The 70s culture was still before cable TV, satellite dishes, microwave ovens... Heck,  VHS wasn't even around yet!  The video games that were available were very simple and hard to find.  Pong was enough to fascinate me for hours.  There were no cell phones or text messages.  For Pete's sake, cordless phones were not even in use yet!  In the 70s, the push button phone was just starting to replace the rotary dial phone.  When we finally got one, I'd stand there and push the buttons just to hear the nifty sounds it made.  Most kids spent their days outside playing various games with their friends or riding bikes.

The 1970s... a Simpler Time

70s culture was simpler, and seemed to run at a slower pace than things do today. The fashions at the beginning of the 70s were bell-bottomed pants leftover from the late 60s and plain black and white fabric tennis shoes. The fashions changed when disco became the rage.  To be hip, you now had to dress in silk print shirts, tight dress “slacks” and have platform shoes.  I never made it to "hip".  The platform shoes slid on the dance floor allowing you to pull off those “Travolta” dance moves. Another fashion trend of 70s culture was the cowboy hat, no matter who you were or where you lived you had to have a cowboy hat. You might not have worn it regularly, but you had one to pull out on special occasions.  My aunt (who lived in Texas) even bought me one.  I never really wore it though.  I did have an uncle who bought into this fad though.  Someone convinced him that he looked like Burt Reynolds when he wore his cowboy hat.  He even grew a pencil thin mustache to complete the Smokey and the Bandit look!  He was still sporting that babe magnet the last time I saw him, which was some time in 2010.

McDonald's was a big restaurant in many areas, but in some places, the golden arches didn't arrive until late in the 70s. If you wanted to have a meal away from home, it was a mom and pops diner or Burger Chef. If you got to the more populated areas, your choices of eat out restaurants would increase, but there were still far less of them than there are now. In 70s culture you had three methods of listening to your favorite music, number one was the vinyl album, FM radio was starting to overcome AM as the most popular choice of radio. Then you had the 8-track tape deck.  8-track players and tapes were less expensive than albums and turntables, so many people opted for the 8-track. Cassette players made the scene, but not until very late in the decade.  I still remember using my first tape recorder to make an audio tape of my tenth birthday party.  I wonder where that ever ended up?

Entertainment in the 70s

To see a movie you had to go to the theater.  Movies did not make it to TV for many years. The movies you could watch on TV were extremely old.  That's probably why I still picture everything from before 1965 or so, in black and white.  Television has come a long way since the 70s, you had an aluminum antenna that could bring in four or five channels maximum. Then came the rotor box, this handy device allowed you to turn your antenna from inside the home. The rotor box could double your choices of television stations depending on where you lived.  You spun the dial, and listened to the loud "kerCHUNK" sound as the antenna on top of your house magically moved into the best position for the channel you wanted to watch.   Yes,  the 70s were far different than today.   For those of us that grew up in the 70s, we think it was the best of times.  Watergate and the energy crisis were just stories on the news for the most part.  Most people feel that their childhood decade was the best.   It probably has more to do with being a kid than what decade the calendar reads.

Someone who has a real flair for fashion can take what is old and give it new life by adding in a little bit of their own creativity and imagination. You should also take into account that not every style will look fabulous on every figure. Think about what old styles you can use to best show off your strongest points and avoid putting on anything that is going to accentuate areas of your body you might not want to highlight. There are all kinds of styles and fashions from the 70s that you can grab hold of and make your own. That is one of the neat things about that decade. There was so much creativity and variety. Make the most of it.

By the way, I don't own the stuff in found on the page links.  I'm just here to point you toward it.  Hopefully, if you are looking, you will find what you want.  eBay has become the place to find that vintage stuff now that it is popular again.  Amazon is great for finding 70 clothes that have been manufactured more recently.

OK.  So I was looking back over my bookmarks and the first thing I did was realize that I really need to take better advantage of the folder system.  It seems that I'm a virtual slob (that isn't me in the photo though).  My wife would probably have a comment to add here, but she never reads what I put online.  I want to share some of the stuff I find amusing and I hope you'll find that your visit wasn't too much of a waste of time.

Do you remember Tuffskins?  They were the heavy duty "jeans" sold by Sears.  Every year, as summer vacation drew to a close, you would see herds of small, elementary aged boys being led to the local Sears fitting rooms.  Once there, all of the mothers would go about the ritual of shaming their sons by forcing them into dark green Tuffskins and then shouting for all to hear that they seem a little loose in the crotch.  Or, worse yet, they would announce that they were going to grab some "huskies" for them to try on.  The horror.  I was a husky.  Husky was Sears' way of avoiding the placement of a "Fat Kid" tag on the back pocket.  Oh...it still makes me cringe.  After the "husky" memory, what I remember most is the funky colors and reinforced knees.  They always felt like cardboard.  It didn't matter if you washed them 100 times, they still sprang back into their original shape.  Sadly, Tuffskins are one of the first "vintage" items I've been unable to locate on eBay.  I think they deserve to be in a museum somewhere if nothing else.

I managed to wear holes through my Tuffskins enough times that my Mom relented and bought me more traditional Levis and Lee jeans, but I seem to remember that they were the kind that turned your legs and underwear blue until they were washed several times.  They were also BELL BOTTOMS!  For those who might not know, bell bottom jeans were specially designed to find their way past the chainguard on banana seat bikes.  It happened to me on more than one occasion.  They looked something like these:

US AuctionsAustralian AuctionsAustrian AuctionsBelgian AuctionsCanadian AuctionsFrench AuctionsGerman AuctionsIndian AuctionsIrish AuctionsItalian AuctionsDutch AuctionsPolish AuctionsSpanish AuctionsSwiss AuctionsUK Auctions

New J Brand womens jeans bell bottom Love Story Attica 32 $222V    US $89.99

New J Brand Indigo sailor pants Wide leg 1333 Jeans bell bottom Hawkeye 28 $222V    US $89.99

7 For All Mankind Georgia Trousers Bell Bottoms High Waisted 25    US $35.99

70s Simplicity 9372 Mod Shorts Bell Bottom Pants Sailor Top Pattern Bust 315    US $7.00

LEVIS 1960s CHILDREN BELL BOTTOMS GREEN CORDUROY JEANS NEW OLD STOCK TAG 5T    US $35.00

GIRLS BABY GAP BELLBOTTOM FADED JEANS SZ 4    US $4.50

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You can see more of these throughout this site, but I don't want to fill this blog with rss feeds from eBay.

I actually remember my Mother telling me to tuck my jeans into my tube socks with the colored stripes at the top to avoid the embarrassment of getting trapped in the chain.  I never thought of it at the time, but that must have looked pretty darn amusing all by itself.  No wonder I didn't have a girlfriend until high school.