Weird '70s shit that wouldn't happen now

The student smoking lounges in the high schools.

Groupie culture. All these women would be crying about "grooming" and "emotional manipulation." My aunt was a groupie for some mid-level rock bands at the time, and she has absolutely no regrets about her experiences, much less the thought she was abused because she got musician dick. Did the insane sex positivity feminism of the early 2010s turn young women into fraus prematurely?

Everybody smoking everywhere. Drinking and driving wasn't really a big deal.

Smoking pot openly in the park or on neighbor's lawns on the way to junior high. Though here in California, we do see outdoor smoking, or at least smell it occasionally now that it's legal. I was on the train a few years ago before legalization and a guy got on smoking a huge blunt. Several of us cracked up.

Throwing trash out of car windows

NAMBLA. CP being legal in parts of Europe. For even some non-pedos, the "anything goes" attitude in the wake of the Sexual Revolution extended as far as being "open-minded" about pedophilia.

Sleeping in the package shelf between the back seat and rear window of a sedan…..up until you would not fit anymore

8 track tapes

Lawn darts with needlepoint tips

Not riding in a car seat as an infant/toddler.

Playgrounds with hard metal equipment mounted in solid concrete…sharp edges and corners everywhere

You could walk out of a bar or restaurant with a drink in your hand and drink it on the street.

[quote]Another thing that wouldn't happen today:. two assassination attempts on the president within a two week period.

Why wouldn't that happen today?

Seatbelts being an extra cost option on some cars…not available at all on most cars…..

Ashtrays in cars

[quote]Drinking and driving wasn't really a big deal.

Indeed. I live on a wide residential street in the same neighborhood I grew up in. It wasn't unusual to see corner properties with tire gouges on the lawns in a particular two mile stretch where people attempted to turn right. Our neighbors kitty corner go so sick of it they put a cement block where cars had continuously driven over. Incidentally, Candy Lightener who started Mothers Against Drunk Driving is from the area.

454 cubic inch engines with three two-barrel carburetors feeding it…….zoom!!!!!

Herpes being the worst thing you had to worry about during sex.

Homosexuality being considered a mental illness

Theoretically, it could r13. But security is so much tighter, especially since the attempt on Reagan and 9/11. The Secret Service has evolved as threats evolve. I don't think they let crowds in as close as they did when Squeaky, Sarah, and Hinckley attempted.

Dentists and hygienists not wearing masks or gloves…..

Open showers in gym locker room. Trough urinals. Quelle horreur!

Dental instruments and drills being “sanitized “ with isopropyl alcohol wipes instead of being put through a hospital quality autoclave…

Looking androgynous but not having special pronouns that had to be declared and acknowledged by everyone else.

That damn president’s physical fitness test in gym every fucking year….thanks jfk…..

I didn't realize that, r23. A post AIDS development, I assume.

Full bush on both women and men.

Drinking at lunch was perfectly acceptable. Even during the workday.

R26….look up the “Kimberly bergalis” uproar and the effect it had on dentistry

Office workers keeping a bottle of liquor in their desks. And smoking at their desks.

Virtually every woman in the Deep South NOT having a small gun in her purse….ahem

"Hello this is Ginny in Billing. The Telex is down again so if you want those invoices today I'll have to call a courier service."

My dentist worked on children in his T-shirt, smoking a cigarette….his assistant would de-ash it when needed…..he only put on a starched lab coat for adults (sans cigarette of course)……

Our science teacher and his wife were a really nice couple and all the students loved them. They had an end of year BBQ at their house. He and his wife greeted the students in their bikini and speedos and all the students had a great time in the pool. A couple of girls sneaked in some wine in a soda bottle and of course drank so much that they started throwing up. The wife comforted the girls while they were sick, put them in her bed and gave them coffee and aspirin to sober them up. The whole evening ended with everyone dancing and swimming by the pool with the sprinklers on in their swimwear. Nothing sexual went on apart from the usual teenage flirting that was considered fun by both parties at the time.

Later that night they drove us all home - still in their bikini/speedos - and promised to not tell the parents of the two drunk girls what had happened.

If something like that happened now they'd probably end up on the sex offenders registry. Instead, we all talked about it at school the next day and by the end of the week it was pretty much forgotten.

Sending telegrams instead of long distance calls……much much cheaper.

Hitchhiking

Using a stop watch to time your long distance calls because they were so breathtakingly expensive……9-15 dollars from New York to San Diego for just a few minutes…..

Parents putting their kids out of the house on holidays and letting them do whatever they wanted without supervisor all day. I remember parents would give their babies to local children to play with on holiday days - the kids would just call to the door and ask ‘Can we take your baby out?’ that seems so weird now.

Smoking sections on airplanes.

Running behind the mosquito fogger truck as it snaked its way through the neighborhood….getting drenched in whatever chemical that was…..(probably diazinon).

My brother got a chemistry lab set as a present in the mid-70’s. It had the most caustic chemicals you could imagine, with acids and other stuff. To make matters worse, I wasn’t allowed to play with it because I was girl. No good came out of combining girls and science, at least in my family.

Telephone cords that were 20 feet long. My mom would do all of her housework while on the phone. Actually telephone cords of any length.

^^^^entire planes where no one hesitated one nanosecond to light up….and entire trains…..and entire busses….and entire restaurants and theaters………(not making this up)……

I remember being in first grade in the early 70s and there was this boy named Clem who was clearly a very troubled child. He would act up relentlessly in class and have meltdowns. After a few weeks of this, it got so bad that they called his parents to come in. I remember the day his father walked into the classroom to get him. He was so fucking mean to his son, yelling at him in front of everyone and threatening him if he didn’t behave. I remember when he first walked in Clem had a look of relief on his face because I think he thought his dad was going to take him home, but instead he got verbally abused and threatened with physical violence by his own father. When his father stormed out of the classroom Clem just buried his head on his desk and sobbed. That would never happen today. They would probably send him to the school system child psychologist and his father probably would’ve been reported to the authorities for child abuse. It wasn’t always the good ol’ days.

Cars and busses without catalytic converters belching out visible blue smoke with that smell of Unburned gasoline and diesel everywhere

Virtually every man on the sidewalks in the financial district wearing a hat…..

Getting spanked in school by the principal. I'm almost 50 and STILL remember going to the bathroom in the 3rd grade and walking past a classroom where the Principal was spanking the shit outta some kid who was screaming bloody murder. Maybe we should bring that back, there would be fewer sociopaths like Kyle Rittenhouse running around.

I kind of enjoyed my spankings

As a teenager I remember walking home from high school (this was the late 70s) and a middle-aged guy pulled over to the side of the road and asked me if I wanted a lift. Even then it felt a little weird, but I got in anyway and he dropped me off where I wanted. I don’t recall anything bad happening!

TVs in many parts of the Midwest that could not pick up any channel till the sun (with its electrical/ radio interference) went way way over the horizon at night

Leisure suits

Typing an entire thesis or dissertation on a typewriter

^^^^^^and retyping and retyping and retyping

Making copies using carbon paper

R2 - The problem with groupie culture back then is that some of the girls were as young as 13 or 14. The Stones knew it. Someone on the tours was responsible with finding out age of consent in each state they visited (per Keith Richards autobiography) and AFAIK they didn't have any issues. Sure some girls lied. But they certainly don't have Zeppelin's reputation and David Bowie's reputation was somewhat tarnished when it was revealed he bedded a 14 year old.

Lots and lots of people still using fountain pens

Joyce DeWitt.

>>Maybe we should bring that back, there would be fewer sociopaths like Kyle Rittenhouse running around.

It takes a really special kind of moron to think that an adult beating the shit out of a child will prevent sociopathy, R47.

It was a joke R58. Go clutch your pearls somewhere else.

R38. This. I was a kid in the 60s and we HAD to play outside. On the other hand we didn't have any of the indoor toys that kids have today so it wasn't exactly a hardship. On the other hand we did outrageously dangerous things unsupervised on our bikes. Once we were so bored my friend and i stole some decorative rocks from a neighbor's yard. The neighbors were cool and just asked for them back (we were so dumb we didn't even hide them) and I framed my friend for the heist. What a cowardly shit I was.

Sometimes my mom would tell us "be back before the streetlights come on". We kids would discuss how that was impossible--how can you be back BEFORE something when you don't know when that something is going to happen?

I think you must be confused, R47, jokes are funny. Maybe your pearls are too tight?

R55 All of those girls were heavily made up and dressed up to look like adults, don't kid yourself. My aunt herself was around 18 when she engaged in that stuff and said she was shocked to find out how young some of the girls were because they looked MUCH older. And everyone involved was on an unholy amount of drugs, both the stars and the groupies. Totally different culture. I don't see any of those girls as victims of anything besides idiotic parents.

And the Bowie story has been proven time and time again to be unreliable. That Maddox slut changes her Bowie story each time she tells it (one time he took her virginity, or she had a threesome with his wife or a threesome with him and Iggy Pop), unlike her documented relationship with Jimmy Page.

The OP means 1870s

My private school had a principal who would paddle kids who misbehaved badly.

Chicken pox parties.

Kids riding on the back of pick-up trucks, including on the highway. 😕 The family dog would often join, too.

Cars stalling at intersections.

Orange and olive green kitchen cabinets and countertops.

Running barefoot into the convenience store to get my mom a pack pf cigs before I could barely read. "Marlboro Light 100's, please." "No ma'am, the gold ones".

Prank calls.

Also, in our neighborhood, we had “Mischief Night” on October 30th. It was a night to play harmless pranks like soaping car windows or TPing a bush, or going out in the street banging pots and pans. I shudder to think what the little miscreants would do now. It’d be like The Purge.

All of these I recall or have a vague awareness about, but r50's is a new one for me, and very weird. It must have been annoying.

The National Guard opening fire on peaceful protestors on a colleg…. Wait, that probably could happen today.

[quote]I shudder to think what the little miscreants would do now. It’d be like The Purge.

I shudder to think what some homeowners would do now if neighborhood kids played the harmless pranks r69 describes. Brandish a gun or worse?

Ah yes - I recall I was 14 years old in 1978. I had an AMF Bicycle. I took that thing everywhere. I wouldn't blink about going 15 or 20 miles on it. Two years later I turned 16 had a car and my drivers license. That's when my father said he barely saw me. I was always out and about.

And yeah Caller ID ruined crank calls. And most of my violence was taken out on my phone back then. Ma Bell had to replace it umpteen times. Found out 2702 and 2500 sets will break if you slam the handset down hard enough.

Oh and that's what's so frustrating about mobile phones now. These days it's just punch hang up and block.

Zero airport security. Boarding a plane without ID.

Mercury thermometers and playing with the mercury when said thermometer broke.

Cigarette vending machines all over the place.

My friend and I would scrounge up loose change however we could and then say really loudly at the machine, "What type of cigarettes did your mom say to buy" like we were fooling anyone. Also, nobody actually gave a shit what two 7-year old boys were doing buying smokes from a vending machine. Good times! Good times!

Filling up your tank and getting a free microwave.

pay phones absolutely everywhere

back in the 80's my friend and i would walk to the park and beside the park was the police station. We were around 12 years old and knew they had a cigarette machine in the police break room. We would always go in there and buy cigarettes out of the machine, lol at the police station. We never got caught.

horribly yellow, very dim headlights

[quote] Seatbelts being an extra cost option on some cars…not available at all on most cars…..

I didn’t know this. Damn.

If any of your neighbors saw you doing something wrong, they’d be sure to either yell at you right then and there and/or call your parents. You knew when you got home you were in trouble.

That wouldn’t happen today.

cruise control, electric windows, in-dash clocks, power seats, power steering, automatic transmissions, carpet, floor mats, power brakes, disc brakes ...all being VERY EXPENSIVE options on cars......usually only the Doctors and Lawyers (and maybe a few show-off Real Estate agents) could afford to order these luxuries......

People handing out homemade treats like popcorn balls and loose candy in little paper bags for Halloween.

Chrome-plated lighters. It was a big deal when disposable bic lighters began to replace the bulky, more expensive cigarette lighters that were refilled regularly.

Also pocket protectors. My dad wore one until he retired in the 90’s.

A four function Texas Instrument calculator with RED led's for digits sold for about 800.00 when they first came out........not kidding......four function.....

Leaded vs. unleaded gasoline

total lack of string trimmers and high-speed, high power air blowers used in lawn maintenance ..........now they are as common as concrete.......

using fax machines many, many times a day..............even at home

answering machines with TWO of those full sized cassette tapes inside it.............one for the outgoing and the other for the incoming messages..........you could hear the solenoids clacking down the block as the tapes played and rewound.........

Betamax, VHS, and (early) LaserDiscs......remember the "failure to rewind" fee at BlockBusters??????

Airline hijackings.

You bitches are slipping.

those awful brown 70's American Tourister briefcases for men.........hard-sided and clad in cheap brown vinyl............

remember "EarthSoles" shoes.......(the heel was MUCH lower than the toe area), making you feel as if you were constantly walking uphill.......supposedly stretched your Achilles tendon and calf muscles and made you more limber ...........or something like that............

I remember when VHS rentals started and they wanted 15 bucks per movie rental—since multiple people would be watching and not buying multiple movie tix. It was a flashback seeing them doing the same thing with digital streaming of new releases since COVID ruined movie-going. I’m not paying 20 bucks to rent a movie.

I seem to remember my parents agonizing for months about ordering Air Conditioning in their 72 Caprice Classic. It was an option, and a very expensive one at that. They finally did, thank god. That was in Meridian, MS.

Rolling around in the back of my dad’s station wagon - no seatbelts of course. He would purposely throw it around corners fast so we were practically stuck to the sides, screaming with laughter.

mood rings and pet rocks

Rack and pinion steering. WTF was that? I remember that was one of the things listed when you won the car on The Price is Right.

hip hugger jeans......so tight your legs tingled from lack of circulation

Savings account books.

R84, that may be true but also people bought new cars every 3-5 years back then. I had a neighbor who would have a new car every 6 months in the 1980s and 1990s.

rack and pinion steering was a technique/mechanism used to steer a car, in the days when power steering was rare........

Playing with my 10 year old friends in woods, ponds and fields a mile or more from home and adults not being the least bit concerned.

r104 this is about weird 70's shit.......not weird 80s-90s shit.......

R101 most new cars and cars of the past 20 years have had rack and pinion steering. Much better than that recirculating ball steering.

finding those used gay porn magazines out in the woods behind everyone's houses in the neighborhood, and wondering who in the world left them out there..........and increasing my exploration of those woods to maybe find out............

Women dying in back street abortions.

Oh, wait . . .

R107, yes but trading cars every few years was the norm in the 70s even until the 80s and 90s. That was my point.

r111 I stand corrected

LP's and Reel to Reel's being the pinnacle of High Fidelity music reproduction...

Being pulled over by the cops for whatever reason(s) and not bothering to hide the open beer.

Elderly women (born in the 1800s!) wearing psychedelic fashions from the early 70s. And then that being they're last "look", so they were wearing them even into the 80s.

Cassette Tapes being co-opted for music reproduction. They were originally designed for dictation machines. They never sounded very good to me. I don't think one single car comes with them now.

30-40 Watt per Channel stereo equipment being considered wildly overpowered.

R76 Oh shit now I remember rolling around those little differentially sized mercury balls in a shoebox like play dough.

Console TV's that also had a record player, stereo, 8-track tape and storage for Lp's all in one massive wooden box about the size of a very large casket.

Taking selfies in photo booths.

The Starland Vocal Band.

"AutoMat" delis in New York where you put coins in, opened a little door, and got your food, cake, vegetables, meat or whatever out......put it on a cafeteria tray and then sat down and ate it........haven't seen one of those since the early seventies.

Teachers using the same bathroom as the students. Especially in high school. I saw so much daddy dick, it was fucking heaven.

Also, the prevalence of smoking. Everybody seemed to smoke.

film strip projectors in classrooms

Playground merry-go-rounds that you pushed as hard and fast as you could. It was more fun riding on the frame underneath, where falling off could result in death. It always invoked great joy when someone would fly off and end-up a bloody mess

Also, seeing friends parents naked. I saw a few of my friends dad's naked - changing at the beach, the YMCA, camping.

So hot.

"Nu-Tone" built-in intercom/music systems (whole house) in upscale neighborhoods. They were very expensive. The control panels were always in the kitchens or hallways. Now they are probably the first thing to be torn out of remodels.

The mosquito fogger truck with the kids running around behind it was a thing of the 1950s. DDT was banned in 1972.

R128, I have pictures of me running behind the trucks in Meridian Mississippi. I was born in 1964. Explain that, smarty pants.

Wrong, R128.

I specifically remember a fogging truck coming around my neighborhood for at least a couple of summers when I was a kid. This was circa 1966-69. It was common throughout the 60s as well.

Schools that allowed smoking in the teachers' lounge, and a smoking area for students out in back of the school.

Letting our dog roam the subdivision. We’d let her out to do her business and she’d go off wandering for hours, sometimes visiting with the neighbors. She always came back and she’d scratch on the metal screen door to be let back in. Seems crazy and irresponsible now. She had a dog pen accessible through a doggy door, but she could climb the fence and escape that too.

"The mosquito fogger truck with the kids running around behind it was a thing of the 1950s. DDT was banned in 1972."

I don't doubt DDT was out, but they were using fogging trucks in Manhattan during the 90's for West Nile

In the summer we would feed our cats in the morning and then let them outside where they would go wherever they wanted throughout the neighborhood and would come home at dinner time. They stayed inside overnight. I would never let my cats outside now.

I also remember having to take one of our cats to the vet. It was not as common back then, and they told us to put him in a pillowcase to transport him, which we did.

R123 It's amazing how prevalent and acceptable cigarette smoking was until fairly recently. I was born in 1979 and recall smoking sections in restaurants (including fast food) through the '90s. Some even had built in ashtrays on the tables.

When I was 16-18, I lived in a residential home for wayward teens here in Massachusetts and we were allowed to smoke as long as we had our parents' permission. Not inside the house, but out on the porch. It's strange to look back now, these underage teens smoking on the porch of the group home. Some of the staff that smoked would even join in. I miss that place. It was like a foster home but instead of parents it was round-the-clock staff. And they were young, too. In their twenties. The youngest was 22 and very cute and had recently graduated from college when I first arrived at 16.

Yeah I remember taking flights before 9/11/2001 - didn't have to show ID and no TSA Security Theater. It's funny I wonder how TSA is doing with Red Team exercises this year. They failed miserably in the past.

I remember the oil crisis and odd/even days at the pump. We'd camp out for hours in a hot car waiting to get gas. These snowflake anti-masker/vaxxers would have never made it in the 70's when you complied or else.

[quote]Chrome-plated lighters. It was a big deal when disposable bic lighters began to replace the bulky, more expensive cigarette lighters that were refilled regularly.

True, when disposable lighters like Bic came out people switched over immediately, they were much more convenient than the big heavy Zippos and other lighters that had to be refilled constantly. My parents and grandparents had a drawer with all their old Zippos and some other metal chrome lighters that were never used again.

Air conditioners that were so loud it sounded like a goddamn plane was taking off in your house.

Teachers in school leaving the classroom to have a quick cig in the teachers' lounge.

Having the country try to convince you that we would ALL need to know and understand the metric system because in a few years it would be the only one we would be using.

Gay movie theatres.

R99 Yup, that was mandatory in any station wagon. I remember we’d take family road trips and us kids would lay in the back, roll down the back window, and stick our legs out of the car, enjoying the breeze as Dad drove down the highway. Sometimes, we’d synchronize our foot movements to entertain the car behind us.

R139 window units of central units?

R141 I wish that had actually come to fruition. The metric system is so much more logical, and we would have been in tune with the majority of the rest of the world by now.

[quote] Letting our dog roam the subdivision

Back then dogs ran around in packs as well. I remember looking out the window from elementary school and seeing dogs running around in packs of eight or more.

Year round Daylight Saving Time. It was supposed to last 2 years until we got through the energy crisis, but it was so unpopular it was canceled after the first year.

Four year old standing on the back seat of a convertible as Dad drives holding a quart of Miller's concealed by a brown paper bag.

My father wouldn't be able to rant and rave about his foot and everyone else's ass.

All the kids would know The Pledge of Allegiance.

Jockstrap checks in gym class.

Streaking.

Playing cowboys and Indians.

R150 and that is why my sister is sending her kids to private school. Public schools, especially in blue states where we live, have become very anti-America.

R154 = Eric Trump

R154 = Oathkeeper

Key parties

The Pledge of Allegiance - is this not done in school anymore?

For the people talking about 70s groupies. They had a magazine.

Sneaking over to touch the breasts of a well endowed classmate during class films, joining straight male friends in this activity even though I knew I wanted the peen. I am aghast that I did this then. Now it would get me expelled and probably convicted as a sex offender. Not a proud, closeted moment.

candy cigarettes, Indian Princesses/ Princes (think like the boy scouts but with head dresses and rain dances), many friends dating teachers

This happened in 1979. My friends and I needed beer for a party so we were going to go “bootleg” outside a grocery store. It was my turn, so there I stood sizing up the people as they walked by.

I eventually asked an older (30s I’d guess) somewhat cute blond guy who drove a white Jaguar to buy a 12 pack. He hesitated at first, but I made a joke and he decided to do it.

He came out and handed me the grocery bag and teasingly told me to be careful. He had bought beer too.

The next day I found his checkbook in my grocery bag and I got anxious because my mom wanted to know why I had his checkbook and that I should call him. So I called him.

He pulled up to my house in a cop car! Then I got really nervous. He walked to the door in uniform and my mom and I opened the door. I handed him his checkbook and he thanked me with a knowing look and never let on to anything and then drove away.

I can’t see that happening today.

Wow r162! What a different time. Today the cop would be fired and the story would be in the local news, the liquor store would be fined and possibly forced to close and you and your friends would be court-ordered to attend substance abuse counseling.

No "teen moms" in high school. There would be maybe one whore who would get knocked up, and she would get kicked out of school, never to be seen again.

Riding Big Wheels up and down the street. So freakin’ fun.

This toy, it’s very, very dangerous “toy.”

Yes, r163!

Sitting in the middle of the street pounding on these.

R166 - I had something like that as a kid!

Just being a little adult child. I would take the bus (in elementary school) from our trailer park to the town public pool, spend the day and take the bus home. Never told an adult, no one ever asked where I went all summer. Same age, swimming in the stream by the school, no adults. Same age, taking the greyhound from Waterbury to Burlington by myself to visit my Nana for holidays.

Buying my mother cigarettes and then my own cigarettes as a preteen.

This was around 1978-79. One evening, my Mom gets a phone call from the police officer, saying that she had to go pick up my Dad or else they were going to arrest him.

Apparently my dad had too many beers at a friend's house and drove drunk hitting a telephone pole. No one was hurt and there was minimal damage to the car. But we had to pick him up and take him home.

So my sister, who had her permit, drove with my grandfather to pick Dad up. Of course my Mom rinse with them and I had to tag along.

So we ended up taking my drunk father in my grandfather's car, while me and my sister drove his car home.

This would have never happened today! Not even in the '80s. They would have thrown his ass in jail as soon as he hit the telephone pole.

Just watch the movie The Ice Storm, that’s filled with things.

I grew up in a rural area in the 70s. Once we asked our neighbors to feed our cats while we were on a family trip. They looked perplexed and said, “Why? If they aren’t there when you come back, get another one.” It’s like we’d asked them to feed squirrels while we were away.

r171 I could've written that. My mother's relatives were a bunch of drunks and were constantly driving drunk around town. They'd get pulled over or sometimes they would go off the road and land in a ditch. The cops would take the drunk relatives back to the police station, where somebody would get a call to come pick them up. My mom had to pick up her uncle several times, when no one else was around to get him.

Today, my mom's relatives would've had multiple DUIs, done some jail time and been banned for driving for life.

Circumcision rates in America of 86%.

Don Rickles' career.

Note to cashier: "Please allow my son, Nick, to purchase two packs of Salem kings and one six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for me, his Mother. Thanks, Hon.

Nick was ten years old.

My brother and I, two little grade school-aged kids, buying cigarettes at the store for our parents and grandparents. Marlboro for my dad, Virginia Slims for my mom and unfiltered Pall Mall for Nana and Granpa.

18 year olds 100% legally buying alcohol. So many kids in my hs got killed or maimed in alcohol-related accidents. And unlimited driving, no restrictions, as soon as kids got their licenses....

R94 I think you will find that still happens.

All of us kids piling into the bed of a pickup for the Little League Opening Day parade and riding down Laurel Canyon Blvd.

Telephone installation. Before phones were plugged into walls with the little clippy thing, you had to have a representative of the phone company come over to hardwire a phone into a wall or to install an extension.

Every checkout aisle at the grocery store had its own rack of cigarettes, in far more brands and styles than we have today.

"I'm going out, Mom." "Have fun." (eight-year-old departs house, no further questions)

Sad to say, kiddie pervs in schools and churches almost never got busted. There was a whole whisper network of kids who warned younger ones, "Never be alone in a room with Mr. Gordon" or whatnot.

Eagerly awaiting the new edition of TV Guide so that I could plan next week's viewing in advance.

Omg chickenpox parties, I remember one of those. We had to go visit our sick neighbor, he was about 7, I was 10 & my sister was 9. Our parents kept making us get close & touch him. Of course I was the only one who caught it off him, & have the scars & keloids to prove it! There was no vac then.

R184 They were trying to insure the fertility lines of the family, little did they know…

Being taken into the cabin to meet the pilots if you were a kid. (Hated it. “Just get us to the destination on one piece, bitch.” And none of them, damn it, ever asked if I liked gladiator movies.)

The DeFranco Family

[quote]and riding down Laurel Canyon Blvd

And I'll bet the Canyon Country Store looked exactly the same as it does today!

Skinny dipping in the local pond.

Was doing this with my younger brother and a friend when some high school boys happened to come by. There were four of them and they tried to coerce us into coming out of the water (the pond was surrounded by woods) but we refused.

They told us they wouldn't leave until we did, and I started to get really scared. We were over our heads and treading water and I was ready to swim across the pond naked to get away, but my friend finally gave in and got out of the water. They watched him dive off a rock a couple of times, and, apparently being satisfied, they left.

Vaccination day at elementary school where they lined us up in the gym and I prayed Id only need to gulp down the sugar cube.

Standing in line to cash a check at the bank or grocery store because there were no ATMs which necessitated guessing how much cash you would need to tide you over before your next visit to the bank or grocery store to cash another check.

My friend's dad would drive us to school while smoking like a chimney inside his car, so we'd go to class reeking of cigarette smoke. And nobody thought anything of it.

My mom had ashtrays and matches all over the house, and even though my parents didn't smoke, the ashtrays and matches were for guests and they were free to light up as they pleased. I guess my parents thought they were just being good hosts, but they would never let people do that now.

Back then people let guests smoke in their homes, even if they themselves didn't smoke. Asking someone to go outside to smoke was a social faux pas and considered poor manners.

Amazing how different things were back then.

OP, we went to the nuclear power plant park too! Was yours Rancho Seco?

Going to the library to look something up or checking the encyclopedia

No bike helmets

Record stores

Shrinky dinks

Letter writing

Dittos

Cursive

Photomats

Polaroid cameras

Teachers dating students

Church

Metal sliding boards

Tube socks with short shorts (guys)

Suntan lotion with no spf

Sunday roast dinners

12 year old baby sitters

Pool hopping

Everyone watching the same TV shows at the same time

Separate rooms in every home – no open concept

R101 Yes! Or MacPherson struts.

Then of course there was Ricardo Montalban and his rrrich Corrrrinthian leather.

The 60s was the coolest decade. Everything was cool in media and over all zeitgeist, The 70s was the worst and tackiest decade of all going back at least a thousand years.

Sexual harassment at work

When I was 5 years old in 1971, I walked every school day all alone for at least 10 minutes to the kindergarten school bus stop.

Vans fixed up to be like a rolling living room: shag carpet, mini fridge, sofa bed, swivel captain's chair. My uncle had one with a faceted pop out diamond window. Some had airbrushed murals on the outside, I liked Aztec sacrifice or surf themed.

Swap meets with big lion blankets and clocks made of driftwood and tables full of incense.

Big mustaches and carpet remnant sideburns.

"Women's Lib" and 'battles of the sexes'. Battles of the Network Superstars!

America's Bicentennial!

Tubular Bells

Red Devil and Freedom Fireworks stands from June thru July 4, even though California was dry as hell then and just as likely to burn up.

Waking up super early & taking the OCTD bus from Yorba Linda to Newport Beach, a trip of 2+ hours....the wafting aromas of Coppertone, Bain De Soleil, baby oil & Hawaiian tropic tanning products and the sound of "Baker Street" saxophone echoing up and down the beach on everyone's radio, tuned to KMET.

The Dr Demento Show

Smog alerts: days when you were told to "walk home from school and stay inside". Or on summer days at the local high school pool, free swim afternoons when you'd take a deep breath and feel like a fist was in your chest trying to punch its way out. It would still feel that way at night in bed trying to fall asleep.

Wanting to be a professional tetherball player. (It's not even an olympic sport).

Savings and loan passbooks.

Earth tones. Graphic wall murals. Sunset colored stripes.

Saying, "Dimes credit," to the operator and making a free call at a pay phone. Plus phone BOOTHS.

Dittos, Jordasche and other 'designer' pants for girls/women; Angels Flight pants & jackets for guys. Danskin leotards and wrap around skirt combinations.

"Surf" wear: Hang Ten, Ocean Pacific, Lightningbolt

The vicious rumor that the Ice Cream Man sold drugs off his truck.

"We T.I.P. "(Turn In Pushers) posters at school.

Feathered hair and Dorothy Hammel bobs and Unisex Salons

Graduating from a banana seat, sissy bar kid bike to a 10-speed , turning the handlebars upward like horns.

Actual open space, unincorporated areas, orange groves and random grasshopper oil pumps surrounded by chainlink.

Being able to ride my bike with friends several miles to a horse stable where we paid to rent horses and were let go into the hills to do our own thing for the amount of time we purchased without any supervision.

Collecting soda bottles and cans to redeem at the store for cash to buy candy (7 cents a candy bar) Fizzy candies like zotz and Fizzies.

Weird desk toys like the rack of steel balls hanging from string that would bounce the balls in various patterns, depending on how many you lifted and swung.

Looking at patten books and choosing fabric for something for my mom or Nana would sew.

Instant Breakfast, Tang, Space Food Sticks, Jello 1-2-3, Ayds weight loss candies, Brach's Pick a Mix, smooshing and pulling a big marshmallow between your fingers to make "taffy," Hostess Tiger Tails, Tasty Kakes, little cans of Snack Pack pudding.

Knit & crocheted afghans

Cigarette commercials on tv with jingles I can still sing ("Taste me, taste me, come on and taste me, take a puff and let me do my stuff!" = Dorals, bought for Nana at Skagg's Drugstore with a note.)

The weird sadness of tall, skinny, leaning palm trees silhouetted by a smoggy sunset.

Do they still do that scoliosis check in school or has that been consigned to the history bin?

R200 didn’t understand the assignment.

P O L Y E S T E R

Girls in junior high and/or high school taking "home ec" (short for "home economics") to prepare them for their future lives as housewives. The home ec classrooms had ovens and sewing machines, on which they learned how to cook and sew.

Boys, on the other hand, took wood shop or metal shop, to prepare them for their future lives hiding away in the garage from the stupid shrew they married, who only knew how to cook and sew, and the brats they spawned.

Scoliosis screenings at school where we lined up, took off our shirts and a doctor fondled our backs.

Liberace, bald Elton John, and super fembot Freddie Mercury as hetero male icons! How'd they not know!

When you grow up in a low income area:

1. A teacher showing us how to write letters to companies, complaining about something we bought being defective and asking for compensation.

2. A classmate writing to Philip Morris asking for replacement cigarettes, and the teacher didn’t flinch.

[quote]Having the country try to convince you that we would ALL need to know and understand the metric system because in a few years it would be the only one we would be using.

I still recall daytime kids cartoon public service shorts that would explain the metric system to us kids. I still rely on it when i need it (all of STEMS is in metric, BTW)

[quote]The home ec classrooms had ovens and sewing machines, on which they learned how to cook and sew. Boys, on the other hand, took wood shop or metal shop, to prepare them for their future lives hiding away in the garage

I went to junior high in the early eighties and by then we of both genders could take both classes, I did

Green Stamps

sadly, getting raped by your date and the police not being able to do anything about it (until the eighties in most states if a single woman went on a date and was raped she was considered a consenting partner)

Yes, r194! Ha! St. Francis elementary school 72-76. I always chuckle at the memory.

Rona Barrett

No air conditioning in most private homes.

in the east, the sunbelt exploded in the seventies on account of central air

All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and the big one: MAUDE.

Those weird attic vent fans usually in the ceiling of a hallway, you would turn them on, and they would almost suck the carpet up from the floor.....would clean out a house of kitchen smoke in about 60 seconds. Haven't seen them since about 1975.

[quote] Rona Barrett

Other than her being dead, why wouldn't Rona Barrett happen now? Hollywood gossip is still a thing.

School hernia check day for boys. We all lined up in the auditorium, and marched one by one into a little room at the side, where we unzipped so a doctor could fondle our balls. "Turn your head and cough." And he didn’t wear gloves.

[quote] Other than her being dead, why wouldn't Rona Barrett happen now?

I’m still alive, asshole!

rona is very much alive

Prell shampoo (the thick green stuff) ... and Close-UP toothpaste.

Body on Tap shampoo, made with real beer!

Great music.

I remember my dad would argue or scream if he didn't get the room he wanted in a hotel or the seat he wanted in an airplane. You'd never get away with that today - they'd call security.

My grandparents making my sisters wear gloves to church. Also grandparents (Episcopalian) muttering in anger "they're Catholic" under their breath if the Catholic neighbors or someone else that was Catholic pissed them off. Oddly enough, I don't remember ever hearing anything homophobic from them.

No one cared if you drank gallons of soda.

Airlines served full meals, even in economy. Airplanes were LOUD, and had to make a couple stops to get across the Pacific for some destinations. American airlines flew everywhere - Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, several countries in Africa, Pakistan, you name it. Airplane movies were played from a projector, and sound was piped into your ears with hollow tubes. Airport stores in the US were so tacky. Tons of porn mags and dirty paperbacks. Sexist, racist, homophobic keychains, coffee cups, etc., for sale. SFO was a shithole.

McDonald's was kind of a boring place to eat. This was before they came out with McNuggets and birthday parties.

Even though songs like Love to Love You, the Telephone Man, and the like were considered provocative, they still played them on the radio at all hours, and Walmart sold their singles.

You'd find porn mags all over the place, usually on the side of the road. I remember finding the Playgirl with the Village People featured in it and thought I had died and gone to heaven (not from seeing the Village People, but the other guys in the magazine). Hustler was a lifesaver, as that was one of the few magazines that featured nude men if you lived in more rural areas.

[quote] My dentist worked on children in his T-shirt, smoking a cigarette….his assistant would de-ash it when needed…..he only put on a starched lab coat for adults (sans cigarette of course)……

My dentist picked his nose and then put his fingers in our mouths.

There's a reason I didn't go to the dentist all through my twenties.

R210 Looney tunes! Mom would set out the booklets, stamp sheets and sponge and my sister and I would go to work. We even got criticized if our stamp placement wasn't perfect. I remember scrutinizing the catalogue of merchandise you could get with x number of stamps but cannot remember a single item in it, or one that we purchased.

When I think of ridiculous time-consuming gimmicks like this I wonder if it was an artifact of a protestant work ethic, 'idle hands are the devil's playground' stuff.

FREEDOM FREEDOM to do whatever we wanted to do without having the continually bitching bitchers ,bitch about it.

R228 I know what you mean, in many ways it was the crazy lack of safety standards and boundaries that made so much of childhood idyllic. Then you get reminded how that freedom meant murdering blacks and gays with no consequences.

R209, Yes, and in my junior high school, we rotated "electives" every quarter, so we could be in Metals for a few weeks the first quarter, then in Home Ec the next quarter, and then Plastics the next, etc. And even though these were called "Electives," this wasn't by choice. We went wherever we were assigned.

getting lined up at school in groups of eight, told to pull down our pants, and letting creepy school doctor stick two fingers up behind your scrotum and telling you to cough.

^^Seriously???

Waterbeds.

High-heeled platform-soled shoes for guys.

Kipper ties.

The Black And White Minstrel Show.

[quote] You'd find porn mags all over the place

That's funny that you mention that, R225. I never really though about it, but yes, back then you'd find porn mags and books in shrubs, fields or woods from time to time, or even even behind a school, which actually happened in class at recess one day.

I remember my older brothers found a couple of pages of porn torn from a magazine in a large growth of bushes on the way to the store. I saw pubic hair for the first time and was completely grossed out. I was only about 8 or 9 at the time.

Much later on, I always assumed that the porn was most likely left by pervs who lived or lurked very close by, lying in wait for a potential victim.

My dentist also wore no gloves and chain smoked. I could taste the nicotine on his fingers as he stuck his bare hands in my mouth. It was fucking disgusting. He was also rumored to be the town drug dealer, as he owned a small airplane and made frequent trips to Key West. He also had a parade of buxom receptionists that he was rumored to be fucking. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he screwed these women during the day in between teeth cleanings.

That all said, he made for some lively gossip in a small town!

The fifth grade teacher who used to take us individually into the coat closet as an exercise in imagination to pretend we had a flavored water fountain back there, after which we'd then come out of the closet (!) and tell the class what we drank (!!!!) Nothing untoward happened to me or anyone I know (it was done quickly) but no way that wouldn't raise an alarm now.

The hairy, tall, hot, covered in thick black fur 7th grade gym teacher and his equally hairy, hot, short, beefy fellow coach and assistant instructor would not be able to have the boys line up with jocks on and then grab the pouches to ensure the fit was correct.

The teachers and administrators (principals) who harassed me in 11th and 12th grade, first verbally and then physically, would have been sued to within an inch of their lives and I would be rolling in dough.

When I was in 7th grade in 1979 boys took home ec too. The classroom had three mini kitchens with a stove and a sink. I remember making biscuits from scratch and “Welsh rarebit” (who the hell eats Welsh rarebit?). On the sewing machine I made a stuffed monkey and an apron.

Solid glass “clackers” as a child’s toy. You’d put them on their ankle and then dance and kicking outward with your foot so that they’d make a loud noise every time they hit. Unfortunately, they also tended to shatter in mid-clack, sending glass shards into legs, torsos, and eyes.

Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo (Biden as the spokesperson)

Tickle deodorant that looks like a vibrator

Avocado Green and Harvest Gold appliances.

But we never saw an actual avocado.

R240 LOL SO TRUE. You rock (as the kids used to say).

r238 YAS!

Clackers took over my elementary school playground for a year. and then disappeared quickly.

I know the way kids were treated back then seems very abusive for today's standard, but we were very independent, today's kids are so pampered they become 20-30s childs with the resilience of a slice of bread. Some things were awful though, half of my aunts and uncles, related or no, are dying of lung or esophageal cancer for smoking for so many decades.

20-30s years old childs*

Clackers, when some ingenious person decided to market ben wa balls to kids....

All the cool anything goes behavior that squares don't get.

I don't think it counts as weird, but when a freind moved away, you maybe kept in touch by letter for a while. I had a friend who moved to Australia in 1973, never saw him again and we exchanged maybe 3 letters. When you went on a trip or a drive, there was no cell phone. If you were late you were late, or you found a pay phone although you didn't always have the other person's phone number. If you left the house you were basically free, no one could track you down and you could do what you wanted.

You wore beads and chanted we were not sure what, nor were you. But peace and love.

I'm chanting as I speak!

Oh wow psychedelic yeah cool make love not war groovy.

Doing THE HUSTLE.

High school parties in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood where everyone would be drinking beer and liquor in the front yard and in the middle of the street without the slightest worry.

If someone called the police to complain, they would just come by and clear everyone out. No arrests, no questions. They wouldn't even confiscate the booze.

The draft.

Prosecuting shoplifters.

R212 No way! I attended Sutter Middle. I thought for sure like the 6th grade Sly Park trip -- with all of its low-supervision time, and horny teen camp counselors -- would not still be a thing. However, I see they have been reimagined as an outdoor science center.

A candy used as an appetite suppressant called Ayds.

Calling a radio station to make a request.

[quote] Calling a radio station to make a request.

What's a radio station?

Freedom , the kid that have beenbornsince 2000 will have no idea what that was like.

R7, we had several cats that LOOOOOVED sneaking into the car through the windows and sunbathing in the rear window shelf.

(Back then in my neighborhood we didn't worry about theft, so we could leave windows down and car unlocked)

Too funny. Thanks for that unearthed memory!😻

Ice skating on lakes.

In NJ.

I haven't seen solid ice on lakes here in years.

We were totally unsupervised. Sometimes making a bonfire and skating at night. That's how carefree and crazy we were. It's amazing I survived my childhood. Climbing trees. Digging caves.

[quote]That damn president’s physical fitness test in gym every fucking year….thanks jfk…..

R25, what a triggering post! I literally passed out on the track just as I completed that run. Classmates and PE teacher helped me off the field and into the locker room...where I promptly fainted AND threw up.

Years and years later my Dr diagnosed a weird histamine reaction when I did certain exercises.

In elementary school, for Cinco de Mayo, the teachers would paint on mustaches on our faces and have us wear sombreros and serapes or ponchos and dance to Las Chiapanecas or El Jarabe Tapatio. That would never fly today.

Jell-O 1-2-3. Turns out the second layer was loaded with benzene.

Food that came out of a lab was trendy for a while.

I badgered my mother to buy Breakfast Squares and Space Food Sticks.

White vans driving around with tinted windows and "Free Candy for Kids!" scrawled on the side.

[quote][R212] No way! I attended Sutter Middle.

Yes, way! After, SF I went to Kit Carson Jr. High, my parents sent me to St. Francis H.S.

I'm still a girl, BTW

Standing up in the front seat of the car next to my dad, just standing, nothing between me and the windshield. And the arm to stop me from flying into said windshield in quick stops or corners.

Tie dye caftans and Buddhist earrings.

Red meat was very good and nutritious for you, and you should eat a lot of it.

My pediatrician smoked like a chimney. He never smoked in the exam room, but he would smoke behind the front desk in the reception area. His whole office reeked of cigarettes.

We had driver ed at my high school during the summer vacation. The instructors were a couple of young male teachers of the ex-jock variety, who didn’t seem to take the job very seriously. The first day, my instructor had 16 year old me take the brand new Pontiac out for a spin, and as it was midday, we drove over to the KFC so he could get his lunch, which he ate in the car as we continued cruising around town, while he pointed out and commented on all the women we’d see in along the way.

The NJ ice skater above jogged my memory of this video I saw awhile back about this crazy amusement park in Vernon, NJ that was so dangerous multiple people died and were horrifically injured with little or no consequence. It was called Action Park in the first of many iterations and opened in 1978. It looks like there’s also an HBO documentary about it too.

Don't they still do the Presidential Fitness test? I graduated HS in 2002 and we were still doing it, throughout my K-12 career. I wasn't a jock but I was naturally athletic enough that it didn't traumatize me.

Dressing up as Indians (Native Americans) for Halloween.

Progressive dinners.

Physically handing your hand-me-downs to the other "needy" families (and kids you KNEW) at church. No that wasn't embarrassing for anyone ever....

R200 I very much enjoyed your post and can relate to almost all of those memories.

Compared to this century, which has seen the Supreme Court steal the election from Al Gore, Trump and the Russians steal the election from Hillary Clinton, and 40% of the American people adhere to fascism, white nationalism and climate-catastrophe denial, nothing considered "weird shit" in the "'70s" comes close.

And that, unfortunately, includes Nixon's crimes, Vietnam and the prevalence of men's polyester leisure suits.

R259 You've really summed it up.

My partner and I were just having this discussion. He came of age in the 70s, I did in the 80s. We've had a long-running gag about ways "my decade was better." I feel like the 80s were a great time for bold personal expression. More and more, though, I miss the unfettered feeling I had in the 70s. I used to pop on my roller skates, grab a hand-held transistor radio and an ice cold Sunkist soda in a glass bottle and just GO for hours. The longing for that free feeling recently led my 50 year-old arse to buy skates and try again.

On family trips to the ocean, our parents would just let us play unsupervised all day long--whether it was playing in the ocean or going into town to play mini golf, ride go carts, hit the arcade, etc. We would just have to be back to the condo/hotel at dark and/or if we got hungry. Nowadays I think the parents hover too much and not let the kids run loose.

R279 I was born in 83 and I think my generation was the transitional phase. There were still some parents around that let their kids run free, but not my parents or most of my friends. Once I got around 10, I was allowed to go off on my own in the mall or just go outside on our land but I couldn't leave it. They would've never let me just wonder free at Myrtle Beach, Orlando, or Pigeon Forge.

There were too many kidnappers and perverts, or they thought that. I will say it could've just been because of me, that my parents were like that. I was a very cute kid, like strangers would just comment on it in line or walking around. One woman described me as a mixture of Little Ricky and Opie Taylor.

Existing and living life, often happily, without the internet or a cell phone. This isn't possible anymore.

Adult-only apartment complexes - These days this is available in the U.S. only in senior-living communities, AFAIK. But way back when, some complexes didn't allow children tenants. Imagine the blissful quiet.

[quote] Getting spanked in school by the principal. I'm almost 50 and STILL remember going to the bathroom in the 3rd grade and walking past a classroom where the Principal was spanking the shit outta some kid who was screaming bloody murder. Maybe we should bring that back, there would be fewer sociopaths like Kyle Rittenhouse running around.

Hey, you might be on to something there

Among the weird '70s smoking shit: There were lots of kids who were "allowed" to start smoking by their parents around 14-16. My cousin was one of them. Unimaginable today.

I've said this before and will say it again here:

I don't know if there's been a huge massive increase in pervs, kidnappings, etc. - the things we didn't worry about THEN and worry about NOW.

But we've now had 40 years now of 24 hours news, plus all the thousands of hours of 20/20 and 48 Hours and Dateline, plus social media.

We never heard about things that happened before unless it was within 30 miles of our homes, or a huge thing like Dahmer or Gacy or the Manson family. Now we can go on Facebook and hear about stories three time zones away.

We KNOW more about that stuff, to be sure.

Tang the powdered drink.

{r47} Juror number 6

R273 - we spent a day at Action Park in 79 - we went with a few other families. It was FUN. The moms went on an endless fiberglass slide and screamed all the way down the mountain.

R288 I moved on to the HBO documentary Class Action Park, there some real sketchy shit that went on there.

People regularly left their homes unlocked and keys in their cars, esp. in small towns. I think that was over by the late 70s/early 80s.

I hated being an army brat. Every move was met with the obligatory neighborhood welcome wagon/key party.

It was a bummer dating girls with restrictive parents who would only allow you to bang their daughter at home, under parental supervision.

^^ Sounds like Mom and Dad liked to watch.

R6 it was here in America, somewhat, too. I remember looking in a Penthouse magazine, and there was an ad for a books called something like "Show me yours, I'll show you mine" with a naked little boy and girl on the cover. I was maybe 6 or 7 seeing this, and I remember thinking "I guess some adults like this."

NAMBLA was allowed to march in the Pride Parade until the late 80s or early 90s before people started complaining and they were banned. You have to understand that back in the earliest years it was a protest march, not a "parade", and we were all sexual outlaws back then.

^ It was a classic "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation, so we let NAMBLA march with us back in the 70s. Going with the thread title, that shit would never happen now.

Knitted beer can hats.

Famolare shoes

Slingshots and bbs to shoot birds with

Puka she’ll necklaces.

Those white reversible nylon raincoats

Knowing you may get fondled by a creepy old uncle at any gathering.

Rampant sexual harassment: telling girls to wipe it good as they went into the girls restroom.

Whistling after young women and making them feel PROUD to be so foxy.

R292 R297 are you straight?

R297 Good list! I discovered a couple years back Famolares are still a thing and got myself two pair! SO bought a pair of blue Wallabies to match.

R200 that was a nearly perfect list!

My male high school teachers treated the girl students like their PG-13 harem and they were more than happy to comply; massaging the teachers shoulders and feet.

The gay teachers would invite gay students to their homes for private instruction. Some of the teacher/student relationships became quite serious, and this was high school.

The star wrestler of the school was this hot dude named John. An English teacher, Mr. B. promised to take him to Miami if he won some wrestling tournament. Mr. B was very effeminate, but supposedly straight. He wound up taking hot wrestler John to Miami! This was in the '80s, but it was still fucking crazy.

From a Dragnet 1970 episode I'm watching right now.

Suspect about to be interviewed in the police station: Is it all right if I smoke?

Sergeant Joe Friday: Sure, go ahead.

Suspect takes out a cigarette, lights it and takes a big drag.

^ Later in episode, suspect demands a lie detector test and he passes, to the consternation of Friday and Gannon.

Lie detectors were considered reliable.

I lurve classic Dragnet! I had a crush on Joe Friday (Jack Webb). IRL he wanted to nab the Black Dahlia murder. Harry Morgan eating his white bread (ham?) sandwich. CLASSIC TV. They were trying to be risqúe.

Seat belts were tucked away behind and between car seats never to be seen again.

Telling a 11 year old child after lunch to go outside and don't come back until dinner.

Not-so-safely keeping poisonous liquids in glass: in the house with children: * mercury thermometers (yes, plural-- oral and rectal), and * "hand boiler" toys.

Pulling off beer can or soda tabs, licking that thin sheet of metal before dropping it into the can and drinking the beverage.

Belts and vests made of said tabs.

I'm sure they've made advancements in bubble bath chemicals so they do not burn the urethra. In general, bath and body products will never be as irritating to the skin as they were in the 70s.

My mom was a part of a group of women called Home Dem (for demonstration) that got together and did such only in the 70s craft projects like macrame, decoupage, string art, and bread dough ornaments (which all got moldy when we moved to a house with a damp basement). She made a mushroom plaque very much like the one pictured here. And what was with mushrooms and owls being so big back then? Some of the ladies smoked while crafting and there’s be full ashtrays (mom didn’t smoke) at the end of the evening.

My mom and our crafty next door neighbor were our Cub Scout den mothers and we did a lot of crafts she tried out in home dem. For 8 year old boys we did a hell of a lot of crafts.

Classic Dragnet are the original black and white episodes from the 50s. Very noir and melodramatic. The color episodes from the late 60s reboot are OK but anodyne. Harry Morgan and Jack Webb had been friends for years and played off of each other more like a relaxed comedy team than a couple of hard boiled cops.

Rumors since the 50s that Webb was highly, highly closeted despite his wives and kids.

Everyone knew how to macrame.

The entire school lunch menu being fish on Fridays.

The people who were trampled and squeezed to death in The Who concert. I mean I’m sure there are laws and restrictions in place nowadays, right?

Not everyone knew how to macrame but everyone how to use macrame as holders for their hanging plants.

Everyone had plants hanging from their ceiling over their Brentwood rockers.

Or their high wide backed wicker chairs surrounded by potted ferns.

Waterga… no, that shit is happening now.

70s interior design was the ne plus ultra. Paint it white or gild it and add a few plants.

Tupperware parties.

Au contraire, R319

[quote]Weird '70s shit that wouldn't happen now

You mean like a demagogue inciting people to overthrow the government because he lost an election?

Working class urban culture: church membership if not attendance by adults was considered something you just did and all the major rituals. An example: rewatching Eastenders 1985 or 1986, the family doesn't attend the local CoE parish but it is assumed the baby Martin will be christened and all the family rituals automatically done. That is notifying relatives by mail even those outside the Eastend, having a party, said relatives sending cash back, coming to the party. Fast-forward to the 2020s, a storyline about an adolescent girl who for some weird reason wants to baptized, is, and her younger sister wants to afterwards so she can get a cross necklace. Collapse of traditional working class culture tied to church, neighbors and extended family.

Shag carpeting in the bathroom. I saw this recently when I was watching That Certain Summer (the gay-themed ABC Movie Of The Week). White shag carpeting. My mom did have cartepting in the bathroom - though not shag.

Women being asked if they’re “Women’s libbers.”

primal scream therapy

Cruising. Cruising Van Nuys Blvd. or many other places in the US. Hundreds of kids hanging out, not bothered by the cops. Going barefoot on the street. Riding in the backs of vans or pickup trucks.

Smoking on planes; perfectly safe to light up while you are trapped in a metal tube at 35,000 feet.

Smoking pot with your boss.

Those Women’s Club self published cookbooks where everyone donates their most famous recipe that is used as a fund raiser for the organization.

Teachers targeting certain students for ridicule and intimidation with impunity. Just a few of the DOZENS of examples:

*My kindergarten teacher was a sadist. When one student acted up, Mrs. Davis would line ALL us kids up, have us sit in a circle, "Indian style" (another thing that wouldn't fly today, along with "Class, we're going to walk [bold]Indian file[/bold]) to the cafeteria"), then she would walk behind us and *THWAP!* she whacked each child on the back with her yardstick. Nobody told their parents. What're you gonna do; she's the teacher.

*My 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Clark, HAAATED me. When I raised my hand first with an answer, she would go "Pfft, show off, always raising your hand. I'm not calling on you." But the worst was her attacking my appearance, saying shit like "There you go, with your BIG BUBBLE LIPS." Every day she did this. Tortuing a 10 year old kid. Classmates for years after called me "Big Bubble Lips." I never told my parents. What can you do; she's the grown up.

*When I was in 4th grade my teacher was pregnant. Almost every morning after roll call she would tell one of my black classmates to stand up, then tell her to go out and stand in the hallway for half an hour because the smell of whatever classmate had for breakfast lingered on her and nauseated the teacher. Nobody told their parents. What're you to do; she's the teacher.

[quote]The entire school lunch menu being fish on Fridays.

In my Catholic HS, we had the cheese ravioli option. Much better than industrial fried fish.

[quote] Everyone had plants hanging from their ceiling over their Bentwood rockers

That's exactly what my oldest sister's living room was like. A hanging array of leafy, green plants lined up across her large picture window. And, yes, to compliment the scene, a Bentwood rocker.

As the years pass... the weird warped reality of the 70s emerges. Drugs, sex, music, cultural upheaval... the 60s was the earthquake, the 70s was the chaotic tsunami.

As is... .what in holy hell is happening here. Get ready indeed.

Da fuk was up with those apple core dolls?

Let's make creepy dolls out of rotten apples! Maybe it was all of those good 70s drugs that made this seem like a good idea.

Regards the metric system we're already almost all the way in on it. Look at medicine for gods sake - it's all metric. Cars too - every nut, bolt, tire, etc. is in metric too. And every bottle of liquid you buy has both the Imperial and Metric numbers on it. The only things we haven't yet gone for is weight and distance. But for instant 1kg is about 2.2lbs. I'm a little surprised the fatties haven't adopted it. for example my 150lbs is only 68kg.

Oh yeah an cars the speedometer has been in both Imperial/Metric for many years. Cars with digital dashes can toggle between the two.

Porn stars as household names: Lina Lovelace, Harry Reams, Marilyn Chambers...

[quote] Those Women’s Club self published cookbooks where everyone donates their most famous recipe that is used as a fund raiser for the organization.

Those are still big in small towns.

R336 Apparently not big enough, because her name was Linda, not Lina.

R338 DL does not have an edit function. I knew there would be some idiot pointing out the typo, while everyone else would understand.

Bubble gum wrapper chains used as decoration in girls' bedrooms.

[quote] Those Women’s Club self published cookbooks where everyone donates their most famous recipe that is used as a fund raiser for the organization.

I’ve found that many of the recipes contained in these cookbooks are tried and true crowd pleasers. It’s not haute cuisine, but definitely stuff that will get devoured by party guests.

Cops didnt know what maijuana smelt like.

After a funeral you maybe went back to the house, and had coffee and cake. You didn't go out for a big lunch or dinner on the family's dime.

Commercials with couples that are not interracial.

Don Kershner's Rock Concert

I’m hoping the horror of “shirts/skins” games are a thing of the past for adolescent boys. Nothing more traumatic for husky kids than having to expose your budding man boobs in front of all your classmates to laugh at.

[quote] After a funeral you maybe went back to the house, and had coffee and cake. You didn't go out for a big lunch or dinner on the family's dime.

Yeah, this is correct. I remember going to one as a kid and the family did have food at a meeting room in the church next to the cemetery, but it was all juice, punch and small sandwiches made by friends of the mother (her husband was the deceased).

Throwing rice at weddings.

R347 That's similar to what I knew/know in the South, except the spread is much better. There is usually fried chicken, Macaroni and Cheese, BBQ, potato salad, rolls, biscuits, casseroles, and more cakes than a bakery.

Did anyone say Disco yet?

Th early 70s were very different from the late 70s. Early 70s I think of plaid bell bottoms and platform shoes and huge bow ties, and the music was California rock like Jackson Browne or various kinds of pop-rock. There was heavy metal like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Mid to late 70s was disco, new wave and punk. Skinny ties, rolled up sportcoat sleeves, as well as preppy styles.

R351 and the early 70s was also crunchy granola John Denver type stuff.

I was a kid in the 70s with family roots in the midwest. Lots of family members lived to be quite old (well into their 80s-90s). Everyone had those big chest freezers in the basement or garage and had them stocked with home-made food items (especially cakes, but all kinds of things) that could quickly be brought out when a funeral happened. There was so much food. After the funeral, everyone would get together at the house and have all this food that was laid out on one of those big folding banquet tables, with a tablecloth put over it. I especially remember those cakes in the freezer, kept specifically in case someone died. Sometimes when we came to visit when someone hadn't died, it was such fun to go to the freezer at lunchtime and pick out something for dessert after dinner. It had to thaw out on the kitchen counter for a few hours so it would be ready.

R351 When I imagine music in the early 1970s I dream about how people tell me you could listen to one radio station and you'd hear all the genres. They could go from Aretha, to Tammy Wynette, to Jefferson Airplane, to Sammy Davis Jr.

[quote] I especially remember those cakes in the freezer, kept specifically in case someone died.

I have to ask, don't mean to sound rude, but how long did they keep those cakes in the freezer? Because if I have anything in the freezer longer than a few months I usually don't trust it and I toss it.

In the early 70s I was young and I listened to top 40 AM radio. There were probably stations that played all genres but I don't remember anything like that. The main thing was that, unlike now, there were a lot of specialty stations, because they weren't owned by huge corporate entertainment entities. There was more individuality and diversity on the radio, and a song could still become a local hit. Anyway I remember there was a hard rock station, there were some easy listening stations, one that played big band music, etc. My mom listened to a station that was popular with housewives, they tended to play stuff like Dionne Warwick, Herb Alpert, maybe some Nat King Cole or Dean Martin. You could still hear a lot of non-rock popular music on the radio and on TV at least in the early to mid 70s.

I have no idea R355. Probably not long. It was a large extended family with lots of old people so funerals were common. I think they rotated through them and if something had been in for a certain period of time it came out for dessert and a fresh one was made to go in the freezer at some point. But we didn't live there, we just visited sometimes and came for some of the funerals. So who knows. You can do longer term storage in those chest freezers because they aren't self-defrosting so things aren't constantly being partially defrosted and refrozen. Once a year or so you have to empty everything out and hack out the built up ice with an icepick or the freezer keeps getting smaller and smaller.

R356 Yeah but even Top-40 was much more varied than now. The Top 40 songs of 1971 had several genres and subgenres represented. Now it feels like 75% rap, 10% edm, 10% actually Pop, and 5% country.

Today’s pop music is largely disposable junk. There is some good stuff, but it really nosedived after COVID hit.

Yeah R359 like Taylor Swift re-recording the shit she already recorded so she can sell it again.

I love that R34 ‘s post got so many likes. Parties like that were Indeed the norm, no big deal. And the soundtrack to it all was so great.

R360 naked money grab — “Taylor’s Version”. 😵‍💫

R362 It is. I like a few of her earlier songs. Now I will look exclusively for the originals. She will still get my money just not as much.

You have to remember that the first few years of any decade are much more like the previous decade than what the decade becomes. Very early 60s = late 50s. Late 60s = cultural revolution.

It’s funny if you read the reviews on iTunes, Taylor has all her stans out declaring “This is not a money grab - do your research!” lol

A brother-and-sister duo who belonged to a cult and had huge horse teeth and sang love songs to each other every week on TV, and nobody talking about how weird and creepy it was.

The music charts changed in 1991 when Soundscan came into play. Before Billboard did informed estimates based on units shipped and airplay. Once Soundscan started counting exactly what was sold it changed the charts.

The entire non-heterosexual world being referred to as "Gay & Lesbian".

[quote]The entire non-heterosexual world being referred to as "Gay & Lesbian".

The good old days.

The discussion about musical genres in the '70s and the dominance of rap in the top 40 (for a while now) reminds me that schools no longer provide any sort of music training and many high schools no longer have bands and those that do charge fees that some parents can't be afford. In California, it was one of the first things to get axed after Proposition 13 passed. Not that it was weird, but kids today probably think that learning an instrument in school is weird.

[quote] I’ve found that many of the recipes contained in these cookbooks are tried and true crowd pleasers.

Chipped beef on toast (aka 'shit on a shingle') was always a fave in my book!

R330 Big bubble lips! Are you a Negro? If so. That was racist!

You forgot to sign your name at R371, Rose.

Paunchy, middle aged (at least they looked middle aged) men like Lee Majors and Burt Reynolds being major sex symbols.

Getting up early and listening intently to the local am radio station for your school code to be announced to find out if it would be a snow day.

Archie Bunker - the concept of the grumpy yet Love able bigot would never fly today. Racists and homophobes are not given redeeming qualities, at least not on TV

Shields and Yarnell. Only in the 70s would a married pair of mimes with identical pageboy hairdos be given a prime time network TV show.

R377 They are both gross. Is one supposed to be a guy?

Your post took me back decades, R375! Great memories.

Shields and Yarnell. I usually post this at Christmas but Hell, we need a Christmas now.

[quote] Mid to late 70s was disco, new wave and punk. Skinny ties, rolled up sportcoat sleeves, as well as preppy styles.

That’s more into the ‘80s.

Doctors and dentists living in split-levels and ranchers and driving Buicks.

R380, wow, Bernadette Peters is shockingly bad in that clip. Even Chastity is better.

R381, Disco was all 70s. By '81 or '82 it had virtually disappeared as though it had been driven off a cliff.

Yes, I agree about disco, but not the clothing that poster mentioned, nor the preppy look.

Remember those banana yellow rotary wall phones with the cords that were 10,000 feet long? My aunt and uncle still have theirs in their kitchen. The damn thing still works great after 50 years.

^ and it will still work great for the next 50 years. Those things are indestructible.

People in their 40s looking "old."

Jean Stapleton and Carroll O'Connor were in their 40s when All in the Family began.

Ed Asner's first appearance as Lou Grant? He was 41.

Dipping a chocolate bar in a jar of peanut butter.

[quote] People in their 40s looking "old."

Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) owns this one.

Openly referring to someone as a “chinaman” or an “oriental”

R390 Not really, at least she was in her sixties during The Waltons, but she really didn't look twenty years older than the Bunkers.

And now, a word from Joan...

^^ oops!

Wait all year to watch Wizard of Oz on TV.

[quote]Ed Asner's first appearance as Lou Grant? He was 41.

Cloris Leachman was 3 years older than Ed Asner, so maybe certain people looked old and others didn't - just like now.

"Calling doctor Mumbai!" just doesn't feel the same as it did in the 70s.

That party with the teachers sounds a little weird even for the 70s. I never knew any teachers who did anything like that. I knew some teachers who had parties, but totally wholesome. I did have a teacher who lived with a guy he said was his cousin. They were both young, and it was the 70s, when most of the time people were assumed to be straight - so it was plausible. But the teacher had a party after graduation where he and the "cousin" revealed they were lovers. I also had a woman teacer who introduced me to her "partner" who was a woman - that was kind of a surprise.

Would Stella Johnson be a Trumper now?

[quote]18 year olds 100% legally buying alcohol. So many kids in my hs got killed or maimed in alcohol-related accidents. And unlimited driving, no restrictions, as soon as kids got their licenses....

I'm very surprised so many kids in your high school got killed or maimed in alcohol-related accidents. Where was that? I was in high school when the drinking age was 18 and I there wasn't a single kid in my high school that got killed or maimed in an alcohol-related accident.

Even though the drinking age was 18, we could often drink at16, in a lot of restaurants. As long as you looked somewhere around 18, they'd serve you.

If you grew up in a rural area, you probably knew someone who was seriously injured via binge drinking or drunk driving. I know of a few myself from rhe 70s/80s.

I grew up in a city relatively close to the border of a state that had a lower (18) drinking age. So many kids died driving home from the bars.

It wasn't hard to get served when you were underage in certain kinds of bars in the 1970s.

There was a bar attached to a coffee shop near my house (think a Googie diner with a dimly lit lounge) — piano lady on the weekends, lonely older people clientele. If you didn't create any fuss, were quiet, and had the money, you could drink.

It's where I had my first gin-and-tonic.

This was mid-80s but I have a female friend who moved in with her science teacher, AND his mother, when she was 16. A Brooklyn public HS.

R402, Wisconsin?

What's now considered drunk driving was legal in the 70s. The BAC limit was .10%. Now it's .08%. AND the drinking age was 18.

[quote] What's now considered drunk driving was legal in the 70s. The BAC limit was .10%. Now it's .08%.

Not quite. While driving with a BAC of, say, .09 wouldn’t get you charged with DWI, it could get you a DWAI charge (Driving While Ability Impaired).

In New York, DWI is a misdemeanor; DWAI is a violation, with penalties similar to a traffic ticket, BUT you’d spend the night in the hoosegow until arraignment the next morning.

I grew up in a suburb, I don't know what that has to do with it, but I never heard of any drunk driving accidents involving teens in my town. I think I would have remembered. Similarly, where I went to college the drinking age was 18 and again there were not scores of drunk-driving accidents involving teens, In fact I don't remember any. However when the drinking age was raised to 20 or 21 when I was graduating from college, younger kids who no longer could go out to bars used to drink at the frat houses and there were suddenly a lot of cases of alcoholism, because it was actually more available and they were drinking at home all the time.

Not sure if it’s necessarily a correlation, but in rural areas teens often went to drink in remote areas with winding roads a long way from nowhere. Binge drinking was also one of the few fun things available to do if you couldn’t go to a bar.

if you want to read a MASTERFUL book on the 70's try this one, very very entertaining too

Killing babies in Viet Nam.

Thanks for the recommendation, r410.

I’m going to check it out.

The Happy Hooker and Debbie Does Dallas being somewhat mainstream.

^I meant Deep Throat, not Debbie Does Dallas^

Damn you Muriel and your lack of editing.

Xaviera Hollander was indeed a bit mainstream

for the record though she was sort of a paris hilton ho

Babies were treated differently. I recall my younger cousins as babies being put to bed while crying. They would cry themselves to sleep. That doesn't happen anymore. Now the second a baby cries, they get picked up.

Not sure which way is better, but it's different.

R416 that isn't really a decade thing, that is more of an individual thing. I good example is in Gone With The Wind, made in 1939 and set in the 1860s-70s, after Rhett takes Bonnie Blue away from Scarlett her nanny lets her cry, Rhett doesn't.

R417 My cousins who were allowed to cry themselves to sleep are the ones who pick their babies up now at the slightest cry.

I never see any parent now that allows their baby to cry. I will believe what you say, though, since I don't know too many people with babies.

Styles of parenting change like hemlines used to.

The Ferber method, or Ferberization, is a technique invented by Richard Ferber to solve infant sleep problems. It involves "sleep-training" children to self-soothe by allowing the child to cry for a predetermined amount of time at intervals before receiving external comfort.

My instinct would be to put a baby down to sleep, and let them cry for a time- maybe 10 minutes. If it continues, I would pick them up. This picking up a baby EVERY time the SECOND they start to cry seems crazy to me. But, you know, obviously I don't have any kids myself.

The key aspect of Ferber is to not pick the baby back up once you have put them to bed. You come in to the room and reassure / comfort the child at lengthening intervals, but leave them in bed.

Addressing an envelope:

MRS. JOHN SMITH

(Using Mrs. with the husband's name in place of the wife's actual name.)

There seemed a lot more bralessness back then , which scandalized my grandmother’s generation. I don’t think widespread bra-burning was an actual practice, but the freedom to go out in public with nipples apparent under a t-shirt was more common. My classmate’s mom ran around town in tight t-shirts and no bra over her quite big tits. Other moms would talk about her like she was trashy, but they were probably secretly envious of her rack and the attention she got from men.

R422, I fail to see the issue with this?

[quote]No "teen moms" in high school. There would be maybe one whore who would get knocked up, and she would get kicked out of school, never to be seen again.

In my high school in the mid-70s a girl got pregnant and (while pregnant) ran for senior class president and won. It was not a particularly progressive town or school, either. What you're saying sounds more like the 50s.

There wasn't a lot of teen-centered programming on network TV. There were family-oriented shows like The Brady Bunch. And eventually there was Happy Days. But as teens, we watched things like Here's Lucy, All In The Family, Mary Tyler Moore, etc. I went on my first date (with a girl) when I was 13 in the early 70s and it was a John Wayne movie. I remember going on another date at16 and again it was a John Wayne movie. And my dad drove us.

Also they used to be very strict about letting you in to R rated movies if you were underage. I don't know if that happens any more (and anyway, you can usually see them on TV). Back then, I remember being desperate to see movies like Chinatown, that I couldn't get into. In LA, there was the Z Channel, which was early pay-TV and you could see R rated movies. Very unusual. We got around the R-rating sometimes by going to the drive-in, as long as there was someone old enough to drive. They couldn't really check ages at the drive-in.

R400 I went to hs in Central Florida. The area was pretty much trashy suburbia on the edge of rural expanses. A lot of kids drove, again, w. no restrictions on time/destinations/people in the car and went to/from parties in the woods. Also, no air bags, ABS, seat belt laws and a good bit of rain....

Yes my mom worked in the local hospital as an admitting clerk. She told me about a friend from school who had been injured in a high speed crash and brought into the ER. Not sure if it was alcohol related, but they were definitely out partying. He died of his injuries. Very sad.

Also in the 80s I remember a number of high school girls in relationships with guys in their late teens/early twenties. One classmate was sleeping with the mom of a another classmate who was a manager at a local restaurant where this guy worked. I also knew a couple of younger teachers that had slept with HS students. One ended up marrying the girl when it was discovered she only lost his teaching license. Today it seems bizarre and so unethical/criminal.

One of our teachers had a long history of dating students. He was about a decade, maybe 15 or so tears older than us - he'd gone to school with my older brother, who was 12 plus years older - but for like 5 years, every year he had a new GF that was a senior girl.

Would never happen today.

I remember there were rumors about a male gym teacher and a girl athlete in our high school. They hung out a lot together. Today they probably wouldn't even hang out.

Some things do change for the better. I can’t imagine any legitimate teacher thinking it’s ok to socialize with their students. Unfortunately the pendulum has swung the other way and now any single male above the age of 40 is highly suspect or assumed a closet creeper/molester.

Taking raw loads in your ass with no fear of dying

Tiny Tim-a weird guy singing in falsetto and playing the ukulele. Or was he more of a 60s thing?

[quote]Some things do change for the better. I can’t imagine any legitimate teacher thinking it’s ok to socialize with their students.

It depends on what you mean. A couple of my teachers had parties for students at their homes. These weren't "wild parties" or at night. They were nice, I don't see why a legitimate teacher couldn't do it.

Tiny Tim was mainly the '60s, but I could swear he did talk shows in the '70s because I have memories of watching and my dad cracking up. One thing that wouldn't fly now: he married Miss Vicky when she 17 before a national TV audience on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson looking on.

R435 blurred social lines. It’s just not a good idea, regardless of intent—as an adult you are putting yourself in a situation where you may be compromised personally or legally based on allegations against you regarding a minor. Honestly a school party should be at school with proper supervision.

It’s akin to MJ thinking it was ok to hang out and socialize with kids, treating them like peers. Obviously not the same, but a grown man whose only friends are 12 year old is suspect. That’s why after the first accusation, he should have stopped. However, he didn’t, which made it even more suspicious—and left him even more vulnerable to even accusations.

As a professional working with kids, you avoid situations where you could be compromised by even the appearance of something questionable going on.

Streaking across stage during the Oscars.

Blazing Saddles

WIN! (Whip Inflation Now!) buttons being distributed by the White House to promote a grassroots movement to curb inflation by cutting back on consumption and putting more money into savings accounts. And it was a Republican White House at that (Gerald Ford).

Can you imagine the OUTRAGE and RIDICULE that Biden would elicit if he started distributing Whip Inflation Now! buttons?

Maybe this link works.

People eating liver during the beef crisis of the 70s. Blech!

This....

Ah, the 70s beef crisis! Memorialized forever at 00:25 of the Mary Tyler Moore Show opening credits.

MTM was all of us in the 70s, forced to forego burgers for some sautéed liver and onions R444! Double blech!

R440, I remember that WIN! campaign, and most people were quite contemptuous of it even back then. How anyone could've conceived of the mind boggling exercise in futility (and stupidity) that it actually was is hard to fathom from today's perspective.

Weirdly, I don't remember a beef crisis. I do remember news reports of the elderly eating canned pet food. The plot of an episode of Good Times centered around the Evans' and Wilona's concern that an elderly neighbor was eating dig food. The Evans decide to invite the neighbor for dinner and she shows up with a meatloaf. So the family elaborately avoids the meatloaf.

Faking rape so you don’t have to attend your daughter’s wedding

Apart from its utter futility, the WIN! campaign represents a time when politicians dared to ask the American people to SACRIFICE for the greater good.

NOW - National Organization for Women

It would be considered a hate group now because it didn't focus on trans-women.

[quote]Faking rape so you don’t have to attend your daughter’s wedding

???

As someone who became a vegetarian in 1980 and hasn’t had meat since then, one of the few things I miss is liver and onions, and let me tell you no one out there is spending any time making vegetable protein liver. Runner up is Ramaki, which we always had on New Year’s Eve.

Daylight Saving Time in January. It was supposed to last 2 years while we rode out the "energy crisis," but everyone hated it so much it was canceled after the first year.

Having sex with 20 guys a week

A Republican president actually being held accountable by his party for his criminal activities.

Using a Baggie that didn't have a water-tight seal.

I had a friend who would never put a stamp on a bill she paid. At the time, the PO would deliver the mail and collect the postage on delivery. Doesn’t work anymore. If notice the payment envelopes all have a notice that the Post Office will not deliver mail without a stamp.

Marlo Thomas

Roxane Gay

Phyllis Diller

R457, your friend remembered when companies sent their bills with a "business reply" envelope for you to mail in your payment, no postage necessary. Common in the 1970s, now pretty much extinct.

And the colored girls go

"Doo do doo do doo do do doo..."

Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

La Choy commercials.

Walking down the street in the evening when I was a kid smelling the wonderful aroma of people actually cooking homemade food. I never notice that anymore.

Riding a horse from Encino to Calabasas on/alongside Ventura Blvd.

Well! If we must add a fucking postage stamp, then at lease lace the non-affixative stamps with LSD and lower the fucking price of the stamp!

In the 70s you had to moisten the back of a stamp to activate the adhesive. Most people would just lick them but some people would use a damp sponge or a Q-Tip dipped in water.

You haven't had to do that for years.

Gym teachers showering with the students. It was weird then and would be even weirder now.

[quote] "Throwing trash out of car windows."

Unfortunately it DOES happen, though not quite as often, R5.

[quote] "MUCH lower than the toe area), making you feel as if you were constantly walking uphill.......supposedly stretched your Achilles tendon and calf muscles and made you more limber ...........or something like that............"

According to this article, they were supposed to mimic walking in sand. Fuck that, R96! As a costumer I must admit I wasn't familiar with these until reading about them just now. So thanks for mentioning them!

The 70s were filled with nothing but the archetype of magical Negroes. Now, it is nothing but grotesque Negroes, like Will and Jada Smith. Yuck. And their fucking kids! My god - some people should never fucking breed, like the Smiths. Puke.

[quote] As a costumer I must admit I wasn't familiar with these

I’d love to hear some of your stories and see some pics. That sounds like a fun job.

Who really wants to see these old hags acting like they're still drunk sluts in their twenties?

R127, I have one in my house!

Black and whites used to hang out together and it wasnt made into a big fucking deal

We must collectively remind ourselves that black and white children and adults always played together, regardless of color. It is the restriction of capital and the gaping (now losing) divide between the working and ruling class that has fueled this false hatred. It’s meant to divide and to conquer us dumnions. The real, venal root is greed, not race or sex. GREED! All for me and none for you!

Are you fucking delusional or just psychotic? Blacks and whites never "always played together" ya stupid cunt. It is only a fairly recent phenomenon.

From almost the beginning in professional sports. Money…stuff more money up your putrid, rotting cunt flaps.

Thank you for adding such a relevant post to the thread, R477. I appreciate it.

R479 suffers from cunt brain. She considers men in professional sports to be black and white children playing together. Her level of stupidity and cuntitude is off the charts.

Sandy Duncan

Singing Christmas carols in public school.

Taking showers after gym class.

Did someone already mention having a mainstream film where a 12 year old girl masturbates herself bloody with a crucifix? If they made something like that now, it would never see the light of day. It probably would never have been filmed in the first place.

Questioning the fact that children need both a mother and a father.

Me, born in the seventies: riding bicycles without helmets. Our older neighbour driving me and my wee brother around in his car and driving crazy, then slamming on the brakes repeatedly to make us fall off the back seat. We loved it. Kids hanging out behind the drugstore offering other kids joints. A neighborhood gang that played together, families had block parties together. Everyone knowing who you were and actually caring, for better or for worse. Listening to Wolfman Jack, feeling united through having less but enjoying it more. Bellbottoms, side burns, hippie hair parted in the middle, shag carpeting, 8 tracks, fondue parties, vinyl records, cigarette machines. Cars with ball clutches, bucket seats.

Joey Heatherton

Divorcing your husband and finding yourself.

[quote]Bellbottoms, side burns, hippie hair parted in the middle, shag carpeting, 8 tracks, fondue parties, vinyl records, cigarette machines.

Vinyl records have been having a comeback since the late '90s. And my hair is again hippie-length and parted down the middle (thanks, pandemic).

R485 That scene in Exorcist, Regan wasn't "masturbating" herself, you fucking moron. She was fucking herself with the crucifix or pushing her mama's head into her bloodied poon. But there was no fucking masturbating involved, motherfucker.

Most of the things going on in the movie The Ice Storm.

r491 is triggered by the thought of masturbation. Catholic guilt!

R493 is so beyond retarded. No DLer would turn down fucking her cunt with ten trillion razor sharp crucifixes.

Sorry, R491. I was trying to be a bit more discreet. I stand corrected. A 12 year old girl was FUCKING her CUNT bloody with a crucifix. I don't think that would happen in any movie today.

"Weird '70s shit that wouldn't happen now?"

Virgin brides.

Seemed like such an innocent decade, but some very heinous shit was going down. Thinking of Gacy, Bundy and that Coryll murder. He shoved glass thermometers into the penis and then broke it inside them. Evil shit! If I could go back in time, I’d slingblade their shit with 1000 cuts! Also, Vietnam.

Today if Watergate happened you wouldn't have fair bipartisan hearings and the American people don't care how corrupt a President is any more, and I'm not just referring to Trump. They just elected one who had to resign a primary in disgrace, in a less "forgiving" era, for plagiarizing speeches and telling blatant lies to beef up his poor law school record.

Kids playing with Yo-Yos

R495 You're such a sad stupid cunt. No need to fucking be "discreet" here.

Respecting your elders.

Elders were never worthy of being respected. This isn't Asia. Here we kick 'em to the curb.

Oh yeah and finished basements too.I was 14 and that was my lair. It was 1978 and where a neighbor boy and I taught each other the art of cock sucking.

People are so proud of their teenage fumbling.

R498, there still were plenty of hard core congressional Republicans who did the bidding of the Nixon White House.

Schools without metal detectors

Collect telephone calls.

Not too many years ago I was visiting at my mother’s house in Michigan when I answered the landline telephone & it was my sister in Florida calling. Recreating a scene so common from my youth, I immediately asked for silence in the room, announcing with urgency that it was a “long-distance” call.

All the super effete, super fruity homos who were considered sex symbols to straight girls - John Travolta, Liberace, Elton John, Freddie Mercury.

We lived about 2 hours from my grandparents. When we drove home from a visit we’d call them and let the phone ring twice so they would know we got home OK.

R509 that still goes on today and was going before the 70s.

Leo is not gay. Puh-lease.

R512 His mom is his date at award shows. Puh-lease!

Ludes.

R512 Considering most girls have been cunts since at least the 60s, his Mom is probably the best lady he should be with. That ain't no proof he is gay.

R509 Liberace wasn't a sex symbol to straight girls in the 70s, unless the girls were IN their 70s.

R515 Your working overtime on this issue. Are you Leo's publicist or his mom?

I don't even like Leo but you stupid cunts who believe every man in history is gay are truly toxic cunt waste.

until the early 90s it was legal to rape your wife in virginia. I think they were one of the last states to spell out this was a crime through legislation

R518 Why so offended, Leo!

Barry Manilow

Movies that are actually good.

US movies made for adult audiences only with actual dialogue and no superheroes

I just watched Sissy's version of Carrie and the opening shot of the full-bushed pussies is something you don't see anymore. It was borderline pedophilia. The movie could have been good with a better director. The only good scene was Carrie killing all her tormentors in the gym.

Don't ever watch the original Lolita R524, the actress was only 14-15 while it was being filmed. At least all of the girls in Carrie were in their 20s.

No thanks. I'm not a pedophile. Teenaged bush does not interest me.

The 70’s were so sexual. Constant cat calls to all women including young girls. I can remember going to the theater when I was maybe 5 to see Grease — the boys/men sounded like they wanted to all ravage ONJ. Kids were exposed to a lot, but they are today too.

[quote] I can remember going to the theater when I was maybe 5 to see Grease — the boys/men sounded like they wanted to all ravage ONJ.

When I went to see it what you're describing didn't happen.

Are you a Gen Zer? ONJ to youth today is an it/they. Never designate ONJ as her or she or girl.

What a fucked up world.

Roller Disco

Alan Carr

it still amazes me that kids no longer shower after gym class.

Showering at school with just your gender.

R553 Not with all the 700 trillion genders the freaks claim there are.

People enjoying sex!

Privacy

Casual sex without any subsequent regret sex rape charges filed by one or the other

Sex for fun not for profit

Modesty

A conversation without swearing.

[quote] Also grandparents (Episcopalian) muttering in anger "they're Catholic" under their breath if the Catholic neighbors or someone else that was Catholic pissed them off.

Funny. I still do this often to this day but nobody has a problem with it.

I say that about the United States Supreme Court

Cell phones, 533.

The 70s did have a lot of pedophilia. Men were allowed to “harass” women/girls. Underage teen girls loved it if it proved they were more cool to “do it” with an adult male. Watch ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE by Scorsese. That lead guy would be arrested on the spot, fired from his job….bitches today would cut a dick if that happened to them.

R542. LOL…unfortunately, it is true today…and they are proud of it! Look how backwards we have become.

Ban-Lon. An early synthetic fiber for use in knit textiles. It was thick and scratchy and awful in every regard. Imagine snagging your shirt and getting a run in it. A miserable product and good riddance to Ban-Lon.

J'adore trough urinals! Oh, all the big adult dick I could see at the Indiana State Fair.

r546, only greasers wore Ban-Lon.

PRETTY BABY (1978).

Tupperware parties

R547, no. Just no. I had a Ban-Lon shirt that I hated. But as I was in 1st grade, doing anything about it was as far out of my reach as was being a greaser.

The Hustle

Having a sense of humor.

Being able to shrug things off and move on

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Pedo films in the 70s: Pretty Baby (1978) Brooke Shiels To the devil, a daughter (1975) Nastassja Kinski

Sicko movies of the 70s: Rabid (1977)

Saw these films in a theater.

There wasn't anything culturally as misogynistic in 70s as rap in the 2000s.

This kind of decor, which was everywhere back then.

Nik-Nik shirts. 100% polyester button-downs with enormous picture graphics on them.

R558, don't forget some cool shoes to go with that Nik-Nik shirt.

Are those mens or women’s shoes?

Gene Rayburn whipping out his breath spray on Match Game and planting a big slobbery kiss on every actress who was making her first appearance on the panel. All the comments about the women contestants' looks that he and Dickie Dawson made.

Richard Dawson slobbering on all the female contestants on Family Feud.

R558, I remember them also as Roland shirts.

R558 - We used to call them Disco Shirts.

Nik-Nik was a brand name. I only wore two of them, once each, after a friend gave them to me in the summer of 1974. I think he [italic]liked me[/italic] liked me, but we both had girlfriends. In any case, I was really into Izod Lacoste alligator shirts then, banded sleeve only.

Jimmy Carter getting elected President. Billy Carter, sure. Jimmy no.

At my grandfather's 100th birthday in 1992, he showed up wearing a super cool satin disco shirt from the 70's. That was probably the last time he had ever been clothes shopping.

Cool, R566. How much longer did he live?

Paying for porn.

R567 - three more years, then I heard one day he just said, "that's enough", turned over in bed and died.

R560, those platforms are men's shoes.

When did button down start to mean shirts that button? A "button down" used to mean a shirt with a button down collar. Then I noticed (more recently) the tern used by younger people to mean any shirt that buttons. But it wouldn't button "down" (unlike the collars, which were buttoned down to the shirt front) so it makes no sense.

This was a quite normal outfit back then.

Not really

What an ideal way to go out, R569. Hopefully, you inherited his longevity genes.

People enjoying sex, guilt free?

Men asking unashamed of their sexuality, gay or straight?

People taking good natured pisses out of people different from them?

People fighting over Eggos.

Cleaning and tuning your carburetor.

Here's a DLer from the 70s.

R578 - sorry, they deleted the post. He told someone to go to hell on the phone, then hung it up on the Garfield the Cat telephone, which closed its eyes.

Bicentennial shit EVERYWHERE.

A lot of suburbanites went in for red white and blue rooms and regretted it a year later.

College students sleeping with their professors. During my undergraduate years in the 70's, I slept with three of my professors. But I was in the music school and that sort of thing happens.

R581, LOL. I love how you casually explain that "that sort of thing happens."

R582 Well apparently it did happen, so that sort of thing does happen...

R582, it really was pretty common. We all just saw it as something that happens.

Welfare for basically everyone who couldn't find a job, or had other issies, and social programs that started as part of the Great Society.

*issues

Why are Creeple People toys dangerous?

r569 Aww, what a blessing. Similar thing happened to my grandmother. She called up my Mom and said that she felt "really tired" My Mom told her to take a nap on the sofa. My Grandma did and didn't wake up the next day. She was 99

Top 40 stations on AM radio.

[quote]Another thing that wouldn't happen today:. two assassination attempts on the president within a two week period.

Are you serious? I can't imagine why you think that wouldn't, or couldn't, happen today. Sadly, it seems to me that, if anything, it's MORE likely to happen today, for any number of reasons.

Casey Kasem's Coast to Coast America's Top 40.

R591 whenever I am stricken with a bout of nostalgia I listen to old AT40 Casey Kasem shows from the 70s/80s online. I love it. I feel like a kid again cleaning my room and doing the saturday chores like I did when I oroginally listened to them.

R518 why so triggered? What's wrong with being gay? No one is saying he's a serial killer or rapist.

Changing your clothes in locker room without towel dancing and worrying someone might see your dick

[quote]Top 40 stations on AM radio.

On your Toot-a-Loop!!

R593 Die. Toxic waste cunt. You cunts who believe every man in history are all gay are the biggest fucking low lives.

END.

THIS.

FUCKING.

THREAD.