amount of second hand smoke I must have taken in during winters in the car -- both parents chain smoked and the car was like a smoke factory. No one gave it a second thought.

The moment we graduated from high school, everyone I knew disappeared. Either college, or some place else. but that was it. You were free. You didn't expect any more money from the parents, and so you were pretty much on your own.

R77, look at the ages of politicians today, particularly the powerful ones.

Aren't most US politicians old enough to be the parents of the children born in the 1960's?

blacks, fags and women knew their place... you lived by the the will of the white man.

This is what the republicans want us to remember.

In the 70’s we did chores around the house, mowed the lawn, washed the family car. We received a small allowance which was enough for a comic book, a slurpee, with some change left over. Soda, chips, and candy were a once in a while treat usually when we had a baby sitter. Parents went out or took turns hosting get togethers with their friends every other Saturday night. They had card nights, dances, dinners, they were very social as were our neighbours. We ate dinner at the table not in front of a tv. TV was limited to the major channels and if it was nice outside we were told to go play outside. Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal was the shit! There were two phones in the house, no call waiting. Good manners were a must , no exceptions, no second chances. We walked to school and rode our bikes everywhere. Kids on the street all played together sometimes entire neighbourhood of 20+ kids of all ages playing hide and go seek or kick the can. Down side was crime (theft and vandalism) was bad at times, racism rampant, gays not tolerated, women were second class citizens, child and spousal abuse was hidden or ignored, divorced couples were looked upon with suspicion and treated as outcasts in some neighbourhoods, no one gave a shit about the environment, air travel was civilized but very expensive, cars were made in North America with steel, mental health diagnosis meant you were “funny upstairs”, drinking and driving was tolerated to a degree... some fond memories but there were also a lot of negative things. If I had to pick one singular thing that I miss from the past is people interacting with one another in a healthy fashion - no social media, no cell phones, no hiding behind walls and houses. I like technology but I feel its misuse has been the single biggest detriment to the health of our population in the last 10 years.

Lots of good stuff back then, but one bad thing is that everyone was all up in each other's business.

R81. what “government/social policies” are you talking about.

I’ve only gone so far as the “you damn kids get the hell off my lawn”. And I do chase people out of yard on a regular basis. I shouldn’t have to tell adult neighbors that it’s rude AF to invite themselves to walk around my yard without knocking on the door and asking permission. But there you go: Miss Manners is on hiatus.

I’m not aware of any “government policy” I’ve been involved with that’s changed how anyone’s rearing children. How people *choose* to rear their children may be idiotic, indulgent and repellent. That’s not on me or my generation or on “the government”.

My mom said that supermarkets used to have ashtrays (those free-standing ones on a pedestal) at the ends of the aisles so that shoppers could smoke and shop at the same time. So funny that you could smoke so freely back then.

My dad brought home a battery-operated transistor radio for me and I was entranced. Spent hours on the front porch listening to mid 60s pop radio and fell asleep with it under my pillow every night. I feel bad for kids growing up now with the crap that is popular music these days. What will they have to look back on?

1 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" The Beatles 2 "She Loves You" The Beatles 3 "Hello, Dolly!" Louis Armstrong 4 "Oh, Pretty Woman" Roy Orbison 5 "I Get Around" The Beach Boys 6 "Everybody Loves Somebody" Dean Martin 7 "My Guy" Mary Wells 8 "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" Gale Garnett 9 "Last Kiss" J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers 10 "Where Did Our Love Go" The Supremes 11 "People" Barbra Streisand 12 "Java" Al Hirt 13 "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles 14 "Love Me Do" The Beatles 15 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" Manfred Mann 16 "Please Please Me" The Beatles 17 "Dancing in the Street" Martha and the Vandellas 18 "Little Children" Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas 19 "Love Me with All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol)" The Ray Charles Singers 20 "Under the Boardwalk" The Drifters 21 "Chapel of Love" The Dixie Cups 22 "Suspicion" Terry Stafford 23 "Glad All Over" The Dave Clark Five 24 "Rag Doll" The Four Seasons 25 "Dawn (Go Away)" The Four Seasons 26 "Bread and Butter" The Newbeats 27 "It Hurts to Be in Love" Gene Pitney 28 "Dead Man's Curve" Jan and Dean 29 "Come a Little Bit Closer" Jay and the Americans 30 "A World Without Love" Peter and Gordon 31 "Have I the Right?" The Honeycombs 32 "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" The Serendipity Singers 33 "Baby Love" The Supremes 34 "Let It Be Me" Betty Everett & Jerry Butler 35 "Wishin' and Hopin'" Dusty Springfield 36 "You Don't Own Me" Lesley Gore 37 "Walk On By" Dionne Warwick 38 "The House of the Rising Sun" The Animals 39 "G.T.O." Ronny & the Daytonas 40 "Twist and Shout" The Beatles 41 "Memphis" Johnny Rivers 42 "White on White" Danny Williams 43 "Hey Little Cobra" The Rip Chords 44 "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" Betty Everett 45 "Bits and Pieces" The Dave Clark Five 46 "My Boy Lollipop" Millie Small 47 "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" Major Lance 48 "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" Jan and Dean 49 "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" Gerry and the Pacemakers 50 "A Summer Song" Chad & Jeremy 51 "The Girl from Ipanema" Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto 52 "Can't Buy Me Love" The Beatles 53 "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" The Shangri-Las 54 "C'mon and Swim" Bobby Freeman 55 "Do You Want to Know a Secret" The Beatles 56 "Keep On Pushing" The Impressions 57 "Baby I Need Your Loving" The Four Tops 58 "Navy Blue" Diane Renay 59 "Diane" The Bachelors 60 "Out of Limits" The Marketts 61 "Little Honda" The Hondells 62 "Chug-a-Lug" Roger Miller 63 "See the Funny Little Clown" Bobby Goldsboro 64 "Because" The Dave Clark Five 65 "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" The Reflections

[quote] My mom said that supermarkets used to have ashtrays (those free-standing ones on a pedestal) at the ends of the aisles so that shoppers could smoke and shop at the same time. So funny that you could smoke so freely back then.

I remember our deli counter woman would run the slicer for chipped ham and take a big ole puff on her Vagina Slim while she was waiting for it to finish.

R88 your post made me think of this

ugh the formatting on this site.

part of the Billboard top 100, 1964. The soundtrack of my childhood.

1 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" The Beatles

2 "She Loves You" The Beatles

3 "Hello, Dolly!" Louis Armstrong

4 "Oh, Pretty Woman" Roy Orbison

5 "I Get Around" The Beach Boys

6 "Everybody Loves Somebody" Dean Martin

7 "My Guy" Mary Wells

8 "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" Gale Garnett

9 "Last Kiss" J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers

10 "Where Did Our Love Go" The Supremes

11 "People" Barbra Streisand

12 "Java" Al Hirt

13 "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles

14 "Love Me Do" The Beatles

15 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" Manfred Mann

16 "Please Please Me" The Beatles

17 "Dancing in the Street" Martha and the Vandellas

18 "Little Children" Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas

19 "Love Me with All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol)" The Ray Charles Singers

20 "Under the Boardwalk" The Drifters

21 "Chapel of Love" The Dixie Cups

22 "Suspicion" Terry Stafford

23 "Glad All Over" The Dave Clark Five

24 "Rag Doll" The Four Seasons

25 "Dawn (Go Away)" The Four Seasons

26 "Bread and Butter" The Newbeats

27 "It Hurts to Be in Love" Gene Pitney

28 "Dead Man's Curve" Jan and Dean

29 "Come a Little Bit Closer" Jay and the Americans

30 "A World Without Love" Peter and Gordon

31 "Have I the Right?" The Honeycombs

32 "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" The Serendipity Singers

33 "Baby Love" The Supremes

34 "Let It Be Me" Betty Everett & Jerry Butler

35 "Wishin' and Hopin'" Dusty Springfield

36 "You Don't Own Me" Lesley Gore

37 "Walk On By" Dionne Warwick

38 "The House of the Rising Sun" The Animals

39 "G.T.O." Ronny & the Daytonas

40 "Twist and Shout" The Beatles

41 "Memphis" Johnny Rivers

42 "White on White" Danny Williams

43 "Hey Little Cobra" The Rip Chords

44 "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" Betty Everett

45 "Bits and Pieces" The Dave Clark Five

46 "My Boy Lollipop" Millie Small

47 "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" Major Lance

48 "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" Jan and Dean

49 "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" Gerry and the Pacemakers

50 "A Summer Song" Chad & Jeremy

51 "The Girl from Ipanema" Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto

52 "Can't Buy Me Love" The Beatles

53 "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" The Shangri-Las

54 "C'mon and Swim" Bobby Freeman

55 "Do You Want to Know a Secret" The Beatles

56 "Keep On Pushing" The Impressions

57 "Baby I Need Your Loving" The Four Tops

58 "Navy Blue" Diane Renay

59 "Diane" The Bachelors

60 "Out of Limits" The Marketts

61 "Little Honda" The Hondells

62 "Chug-a-Lug" Roger Miller

63 "See the Funny Little Clown" Bobby Goldsboro

64 "Because" The Dave Clark Five

65 "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" The Reflections

There is a photo of my parents proudly bringing my brother back from the hospital. They put his carrier bag on the back seat. No car or baby seat. I don't remember any car seats when I think about my childhood or that I ever had to wear a seatbelt.

[quote]the very “idealic” childhood

Oh, dear!

[quote]So funny that you could smoke so freely back then.

That’s because everybody smoked, and everywhere. I remember going to the bank with my mother and there were ashtrays built in to the counter at the teller’s station.

I also remember them in the mall that had a kitty-litter-like substance in the top.

Thanks, r90. I had the red one.

[quote] I also remember them in the mall that had a kitty-litter-like substance in the top.

I remember that too! One of our malls had those things, like, every 10 feet!

Speaking of the 60s and 70s - it was a nice time to go to the mall.

They're not so pleasant now and the stores all carry the same shit these days, but in those days, it was nice to have a range of stores, plus most malls had something else going on inside.

One of our malls had a big cafeteria and an aviary, another an ice skating rink.

R94, yes, I remember. By the time I started smoking, that had been abolished. But you could still smoke in restaurants and subway platforms and my school had smoking areas. If you had parental permission, you could smoke there. Ninth graders - 14-year olds! were sitting around smoking.

Born in 1963. I grew up in NYC and walked to elementary school without my parents by fourth or fifth grade. In high school, I took the subway to and from school. Hell, I can remember coming home for lunch in the early grades! Our lives were not as structured as kids lives are today. We were involved in after school activities (clubs and sports), but I remember running around the neighborhood, playing street hockey (when a car came, you got out of the way), and just hanging around. I can also remember watching TV after school...reruns and the 4:30 movie.

All these organized activities that kids do just seem like time-fillers to me.

We (my sibs) grew up in the late '60s/early '70s. Our summer vacations were the best:

Summer drive-in movies: our parents owned a Chevy station wagon at the time. The Friday night prep for such family time included my parents turning down the wagon's back seat in order to throw in a full-size mattress, along with our favorite Coleman sleeping bags and our favorite bed pillows. My parents would also pack up their folding lawn chairs into the wagon as well, in addition to a Coleman cooler of snacks and their Hamm's beer, well chilled. While we made new friends in the drive-in's playground during the evening, our parents sat in their lawn chairs, making friends with the nearby parents, smoking their Parliament cigarettes, while sipping on their beer.

Recalling this memory, I can still smell the scent of cigarettes, warm corndogs, and cotton candy spinning in the summer night's air -

I started first grade in1966,and I had to wear a dress or skirt to school until 1972...when my parents bought a car, my dad always cut the lap belts out

High School Class of 1967. We had Standardized Tests. We had reading programs (SRA). Yes, we played basketball or swam or walked or skated or just hung around outside for hours when not in school. We also, believe it or not, read books for pleasure.

We also went to college, OP (and some then to Vietnam).

R38, No, it is not illegal.

R91, Same here! Ninth grade in 1963-64. I think I can still sing the lyrics to (almost) that entire list!

True you had your freedom . We weren't helicoptered and bubble wrapped. When I was beating up by by the local bully Sister Molly saw my black eye and smiling said "now you go and give him two". We had maybe two Fatties in our class. I suspect the introduction of corn syrup in the 80's caused the explosion of obese kids.

R101. Lovely

I grew up in the 50s and 60s and we were much happier back then because we didn't have all the diversinos kids have today. We didn't come home from school and immediately lock ourselves away in our rooms on a computer. We were outside, having fun. Then inside to do homework before dinner. Then a little TV before bed. We were raised by human beings. Kids today are raised by their computers and smart phones.

R108 Yep. After being cooped up all day Being sent to your room was capital punishment.. When you got home we hopped on our Stingrays and peeled out. You weren't back inside till the "street lights came on" and the moms called DINNER! Feel sad for these shut in gadget addicted kids. Their "childhood" is a 3' X 2' screen.

R104, oh yes it is in some places.

R101 - how could I forget the drive ins? Same exact memories. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up and it was a great night out. I remember they had the dawn to dusk holiday weekends with 4 movies in a night. Always had some jokester stand in front of the film projector later in the night with a some object mimicking a 2’ + long dick and having this giant shadow on the large screen. Our drive ins had the same intermission - a cheap cheesy concession ad with all the food items pretending to be in a circus. The hotdog would do backflips being conducted by the bun. The hotdog would eventually jump into the open bun and everyone would honk their horn. We used to ask my parents why everyone honked and my mom would say something like they were just showing their appreciation. When they used to have the old speakers that attached to the window it was inevitable for someone to drive off with one and hearing the spewing of expletives as it broke a window or the cable yanked out of the post. Sucked when unexpected rain shower hit!

I had 42 of the singles on r91's list.

[quote] I grew up in the 50s and 60s and we were much happier back then because we didn't have all the diversinos kids have today.

we were too damn tired to be depressed

R112 It was a great time to be a kid, was it not? Mid Sixties..The best.

[quote] During school, days consisted of walking three miles to school

Really? Are we maybe exaggerating just a tad? It would take a child an hour to walk 3 miles. Schools in the NYC area were more closely spaced than that.

[quote] when my parents bought a car, my dad always cut the lap belts out

Oh my lord, R102. My father was retired military and an engineer. Before seat belts came in cars my father soldered them or however he secured them into our car and we had to wear them - this was the early 60s. I have no idea if they would have withstood a high speed crash but they instilled in us safety. I don't think I've ever driven a car without a seatbelt on - rarely ever even been a passenger without one.

A lot more physical freedom, like others have said you could take off on your bike for hours. But in other ways parents were more strict. We had to eat everything on our plate and we wouldn't dare talk back to our parents. And what the teacher said was law, our parents would take the teachers side instead of ours. I loved the book mobile every summer, I would get stacks of books and read them at night. But during the day we would be outside until the streetlights came on. We only had one tv and dad got first dibs, I wasn't into sports so wasn't interested in that. But our family would watch the Sunday night line up with All In The Family, The Jeffersons, etc. Also my dad let us watch Charlie's Angels and Three's Company because I think he enjoyed the T & A. It surprises me now they let us watch Three's Company because my parents were strict when it came to religion.

Everyone smoked, indoors and in offices and cinemas.

Children were spanked/slapped by their parents and possibly other relatives.

The food was limited and what we would consider inedible today unless you had an ethnic, eg Italian or Jewish family - luncheon meat, Spam, white bread, meat loaf, etc.

Fat-shaming, gay-shaming ("He's a fairy!"), slut-shaming.

Many people were resistant to seat belts when they became mandatory. I can remember morons making the argument that they'd rather be thrown clear of a crash than be trapped inside a burning vehicle. I also remember a series of PSAs about a family of crash test dummies getting mangled and launched to convince the seat belt haters to wear them.

Same non argument with air bags : They'll decapitate you! They'll explode when you hit a speed bump! You'll be suffocated!. Of course the auto makers fought them tooth and nail for years because they added ten bucks to their manufacturing cost. Bastards.

As a kid in a country town in Australia in the late 60s/early 70s we would play down the creek, up the mountain and round the neighbourhood. The main rule was we had to come home as soon as the street lights came on.

Only had two TV channels - the ABC and a local one. My aunt and uncle had a chicken farm in the Blue Mountains and I would go there for school holidays and they could get the Sydney channels there - all three of them plus the ABC. I used to think that with four channels to choose from that there would always be something you wanted to watch. Then again, when colour TV came in when I was a teenager I thought that everything would be watchable so long as it was in colour.

As has been said above, lots of reading, both books and comics. From the back of comics I envied American kids' ability to get sea monkeys or hundreds of cowboys and Indians or Roman soldiers and earn themselves all sorts of toys and gadgets by selling greetings cards and plant seeds. i also envied you Halloween as back then it was not a thing at all in Australia.

Meals were mostly basic meat and vegetables and you had a to eat everything. For years cauliflower would make me heave though I like it now. Table manners were strict and strictly enforced but otherwise we had a lot of freedom.

Re the comment upstairs re hair curlers (rollers in Australia) up until a few years ago the local working men's club had on its sign alongside 'No shorts, no singlets' etc 'No hair rollers'.

My childhood was not so ideal as some of you. I grew up in the 60/70 as a latchkey kid both parents worked full time for as long as I was a baby. Father was an engineer, mother was a nurse. I was a fat kid with glasses so I was bullied all the time. There was only one other kid more bullied than me. For school yard entertainment they thought it would be funny to make us fight each other. Cardinal sin if tell the teachers or parents what was happening. "No one like a tattle tail Cindy."

Cars were huge, no air bags, no shoulder strap, bench seats you would slide off of, and smoking in the car with the windows up was common place. Every door had an ash tray. Normal to want to ride in the back of a pick up truck with chairs even on the highway. It was considered fun. Most kids were taught how to drive before 16 so they sailed right through driving school which was actually taught at the school. If you didn't get your license at 16 something was wrong with you.

Being gay even in high school meant you would be called Faaaaag!!! at every turn. Teachers would say nothing, parents would have a meltdown and throw you into counseling. Trying to look straight and fit in was the only savior. Jocks would pick on you every chance they got. Sometimes physical violence. It was almost as bad as saying you were a pedophile, no one understood or cared to understand or talk about it. No gay characters on TV, at all. In film it was rare and would be rated X. Google Midnight Cowboy, the only X rated move to win an Academy award. X because of gay content.

Technology sucked. Only 3 or 4 channels mostly for adults. Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were the only edgy thing on TV. It was a revolution with HBO first came out and we had this new thing called a cable box. I spent hours in the bowling alley because they had the only video game machines at the time, $0.25 a game. It was mind blowing when the first home video game console came out called Atari. You had to buy games that looked like 8 Track cartridges to play. By the time I hit 14 the other major invention came into the mainstream, the VCR. They were almost 1000 dollars back then! TV studios actually tried to stop them from coming out by filing a lawsuit against the manufactures. Much like MP3s and Napster. Stereos were HUGE. Speakers the size of a dining room chair. The bigger the speaker, the more money you must have spent. FM was considered high fidelity at the time, The radio used to play full albums instead of just one song. CD's and digital music were another 20 years in the future.

Disneyland was cheap and had tickets for each type of ride. You would buy a book of tickets "A" through "E". An "E" ticket was the best because you could go on any roller coaster or squander it on something lame like the Hall of Presidents. You only got a few of those so it was like the gold ticket from Willy Wonka. That is where the phrase "e-ticket" came from.

Kids were a lot more respectful to adults; no first names.

The British and American rock music and the films coming out of top European directors were fantastic in the late 60s/early 70s. The counterculture era was truly the high point of the century, though it did de-rail many people's lives.

People were more trusting, eg, people hitchhiked and picked up hitchhikers.

The only reason people had kids was to have someone to change the TV channels.

Manners were big. My parents would take us to dinner but would remind us before walking in the door to say Yes Sir, Thank You and Please at every turn. Keep your voice down, stay in your seat, put your napkin on your lap, be polite to the servers and ask to leave the table before you go to the bathroom. You were not allowed to let your kid run around free and annoy other adults, unlike today where kids are allowed to run around and scream at the top of their lungs while the parents just sit there as if their spawn can do no wrong.

God how I wish parents today would do just half of that.

Getting all your worldly information from a fucking precious set of Encyclopedia!!!

Most everything shared in previous posts rings true for me growing up as a kid and teen in the 70s: bikes and school buses, summer days and nights outdoors, hours and hours of beach time, listening to music (records) after school. Never a parent in sight while out and about. Broken bones were a right of passage, not an excuse to sue the school district or after-hours sport coach or makers of playground equipment. For me, a Strict bedtime of 9:30PM, 10:00PM if I was reading. This was not the norm for my friends however. Oh . . . curfew. 10:00PM in the beginning and midnight after having proven myself "responsible".

I'll add that college was so much cheaper at $95 per semester. In my final semester, it had gone up to $115. Students wanted heads to roll.

Beats getting all your information from a fucking spurious Wikipedia!!!

R127 hahaha

R126 Scrolls are cheap.

Encyclopedia = $600

Wikipedia = Free

Look at old photos of kids at the beach. It was normal to be able to count their ribs. Now, not only can't you see their ribs, they often have little spare tires!

Some things never change:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room.

No one had peanut allergies, Fibromyalgia or Irritable bowel Syndrome. No one was afraid of vaccines.

IDK about the other two, but people certainly had bowel problems. They just didn't have a cute little initialism to describe them.

Kids could buy candy cigarettes and chocolate cigars and parents thought it was cute.

Drive In theaters were a relic of the past even back then but they were still in operation. Parents would load up the car with the kids because it was cheap and they could relive their younger days growing up in the 50's. Cant tell you how many times I saw people put that big clunky metal speaker in the car window, forget it's there when they decided to move the car to another spot and rip it out of the car. LOL

I remember the no one was sressed out all the time like they are today. Even kids are stressed out these days. Back then adults were pretty relaxed. No one was a paycheck away from living in the street like now.

What I really miss I'd that food was not only healthier in several ways, but it tasted much better, even fast food, which was a rare treat. I miss the sense of community and family, which no longer exists in any fashion.

Kids were just a lot more active outside. I rode my banana seat bike every where. We got a soda and potato chips on Saturday and that was it.

Tickets to rock concerts cost $5. The Rolling Stones caused outrage by charging $7.50 in 1969. A 45 rpm record cost $1; an album cost $3.

Jack in the Box actually was Jack in the Box

[quote]Nobody gave a fuck about your "feelings"

That's the most resonant sentence in the whole thread for me. It's SO true. Kids just were expected to 'get on' with life. The massive reverse in the opposite direction has not been for the better.

One kid in our class was belted by the teacher until his ear bled. Not one kid in our class -- and there were 50 of us --thought to report it. It was just the class nuisance getting what he deserved.

The thing that has totally disappeared is strangers on the street calling out kids on bad behaviour. Vanished. One used to go to the CBD and there would be grim old folks everywhere (also vanished: they are absent from CBDs these days), and they wouldn't hesitate to call you out if you did something wrong.

Forget about smart phones or cell phones. The only thing people had were land lines. The typical house might have two phones one in the living room and maybe one in the Master bedroom. If you were lucky you got one as a teen but the catch was, the whole house was on the same line. Always yelling at someone to get off the phone so you could make a call. If it was outside of your city it was considered long distance and the price per minute would go up exponentially as if you were calling another country.

At least some of the designs from the 70's were cool. If you had push buttons, you were a Early Adapter.

^^Early Adopter^^

I remember the ice cream truck which played a tune to announce its' arrival. Ice creams cost lest than .25.

No fast food, hardly any junk food , no fructose glutose, no computers or cellphones, more waking and bike riding.

* more walking and bike riding

These came out, no one knew how to really use them. Teachers did not allow those evil things in the math class.

There was a teacher in my school famed for the accuracy of hitting kids on the head with his chalk. Whizz, bang! Everyone knew of it, including parents. It was a big joke, but it sure stung when you were dozing off in class and that chalk hit you hard on the forehead. Imagine that today! He'd be up for multiple accounts of assault! Then my parents just warned me that I better pay attention in his class!!!!!

Women were "homemakers;" a working mother was a rarity. One paycheck was sufficient to support a whole family. Women couldn't get a mortgage unless their father or husband co-signed. Girls had to wear skirts to school, no trousers.

You had to dress up for a plane flight. In certain places, eg Boston, wearing jeans and smoking on the street downtown was frowned on.

Your cool uncle might of had one of these. The very first LED watch. People would constantly ask how you could you ever get used to telling the time without hands.

As a child we remember our mother, who looked like Grace Kelly,btw, doing the weekly grocery shopping. She would never go out without hair/makeup done, skirt/blouse or suit, hose, high heels. She would first cash a check at the cashier for what would be in today's money about $500 and then do all the shopping at Dominick's supermarket (said to be mafia-owned) .

Digital clocks still seem parvenu-ish to me, r150.

[quote]She would first cash a check at the cashier for [bold]what would be in today's money about[/bold] $500

I hate when people do that. Just say what you mean, i.e., how much she took out.

[quote]During school, days consisted of walking three miles to school

[quote]Really? Are we maybe exaggerating just a tad? It would take a child an hour to walk 3 miles.

I walked five miles -- two and half miles each way. Yeah, it took several hours, we didn't think twice about it, because EVERY kid did it, many walked far longer. Only two or three kids in the entire school were ever picked up by their parents, and that was usually for doctors appointments or whatever. And we did this from the age of 6. Totally normal.

Yes, wonderful times full of homophobia, racism, child abuse etc....

The average salary for an average middle class family was about 6,000 per year. The average house was 2 to 3 times that amount. Interest rates were as high as %18!

Today the average salary is 50,000 and the average house is 5 times as much. Interest rates are around %4.

All your parents cared about was that you were home by 6pm for dinner. Otherwise they didn't care where you were. They knew you were 'playing'. In any case, every kid in the neighbourhood knew the house of the 'spooky man' who we'd been told to avoid. So no problems!

In 1979 this was the first portable music device. Of course you had to bring cossets with you to listen to the music.

Most kids went Trick or Treating in costume on Halloween. Almost every house on the block would be prepared to give out candy. No one ever though it might be unsafe or dangerous to accept candy from strangers.

On the down side, people didnt decorate nearly as much as they do now. And it was mainly for kids, unlike today where mostly adults use it as an excuse to dress slutty for one night of the year.

In summer I was probably outside 12 hours a day. I never wanted to go in. I think I should spend more time outside now, I would be happier.

Sometimes certain neighbours would come angrilyin the evening to our house when the housekeeper was there (our parents not home) and threaten to call the police for things we or our brother had done!

[quote]Were people really better dressed back then or is this a movie thing? Did they have better manners?

My parents bedroom was like an MGM 1930s set -- deliberately! My mother's favourite star had been Norma Shearer, so I expect it was all her doing. The bedroom featured a matching art deco furniture suite in blondwood -- the enormous dressing table angled in the room just like some Cedric Gibbons set, and which featured an enormous full length, full moon mirror. Really glamorous. My mother never left the bedroom before she was fully made up and dressed. NEVER. Oh, and here's a laugh -- she considered Joan Crawford 'cheap'. And was pleased when, after going out to dinner with a top exec of MGM and his wife, they told her that she was correct!

My local Two Guys was know to have very busy glory holes.

Kind of Costco meets Wallmart at Sears.

There were some overweight kids but only a couple. The three that I remember were all Jewish, it was a Jewish neighborhood.

From New Jersey, r163? Two Guys in Watchung was my least favorite place to shop for records on Rt. 22 (yay, Korvettes).

I grew up in the 80s. I had very loving parents but kids just were not catered to back then. We had one air conditioner in my parents’ room and when it was really hot we got to sleep on the floor in their room. It was a hardwood floor- we just put blankets down and pretended we were camping. I remember being ten and watching the 84 Summer Olympics like that. We didn’t bitch and moan about it.

No R165, actually from California. We had them out here, that pic I just grabbed off the internet, not sure where its located.

[quote]I grew up in the 80s. I had very loving parents but kids just were not catered to back then. We had one air conditioner in my parents’ room and when it was really hot we got to sleep on the floor in their room.

Oh, poor you, Mary. We each had a window unit in the '60s, when kids were still catered to.

There was a kid in my elementary school who couldn't drink cow's milk so the lunch ladies put juice on his lunch tray instead of the milk they gave the rest of us. Never heard of any other students with food restrictions.

Woolco stores owned by Woolworth were larger stores, They had a very nice record dept.

Entertament was so lacking, my dad would ocassionally bring home picktures of futuristic test planes and rockets and I would hold it up to my face and spin around and around until I was so dizzy I fell down.

Drugs for kids were no where to be found.

Indoor malls were brand new back the. I remember we drove 2 hours to see this one in Los Angels because it had an indoor waterfall! AKA a giant oil rain lamp.

Adult males you wanted to look like when you grew up all looked like Tom Selleck.

The birth of the first make centerfold. Circa 1972

Mood rings and pets rocks were a huge fad, and earth shoes

r173 I would've jumped row 2, 8 to the right bones.

There was extremely strict academic and thus career tracking. I don't remember how they did it but every kid was tracked before 7th grade and I dont remember movement between tracks. Is that still true today? When I started working in France and Germany in the 90s I noticed the kids were still tracked. I'm not a historian or sociologist, but I bet post WWII public school American tracking worked to some extent against classicism. I guess not racism, but maybe. When kids were tracked to become "professionals" that is what happened. Or tradesmen. Nowadays the USA has less class mobility than European countries.

I didn't have much pocket money and it was great to be able to buy a vinyl record maybe a few times a year. There were singles and LP's. I also listened to Radio Luxemburg. Americans may not know what it is.

People were not cursing on tv like today.

r178 I used to get a ton of used stores like Goodwill that were a dime. I had the weirdest LP collection for a child ever.

Did Mary r163 get to smoke her first pole there?

I teach elementary school and the kids are mostly thin again. I think the chubby kid time is over.

Born in 1960 in the UK. Was out all day most days. Lived on the edge of a town and myself, my younger brother and a couple of kids from the block would wander miles out into the countryside. My mother would tell us not to go far and to be back for lunch. We ignored the first part of the request but invariably honoured the second. When the The nights drew in we would often be out well after dark. When I wasn’t outside I was usually reading. Tv was shit. By the time I was 10 I’d read all those classics like Treasure Island, Dracula, The Lost World etc. Was obsessed with Lord of the Rings at 12. Then by 13 I was raiding my parents bookshelves and came across Burroughs Naked Lunch and Hunter S Thompson’s Hells Angels. They would probably wish I hadn’t.

Used to go swimming a lot as well. An added perk was the open changing rooms. That also reminds me of my friends who lived down the road and their bear of a father who often wandered around the house naked in the mornings. Possibly influencing my tastes later in life.

[quote] No one had peanut allergies, Fibromyalgia or Irritable bowel Syndrome. No one was afraid of vaccines.

Kids had peanut allergies but it was rare. One kid, not half the school. You had maybe one kid here or there with some kind of issue - autism, a learning disability, etc. - that required additional assistance.

Now the teacher has a two page list to remember all of everyone's allergies, preferred pronouns, disabilities and other horseshit the parents have whipped up.

[quote]Most kids went Trick or Treating in costume on Halloween. Almost every house on the block would be prepared to give out candy. No one ever though it might be unsafe or dangerous to accept candy from strangers.

Grew up in the '70s/'80s, and Halloween was SO much different then. It was a big deal in school - we could wear our costumes that day and there were contests, etc. Then that night, we kids would go out in a group, no adults - the 'big kids' (like my older brother and sister and their friends) were in charge of the 'little kids' (me, any friends I brought, and the younger brothers and sisters of my siblings' friends). We'd leave as soon as it got dark with our flashlights (often purchased just for the occasion), our pillowcases and a couple of dimes in case we needed to call our parents to come get us. We would just head out and go as far as we could until we got too tired or the curfew (between 9-10 PM) kicked in. Sometimes the little kids would get too tired and would call a parent to pick them up before the curfew. Sometimes we'd go so far we'd end up on the other side of town and would have to haul serious ass to get back in time. It was so fun, that freedom to roam. These days, I see fewer and fewer kids trick or treating and more of them sent to those church 'harvest' parties. Such bullshit.

Somebody mentioned above that life in general was less stressed out back then, and it's absolutely true. There wasn't that sense that is omnipresent now of there not being enough hours in the day, of constant hurrying, of every minute being spoken for. You could relax a little and breathe. There weren't so many people on the brink of financial disaster - far less paycheck to paycheck. Yes, there were people who were poor and struggling - there always have been - but the cost of living wasn't so astronomical, it was more achievable to build a good quality of life. People were not being wiped out by the cost of college or medical bills like now.

[quote]Bullying was rampant in schools and was not addressed at all.

Teachers often did the bullying. My dad was a math teacher and owned a vast array of wooden paddles, some novelty. An English teacher I had in junior high toppled a 7-foot-tall shelf down on top of her student's desks, only missing the students themselves because they ran. Then there was her best pal the science teacher who sexually harassed the kids (12 and 13 years old, might I add) until he finally got caught in the 1990s because he was on the internet looking at porn during class.

Fashion and design were horrible back then

When I was a kid in the 1970s I was outside all the time, unless weather absolutely didn't permit. By the 1980s though it was much less common. And no wonder -- I was approached by all sorts of strangers, asked to get into cars, offered food and drinks, etc. I have a distinct memory of this happening at least four times. My partner ate some Halloween candy and was goofy and weird all night and his parents almost took him to the hospital, but decided against it because they didn't have the money. He was lucky. Similarly, there were two years my dad found something suspicious in my candy, which he always checked before I could have. He never let me eat fruit or anything homemade, or anything that had been opened. People nowadays say there were no instances of anyone doctoring Halloween candy but that's just not true.

The Star Spangled Banner at midnight when the TV station closed down.

Taking the bus into San Francisco (long before BART) to explore when I was 10.

During summer vacation, leaving home in the morning, spending the day wandering around or playing with the neighborhood kids and arriving home for dinner. No one enquired where I'd been all day.

Getting a sandwich and Nehi Grape at the corner Mom and Pop store for 35 cents.

Building a flexy out of wooden crates, pieces of wood and odd wheels.

Listening to Roy Orbison and Chubby Checker through the earpiece of my transistor radio.

Etch-a-Sketch, Slinky, and Mousetrap. Kickball, Monkey in the Middle, Simon Says and Red Rover.

Smoking cigarettes at 9 in the hills behind the high school I eventually attended.

Saturday afternoon movie matinees - cartoons and the 3 Stooges or a Frankenstein or Dracula film - for a quarter.

Playland at the Beach. Fleischhaker Pool. The Sutro Baths.

Walking or taking a bus everywhere. The only time you got a ride in the car is when you got you or your friends got their license.

Ugh, yeah, walking to school. I played the baritone in band so it was an absolute nightmare, especially when the cheap-ass case handle broke and I was told to use rope instead. I finally refused to take the horn home, and I only had about a 20-minute walk each way.

R182 Going out after dark in the UK in winter could mean 3:30 - 4:00pm, if you went along with some of the rules current parents have then you wouldn't leave the house between November and March. Being out after dark was pretty normal.

I don't think 1960s fashions were horrible. I like watching Bewitched reruns sometimes and Samantha looks fine to me. The worst modern eras for fashion were the 50s, 70s and 80s imo.

I used to enjoy stand-up comedians back then. But since the 90s, it's become so smutty and scat-y that I have lost all interest.

R110, First, I must admit I thought you meant "at home."**

But....nowhere in your linked article dies it say anything about ages "14 and under," so where you got the age of a freshman in high school, I do not know.

Secondly, the purported law under which the State took custody of the arrested woman's child is nowhere cited, making me think the authorities had no authority to criminalize her actions.

**Currently only 3 states have any law pertaining to children left home alone (parks are not mentioned).

Illinois: Requires "for an unreasonable period of time without regard for ....safety or welfare...."

Maryland: "....under the age of 8."

Oregon: No law about age, but its Child Neglect Law is similar to that of Illinois.

R100, all these scheduled activities are to build a kid’s “resume” and teach them the happiness of mastery or achievement.

NY1, local news channel, has a feature, NY1’s Scholar Athlete of the Week. These kids have 4.0 GPAs and are soccer or swim meet stars, and often volunteer. Those kids get the college scholarships.

There are so many of them.

Agreed r191

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the terrible American Airlines Flight 191 crash after take-off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The Tribune printed images and remembrances of the many people that were killed. Looking at it I was reminded how anything gay back then was glossed over as if it didn't exist. Neither of the two male flight attendants working that flight James T DeHart- late 20s, Michael Schassburger- mid 30s have any mention of a surviving spouse or any kids. A passenger, James M. Zielinski, an Indiana native who had once studied for the priesthood, lived in San Francisco and worked as the French correspondent of the National Bank of France office there. Us kids, growing up back in the 70s, even in tragedy couldn't see any representation of gays. We dad to put two and two together and learn to read between the lines.

I was a kid in the 60s and teenager in the 70s. Ditto to what people said above, but while we were out playing most of day, my mom wanted to know where I was. So, if I was at a friend's house and then we all walked to the cider mill, mom expected me to call. (and I was teased about that.) Unless there was a pre-arranged time, I was to be home by the time the street lamp was on.

There were a few fat kids, but they were the rarity and were horribly bullied. I started gaining weight in Jr High (thank you 7-11 and your danged Slurpees) and even though I was only 10-20 lbs overweight I got bullied too. Teachers didn't care unless it got violent.

I had a friend who was allergic to lots of things, even chalk dust. However, unlike today where he school would be expected to accommodate her, she would leave sit in the back of the class and leave the room when someone was cleaning erasers. I think she had some food allergies too, but again, she made the adjustments. Nobody expected the school to

[quote]One used to go to the CBD and there would be grim old folks everywhere (also vanished: they are absent from CBDs these days),

What’s the CBD?

[quote]Your cool uncle might of had one of these.

Oh, dear!

[quote]Interest rates were as high as %18! Today the average salary is 50,000 and the average house is 5 times as much. Interest rates are around %4.

Oh, DEAR!!

[quote]bring home picktures of futuristic test planes and rockets and I would hold it up to my face and spin around and around until I was so dizzy I fell down.

Based on your spelling of pictures, your spinning may have had a more deleterious effect than you thought.

[quote]What’s the CBD?

Central Business District. I think it started in NO.

r173 my type of men, I miss the hairy type masculine guys

For r200

I remember our first color TV. It was January 1960, bitterly cold the day they delivered the new "Zenith Home Entertainment Center" LOL. The thing was about 6' long. TV in the middle, stereo radio on the left, and stereo HIFI on the right. All enclosed with doors to make it look like a piece of furniture when it wasn't being used. Color TV but there were very few shows being shot in color. I think the first week we had the thing there were only 3 shows that were in color. Of course we only had 3 channels though. ABC, CBS, and NBC.

The Wonderful World Of Disney was the weekly highlight. No disturbances were allowed during TWWOD.

[quote]Color TV but there were very few shows being shot in color.

Sort of like 4K (and now 8K!) TVs today.

[quote] Teachers often did the bullying.

Yep. It got bad for me my senior year because in addition to the kids and the homophobic gym teacher, a half dozen other teachers and the principals joined in the fun.

Until I tried to kill myself and my parents got involved. When they realized we might sue them everyone became as sweet, gentle and solicitous as a fucking puppy for the remainder of the year.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service signs at McDonalds.

I was born in '62. This was the desk radio in my bedroom (I guess it was my mom's or grandparent's originally.) I listened to KEZY and KHJ on it. In say, '72 or '73, I got a cassette recorder for xmas and recorded all my favorite songs from the radio when they came on. I taped "Good-bye Yellow Brick Road," "Hello, It's Me" and "Time in a Bottle." Those tapes sounded great! (Kidding.) KEZY was in Anaheim, so it was a local call and I called as often as I could sneak to make requests. I remember calling to request "Summer Breeze" all day on Thanksgiving one year.

I fucking love turquoise/aqua appliances and wish I still had this radio. I'd listen to the Giants game on it.

I ADORE you, r207. TurKWAZZ is my favorite color.

High interest rates were about 1980 or such.

R208 Nice work on finding a pic that is free standing in the post. I hate when it shows up different. Turquoise is demonstrably the best color because it goes with EVERYTHING, even BROWN. I just did a search trying to find this radio for sale and it is hopeless. All I found were a bunch of repetitive posts in different locations made by the same guy in 2013 bragging about getting it on ebay for $15. Gah!

Anyway, I'd say let's go tot he flea market together but we'd probably want all the same stuff and it would end in hair pulling. Cheers, darling.

I was given a multi band radio for my birthday in 1965. You could go on the police bands and hear all their chatter. But the best thing I discovered purely by accident was that at night I could tune to a particular set of channels on one band and actually pick up people's home phone calls. I heard some wild things on that radio. Husbands and wives having extramarital affairs, talking to their lovers about how horrible their spouses were, and what they were going to do to each other the next time they were alone. I was transfixed with that radio until I lost interest. Pretty heady stuff for a 12 year old. LOL

I remember back in the day that if I turned the radio dial all the way to the lowest end, I could pick up NBC TV (from our local affiliate) - the audio feed only, obviously.

[quote]the audio feed only, obviously.

You thought that was necessary?

[quote]Turquoise is demonstrably the best color because it goes with EVERYTHING, even BROWN.

I like it better than any other dish color for the same reason. Goes equally well with eggs, tomato sauce dishes, stews, salads (and other greens-dependent dishes), things with crust.

I have a beige apartment. Turquoise seems to be its best complementary color.

R210, I just found my first stereo on Etsy, as a direct result of reading r207. Thanks. It was a Motorola suitcase stereo that I got for Christmas, 1963, on which I played my first albums (the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, and Skeeter Davis).

R133. Back then, it wasn’t unheard of for infants to die in their first year. The common expression was “failure to thrive”.

This was a generic expression covering everything that today we’d call lactose intolerance, celiac - all the genetic diseases we couldn’t diagnose and treat then. Kids from the 60s and 70s remember the kids they grew up who were “sickly”. These were the kids who likely grew up to be diagnosed with genetic diseases as adults.

R215 Are you going to buy it?

[quote][R215] Are you going to buy it?

Oh, my, no. I don't have a record collection any longer. Plus it was brown, like everything else in my Early American, mother-decorated room (SO DEPRESSING). I wish I'd known about turquoise then.

born in 69 so I know the seventies as a kid. I grew up in a hot climate so running around outside was sometimes limited. I had the first generation of what we now call "helicopter" parent for a mom, but she was sweet and loved me too. I had lots of extracurricular activities. most of my friends were more active than I. yes, kids were thinner then, but my mom was at the forefront of "no sugar, no additives" posse of parents that was starting then.

I teach kids now and the big difference I see with them today is that they stare politely at a video screen, A LOT

[quote] You thought that was necessary?

Some queen would have shrieked "But you can't see anything on your radio!!" so yeah, I did.

[quote] I teach kids now and the big difference I see with them today is that they stare politely at a video screen, A LOT

I hate to sound judgy but I feel like this has been the big negative impact of divorce. We schedule our kids to death. We turn them into little DVRs where we expect them to be human and perform life functions on demand - instead of just being in the moment when it happens.

Watching TV and playing video games is literally what they're doing in between the times Mommy and/or Daddy are there to see them.

In most cases, the prevalence of stay at home moms kept watch on all things happening in your neighborhood. Except of course if mom was strung out on booze or pills.

Indoor smoking by relatives was so prevalent it wreaked havoc on me: bloodshot eyes and irritated throat and constant dull headache.

People's jobs seemed to be a lot more physically demanding since I grew up when manufacturing (factory work) still was going strong. Taverns on every corner for workers to decompress and discuss local news and have affairs of course.

As kids (family of 6) we went to work asap: paper routes, yard work, babysitting. Kids were to be seen and not heard and on the rare occasion we went out to eat, you would not dream of acting up.

I haven't read the thread, but I'll throw in my own experiences.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I remember playing outside ALL the time, even after it was dark: we'd play "kick the can" when it got dark and had a blast.

We'd go exploring in the woods all the time, and I rode my bike everywhere.

I don't know what I would do as a parent today. I'd like to think that I would not give the kid a smart phone, limit his/her video gaming and only allow him/her to use a computer in the family room. But I'd probably cave.

Who remembers before cable TV, during the heydays of CB radios, you would be watching TV and every time someone was near your house and on their CB radio their blather would come out of your TV speakers. And if you lived near an airport every time a plane few over your reception would go haywire.

R86, I’m the one that made the Thanks For Ruining it For Everyone else comment. I’m not picking on you in particular, but what I meant by that was it was your generation who consistently voted for conservative economic policies that led to obliterated unions, $60k colleges, wage stagnation (2 incomes are now required to own a home), and the continued pollution of our environment. It was also your generation (though presumably not you specifically) that decided to start helicopter-parenting. So you all got to have clean water, freedom to roam, and relative economic security - but you ruined that for future generations.

American cars were MUCH more comfortable and stylish.

I remember how amazed I was when cassette tapes came out. No more reel to reel recorders at home, or big clunky 8 track tapes in the car. When CDs came out I thought I had seen it all. Now I play all my recorded music in the car on a mini USB flash drive. Space for 256 GBs of music on a gadget the size of a fingernail. In almost 2 years I have never used the CD player in my car. Back in the 60s if someone had told me this would be the way of things during my lifetime I would have told them they were nuts.

Don't most people play car music via bluetooth phone, or radio? USB flash drive?

[quote] how could I forget the drive ins? Same exact memories. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up and it was a great night out. I remember they had the dawn to dusk holiday weekends with 4 movies in a night.

How could you see outdoor movies from dawn to dusk? I hope they didn't charge much.

[quote]On Saturdays my mother would basically open the door after breakfast (which consisted of Lucky Charms with sugar, maybe two eggs and bacon, and orange juice)

You added sugar to Lucky Charms? I have a sweet tooth, but that's even too much for me.

[quote]We lost all our trees to Dutch Elm Disease.

I lost a brother that way.

Lots of people do, but I like to just plug the thing into the USB port and just let it stay there until I decide to add music to it or delete some.

[quote]Now I play all my recorded music in the car on a mini USB flash drive. Space for 256 GBs of music on a gadget the size of a fingernail.

We got this instead of rocket cars and continuing prosperity.

[quote]kids were thinner

Not all of them.

[quote] How could you see outdoor movies from dawn to dusk?

I think he meant "dusk to dawn", aka "an all nighter".

R234-That ad is adorable.

On school nights in May and June we had to "go to bed" when it was still light out but nobody checked if we slept or not. But in the summer even when we were little we could go out again after dinner and the curfews changed with age. This was all unchaperoned - left to our own oversight.

In the 70's, legally we weren't allowed to drive after a certain hour, unless it was home from jobs. I can't remember the details and ages.

The mention of CB radios reminded me about police scanners.

People who have them today seem to be frightened right wingers who constantly worry about black people or foreigners under their sink.

But I remember those scanners being on back in the day at my gramma and aunt's houses, more as entertainment. People had two channels of TV there and it was that, music or a book, and they were pretty poor.

There was a real novelty to it in the 70s, all that information accessible to us, regular people! We'd think nothing of it today in the social media age, though.

My dentist kept. cigarette going in an ashtray on that little table for the tools attached to his dental chair and chain smoked all through the appointment. I remember how cool it looked when the smoke would swirl up into that exam light while he was working on you.

One summer when I was 8 or 9 I tore the city map out of our phone book and every day I would map a route and explore a different part of town on my bicycle. After a couple weeks I had pretty much covered the whole town. When My mother found out what I had been doing all day she got got mad, not because I off doing God knows what all day, but because I had damaged our phone book.

R235 sorry dawn to dusk. You did remind me though that sometimes they started the first movie while there was too much light out and it was hard to watch from certain angles for the first 10-15 mins.

^ holy jeezus H I mean dusk to dawn . I need more cofeee.

[quote]Some queen would have shrieked "But you can't see anything on your radio!!" so yeah, I did.

I really hope you took that in the spirit in which it was intended. When I typed that I had a huge grin on my face because I got a kick out of it and found it funny.

I’m sorry if I didn’t get the tone right in the post, it’s hard with just printed words.

"The year was 1964. My friend Fritz Lash and I were riding our 10-speed bikes across the country. I was 17, Fritz was 16, and while 10-speed bikes were brand new on the American scene, the idea of turning a couple of teenagers loose like that for a summer wasn’t. My parents started sending my brother Frank and me across the country on Greyhound buses when I was 12 and Frank was 10. Fritz took a Greyhound from Kansas to meet up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where we began our journey by first riding east to New York City. The World's Fair beckoned."

(No wonder John Wayne Gacy had a field day...)

I miss the drive in. They were sooo much fun and cheap. We would pack a bunch of people in the car and throw one or two in the trunk to save money. Cooler of beer and we sat on the hood of the car.

On a summer night, if the temperature was over 80 degrees, the deal was that my parents had to drive my brother and me five miles to get frozen custard at the Carvel in Mount Vernon. With a brown bonnet!!

Once we stupidly left the dog there. We were frantic, looked all over. Finally we came home and sure enough, there he was. He somehow found his way back.

These days some screaming helicopter tiger mother would have spotted a loose dog in the streets and had him sent to the pound.

No worries R213/R242!

I feel like we were able, as kids, to learn more about the world and be able to REASON our way through a problem or issue.

Our parents letting us out on our own did that.

But I appreciate that many of us did this in areas where yes, we had some adult around somewhere. And no social media, so gross pedos and the like wouldn't have access to our comings and goings. Not to say that the past was 100 percent safe, of course. But it was easier for us to be somewhat unsupervised at the time. It would be more risky now.

I don't think it is really more risky now. I think it is perceived that it is more risky due to 24 hour cable news, etc.

[quote] There was extremely strict academic and thus career tracking. I don't remember how they did it but every kid was tracked before 7th grade

Before I went from the 8th grade to high school - Catholic schools 1960s - we took standardized tests (we took them every year actually) and that is what determined our placement in high school. It was never really talked about but it did dawn on us eventually. IIRC there were three "tracks". We all took the same classes and we all had large classes. I think maybe they taught differently or had different expectations. I really don't know how the tracks differed. Unless it was to allow the "smart" kids an environment of similar capabilities. Of course once we got into elective courses in upper grades - languages, sciences, electives, etc. - anyone could choose what they wanted.

Someone mentioned 18% mortgage rates. Not in the US.

Mortgage rates throughout the 50s were extremely low and they were still low in the 60s until they reached the dizzying heights of 6% in the late 60s. We moved in 1969 and built a new house. The mortgage rate IIRC was 7% and my mother - who had worked in stocks and bonds in a NYC bank before she got married - was furious. She said these were usurious rates and the banks didn't need this high rate to make a nice profit. My mother later ranted about the deregulation of banks because she said this was dangerous and was going to lead to all sorts of problems.

Roadshow movies. In 1965, when I was 15, for Christmas my parents gave me a "ticket" to see DR. ZHIVAGO. It was a full color 8.5 x 11 certificate type thing with photos from the film. A couple of my friends got them too. We took the bus all the way downtown to see it at one of the Ambassador, one of about six or seven movie palaces still operating at the time. In the lobby you could buy large souvenir books for $1.50 or so, with full page photos of the cast and multiple scenes from the film. We did this the next year when THE SOUND OF MUSIC came out, and when the big magilla - GONE WITH THE WIND - came out in 70 mm in '67 or so. Seeing those films on a giant screen while sitting in a giant auditorium was thrilling. I still have that GWTW program around here somewhere.

It wasn't a roadshow, but I also remember seeing LOVE STORY in 1970 in a huge theater, with tons of fraus sobbing audibly at the end and continuing to cry as they exited the theater. The local news did a feature where they interviewed women coming out of the theater, still slobbering all over themselves.

[quote]until they reached the dizzying heights of 6% in the late 60s.

Actual dizzying heights were right on the horizon. The 1970s and ‘80s.

[quote]In 1971, when Freddie Mac began surveying lenders for mortgage data, interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages ranged from 7.29% to 7.73%. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, mortgage rates steadily climbed as unchecked inflation contributed to a volatile national economy. Mortgage rates set by independent lenders are also influenced by the interest rate which the Federal Reserve charges banks for borrowing money.

[quote]In the early 1980s, high-rate loans emerged as a part of the Federal Reserve's plan to fight inflation. By October 1981, the average rate for 30-year mortgages reached its all-time high of 18.63%. Today's rates, while currently on the rise, are still at all-time lows compared to previous decades.

I convinced some buddies (male) to go to see GWTW. I wonder if I under 12. My father drove us but dropped us off and didn't stay, warning us it was long and he wasn't coming back til it was over. I don't remember my buddies being scandalized - I think we mostly liked it but Dr. Zhivago would have been much more boy friendly!

R225. You can blame us, that’s fine.

Many of us voted conservative in 1980 as a result of catastrophic economic policies of the 1970s. We experienced much of what you’re experiencing now, as hard as it may be to believe. Nixon created a system of wage and price controls. Ironic the ultimate anti-communist would create a nearly soviet-style system for centralized government manipulation of the markets.

Nixon hated Social Security and Medicare and believed they were a communist plot. So, he conspired with his friend Edgar Kaiser to create a capitalist alternative - the HMO. With his allies in Congress, he put a permanent fork in the plans to create a national health system.

By the early 70s, the Saudis and their OPEC friends created an artificially created oil crisis to punish every country that supported Israel because of the 1973 Middle East War, which they lost. The price of oil doubled, and gasoline was rationed. The embargo lasted six months which took us right into Nixon’s impeachment saga.

By then, unemployment was at 7% and the economy shrank by 1/2%. In 1975, it was 8%, it barely fell in 1976. It stayed above 6% through 1980.

That’s nothing compared to what inflation and interest rates were like. Try 9 to 17%. You’ve lived a life where we measure inflation and interest rates in the single digits, and usually below 5%

As kids, we lived with interest rates on *home mortgages* that could be 14 to 18%. Inflation in the double digits and wages were not increasing. You can do the arithmetic on how your buying power actually shrank year on year during the 1970s.

That’s why we voted for Reagan in 1980. He promised change. After Nixon, Ford and Carter - all of whom were disasters, Reagan promised change. In his defense, he delivered. He promised new thinking, which he delivered. It was wrong. But the stock market, which had been a mess for years, took off. The economy, after a terrible recession, took off. His administration conquered inflation and interest rates which had ruined our country since 1970.

Unions aren’t blameless in their own self-destruction. Go and read about the convictions of union bosses for corruption and bribery during the 1970s. The laid the seeds for much of their own failure and why the rise of the so-called “Right to Work” laws came into being. Sure, the unions would like Smoot-Hawley and it appears Trump would like that too.

The problem with that kind of thinking is manufacturing is *dirty*. We don’t manufacture electronics here because it’s toxic by nature with large amount of cyanide tailings. We don’t manufacture a lot of home appliances because of prohibited ozone depleting chemicals. We let China manufacture all the stuff we don’t like so we can pretend to be green. We export all the stuff we think we’re “recycling” to Africa so child labor can manually dismantle our old computers and TVs for the copper and rare earths.

We love to dictate “green policies” to the rest of the world - just so long as we don’t have to make the products that would foul the earth. So expect that we’ll export more of those jobs so we can have clean air, clean water and nice things and let someone else bear the consequences. But those consequences include the loss of jobs that make, sell and support the manufacturing sector in everything from appliances, electronics, heavy engineering to aircraft.

New "green" solvents got the Columbia astronauts killed when the foam broke off the engines and trashed the leading edge of one of the Shuttle's wings.

The Cuyahoga River and others were always catching fire due to the heavy industry polluting the waters.

[quote]Many of us voted conservative in 1980

Not among people I know. And I am sick to death of r225, the "Boomers All Voted Republican to Flush Millennials down the Toilet" troll.

My dad taught me to drive in "his car" a 1957 DeSoto with a 425 Hemi. He gave it to me when I graduated high school in 1973. By then it was considered obsolete. I was embarrassed to drive it. I wanted a Vega. I had shit for brains.

Great story, r258!

To have that car today, huh?

I'm 66 and have NEVER voted for a Republican. Neither did my parents (born in the '20s.)

R162 We were working class but my mom *always* had her hair and makeup done. Wore nice day dresses throughout the 60s until they were no longer made; she hated pantsuits and mini skirts.

Dad always wore a dapper hat with clean chinos or dungarees and a nice clean dress shirt or tshirt.

Neither would ever dream of wearing flip flops and pajama bottons to go shopping.

My mother thought women, who went out in public with curlers in their hair, were shameless

R262-Remember the taunt-SHAME , SHAME YOU'VE GOT CURLERS IN YOU HAIR!

Omg. Forgot about that one.

r262 My, mother, thought, people, who, put, commas, where, they, didn't, belong, were, idiots.

My parents were what were called back in the day "yellow dog democrats". They'd vote for a yellow dog before they'd vote for a republican. It was one of the few decent things about my father.

Thanks R65, R162 & R261 for answering my question. I'm a 90's kid but I love to read stories of those times. Thanks all for sharing them.

I'm also a lot into the music from that time like The Who, The Beatles, The Doors, The Stooges, Janis Joplin...

Did anyone of you saw them live in their original formations? What kind of music did you listen to when you grew up?

R258 - cool car. Growing up in my Aussie town with my Halloween envy, we didn't have a car until I was in my teens. My dad never drove and my mother learned to when I was about 14. Our first car was a Vauxhall Cresta, cream and maroon, with fins. I was embarrassed by it and wished we had a Ford or Holden like everyone else. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, back ....

And R251, going to the movies was a big thing in my hometown too and you would see your neighbours, friends, school mates etc there, especially for the 'big' films. Ones I recall include Sound of Music, Born Free and, like you, Dr Zhivago. My friend's somewhat zany mother claimed all the snow scenes gave her a glare induced migraine. Our local radio station had a big promotion for a film called McKenna's Gold with Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Julie Newmar, Camilla Sparv (remember her?) and a slew of old Hollywood male stars. Lurch from the Addams Family was in it too. The reason I recall it so well was part of the promotion was free tickets to the film when it showed at our local theatre and by dialling all the numbers bar the last one and then waiting and pouncing when the DJ said to call I managed to win six free tickets. My sister and I took our grandmother, one of the neighbours and a couple of cousins. We also got three chances to use a key to open a McKenna's Gold treasure chest at the local department store. Our keys all failed the Excalibur-like test and I can't recall what we were in the running to win but the whole thing was fun and ensured me and my sister are two of the probably few people who recall McKenna's Gold.

Anyone remember this?

I certainly do. My mother drove a Chrysler Imperial back in the 60's that had push button transmission.

Just like this, but ours was dark blue.

I was fascinated by the manual cars that had their shift sticks on the steering wheels.

Or "on the column" as they said.

R181 I think that economic status is more the cause of this. When I lived in Baltimore there were lots of obese children. Now I am living in a wealthy suburb of a different city. I see the same amount of kids eating fast food, but these kids are in sports year-round. Some families definitely spend their money on organic food, but when your neighborhood is not safe for bike rides and no money /parent availability for sports, that is a big factor in weight and wellness

A few more things:

Dressing up when going out to dinner, to church, to the department stores, and for air travel.

It was a big thing if you were going on a trip or a cruise. My grandmother went to Europe in 1967, and the whole family came to see her off. Even an uncle and his family who lived in another city. Everyone was dressed up. In the early 1970s, my parents took us to Bermuda. we all dressed up for the plane trip.

Eating dinner as a family every night. We were expected to have good manners. Didn't leave the table until we were excused. We would discuss the events in our lives and in the larger world around us. I can remember my mother and father arguing about Watergate. She was anti-Nixon. He was more pro-Nixon. I miss those dinners. You learned to converse, to socialize, and to make an argument.

I grew up in NYC, but we went away every summer. There was little, if any, television. We were outdoors all day. At night, we read. One place we went, TV reception was very limited. So we read. We played boardgames or cards. We did jigsaw puzzles.

The only diversity I remember as a kid was the range of ethnicities of friends and kids in the neighborhood: Italian, Irish, Jewish, Greek, Syrian, Polish, and German. In grammar school, I went to a parochial school, and there was only one black student. It wasn't until high school (late 70s/early 80s) that I encountered more black and Puerto Rican students.

Like others have noted about Halloween, it was for kids. The only decorations were the cardboard witches and pumpkins my mother scotch-taped to the front windows and door. My Mom inspected the candy we brought home. I can remember other kids saying not to accept apples, as there might be razor blades imbedded in them!

The downside was the lack of awareness of many problems like abuse in the family or bullied kids. My Dad told the story of a couple in a neighboring apartment when my parents were first married in the mid-50s. He said you could hear the couple arguing at night and what sounded like the husband hitting the wife. My Dad's response was to confront the husband in the elevator of the apartment building, but not to call the police or any social service. In grammar school, my first grade teacher used a ping pong paddle to smack you on the butt if you misbehaved. A fourth grade teacher berated a crying kid who was bullied by telling him to "turn off Niagra Falls."

The helicoptering and bubble wrapping was a reaction to the Ethan Patz case and other stories like his. No longer was it the kindly old man at the corner store or the friendly old lady on her stoop watching out for you or saying that they would tell your parents when you misbehaved. It became the creep lurking around the corner ready to harm you. As we all know, the creeps were always there. Awareness of their presence grew. One of its byproducts is also a loss of a sense of community and of freedom.

Yes. Poor Ethan Patz. I remember my mum crying watching the TV coverage. Was 1979. Then the milk cartons started.

Back in those days going to the movie theater at night meant coat and tie. Movies always had intermissions and anyone who wanted refreshments would go to the lobby. Many theaters required you to consume your refreshments in the lobby during the intermission. No food or drink in the theater.

Who remembers this little ditty? This was the standard intermission announcement in most all theaters where I grew up.

My dad went to a fancy Quaker boarding school in the 1950’s. He said he would never forget the one Jewish boy being bullied and beaten up by the football players. Hypocrisy everywhere.

R270. The push button trannie? Wasn’t that the 63-65 series?

Yeah, when people say they want to go back to the good all days I always get a little nervous. I’m not sure I would trade a longer work week for everyone that is not a white man feeling like they should know their place.

[quote] Back in those days going to the movie theater at night meant coat and tie.

Holy fuck. You queens are idiots. The queen at r277 posts a cute clip from the fifties and claims he knows something about the seventies? What a jackass! My hippy aunts in 1974 would take me to the movies STONED and sneak popcorn in illegally because they didn’t want to pay for it, I’m sure as hell they weren’t wearing a coat and tie, you stupid queen.

[quote] The push button trannie? Wasn’t that the 63-65 series?

My mother's car was a '62 model. Chrysler started putting push buttons in some of their cars in the mid 50's.

There were only a few styles of sneaker. Nike appeared around 1979 and came in one style, and K-Swiss.

There seemed to be fewer celebrities and media was a smaller part of life (noted above, we had only a few television stations).

We ate simpler, cheaper food like American Chopped Suey (ground beef, tomato soup, elbow macaroni and cheese from a green metallic round cardboard shaker). We also had cold drinks like Kool-aid and Zarex (?) in summer, and it would stain the counters permanently when you spilled it.

We had fewer towels and threw away fewer things.

We would sneak home and watch the 4:30 movie after school or an afterschool special, then turn over the sofa cushions so our Dad wouldn’t know we watched television during the day.

People ate margarine because it seemed healthier than butter. We also drank powdered milk.

Correct. After the Vietnam vets started coming back and the protests. I remember my dad a Korea vet, almost slugged a hippie wearing jeans with an American flag on the ass. It was at the mall. I was so frighted by dad's red faced bellowing at this teenager I peed my pants. I was 8 yrs.

Idiot at R281. Where I lived we had movie palaces, not the low rent theaters you were used to. And I was talking about the 60's, not the 70's. All of the nicer theaters in my city in the early 60's played that announcement.

Don't be such a shitass. It's unbecoming.

R282 Thank you! I think my dad had 1964 Dart with the push button. We loved it.

R279 1952 was the first year for push button trannies.

[quote] We had fewer towels and threw away fewer things.

Oh that reminded me. Who remembers when Breeze detergent included a terrycloth towel in each box. And dishwashing detergents at times included a drinking glass in each box.

Oh yes they did.

And Duz dishwashing detergent with their lovely crystal tumbler in each box.

Guys, it’s ETAN Patz, not Ethan.

R283. I had forgotten about Zarex, I remember loving the grape flavor, turns out it was a Massachusetts thing.

R267 I saw the Beatles live in concert in 1965. I was 8 and was with my parents and brother and sister which was a drag but what an experience, I’ll never forget it. It was at a baseball stadium and we were in the nosebleed seats, the bands onstage looked like ants. There were interminable warmup bands, one after the other...then the Beatles took the stage and it was thrilling even from where we were. The screams of the crowd were like a solid wall of sound the whole time, you could barely hear the music. Still I was enthralled. It was as if the skies opened up and the angels had descended onstage.

People were thinner. It was rare to see someone overweight. Portions were overall smaller, and junk food seemed like more of a treat because it wasn't in your face constantly.

But... oddly I think eating habits were generally not as "healthy" as they are today. There might be too much consumption of food today, and junk food is more popular than ever and corn syrup is in everything... but back then whole grain, vegan, raw vegetables, exotic fruits, weird spices and stuff was like "health food" you got at a specialty store and was associated with hippies, and vegetarianism was some sort of thing socialist radicals did. It was much less common. There were fewer choices back then but everything was very processed.

R292 Is that right? That makes sense. We drank it in Massachusetts and probably packed it for vacation in Maine. It must have been made industrial strength food dye.

I remember my mom putting me and my little brother in her pink bathtub and pouring in Oxydol powdered laundry detergent. It made a lot of foam. Mom also made us eat Vicks vapor rub when we got colds. Spoon full of Geritol every morning. Tasted like rust. Orange Mercurochrome on cuts. The god awful pink chamomile lotion for bites.She made sure we were vaccinated. We survived

To see someone in their 40's or 50's looking thin and beautiful and younger-looking was less common. People smoked and drank like crazy. Fitness was just starting to get popular. Moisturizer and fancy cleansers were basically unheard of... like Oil of Olay was it. Yoga and stuff? In the fringes. When you were a teenager, your parents were generally going to look older than would be common today.

I’m impressed how many of your memories are so tangible and accessible, because I struggle to recall those kinds of details.

When I was a kid, no mom or dad were carting their kids all over for soccer, or baseball or any other after school activity. The parents were working and if kids needed to be somewhere we got there ourselves. In all that time I only was approached once by a pervert. I was smart enough to keep away from him. Why don't kids have street smarts anymore?

[quote]In all that time I only was approached once by a pervert. I was smart enough to keep away from him. Why don't kids have street smarts anymore?

I’m glad they don’t.

I was tested in grade school and high school. I was a good guesser, so I tested above my abilities.

When lowlife Trump was tested, they knew he was a retard. Yes. I said retard.

[quote]Back in those days going to the movie theater at night meant coat and tie. Movies always had intermissions and anyone who wanted refreshments would go to the lobby. Many theaters required you to consume your refreshments in the lobby during the intermission. [bold]No food or drink in the theater.[/bold]

r277 Wouldn't it be heaven if that policy were to be invoked today? I do not remember having to wear a coat and tie to go to a movie, however, not even at the schmancy Montclair Cinerama.

[quote]Who remembers this little ditty? This was the standard intermission announcement in most all theaters where I grew up.

I do, I do. And wasn't a version it used as a commercial for 7-Up at some point?

[quote]My dad went to a fancy Quaker boarding school in the 1950’s. He said he would never forget the one Jewish boy being bullied and beaten up by the football players. Hypocrisy everywhere.

Did your dad do anything about it? I helped a Jewish friend-in-law out who was being bullied at Georgetown by letting him live with me for a semester. He would have made such a great husband. He couldn't have been cuter, we had such a good time, and his parents absolutely adored me. But he liked girls.

When you were molested there was no one to tell for fear of getting in trouble and forget trying to process the experience. Helicopter parents as called now are more informative, thank God. Geez, I didn't realize this place was filled with leave It To Beaver homes.

If I ever met or hung out with a new friend and told my mother about it the first thing she would ask was, "What does their father do?"

Wasn't this stuff just repackaged powdered laundry detergent?

Halloween felt like a massive celebration the whole neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods participated in. Some houses went all out making the opening of the door to get treats a "show." Everyone was out trick or treating. It was like an endless block party.

In the very late 70's when we first became aware of Punk and New Wave (Blondie, Devo, B-52's and related stuff) it blew our pre-teen gay minds.

Salon g as I went to church on Sunday, my mom mainly minded her own business. My mom did tell me no onecwas suppose to touch my underpants and if they did, I would have been smart enough to tell her. I was not with my dadvlong but if someone did the wrong thing to me, he would have beat the crap out of the guy. It was a simpler time. Now, most kids enjoy the sex play, then feel guilty. Seems to me if a kid enjoys it...they should just accept it. Honestly if rape is not involved...why act as if it is the end of the world?

Using sunscreen was rare to unheard of.

Having a tan was very popular and people would slather themselves in oil and just bake under the hot sun for fun, and to be "in." Then, look like haggard nightmares by the time they were in their 40's.

[R303] No, my dad was kind of a wimp, I hate to say. He observed injustices from afar, only. Now he’s led around by the balls by his second wife.

I am always amazed by Quaker theory vs Quaker practice. My Mom's family is Mexican American, and they were the first to buy in Whittier, a Quaker town.

The WASPs were cool, the Quakers were dicks to them.

Wasn't this stuff just repackaged powdered laundry detergent?

. . . with Lanolin.

[quote]Proctor & Gamble

Proct[italic]e[/italic]r, puss. Proct[italic]e[/italic]r.

^^ THIS is the reason I love me DL!

[R312] Quakers are the original holier than thou woke folk

r315 Thanks, Presh.

In those days more often than not when something happened that would tear a family apart today everyone just stayed quiet about it. The general idea was "don't discuss it and it'll go away eventually". It was "outta sight, outta mind".

R281,

I was born in 1960, lived in the metro Detroit area. I remember that intermission refreshment short playing at the drive-ins throughout my childhood, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s.

I loved the drive-in, we went year round. In the winter there was a heater that went on the hump of the backseat floor and there were fireworks in the summer. There was a little playground area up by the screen with swings & a slide.

I always wanted to wear my pajamas like some other kids did, but my mom wouldn't let my sister & I. We also never got to play on the playground. We did get to sit on the car good once during fireworks; it was scary.

That should be hood.

Thank you, R291

Forgive me if someone mentioned it above (I missed it if they did), but a book came out fairly recently that was just made for this thread:

As a kid the drive-ins had the speakers you hung over your windows. Then in the 80's most of the switched to radio transmission of the audio. You'd turn your car radio to a specific channel to listen to the movie. I didn't care for that. Took some of the fun out of it.

To answer OP's questions, yes, we were outside all day, especially in summer. Out before lunch, out in the afternoon, out after dinner until dark or just after. And we roamed from home, usually as a pack with neighbor kids to other kids houses or yards. No organized play dates, just went out of your house and into the street/yards to find someone to play with.

And we were self-reliant because you learned to interact with kids outside of an adult's sphere of influence and dealt with problems on your own, as needed. We knew there were dangers, from cars, dogs, bigger kids, strangers, but I can't imagine ever staying in doors because of them. We were either smart, or lucky, if we stayed out of any of that trouble.

And fat kids were an anomaly. And not even really fat by today's standards. It seemed like everyone had some kind of bike back then.

None of this is exaggerated. It's how it was, and we didn't think much about it.

Not buying it, R20. I grew up in the 50s and 60s. We walked home from school for lunch every day. At Halloween, there was actual door-to-door trick or treating alone in our neighborhoods. The razor blades in applies didn't happen until the late 70s. I could take the bus downtime in the summer by myself once I was in 3rd grade. It was safe to be out alone after dark.

We took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in the 50s. There was a slower kid or two in class, but that person was just who he/she was. Some kids were poorer than others, but I don't recall anyone making fun of them, at least not in grade school or junior high. Or even in high school that I'm aware. Kids played outside a lot more with a lot more freedom.

One thing that was different was there was a lot more driving after drinking. No one really thought much about not driving if they had too much to drink. Other than that, I don't believe there was as much crime or abuse. It isn't like it never happened, but it was rarer. Privacy was more of an assumed thing. Newspapers and television didn't cover certain things and authority figures were presumed to be correct unless there was a very serious reason not to assume it. School officials, for example, had a lot of latitude, but where I grew up, corporal punishment was not done.

I would give a fortune to go back for a few weeks of summer freedom and fun as a kid. I remember ll my friends and their personalities, and I bet I would have autopilot on the bike and mini-bike trails in the woods, if they still exist. Doubtful they do. I can't imagine today's parents let their kids rip around woods and quarries on mini-bikes. I don't remember any mini-bike accidents. One of my friends broke his neck jumping regular bikes in the clay pits. We were all traumatized but he was lucky and had no spinal cord injuries. I busted my balls jumping the rocks by the river but apparently no damage but GEEZ! Broke my collar bone. Broke a leg skiing. Skiing was completely wild as our schools took us on trips with just a few teachers, and we were quite unchaperoned most of the time as well.

Where do I start?

My mother subsisted on Tab and Parliament cigarettes; it was the '70s. Every morning she awoke before our family to prepare us for our day, every day. She wasn't a 'Coffee Drinker'; she was a 'Tab Drinker.' When we awoke to prepare for work/school/our day, we'd find her at the kitchen table (obviously already awake for hours), engrossed in her NY Times Crossword Puzzle, with her lit Parliament 100 lounging in its huge glass ashtray; her iced Tab sparkling away in its 16-ounce glass tumbler: the perfect marriage.

There she sat in her faded house dress, legs tucked under her, pink sponge rollers decorating her hair, pencil poised, while silently focusing on formulating a 14-letter synonym for 'Introspection' ('Thoughtfulness'); then she'd smile to herself: Happiness.

Saturday mornings we'd find her silently enjoying/contemplating the same characteristics (introspection/thoughtfulness/the perfect marriage: Happiness): she'd be quietly tending to her precious Neon Tetras, though with three Parliament 100s glowing at once, in various locations throughout the house, with her sparkling Tab(s) nearby to keep her company.

Upon our clumsy arrival into the family room for Saturday morning cartoons, she'd jump up to hug us, her faded housedress swirling about her too-thin frame, her pink-sponge rollers dancing about her head. She'd smile, laugh aloud, while kissing us on our precious, innocent foreheads.

Happiness.

This speaks volumes

[quote]THIS is the reason I love me DL!

And this is the reason I sometimes hate the place:

[quote]Now, most kids enjoy the sex play, then feel guilty. Seems to me if a kid enjoys it...they should just accept it. Honestly if rape is not involved...why act as if it is the end of the world?

R327, you paint a helluva word picture. I can picture your mom vividly.

Thanks for the smile.

[quote]I always wanted to wear my pajamas like some other kids did, but my mom wouldn't let my sister & I.

Oh, dear!

Simple test in a sentence like this: leave out “my sister” and see if the sentence makes sense. You wouldn’t say “my mother wouldn’t let I.”

No such thing as helicopter parenting. I was allowed to ride my bike all over town at age 9-10 - including riding to First National about 3/4 of a mile away to get bread and/or milk. We had one car, my mother was at home until I turned 11 and then she started a part-time job. The food industry hadn't ruined food yet - you ate mostly whole foods with some manufactured foods as a treat - like Oreos. One glass of soda a day. At the school playground if you weren't on your bike. Modern parenting, the food industry, the media, social media have ruined society.

r310-I remember seeing women at swimming pools and or beaches in the 1970's sitting there with those silver cardboard things to get more rays of the sun. Does anyone remember those?

People bought Coppertone-NOT the sunscreen but SUN TAN lotion.

Every time we have a thread like this I hope that someone posts about life in the South during segregation. Did anyone grow up during the White/Colored drinking fountains era? What was a it really like? Did it seem natural or did it make you uncomfortable even as a little kid?

For those citing hysterical (yes I do mean hysterical) ortgage rates please see the stats below. There were only 2 months when the mortgage rates were 18%. There was a very limited window when rates were 16-17%. People who were smart simply did not buy houses then unless they had to or it was financially advantageous for other reasons.

And as stated above the rates did not reach 10% until something like 1978, with the understanding that home equity increased significantly and quickly during that time. Home owners buying up were not disadvantaged. The ones that had a difficult time were first time home buyers.

@R330 / All - See R101

I have more . . .

I grew up in the Bronx. Local movie theaters had kid matinees on the weekends and also regular films had movie matrons until around 5 or 6 p.m. most nights. These were older, mostly single (perhaps lesbian) ladies who were there to make sure kids were reasonably behaved, and I think also (but never said aloud) to make sure no one was trying to diddle a kid during the show. I do recall my parents told me to move away from any man if he tried to touch me. Never came up back then. Movies were sometimes kid things like fairy tales from Europe dubbed into English like "Rumpelstilskin" or "Snow White and Rose Red", also full-length cartoons like "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear". Some had really cool double features -- they somehow put together one of "The Music Man" and "Gypsy". It was musical comedy heaven. I went around the house singing the strippers "You can uh, you can uh, you can uh uh uh!!!" My parents thought it was hilarious.

We went to see "Oliver!" at the Loew's State Theater. You had reserved seats which for our matinee was $3.25, when a regular film was around $1 or so. Also saw "Sound of Music" as a little kid, but was banished from the theater for a while when I tried to sing along with the kids as already knew "Do Re Mi" from the Mary Martin OCR. :)

Drive-ins were cool. Saw "Hawaii" with Julie Andrews at the Elmsford Westchester one and the scenes of the ocean's hugeness making Julie Andrews' character sick in their rocking small vessel were very scary.

I remember being told to go out and play. So lots of touch football and bike riding, going to the schoolyard to play stickball, paddleball, etc. There were fireworks back then, but my Mom didn't allow it -- a neighbor in the backyard had lost an eye to a firework. We were allowed sprinklers when they were still legal, though those apparently are still pretty dangerous.

I got a little transistor radio when my Dad opened up a bank account for me, which I think had to be open for at least a year or so. I used to listen to it under my pillow.

There were standardized tests. Hell, I skipped 3rd grade cause I did so well on them apparently. That would have been fine but i already started kindergarten at 4, so I was 7 in the 4th grade. Which is around the time I started to gain some weight. I was a skinny kid, but having to do lots of reading to catch up caused something which wasn't addressed or said back then. Oh yes, it was called "stress". Though I was chubby, it wasn't as much as kids nowadays. Didn't get teased too much since I ran fast and fought back. Frankly, it was a lot of girls who were jealous that I did better in school than they did. I still went out and played, but did watch a decent amount of tv after I did my homework.

Sparklers, not sprinklers, correction

R254 = Donald Trump Jr.

R333 It seems like it was fairly common to see people with peeling skin on their shoulders, back or nose from getting sunburns in the summer. It was almost cool, like it meant you'd been outdoors doing fun things that year. Now I almost never see that.

Also, everyone had their own home remedies for sunburns. I remember butter was one.

All the kids knew to avoid Uncle Barnabas house.

The car my parents bought in 1964. My mother was positive this back window was the wave of the future.

No one else ever did it. It was absurd. We were the only people anyone ever knew who had one of these.

The only people who had tattoos were convicted criminals.

Or sailors...

R342, what kind of car is that? Make/model?

I remember my mother telling my father that some well known doctor in town had started prescribing some sort of magic pills to people (mainly women) who wanted to lose weight. My mother knew several of her rich lady friends who were getting scripts for these pills and she also knew from the get go all these women were getting addicted. Turned out it was Amphetamines these old gals were hopped up on. One lady told my mother that when she first got her prescription filled she didn't sleep or eat for 3 days. But got tons done around the house. LOL

Huge trunk, at least.

R340. I remember using cold wet teabags as a sunburn remedy. Something about the tannic acid helping the pain. Not sure it worked, however.

[quote] [R342], what kind of car is that? Make/model?

It looks like a Mercury Monterey Breezeway. That inward pointing rear windows was electric and would roll down. They made those cars from 63 to 68 I believe.

Oh, I'm not R342.

The 1958 Lincolns had the same window design. That styling was ahead of it's time in the fall of 1957 when it was introduced. But not six years later on the Mercury.

I was a kid in the 80s. I went to the store to buy groceries alone, sometimes alcohol. I walked back an forth to school everyday. My friends and I would walk around the city and go to parks. I would hitchhike to the beach and go to event alone or with friends in the early 90s. We would to restaurants together and we would be served. I took care of my younger sisters and cousins. I was an adult without with a paying job basically. My parents weren't really interested in me, although my single mom stayed home.I really saw my father, but she always sent me to pick up my child support monthly because she didnt like him. I lived in an extended family where no one went to college. In contrast, my husband and I are both college educated and sending our daughter to college this fall. We have no help from anyone and we both work full time. Ain't no way I'm having my kids running around anywhere unsupervised, you better believe I'm close by. When they are kidnapped, murdered, injured or child trafficked. That's my fault. I take responsibility for my children. I won't be part of the problem.

Witch Hazel. Most people who could tan would build up a tan in the beginning of the summer. We weren't afraid of the sun and it seemed to cure a zit. Tanning seemed to be popular until the mid 80s?

Thanks r349/r350!

Most men in the 1970's had SLIM, NATURAL bodies. Today most guys are FAT OR Muscular or BOTH!

It wasn’t all roses. I was bullied terribly. Nobody cared or tried to help. My father was an abusive asshole, and tried to kill my mother on a few occasions. The police didn’t give two shits

R354 I wish that was true

Remember this beauty from Ethan Allen?

Seats four like the Vista Cruiser

They were ubiquitous in 70's suburbia

Pre- Scotchguard

Montgomery Wards Home of Fine Furniture

Complimented by the "Mediterranean "simulated wood accessory tables.

We did have avocado appliances and Wild West saloon swinging doors going into the ole’ grub rustlin’ Area.

Living the dream.

Furniture and home furnishings were hideous in the 70s and 80s

The 50s and 60s were much better

Mothers little helpers

R364 Well it beats this 1985 nightmare

In their 'Fake' Living Rooms, my parents' house had those massive '70s' table lamps ala 'Mannix' ('70s TV series) production sets.

Damn, I wish I still had those today.

Ugly teen time

[quote] When you were molested there was no one to tell for fear of getting in trouble and forget trying to process the experience. Helicopter parents as called now are more informative, thank God. Geez, I didn't realize this place was filled with leave It To Beaver homes.

Yes, I think people (including me) are remembering through a hazy lens.

When I was about 13 (no, I did not look 18), a "pervert" targeted me and a friend. When we told our parents, they blamed it on us and nobody called the police.

R342, my 6th grade teacher drove one of these. It was turquoise. She was single and attractive. This was in 1962.

r342, we had down-the-street neighbors who had that car. Same shade of beige.

R363, my Mom was obsessed with green appliances - our stove and refrigerator were avocado green with brown wood trim. The main bathroom bathtub and toilet were avocado green. The bathroom walls were painted pale green, and decorated with dark green tile. Toilet paper came in decorator colors back then, and of course she only bought the green stuff.

I like green. Thanks, r373.

Station wagons! So many family with kids had a station wagon as one of their cars. My sister and her first husband bought an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser after their first daughter was born. It was like a Sherman tank. I did enjoy those ceiling viewing windows in the rear.

^^^ we called the paneled ones woodies and the plain ones grocery getters

R334. I remember segregated ... everything. I grew up in St Louis and we moved to the suburbs. My grandmother lived in north St Louis. I stayed with her at least a weekend each month.

We’d go shopping, and her little corner grocery like her neighborhood was white only. If we went over to Florissant Avenue - it was white only. The Majik-Market, the big grocery store, was white only.

When she took me downtown on the bus, we sat in front because “it was safer’. All non whites had to ride in back and if whites boarded and couldn’t find a seat, they had to give up their seats to whites.

When we went to the movie theater, non whites (the sign said “colored”) had to sit in the balconies. The water fountains and rest rooms had signs for “white only”. Even chicken shacks were segregated - seating was white only.

We moved to Florissant, which is northern suburb of St Louis in 1963. It was all white. All the schools were white. There were no black kids in my grade school in 1965. Desegregation started in 1968 in the next school district over to us, Ferguson-Florissant, and there were riots. The men in our neighborhood “patrolled” with shotguns just in case and lawless “coloreds” wanted to come into our lily white slab 900 sq ft houses.

The coda to the story isn’t one of race, it’s the Department of Defense. During the Manhattan Project and after, throughout the 1950s, Mallinkrodt was refining uranium near St Louis Airport. It appears to have buried the hot waste which leaked into the underground streams that crossed through all these formerly lily white communities.

It’s now the center of the highest cancer hot zone in the United States.

r374=Joey Luft on Backwards Day.

The quintessential teens to aspire to- look wise, were the teens in Carrie. Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, John Travolta and William Katy (who I had a huge crush on)

The Vista Cruiser! My brother and I spent thousands of miles on summer vacations in the back reading comic books and of course making faces at the cars behind us. Great memories.

I wonder what happened to these kids that were apparently the only fat kid in their grade, although apparently all were really slim or only a few pounds heavy by today’s standards. Did they become Jack LaLane disciples in the 80s, or become the size of their floral Ethan Allen couch?

They became failed screenwriters living in their grandmas vista cruiser

That “chubbette” is thin compared to some of the girls I see now.

R157, OMG, so TRUE, especially bewaring of the house of the "spooky man"!

Reminder: there are only 213 days till xmas

I love the aluminum Christmas tree....I want one SO bad.

Mom had one and sold it in the 80s for 10 bucks. She could have sold it in recent years for more like $500.

R381, "Fat Kathy," late 70's San Diego, became an executive VP with Weight Watchers and gave speeches around the country re her cruel nickname. In all fairness she had very large bones as compared to everyone else. Don't know if she walked the 1 1/2 miles home, including up a few rather steep hills, like my friends and I did.

Our aluminium tree was over by 1965. My mom loved the smell of a live spruce, never fir. Mom always had the last say in tree selection Going to pick out a tree with mom and dad during the first snow is one of my cherished childhood memories

Wow, too many oldies on here.

I remember those Chrysler products with the push-button transmissions and always thought they were so cool! (But then I've always been a gadget guy and I love pushing buttons!) But we never had one and I've never driven one -- and I'm confused -- why is there no "P" button for PARK?

[quote]Where I lived we had movie palaces, not the low rent theaters you were used to.

Ear shit, you old cunt, all the theaters were owned by the same companies back then. The title of the thread says 60s and 70s and if your run down town only had those fifties adds, fuck right off and don’t comment on this thread, you geriatric piece of shit.

In the 70's you would have been on Valium ^

Ladies (R392 and R393), such language!

Great, interesting thread.

Playing outside with your friends. No worries except for crashing your bike into the curb, resulting in a strawberry on your knee.

And those Iowa tests! 99th percentile made me feel ok. Glory days :)

R391. As I remember on the Dart, there was a pedal you pushed on the far left side of the floorboard to engage the parking brake. You pressed it a second time to release it.

I like Nagel prints. And that neon version is divooone.

Conquistador lamp. If I could find one in Europe, I would buy it.

Mum had a pair of these..

My family went Danish modern and then by the 70's mod. We had the Eero Saarinen Knoll Round Tulip table in one dining room, and it wasn't all that practical for a large dinner but my parents like to invite just 1 couple at a time and liked the modern look. My parents didn't smoke so I though it was glamorous when they had company and I smelled smoke and perfume in the house. My mother took my great grandmother's 30's big dining room furniture and put it on one end of the rec room by the sliding glass doors, so this was used for holiday dinners. I took the Saarinen to a college apartment then sold it in the early 90s.

So many trips to the beach in our old blue station wagon. Stopping for fried clams, at a local clam shack, or having egg salad and tuna sandwiches, on the beach. Happy on those days when the water reached 54 degrees. Body surfing and sunburns, with a stop at Dairy Queen for a Mr. Misty (slushy) on the way home. Great memories.

Now you’ve depressed me, R400

When I was in the military, I furnished my first apartment with James David glass and chrome tables and “etageres” I bought at the PX for $50 each. I went to look what they’d cost today.

The coffee table is over $600 and the etagere is over $2500.

R400 Beam me up Scotty

By 1975 all that uncomfortable spider legged modular Danish Modern was passe. Then the wicker and Boston ferns took over.

In 1970 I rode the Penn Central to NYC.

Birthday telegrams! However, when the special postman arrived with any other telegram it was usually bad news, and there was always that pregnant silence while your parents opened the envelope.

Cruising! When I was thirteen and started cruising men, they were obliging. I guess now they'd be very leery! And thinking back I was surprisingly not nervous about it. I'd walk all over town, which I'd been doing for years anyway. And the cool hippies who staffed the radical bookshop would sell me gay porn mags which they also stocked, which I'd buy with my pocket money. I guess they thought if I was old enough to want it, I was old enough to have it.

These were also on every Danish Modern sideboard..Empoli glass. Quite collectible. Especially with the mid century fellas in Palm Springs.

Taco Bell was actually not that bad then.

HAIRY men everywhere.

Actually I sure there was much more cruising, period. Nowadays gay guys are glued to their phones like everyone else, or just mentally harried and distracted. But then everyone lingeringly checked out everyone -- on the street, on buses, trains, everywhere. Doesn't happen now. Now it's just a flick of a glance to check that there's no obvious oncoming traffic or crazies sitting opposite on the train, and then its back to the phone. It's really annoying when there's someone hot there, and they never look up!!!

Remember this? You walked into a gay area and everyone's lunch was on display in 501s. Often carefully faded at the crotch to enhance the prominence, or even ripped. But everywhere else in the city, bulges were on display too because of the cut of the pants. How did we go from a time where bulges were as prominent as they had been in the Renaissance, back to the sexless flat front pants of today?

I used to hitchhike - everywhere. I had a part time job at 15. Thumb got my back and forth pretty reliably.

1975-76.

To be fair, kids today have it so bad.

R413, What in the heck was that all about? Was it a parody post?

R267 To answer your question - I saw the Beatles perform live in 1964 on their first American tour. I was lucky enough to be in the 6th row from the stage, center, so I was close enough to actually be able to hear them. Most of the 12,000 in the audience could only hear nothing but the screaming of the girls. That was what was known as "Beatlemania". The Beatles sang 12 songs and their performance lasted 30 minutes. They really delivered and were very entertaining. Paul did all the talking. Ringo got to sing his obligatory one song: "Boys".

[quote]Actually I sure there was much more cruising, period. Nowadays gay guys are glued to their phones like everyone else, or just mentally harried and distracted. But then everyone lingeringly checked out everyone -- on the street, on buses, trains, everywhere.

I got my first introduction to another world in the train station bathroom. My Father would let me wander trough the train depot while he went to the Post Office, and in the men's room there was the most interesting graffiti --along with endless jokes, limericks, and little cartoon drawings there were mysterious things like "Tuesday 4:45. This stall. SHOW HARD" that I wasn't completely clear about, but I knew there was some sort secret involved. By the time I was a teenager the depot was a parking lot, but it did get me thinking.

[quote]I used to hitchhike - everywhere.

Good one! Hitchhiking really is now extinct. (I think!)

[quote]I got my first introduction to another world in the train station bathroom.

What about British capital city phoneboxes! OMG!!! OK, the photo looks like it is from the turn of the millennium, but they were eyepopping. You got the full kink of British society hiding behind those net curtains the moment you stepped in. Nothing made a bigger statement of the social hypocrisy. Yet the media never mentioned them.

R140 A friend's first apartment backed up to a Jack-in-the-Box. A million times a day, she'd have to hear, "Can I take your order please?"

Remember the Jack-in-the-Box antenna topper and the Union 76 orange antenna ball?

Halloween! It wasn't regulated to the point of being joyless. We stayed out LATE, very late, going to all sorts of what were to us far-off neighborhoods, bringing back huge bags of candy. Usually someone's older sibling would drive us. None of this off the streets by a certain time. Schools had Halloween parties and Christmas parties without worrying about being political correct.

My mother was a raging narcissist and compulsive talker with no filter. Whenever she'd buy something new or go on a trip, she would have to recount or describe it to numerous friends and family. Chain-smoking her Pall-Malls and sipping her instant coffee,she would phone them, one after another, get her narcissistic supply, and move on to the next, until she was satiated. If I was in the kitchen while she was doing this, by the third phone call, I would have memorized her script and would be saying it in unison with her. Ha ha ha.

Clearly, she was born too late - social media was made for her.

This thread seems to be infested with SJWs!

Advice to SJWs: SAVE THE PLANET - KILL YOURSELF NOW!!!!

(and save everyone the boredom of your whining)

R392 is profoundly mentally unstable. Let's not engage.

Re: Christmas trees. In the 60's you could buy a huge 7' live Christmas tree for $5.00. Live wreaths were $1.25-$2.00 depending on size. Today the same tree would cost you $50.00+.

I think R413 has lost her way.

[quote]Ear shit, you old cunt

Oh, DEAR.

[quote]I don't think it is really more risky now. I think it is perceived that it is more risky due to 24 hour cable news, etc.

Maybe...but if in any given population there's always a certain percentage of people are pervs or a threat of some kind to children, then we DO have more of those people running around than in the 60s and 70s, because the population has grown tremendously since then.

[quote] I was not with my dadvlong but if someone did the wrong thing to me, he would have beat the crap out of the guy. It was a simpler time. Now, most kids enjoy the sex play, then feel guilty. Seems to me if a kid enjoys it...they should just accept it. Honestly if rape is not involved...why act as if it is the end of the world?

What.The.Fuck.

R345

That's a Mercury Monterrey. One of the ugliest cars ever made.

My mother did keep up the house and cook, but I remember she spent most of the day when my dad was gone on the phone. But when dad came home she dropped everything and dinner was on the table.

I was born in 1969, so I was a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s. We lived in a rural area, and even though I liked to read and watch TV and draw, most days were spent outside with friends. None of my friends lived close, so we either walked or rode our bikes to hook up. I sometimes wonder how none of us ever got seriously hurt. We would do things like see who would jump off the tallest structure. How I never broke a leg is beyond me.

I was the youngest by 9 years, aka a "surprise". My mother had been told she couldn't have any more children. My parents were almost 40 when I was born and had started having kids in their early 20s, so by the time I was school age they had one in college and two in high school. I think they'd seen enough, and dealt with enough, that they were just too fucking tired to deal with me much. I remember being gone from morning to night, roaming around.

My mother had always been sort of elegant--always perfectly styled (big) hair, dresses to go out...then in the mid 70s or so, she ditched the bouffant for a SHAG and started wearing jeans IN PUBLIC and quit being a closet smoker, and would smoke right out on the porch. I remember being sort of freaked out by these changes.

When I was 10 or 11, all my older siblings were out of the house, mostly, and my mother went back to work. We weren't poor, but I guess they needed more money to pay for all those college tuitions. I loved those 3 hours after school when I had the house to myself. I loved to snoop in my parents' bedroom! Once I found a copy of EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT ARE AFRAID TO ASK in the bedside table. There were certain passages and pages highlighted and I got really freaked out and threw it back in the drawer. Too much insight into their sex life! Barf!

Then the 80s came along with more channels and VCRs and video games and everyone started spending more time inside.

We stayed outside and played until the streetlights came on. Then all the moms would come out on all the front porches and call us home.

Summer vacation meant endless afternoons at the ball field, which had an infield of dirt and pebbles, and some patches of grass in the outfield. Or groups of us riding our bicycles, exploring other neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Sometimes, we'd even cross the rivers and check out the North Side or South Side. Once, we walked our bikes up Mount Washington and I nearly got killed flying downhill.

Fred Rogers (whom I first met as a child) often said play is the work of childhood. He was right. We played, We explored. We imagined. We sat around and killed time. There was no formal structure. No play dates. No appointments. Just freedom and the occasional case of poison ivy or a scraped knee.

I thought I was the only kid in the world who might be gay. Years later, I am still learning how many of my childhood friends, fellow jocks, and college fraternity brothers thought the same thing and were just as terrified as I was that someone might learn their secret. So much of the world was wonderful, but it was one great big closet.

R409-I have a natural body. No tattoos, no piercings, no rings and I'm HAIRY too.

R277, you really do not know what you are talking about. There were a few "roadshow" pictures during the 60s, that had intermissions--but the vast majority of films did not.

And few wore jacket and tie to films. You might do it to impress a date, but most folks dressed more casually for film.

^^And popcorn and other snacks had long been allowed inside the theater.

r429 I almost had to check to see if I wrote that, born the same year and similar story except mom didn't smoke. I also used to snoop and found that same book!

[quote]There were a few "roadshow" pictures during the 60s, that had intermissions--but the vast majority of films did not.

All the film sessions had intermissions! If it wasn't a long major picture, you got a 'short' and cartoons and trailers before the intermission.

We had a big bell on a high pole in the back yard (it's still there actually). It was a bell that was used on the farm my grandfather grew up on to call the farm workers in from the fields at meal time. My mother would ring that bell to call me home for whatever reason, mainly for dinner. Even several blocks away at a friend's house I could still hear that bell.

[quote]All the film sessions had intermissions!

"Sessions"???

I can count on one hand the movies I saw with intermissions: Around the World in 80 Days, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady. Maybe a couple I don't remember. But nothing like all movies.

R432, do shut up.

r432 is part of DL's Tie To Fly contingent.

Such good music in the '60s.

Hey r434--did you ever feel like an "only child" with such older siblings? I did. In some ways it was cool though..like I had my parents to myself. Also, I think since those siblings turned out all right, my parents felt they didn't need monitor my every move.

Most of my moms friends smoked in the 70s, but they kind of kept it hidden until I think they collectively just said FUCK IT and started smoking everywhere. I hated it until I hit 16 or so and started stealing cigs from her little leather cigarette purse--all the ladies had one. Kent 100s!

As a child we thought that men who were too ugly to get fish became homosexuals.

Were we ever surprised when we discovered that it was just the opposite!

[quote]How did we go from a time where bulges were as prominent as they had been in the Renaissance, back to the sexless flat front pants of today?

As a bulge lover myself, I can say that in today’s society, I see more bulges and VPL than ever. What with the pajama bottoms in public, lax shorts, and athletic wear being an acceptable outfit, I sometimes see things that I swear the guy is doing on purpose just for show, yet seems totally oblivious to.

[quote] And those Iowa tests! 99th percentile made me feel ok. Glory days :)

Oh right, THAT's what they were called!

I think there were some wonderful things back then - and some things have gotten better - some worse. But I try to remind myself every day "these are the good old days" and someday they will be. If anything life was simpler and slower and my parents were alive - and I miss all of it.

[quote][R391]. As I remember on the Dart, there was a pedal you pushed on the far left side of the floorboard to engage the parking brake. You pressed it a second time to release it.

So did you push the button for Neutral and just put the brake on -- like with a stick shift? There was no Park mode?

[quote] And few wore jacket and tie to films. You might do it to impress a date, but most folks dressed more casually for film

My father always wore a suit or a jacket and tie when he took us to the movies on a Saturday afternoon. Men in the 1960s always wore suits to almost everything. They wore them to baseball games. They wore them on planes. Etc. It's what adult men did. This started to change in the late 60s.

If a man didn't wear a suit and tie then he probably didn't have one except maybe one for funerals and weddings.

The men are wearing suits most of the time in the movies and TV shows filmed in the 50s and 60s, like The Andy Griffith Show and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and others. AHP episodes are 30 minutes long and were all filmed in the 50s and 60s and along with The AGS are a good representation of what life was like back then. Same for Leave It To Beaver and The Little Rascals. I think some of the few occasions when men did not wear a suit was if they were mowing the lawn or kicking back in their lounge chair on their patio. The women mostly wore dresses. The way many people dress today out in public would have been considered disrespectful back then. And sloppy and lazy too.

When and why did people start dressing like slobs?

And there was Gino!

[R440] love “Love” and that song. Arthur Lee played at our community center back in the day, but I was a baby so I didn’t go.

I think the 80s should be included because it was a similar time in many ways. We could still roam the countryside, unsupervised, there was no internet or mobile phones. It's only in the 90s when childhood changed.

[quote]When and why did people start dressing like slobs?

I have no evidence for this, but my opinion is the early-mid 1970s to stick it to “the establishment.”

My father always wore slacks, except for the weekend, and always shoes. To my knowledge, he owned one pair of sneakers from my birth until his death 18 years later.

r429 r441 yes I often felt like an only child. I was in high school when a few of my nieces and nephews were born and when my family gets together I feel more on par with them than I do my siblings. My older siblings always felt so much older than me. My parents were a lot stricter with them, by the time I came along I think they were tired and I got away with so much more. N

It's funny that some parents now use "go to your room!" as a punishment. Back in the day, it really was punishment because all kids wanted to be outside with their friends, playing. Now, everything a kid has is in their room or even in the palm of their hand (the smart phone). Why would going to their room be a punishment? A better punishment now would be to make your kid sit outside in cold weather without a smart phone or make them run laps.

The 80s were like the 50s and 60s? Seriously? Um, no.

The 80s weren't that different to the 70s

R447, you class bias is showing.

"If a man didn't wear a suit and tie [to go to the movies and baseball games] then he probably didn't have one except maybe one for funerals and weddings. "

So then you are saying the majority of men did not wear suits to the movies, since most men only wore suits to weddings and funerals. In the 1960s, most men's jobs would have made suits impractical.

So for the privileged what you say is true. But for most people it was not. But I guess "most people" do not count.

R446. That’s what I remember. You’d put it into neutral, turn the key, release the brake and then hit the drive button (or reverse). Dad bought it because he was a gearhead but he also thought it was an easier car to teach mother to drive. She never did learn to drive, period.

Boys both straight and gay had legs and showed them.

Kids were thinner back then because the were always outside and active. Also, they had three nutritional meals a day, not fast food, processed food and supersized meals and drinks.

I was wearing short cotton gym shorts once and put my foot up on a step outside. It was the 70's so I wasn't wearing underwear and my horse cock fell out.

My dad pointed to it, so I stuffed it back up. He used to wear his shorts pretty short and freeball too, so it wasn't an issue.

R462 Your WHAT fell out?

r463 the comment at r462 would have been sexy until he had to mention his dad

R463 Dunno I think I’d like to hear more about R462 how he and his dad swing their big horse cocks together and - how he knows about his dad’s big cock. Intriguing!

Well if r462 didn’t fully turn my stomach, r465 just finished the job.

R466. You are a delicate flower, aren’t you?

Oh My Stars! Talking About Penises?

SHRIEK!

You see my picture, r467, you tell me.

I fix this.

I grew up in Toronto, Canada and Central Florida. Hello, culture shock!! In both places though, my friends and I were outside a helluva lot, in the Toronto winters and Florida summers.

Like a lot of people noted, much more freedom to get around on bikes, Toronto subways, etc. It wasn't all fun freedom, though; we -- me and my sisters and my friends -- did as we were told, conducted ourselves with manners and respect for other people and we did minor-to-moderate amounts of chores.

We weren't so damn coddled in terms of expectations and allowances for being lazy, irresponsible and ignorant.

R362,

We had tables #4 and #7 in our living room. Hated those things. Wonder how much my mother paid for that ugly shit. She loved that "Mediterranean" look.

R449, People started dressing down after 1967 with the advent of the counter-culture/hippie movement, but it began earlier. JFK, for example, killed hats for men. The 1968 generation accelerated it. By the mid-70s, you have the advent of the leisure suit. Cheaper airfares by the 1980s made it possible for more people to fly on airplanes. And the airlines contributed to having people dress down. If you're crammed into Coach, who wants to wear nice "travel clothes" or a jacket and tie? Around 1986 or 1987, a friend in DC who was a middle-aged woman asked me if she and her husband should wear evening clothes to a Broadway play on their visit to NYC. I laughed told her a nice dress and jacket and tie would be fine. Oh, the irony! Have you been to a Broadway play today?

How is that "irony"?

You're right, R474...the slippery slope towards slobbery was hardly surprising.

RE R457 The 1980s were very different from the '70s. The '70s was about the post counter culture years, rejecting the establishment, back to the land. People were more about individualism and self sufficiency. This was partly because they had to be. Credit was not as easy to obtain, we were hilt with 2 oil shocks. There was unemployment and people were hurting. We were hurt by Watergate.

The 1980s were about morning in America, that greed was good. The culture went from hippy culture to Martha Stewart and the whole return to elegance. People got more money hungry and status oriented. They got way more conformist. True, there were the punk rockers. They were a minority. The majority was no longer bucking the system, but embracing the status quo and status symbols.

Of the 2 decades, I would take the '70s over the preppy, conformist '80s.

Weed was cheap and good in the '70s. No Nancy telling people to say no to drugs. We even had a head shop in our small town in the '70s. It closed in the '80s and in its place now is a real estate office.

In the '70s and early '80s, the local community college was $20 per credit. A private college was all of $35 per credit. The textbooks were around $18 at most. The accounting text I needed was all of $35. My friends were in shock.

R390 is startled to discover he didn't read the thread title.

Hitchiking was still relatively safe People really did play outside w/o much supervision (60s and 50s) Crime rose, people in the 70s didn't want kids on public transportation. We're still stuck with perceptions of danger that really are overblown (and were ven overblown then).

r479, didn't the overblown perceptions of danger begin in the 1980s, when parents began to instill fear of "stranger danger" in each Baby on Board as it grew up?

To be fair, there were some very profile murders/serial killers in the 60s and 70s that lead up to helicopter parents, the end of hitchhiking, women taking self defense classes, locked doors, security systems, etc etc

My fifth grade class photo from Brookfield, Wisconsin.

[quote]that lead up to helicopter parents

Oh, dear!

Which one are you, r482?

I’m guessing first row, center.

(Just kidding, r482!)

Seriously, my guess is the second row the first boy on the left. He has impish eyes, and I think r482 does, too.

I hope he tells us.

R431: Call me!

Sorry, the 80's were nothing like the 70's. People had become very Yuppie and paranoid.

Agree r487. The 80s were very different

R482,

The girl in the lower right corner looks nearly identical to me at that age! Freaky.

I'm 10 years younger and born in Detroit, but the Italian side of my family immigrated into Boston and lived in the area briefly.

r482 is the boy closest to the right in either the top row or the bottom row.

Was this the era of silly contests for pap attention? Like how many people can you stuff in a telephone booth, or in a VW bug and drive X number of feet.

There was liberation, but not victimhood, as now enshrined by Intersectionality.

(For those unclear what this buzz term is, one definition: "Intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers.”)

It's now driving everything. You can see its work, for example, in HR. Or the person who fails to stand for an elderly person on a crowded train, because they see themselves as oppressed.

It was not uncommon back then for a total stranger to knock on your door and you would answer it. And just like today, they would be trying to sell you something like cosmetics, Fuller Brushes, and vacuums. Usual line was "is the lady of the house home". Sometimes people would actually buy things and wait for their next visit. Other times people would politely say no thank you.

Our mother used to leave the house key under the doormat for us to use after school,,,can you imagine that today?!

Wow! What a bizarre definition of intersectionality!

Key under the mattress? We never even locked the door. Really.

r495, what DOES it mean, then?

It means that identity is complicated and you cannot reduce us to one characteristic.

I am white and I am a man. I do not stop being white when I am a man. I do not stop being a New Yorker when I am white or a man, etc.

The whole point is that we have a number of identities, so you cannot pick us apart into demographic categories that exist in isolation.

Not contradictory, r498, with what r492 wrote. Again:

[quote]"Intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers.”

And if you want to make intersectionality about "oppression" it means that a black woman, a black man, a black child, a black middle-aged woman, an elderly black man--they all might be treated differently because there is no one standard way to mistreat all black people. We see all identities simultaneously, so it is not just one identity that a bigot is responding to.

R499. no one claimed that it was contradictory. Just odd.

Like remembering Washington for replacing the windows of his Mt Vernon home rather than being the first president. Not untrue. Not contradictory. Just weird.

Good God no, the 80s were nothing like the 70s. The 80s decade is when we lost all pretenses of innocence and freedom, both sexual and personal. The scourge of HIV made everyone scared to death. People were being shunned and vilified if it was found out they had "that gay cancer". Hemophiliac children were being removed from their schools and their whole families run out of town if they were found to be infected through blood transfusions. The fact that they were children made no difference to so many mental deranged hatemongers.

R478---These threads about 60s & 70s memories (and crafts!) are like a nice porch where we old ones pull up our chairs and our iced drinks and smokes to chat and laugh. It makes the bubble children who have come along in decades since envious of our childhood freedom and adventures. Thus, the sour comments; but they are so weak they bounce right off without making a mark. Too bad, so sad. Back to virtual reality, R390!

[quote]These threads about 60s & 70s memories (and crafts!) are like a nice porch where we old ones pull up our chairs and our iced drinks and smokes to chat and laugh.

I haven't had "smokes" since 1987.

I used to get a stupid amount of spends (allowance) in the 1970's by 1975 it was £7 a week which is about £60 ($90) today. I had three spinster Aunts and my Brother and I were their World.

We inherited a fortune when they died, they hated each other and all of their siblings - including my Mother.

Some of you are so ridiculous. Most kids today still play outside and you can "see their ribs" when they're at the beach. Sure their downtime is staring at screens, but you guys are making gross generalities about "kids today" even though you all hate to be stereotyped yourselves.

No sorry. Kids overweight in the norm. Kids are not playing outside like they use too. Guess all those obesity studies are wrong.

R507 is correct. If you go the beach and see skinny kids, it's because they are the 5% that are healthy weight and want to be outside. You are not seeing the fat kids out there because they don't want to leave the house.

Adults are much fatter today than the 70s and 80s. The kids are just mini-marshmallow versions of their Jumbo-Size Stay-Puf parents.

[quote] "Intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers.”

But not SEX. Where is the disadvantage in society due to SEX.

Erased. That's where it is. Fucking erased.

This thread is fascinating in that it seems to confirm something I'd noticed, which is that a large percentage of DLers grew up in working class or very middle class families.

I am 57 (born in '62) and grew up in upper middle class suburbia (Scarsdale, NY) and while much of what's been posted is familiar, so much is unfamiliar.

We has very hippy-dippy schools in the late 60s and 70s with teachers who were trying out all of the new techniques of the day--lots of small group projects where a social studies lesson about France also involved writing and putting on a play about France or French history, calling teachers by their first names--no one got hit by the teachers, we were encouraged to talk back and we'd have lengthy debates about politics where everyone would gang up on the one or two Republicans while the teachers attempted to keep order.

Food too-- my mother was very into all the health and food fads of the day, so we had lots of salads, fondues, avocados, limited sugar, Played a lot of tennis and my mother did yoga with the other ladies when they weren't playing tennis.

Lots of being shuttled around by African-American housekeepers while Moms played tennis, went to Hadassah meetings, etc. Dads not home a lot, playing golf when they were, making up for it by coaching Little League. Went to camp for the full summer starting when I was 8 so didn't have those free range summers many of you remember, but on weekends we were pretty free and would ride bikes everywhere. Would ride from one country club to another in the summer, I remember my grandparents were surprised that the "gentile" club didn't object when I went in with my friends who belonged there.

I don't remember much of what my mother wore in those days beyond tennis dresses. That and she had a fur coat when I was younger that I used to like to rub when I was much younger and she'd tell me I was going to rub all the fur off.

Our housekeeper used to babysit us most of the time when my parents went out, she and her husband who was two years younger than her, which I remember finding fascinating. Other times our babysitter was a teenage girl from down the street who was a hippie (or as much of a hippie as a girl from Scarsdale could be) but she'd play Simon and Garfunkel and Jesus Christ Superstar records for us and try and teach us the words. (I think of you Debbie every time I hear "Feelin' Groovy" lol)

We would go on a decent number of vacations--after camp every summer we would go to Cape Cod for two weeks with my aunt, uncle, cousins and grandparents.

Over Christmas break we'd either go to Florida or Puerto Rico and stay at a resort hotel where we pretty much roamed free with the other kids so long as we didn't leave the premises. There were almost always other kids from town or from camp there that we knew or kids from other similar mostly Jewish suburbs (Great Neck, Newton) who knew kids we knew.

We deal with and saw extended family way more than people seem to today too--there was always some random second cousin or great aunt whose house we were visiting.

I remember reading a lot of Judy Blume books in elementary school, many of them resonated. The "boys book" (And Then Again, Maybe I Won't) in particular, because it was about a kid whose family moved from the city to a wealthy suburb and who felt like something of an imposter and it reminded me a lot of my best friend, who'd moved up from the Bronx when we were in 4th grade.

Anyway, this is tuning into a novel.

Great thread though.

^^One other point. I remember how much of a role pot and pot culture played in my high school days, starting in 9th grade. Getting pot, getting high, where and when played a big role in my life, especially in 9th and 10th grades, and we weren't even stoners.

By senior year we'd graduated to coke and ludes, and sneaking off to clubs in the city, but that was late 70s.

Those of us who are from "working class or very middle class families" are so, so grateful to r511 for not referring to us as "the poors."

You're welcome R513.

We would actually interact with people from other classes at the local mall or at parks playing basketball which was common in those days

My nieces and nephews growing up in the 00s and 10s never meet anyone who is not exactly like them.

R254, Nixon and Social Security:

I was born in '64 and from the 7th grade until graduation I hooked up with guys at school during the school day and after school.

We did it in the bathrooms, the instrument room in the band room, on the empty buses during the school day, behind the curtains of the stage in the auditorium, under the bleachers and even in our cars in the parking lots.

We would also do it in our cars and at the back end of the playground after school hours and at night.

That wouldn't be possible now. They have cameras everywhere except the bathrooms.

R516 People are much more aware and on the lookout nowadays. Notice all the men's rooms doors propped permanently open everywhere.

[quote] Notice all the men's rooms doors propped permanently open everywhere.

No.

Where are you seeing this?

Many people on DL grew up in +working class or very middle class families."

What a surprise that so many people on DL are from the largest demographic groups in the country!

Great thread. Mid 60’s baby, grew up in the 70’s, came of age in the 80’s. My dad was a self employed tradesman , my mum was a housewife. Dad was able to afford a great Cali bungalow in North Bondi on his single wage. He paid $10k for a house worth 4 million today. Crazy! Mum still lives there surrounded by McMansions and neighbours who no longer give her the time of day.

If I wasn’t at school, I was at the beach. Surfing, skateboarding along Bondi Beach promenade, exploring the ocean pools. All the kids in my street hung out together, playing cricket on the road, getting yelled at by passing cars. Mum and dad let my sister and I run free until it was dark when dad would stroll outside, ciggie hanging out of mouth and whistle for us to come home. How I loved that man. He was a great dad, teaching us to fish, surf, play tennis, in those days your parents taught you these things. Miss you, mate.

One last thing, I don’t have kids but I am amazed by the way my childhood friends, who ran free beside me have morphed into helicopter parents. They schedule every aspect of their kids lives. How did they become this way? They had a fab time growing up, why have they turned their kids into self obsessed, snobby pains with their faces turned to their phones 24/7? It’s a mystery to me.

R254. Go look at the Nixon Archives for his reasoning. He was pushing to bankrupt the programs. He blamed the Jews for both, and he hated Jews.

^ R515

Being a kid in the 70s was a physical experience. There were bullies, obviously, and though spanking was in decline, there were plenty of parents who still did it. You could still get paddled in my grade school, but by the 80s I don't think they were doing it in schools anymore.

Then there were the hitting games, like Slug Bug or the question "Which horse won the race?" The answer was shouted at the same time your friend would punch your thigh hard while shouting "Charley horse!" There were many kid games that involved hitting each other.

There were also impromptu wrestling matches - "roughhousing" adults called it - where for whatever reason you'd end up wrestling one of your friends or siblings. Not in an angry, hostile way. It was just a weird form of play and a contest of strength. Maybe kids still do these things today, but I get the impression it's discouraged more now.

[quote] Notice all the men's rooms doors propped permanently open everywhere.

Not sure where R518 is but I see this all the time, particularly in places I know would have likely been cruisy places before. It's clearly being done for a reason.

This thread reminds me of a birthday? card I once saw.

The outside of the card said "when I was your age I could go to the store and get a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and a pound of sugar and come home with change from a five dollar bill"

on the inside of the card it said "you can't get away with that shit now that they have video cameras"

R482 I bet you you are in the bottom row, first boy on left. That boy definitely gives off a gay vibe. ~~~~ But seriously, your class picture looks very similar to mine at that time, in the early 1960s. The kids kind of all looked the same, divided by stereotypes. Your nerds, jocks, geeks, brains, then every class had a 'class clown' and one 'bad boy'. A real troublemaker. I can identify with your class picture very much. However at my school by 1961 most classes had at least one or two "colored" kids, due to the federal law forcing integration. They were all nice kids except for one little troublemaker who told me right up front that he hates white people. That was the first time I got a taste of what it's like to be hated for the color of your skin and it appalled me. I decided I was not going to be like that. I live in the North, by the way.

[quote]What a surprise that so many people on DL are from the largest demographic groups in the country!

Yeah, I was about to say - MOST people are working class or middle class. The upper middle class and the wealthy are both relatively small slices of the population pie and always have been.

I had one of those classroom photos from my grade school in the mid 70s and early 80s.

My face and hair in those photos screamed "Future Homosexual of America."

What else could your Scarsdale-in-the-70s babysitter have been named than Debbie, R511? Perfect!

r511 Barry

I was born in 1965 and was a total child of the '70s. I spent my days riding my bike, skateboarding, and hanging out with my buddies. So many hot summer afternoons were spent at the lake and on our beautiful area rivers. We listened to lots of Kiss, Bee Gees, Boston, Queen, Styx, ABBA, Cheap Trick, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Earth Wind & Fire, The Cars, Devo, The B-52's, The Knack, Blondie, Blue Oyster Cult, KC & The Sunshine Band, Rush, Foreigner, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ramones, and Donna Summer.

Weekends were spent going to movies. We saw all of the big hits like Poseidon Adventure, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Towering Inferno, Jaws, Murder By Death, Outlaw Josey Wales, Bad News Bears, Star Wars, The Spy Who Loved Me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Halloween, Up in Smoke, Foul Play, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien, Dawn of the Dead, Star Trek - The Motion Picture, etc. Lots of great movies then.

TV had The Rockford Files, The Six Million Dollar Man (Lee Majors... yum), M*A*S*H, All in the Family, Emergency!, Hawaii Five-O, WKRP in Cincinnati, Taxi, Barney Miller, Soap, Saturday Night Live, Mannix, Columbo, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and lots more. Plus, we had all of those great '60s reruns of Star Trek, Batman, Bewitched, and Get Smart, as well.

I really look back fondly on my youth. My kind and loving dad, my beautiful and sweet mother, and my older "best friend" brother are gone now. I lost several of my childhood/teenage buddies a few years later to AIDS. I still have my two sisters and my younger brother. For that I am thankful. My family and friends were always great. I sometimes wish I could go back... just for a day or two... mainly to tell those I have lost how much I loved them. They knew I loved them, but I would love to look at each one of them, hug them, and tell them how much they meant to me.

R531 I wanted to cry reading that. Your perfect ,loving family no longer here and so many vile nasty waste of cells still here.

True, R532. Life doesn't seem fair sometimes. I was fortunate that I had the time I had with those wonderful people. I have many beautiful memories of each of them.

MARY!

Yogurt came in 8oz cups now 5.5 oz and was a quarter a cup.

R534 ETHEL!!!!!

That was beautiful r531.

I had a horrible childhood, but feel warm and fuzzy reading your post

Thank you, R537. R534, LOL... lick me! I am a Mary and Proud. :)

R531 Very sorry for your losses. Lovely post. I'm so glad you had those experiences with such wonderful people.

R531 I wish I had your grace. I always think how unfair it is that good people leave and the horrid ones stay.

Hey R531 who got you in the R rated movies?

R541, R531 here. It was a small town just outside of a major city. They let us in to see everything. Dawn of the Dead's poster said "no one under 17 will be admitted" - I had just turned 14 and my buddies and I walked right in and watched the movie. We saw tons of R-rated movies. Besides, the theater owner knew my parents, as well as my friends' parents. My parents were cool with me seeing R-rated movies too.

R rated movies were pretty much open to teens. Remember, we drank legally at 18 but most of us were drinking by Jr. High. And smoking joints. Which then were feel good happy, not heavy. Nobody thought teenagers could not handle a movie.

Funny, because I became a movie theater manager of a multiplex at twenty during college and the staff were all sixteen years olds and we all took great joy in never letting kids ( and their classmates at that) into the R's and Unrated. We'd go five minutes before and comb the audience for offenders and pull them out usually to laughs and applause and wait outside the bathroom of the nearest big hit R at showtime and wait for the ones who would try to sneak in after the show started.

Well you were an asshole. Luckily there were none like you in my neck of the woods.

That MARY! was with love.

R546, I could tell by your tone of voice that it was all in good fun and delivered with a sly wink. I actually laughed when I saw it.

The fact that all these fatties are not having sex just makes them eat more!

The 60s and 70s were heaven for kiddie pedophiles. No pesky helicopter parents to stop the flow of kiddies to fiddle. Personally, I’ll take the present, when maybe there aren’t as many kids growing up with the scars of molestation. I also think about the kids I knew who didn’t make it due to stupid, avoidable accidents. That’s the flip side of “free range” parenting. Of course, the ones who are still here, who came to no harm, think it was wonderful...

r549: please kill yourself now and spare us and the world your whining and fearporn!

Ireland in those years was this horrendous place run by bishops and priests. At Easter, from Wednesday onward TV broadcast endless religious music and other shite, shops were closed, and the country was in a sort of shutdown.

There used to be religious parades every May and June with statues, hymn singing, nuns and priests like Gestapo all over the place, endless chanting of the various mysteries of the Rosary........it was another world. If those religious people came here today, they would not recognise the country, it's gone 180 degrees the other way.

"Guilt and sex were, for example, conjoined in the infamous custom of 'churching', which was once widespread amongst Irish women who had had children. Before receiving Holy Communion, women who had recently given birth had to be purified of the stain of sexuality associated with childbirth. Churching was ubiquitous until the 1960s in Ireland"

Skateboards and Keep On Truckin'. Rocky Mountain High and Hotel California. The Wonderful World of Disney and M*A*S*H, Farrah Fawcett feathered hair and the Short and Sassy Dorothy Hammill do. Shag carpet and avocado appliances.

Oh, stfu R549. You give off the aroma of slightly singed martyr. Go away.

Chesters were around, as they still are, but it was not inevitable that a kid would be molested whenever they were out and about, as is believed today.

R511, you're from SCARSDALE, get a grip.

And really, "African-American" nannies, and actually interacting with people from "other classes"? You sound repugnant. And you area also blocked. Until you prove otherwise, I assume you're one of the enlightened geniuses who shits all over DL.

What is really fascinating is that R511 has so little perspective. I know many people from similar background who in childhood or later broadened their perspective. But his language betrays a worldview that has not changed significantly.

Oh he was just humble bragging about his milieu, no big deal. It's true there were plenty of hippies around. My PUBLIC JrH and HS had a fair amt of hippy teachers mixed in with lots of "experimental" pedagogy. I seem to recall there was a Vietnam draft dodge when men went to teacher college and New York State had a lot of teacher's colleges that had become the SUNY college system and was pumping out a lot of teachers, male and female. Also hippy baby sitters. Hippies were a crap shoot. Also tennis/gold club culture was strong. I used to drag my crushes out to play golf starting at 7th grade. We all knew how to play and all had a club. I loved it because they were forced to spend hours with me just chatting. Golf is a nice game for kids if you think about it. Not dangerous, or violent, and very social and outside for long periods. I remember most of the more challenging holes now, more than 40 years later, and regret I never got any "hole" out there.

But humble bragging shows what you think is impressive. What he thinks is impressive is still stuck in the world of his childhood.

I guess. I'm thinking back to the 60s and my grandmother and mother (NYS, CT) called black people "colored" so our DL humble bragger made an effort to update to today's terminology. IN the 70s we knew not to say colored but my grandmother kept it well into the 80s

"Colored" was what you called black people until the Civil Rights Era. Then came "Black," c. 1966. Now we can say "African-American," "Black," or "People of Color," though the last one sounds too much like "Colored People" for this white guy ever to be comfortable with it.

"People of Color" just shows how regressive the rabid faction of the Left has always been.

This thread has been devoid of the kind of bullshit people are trying to fart out over the last few posts. Please take that sort of energy to someplace where they give a fuck. It ain't here.

R562 What ARE you going on about?

Army - Yale game at West Point early 70's - a fathers and sons outing. We boys are surveyed if we want to go to Yale, West Point, or Harvard or Michigan or Notre Dame. I blurt out "Vassar". Confusion ensues.

Well, really, who wouldn't rather go to Vassar than join the army?

[quote]"Colored" was what you called black people until the Civil Rights Era. Then came "Black," c. 1966. Now we can say "African-American," "Black," or "People of Color," though the last one sounds too much like "Colored People" for this white guy ever to be comfortable with it.

"Negro" was much more polite and acceptable than "colored" pre-Civil Rights era.

chocolates

R559, My much older mother always corrected my grandmother who said "colored" until she died in the early 80's. I never saw her show disrespect to anyone non-White however.

My San Diego grammar school was 100% White WASP as was my entire neighborhood. There was 1 Italian boy, 2 Jewish girls, 1 1/2 Asian boy who had a military father, and a few Catholics. We got pamphlets sent to our house about "choosing your neighbor" which my older sisters told me implied racism.

I went to see 'Fritz The Cat' in about 1973 (when I was 5), probably one one the first Adult animated movies. My local cinema had absolutely no idea and the place was full of children.

^That is hilarious! Did the theater management rush in and herd all the children into the lobby?

I remember my mother and some of her friends going to see ‘Clockwork Orange’.

Nobody noticed for about a week (kids never said anything), a parent who went with her child raised it in the end.

R559, OMG I remember older teens & adults taking about "Fritz The Cat." They would never explain what was actually in it, just that it was an "adult cartoon," and of course I never saw that trailer.

Ultra-Conservative family meant that I couldn't see Romeo & Juliet because "they were in bed almost naked together and weren't legally married to each other." Recall friends talking about the shot of male nudity in the film. PG and R rated movies had to wait until I was out on my own.

My parents were pretty cool and thought it was funny, reckon that they dined out on it for years.

They took me to see Jaws when I was 7 in 1975 and argued that I was a midget because it was a 14 rating in the UK, but they got away with it, ((they used to use the same trick in bars).

In fact horrible parents but we all got along really well later

Disco Duck, Disco Inferno, Disco Lucy, Disco Nights, Disco Lady, Disco Fever, Night on Disco Mountain, The Best Disco in Town, Dazz, Dazz, Disco Jazz! Boogie Nights, Boogie Shoes, Boogie Fever, Boogie Oogie Oogie, Blame It On The Boogie, I love the Nightlife - I've Got to Boogie, Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes, Bad Boy Boogie, Boogie Child, Boogie Wonderland... I've Got to Be A Macho Man!!!

Great story R569. Older relatives of mine took their three young sons to see Grizzly under the mistaken idea it was a Gentle Ben-type, Disney-type, heartwarming cuddly bear-type movie. Within ten minutes they were ushering three upset little boys out of the cinema.

R562, ironic you would say this about a thread titled "growing up in the 60s & 70s". We were the exact generation that lived the transition from the routine, casual prejudice of our grandparents/parents to an understanding and recognition (for some of us anyway) of the deeply entrenched existence of institutional racism. We're also the generation most likely to understand that racism is far from dismantled, and least likely to be surprised by what's happening in our present time.

We can talk about drive-ins and bicycle adventures and race relations at the same time. This been being the DL, both discussions will bring out the trolls.

Standing in line for a movie was fun. We didn't have 25 screen multiplexes with the same movie on 12 screens starting every 2 minutes, movies on our phone or 24 hour movie channels and when you wanted to see a movie for the third time, you had to go to the movies. Kids today will never know or understand the fun of waiting for a big blockbuster with anticipation with your friends.

Cruising for sizemeat in parks, T rooms, and locker rooms was fun in the 1970s!

I remember how casusal my parents were about movie show times. If we got there after the movie had already started, no big deal, we just sat there until it started again and watched the part we missed.

The '70s

Electric Light Orchestra

Boston

Bee Gees

KISS

Styx

ABBA

KC & The Sunshine Band

Van Halen

The Cars

Blondie

Aerosmith

ZZ Top

Queen

Rush

Donna Summer

Foreigner

Ramones

The Clash

AC/DC

Blue Oyster Cult

The Knack

Chic

Grand Funk Railroad

Alice Cooper

Led Zeppelin

Black Sabbath

Deep Purple

Ohio Players

Earth, Wind & Fire

Blue Oyster Cult

Thin Lizzy

Cheap Trick

Nazareth

Foghat

Fleetwood Mac

Edgar Winter Group

Stevie Wonder

I love this thread.

Glad you love it, but it stopped in its tracks.

I grew up in 1970s/early 80s in New Zealand. Kids were always outside riding bikes or playing sports. We didn't have a lot of homework. The food was healthy but pretty boring with not much variety. What you would consider a fat kid is pretty much just slightly overweight by today's standards. There were upsides and downsides but I do feel sad for today's kids not being able to go and do stuff after school and in the weekends, being stuck staying indoors or doing endless after school activities. I am very grateful I didn't grow up with social media though.

I was a 90's teen (born in 1980) and I think I'm the last who got to be free. Not as free as you 70's and 80's guys. But I remember riding bikes to the mall to steal CDs at Sam Goody's. Watching lame SNL and hating Adam Sandler and wondering how he was even famous. We had these oil rigs in a park area that we'd fucking climb! How we didn't die, I have no idea. I feel so bad for kids now. They have no fun.

[quote]Standing in line for a movie was fun.

It was! It was a social event - you'd stand around talking with your friends, looking for people you knew, seeing who'd show up from your school (did their parents drop them? Did they walk? Somebody with a cool car gave them a ride?). And if your crush showed up and was somewhere either up or down the line, you';d make up excuses to pass by them...

Calamine, r296

People, old, fat, skinny, white, poor or working class lived their lives more carefree. The would drink, smoke, play cards and just have a good time. Is ignorance bliss? Maybe. They did not stress over chronic conditions and just tried to take the medicine the doctor gave them. They still enjoyed the weekend steak and beers, along with a cigar. The fact is, they enjoyed their lives and maybe through ignorance, accepted any fate that was before them. A lot of them checked out in their 60/70s and it was no bid deal.

Today, well, the job stress levels is 24/7. No unions, so your on your own. No pension and SSI to have you set in retirement or a house fully paid for. Our quality of life has been greatly diminished and the more bad news I hear about our tainted food, the more I think the odds are against us.

May we go bravely forward like our predecessors and live fully and accept an earlier demise, if it means we can follow our bliss with dignity and happiness. Damn the torpedos. We only journey once around this mortal coil.

I was born in 1954 and my brother in 1955, by the time we were 6 and 5 we were obsessed with racing each other everywhere. My mother encouraged the behavior because it would blow off some of our energy. We raced to grade school, raced to the backyard fence and back, it was constant. If we visited relatives my mom would say "go outside and race up and down the sidewalk".

We were skinny, we could eat as much as we wanted at meals but there was no between meal snacking and no junk food like chips and soda in the house. My poor mom, it was like having two border collie pups, the more exercise they get the more energy they have.

Parents would get together and play Bridge, sit at a Bridge table set and munch on chocolate Bridge mix.

[quote]No unions, so your on your own.

Oh, dear!

Summertime in my suburban neighborhood and not a single kid out. Highway robbery even for a small older home here so 2 incomes is a must. Camps are overpriced and plentiful here. I live in a safe neighborhood with a nature trail and the only people I see out year round are the retirees. Everyone else paying top dollar for organized sports starting in pre-K. The exact opposite of m my childhood

In 1970 at age 15 I would sometimes miss the school bus and walk down to the highway and hitchhike home. My mother was delighted that she didn't have to pick me up. I hitched all over the place.

We lived 4 mi. outside a hick town in the Midwest. When we moved there it was a dirt road, but my mom petitioned to get it paved.

We had about a half dozen TV stations: no UHF, no cable, no vcr, no video games. Our TV came from stations over 100 mi. away, so it was weird hearing all their news and having none of it really pertain to us. But I watched TV constantly because there was nothing to do and I had no friends.

The town did have a small library and that was a godsend, and fostered my lifelong interest in reading.

There was a shopping mall about 45 mi. away and you'd think it was Disneyland to us. Fountains, French fries and a movie theater!

The average American now eats 500 more calories per day than we did in the '70s.

FAT FUCKS.

In 1971, 12% of the adult population was obese. Now it's over 35%.

Wow, that's really repulsive, #551. A life just saturated with that crap. Power over people like that only leads to exploitation.

It really is a cult.

I know what you mean R591. Not a single child outside. Of course it's 105 outside and I live in a retirement community ...

I would in the retirement community there would be no kids. 55 plus communities are the way to go. Don’t know if it’s chicken/ egg here but were there less clothing options for large people bc there were less of them, or were they just making their own clothes if they were xxl ?

Kids in the mid 70s, like me, lived outside.

The only thing that kept us inside was Saturday morning cartoons.

I remember being hungry a lot because we would really be working up an appetite running around outdoors. My mom didn’t have a lot of snacks like. Chips or cookies around so we Didn’t eat much between meals, maybe an apple or something.. the hot school lunch and dinner we were really ready for. School lunches were very good then and you could it wafting down the halls.

Smell^^