That 70s Thread

[bbbamI]

In 10 years I'll be in my 60s......

 

[Westernskies]

CFB = Chicken Fried Bacon...

No, I think he's toast.

 

[Nords]

High school Class of '78 from a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Amazes me how we survived without Computers,cell phones,credit/debit cards,no cable tv.

Gosh, I could teletype in (at 300 bits per second) to the Penn State mainframe from our high school anytime I wanted to. And we were always welcome to use the punchcard machines at Carnegie-Mellon... those BASIC and FORTRAN skills really came in handy with the hot chicks.

Who needed cell phones? The backs of my high-school yearbooks are filled with Ma Bell ads for getting your daughter a "Princess" phone for her own room. I think they came in both pink and baby blue.

Credit/debit cards? I was allowed to use my parent's card to buy gas anytime I wanted. When I was using my mother's card, I can't ever remember anyone even glancing at my signature or the card.

Cable TV? We had a cable going from our TV up to the broadcast antenna that was bolted to our chimney. We had one of them there fancy steerable antennas, too, so we could pull in something like nine or ten channels. Which was irrelevant on Sundays since the TV was always locked on to Steeler football games.

Speaking of disco, I've reminded our kid that when I was in high school I wore higher heels than she does now. And as the father of a 16-year-old daughter, I've gained an entirely novel perspective on my teen behavior. I've been mentally adding up the number of women I'd be apologizing to if I attended a high-school reunion. Not, of course, that I've discussed this with either my spouse or my daughter.

When it became known that I was contemplating joining the military, nearly every one of my male high-school teachers was a veteran who pulled me aside to "warn" me what I was getting into. One was in WWII, a couple had fought in Korea, and most had been through various stages of Vietnam. My woodshop teacher was a long-haired hippie who'd had one of his feet blown off in a Vietnam rice paddy.

However all my high-school years have made a positive contribution to the current world. After a tough day at her school, when our kid comes home angry or depressed (or both), it always cheers her up to look through my high-school yearbooks...

 

[freebird5825]

If you can't make it through all 9 plus minutes, fast forward to 2:33 for some nice young tight John Travolta shaking it, baby. He gets really serious at 4:23.

Whooooooooo! <faints>
.
YouTube - Medley - Saturday Night Fever

 

[CuppaJoe]

Just a place to reminisce, share stories, discuss music, fashion, literature and whatever else comes to mind.
...

Since the OP was looking for amusing anecdotes

I'll think about amusing tomorrow. That was a great story, donheff. All I can think about today about my personal life was the way the decade was bookended starting with a sub-zero walk across campus in cap and gown and too light a coat, war/war protests until the middle, and ending with an interminable phone call from my best friend about the murder of a mutual friend. Ah, but OP also mentions literature, here we go, take it, Mr. Dickens!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree
of comparison only.”

....It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-five.

Yes, times very like our own.

 

[Rustward]

(emphasis mine)

We had credit cards in the 1970's. Remember? Instead of sliding the card through an electronic credit card reader, the cashiers would put the card and a three part credit slip in a manual machine with a slider, that would copy the (raised) CC numbers onto the slip, which we would then sign.
...

Remember when some of the cashiers had a little book of "bad" credit card numbers? Occasionally they would look up your card number in the book to see of they should reject the card.

From there the slip probably went to some data entry clerk sitting at an IBM 029 or 129 keypunch machine and was converted to a card with holes in it then read into a 2540 reader-punch . . . I was always amazed how a good data entry operator could rip through a stack of input data, deciphering poorly handwritten material and keypunching with remarkable speed and accuracy while telling you about their grandkids or what their DH did yesterday and having side conversations with the other operators. Yep, we had credit cards and computers in the 70's. Either that or I was having waaaay too much fun.

 

[W2R]

Remember when some of the cashiers had a little book of "bad" credit card numbers. Occasionally they would look up your card number in the book to see of they should reject the card.

From there the slip probably went to some data entry clerk sitting at an IBM 029 or 129 keypunch machine and was converted to a card with holes in it then read into a 2540 reader-punch . . . I was always amazed how a good data entry operator could rip through a stack of input data, deciphering poorly handwritten material and keypunching with remarkable speed and accuracy while telling you about their grandkids or what their DH did yesterday and having side conversations with the other operators. We sure did have computers in the 70's. Either that or I was having waaaay too much fun.

Yes, I DO remember those little books of "bad" CC numbers!! I still halfway expect to see the cashier pull one out when people pay with credit cards. You're right about those data entry operators. They weren't paid much to do that either, as I recall.

 

[Purron]

Speaking of disco, I've reminded our kid that when I was in high school I wore higher heels than she does now.

Now THIS I would pay cash money to see!

 

[Purron]

Yes, I DO remember those little books of "bad" CC numbers!!

Me too! I was a bank teller in the 70s back in the days of passbook savings accounts. We would update the passbooks with each transaction. When the bank went to statement savings accounts, many of our customers objected, so we'd continue to keep their passbooks up to date for them. We also had those CC number books along with the EE savings bond books at our stations.

 

[Moemg]

The 70's were a busy time for me . I was married and had two children in the 70's . I did have a shag hair cut , John Lennon glasses and a pair of hot pants .

 

[Purron]

I did have a shag hair cut , John Lennon glasses and a pair of hot pants .

Woop!

 

[guest]

Isn't that the sixties

It depends on how many colors you remember nothing .... 'Wow! Isn't that far out man. Look at it man, it's moving in the center...and all those colors too! Grooooovy'!

 

[mf15]

Like REwahoo sometime in February 1970
I swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."
Was in the army, went to Korea of all places. got married, had kids, the rest is a
blur.
But today had 35 anniversary, who wooda thought that. Also today is daughters 33rd birthday,go figure.
Actually love 80's music.
Old Mike

 

[Stevewc]

Remember remember Uh I can't remember.
Steve

 

[Walt34]

Graduated with a AA degree in Criminal Justice in 1971, was working full time during the summers in the office of the Sears repair center and part time during school. I did get a Sears credit card in 1972 just to establish a credit rating, and I think the only reason they gave it to me was I worked for the company. It had a $400 limit. After graduating I applied for the county police department and started there in March of '73.

Had a bachelor apartment by 1974, complete with 650 Yamaha motorcycle parked in the living room. No pictures or plants - what for? - I was hardly ever there except to sleep. Resumed the flying lessons I'd started at age 15, bought an airplane, had that for two years and was having a ball.

1976 was a wake-up year - two officers were shot and killed trying to apprehend a bank robber. One of them was my field training officer. Then it dawned on me - I could get hurt doing this! After that I paid much closer attention to safety issues.

Got married in 1978 to what turned out to be Spendarina, divorced in 1983.

 

[bbbamI]

This thread made me think of all of my "firsts". In 1970 I became a true teenager as I turned 13. I had my first real crush and boyfriend at 15. I got my first job at 16 at an insurance agency while I was a senior in high school. I had my first cigarette, alcohol and taste of drugs. Got my first car and d.l. at 16. Graduated from high school at 17, then two weeks later, got married to a "bad boy" that I thought I loved. Three months later, I divorced him as he became abusive. I was able to vote at 18. At 19 I got married again.

Yeah...a lot of firsts for me in the 70's.

 

[haha]

This thread made me think of all of my "firsts". In 1970 I became a true teenager as I turned 13. I had my first real crush and boyfriend at 15. I got my first job at 16 at an insurance agency while I was a senior in high school. I had my first cigarette, alcohol and taste of drugs. Got my first car and d.l. at 16. Graduated from high school at 17, then two weeks later, got married to a "bad boy" that I thought I loved. Three months later, I divorced him as he became abusive. I was able to vote at 18. At 19 I got married again.

Yeah...a lot of firsts for me in the 70's.

Sounds like you were no hothouse flower. Congratulations on getting busy with living early.

Ha

 

[bbbamI]

Sounds like you were no hothouse flower. Congratulations on getting busy with living early.

Ha

Thanks.. At a young age I was filled with grit and determination. I was able not only to survive, but flourish.

 

[Khan]

Otto, is that you?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I entered the military in early January of 1970. One of my most vivid memories of those first few days is of one of my classmates from Chicago.

Otto, all 5 feet, 4 inches of him (the minimum height for USAF flight school at the time) stepped off the bus at Lackland AFB dressed as a hippy Chicago school janitor . Along with shoulder length hair and large "peace" medallion hanging around his neck, Otto was wearing sandals, a tie-died shirt and a pair of red bell-bottom trousers made from a Soviet flag - complete with a bright yellow hammer and sickle on one leg.

The TI's had a feeding frenzy over Otto and [-]abused him mercilessly[/-] teased him repeatedly that first day regarding his appearance. On day two, in an ill-fitting olive drab uniform and after an "I survived Auchwitz" haircut, he blended in to become just another piece of human cannon fodder like the rest of us.

Otto retired after 20 years, much of that as a B52 pilot.

I was too short (5'3") to be a pilot.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Damn, I was born in 1970. I got nothing on y'all. I learned how to add and subtract and read in that decade. My mom listened to the Rolling Stones. I turned loose an entire sandwich bag full (and I mean full) of big, harmless black ants in the first grade classroom. Got sent home. Also tore the entire seat of my pants out trying to climb over the fence in first grade. Got sent home.
That about sums it up for highlights. I got my first pony Heyward in 1978.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Who could resist?
A 70s thread that starts with Janis.
A flood of memories. Nothing specific or noteworthy comes to mind at this instant except for the good music.

Peace,

Free to canoe

 

[BlondieMM]

Well, we may not have had much in the way of cable (but HBO came on the scene in 1975, I think) - but we had far better TV then than we do now with all the junk that airs today, and most of it was on the main 3 channels and a few independents. Oh well.....but I DO like today's computers!!

 

[Maurice]

off the top of my head...

70 - 4 dead in O-Hi-O
71 - collapse of bretton woods
72 - dolphins perfect season
73 - yom kippur war
74 - nixon resigns
75 - fall of saigon
76 - bicentennial
77 - elvis dies (or not )
78 - 3 popes
79 - hostage crisis in tehran

 

[freebird5825]

A personal recollection...inspired by bbbamI's list
1972 - graduated elementary school
1973 - parents divorce, buried myself into HS studies and pursued the dream to go to college (thanks Mom )
1976 - graduated 3rd in class, won a full scholarship, picked college instead of joining the Coast Guard with OCS offer. I often wonder...
1976 - went to state college, majored in Physics, learned to budget and live on my own
1977-79 - learned to be a small engine/automotive mechanic during summers to pay for books and room and board
1979 - drove solo (with cat) from NY to Florida where Mom had moved, got to know my uncle and aunt and cousins
1979 - returned to NY to finish up degree, met LH in college , got engaged and graduated together in 1980.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Janis, Jimi, and Jim passed away, but this "J" survived the seventies (although I confess never read it myself and don't know anyone who admits to it, it was hugely popular):