When we look back in time small things or words can jog our own memories
Memory Posted By: Becca
My daughters are 27 & 25, and they are always telling me mom you are so lucky to have grown up in the 70's, and they are so right being a kid in the 70's was the best you could ride your bike to the local corner store and for a $1.00 fill up one of those little beer bags full of penny candy, you could paly games in the middle of the street and not have to worry about getting taken or run over, you were free to be a kid and it was such much fun being a kid you could stay out after dark in front of your house and play with your friends with out your parents having to worry about you, we didn't have to lock our doors at night or during the day for that matter, I have so many good memories I could go on for ever our parents let us be kids and all the bad stuff that was going on in the world back then they kept us safe and sheltered from it we were allowed to be kids but when we misbehaved wither it was at school or around the neighborhood by the time you got home your parents already knew so if you got paddled at school you got it again at home and if one of your parents friends were to see you do some thing wrong you got it from them and then again when yoy got home, I know I learned how to dance from having to go out and get my own switch off the tree and god for bid if I got a small one. But seriousley that's whats wrong with the kids today you can't make them mind if you punish or spank them I beleave that's why the good lord gave us behinds I have never heard of a kid dying because their parents spanked that little butt if we were allowed to make kids mind the way are parents did in the 70's kids would not be the way they are now.Posted By farrago
I wasn't much into music in 1973 -- I was only nine years old -- but I was made aware of music to a degree when the news came of singer/songwriter Jim Croce's death. About five or six years later I spent my evenings after studying (or neglecting to study) lying on the floor of the bedroom I shared with my brother, listening with headphones to his record collection. He had two Jim Croce albums. By that age I had heard all of his hits, but it was when I came to these two albums and I listened to the treasure trove of great music and intelligent lyrics that I learned the true depth of the loss to the fans of music everywhere. Jim Croce had been on his way up when his plane went down. I lay on the floor and listened, my tears seeping into the headphones.Memory Posted By: Phil
In times before the computer, playstation or MTV if any time was found to be spare it was either spent outdoors or inside watching tv or playing games we received for xmas and birthdays..games like Kerplunk, mousetrap, hands down, twister, tip- it, haunted house(with glow in the dark gameboard) and with toy car stuff like hot wheels, sizzlers, ssp racers and smash up derby..those were the days when as a kid life was easy and never a thought was given to tomorrow.Memory Posted By: John
In the mid 70's My father was layed off from his job as a book keeper and it destroyed him as by the time employment picked up companies were looking for younger men who could work with computers, we were lucky as my mother was a teacher so we still had income coming in.Memory Posted By: Linda
1973 – My husband and I were purchasing our first home for $27,500 in Orange Country, California. The amazing part was to qualify the lender doing our FHA loan called to ask me what I was doing for birth control (so they could count my income.) I purchase my first electronic calculator that year for under $500.000 that would cost about $10.00 today.Memory Posted By: Anon
so many Memories ...we moved to a small wis. town in 1975. i was 8 yrs. old. life seemed to be so much simpler then... we could ride our bicycles anywhere without worrying our parents. we would play "devil in the graveyard" or "ding dong ditchit" at night with friends . music was always a big part of my life. we always had a radio going or cassette player or even a few 8-tracks. disco still stinks but when I hear a song it can take me back to my childhood instantly. not many f.m. radio stations in 1975 around southern wi. but the king was WLS AM 89 in chicago.Comment From: Anonymous I grew up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin(1970-1976). I was 9 years old in 75 and your story brought back so many of the same memories. Thanks for taking me back to such a happy and carefree time!
Please remember that The People History is used by kids for homework so no profanity or any thing that you would not want your own chidren or grandchildren to be exposed to
Memory Posted By: Kathy
My Husband recalls the 70’s vividly with mixed feelings. He says, “What I remember the most is the best and the worst that might have come out of the 60’s. I think that the 60’s was the decade that I had missed – I was too young to really appreciate what was going on.Memory Posted By: Anna
I was born in 1971. I remember going riding on my bicycle with my two brothers. Riding throuhg the woods and exploring habitually. We had a club in an old train car and our parents could let us be gone ALL day and not worry. We would take our bikes and pick out a Christmas tree, cut it down and pull it back home. I loved being a kid.Memory Posted By: Colin
Changes in today's childhood compared with my childhood in the 70's From very early in my life I was taught social skills including the use of please and thank you , opening the door for a lady or giving up my seat for an elder, and to have respect for my elders including my parents and teachers. But I see many of these basic building blocks for understanding right from wrong and lack of respect for elders in many of today's children and with each new generation the percentage of children who are lacking in these social skills increases.Memory Posted By: Laura
I went to college at the transition point between sliderules and calculators. What I remember most was the cost of the Texas Instrument 10 (maybe a TI-11?) I took with me to college. It cost $150 and couldn't do anything more than a basic $3 kids calculator can do today. The scientific calculators that the engineers at my university used cost $495. I just bought my 9th grade daughter a non-graphing scientific calculator for high school (That says something, too!) It cost $15.95 at StaplesMemory Posted By: Callie mae
I heard a small airplane going overhead this morning, I'm sure headed to the EAA's annual fly-in where hundreds of planes, old and new and experimental gather every year in Oshkosh, It reminded of when I was between the ages of 8 to 12years old and my Father, who's hobby for that moment was flying. He had obtained his private pilot's license and was logging hours.Memory Posted By: Hannah
Strangely both of the adverts that I remember the best were from the same company .Memory Posted By: Phil Smalldon
I remember going to Tal Handaq Malta in the early 70's, dad was in the army and we went there from St Andrews Primary school. One day myself and a few friends took a day off from school and walked around Valetta feeding donkeys with carrots which we took from the carts that they were pulling.Comment From Anonymous remember those donkeys , I wonder if anyone can remember the bright coloured busses ( public transport ones I mean ) that used to go all over the Island , I went back to Malta in the late 90's and the busses were still great to see with colour and shiny not quite as many as back in those days but still a joy to see, I have never been anywhere where they take such pride in local busses Malta truly was a great place to be a kid<
Part of our Collection of Toys from The 1970's
Simon SaysMemory Posted By: John
I was in my teens in 1973 so I don't remember all of the goings on, but I do remember my mum and dad discussing a possible world war caused by the war in the middle east, power cuts and Watergate and saying it was going to be pretty bad for the next few years, I can also remember them complaining about large increases in the cost of petrol and I now realise they were right when I read about the 3 day week and the worldwide recession that followed.Memory Posted By: TomBoy
I was born in 65' so the late 60's are really just faint memories. I remember watching the men land on the moon, but it's like a dream now.Memory Posted By: Scocasso
In the 70s I was a young kid. People will be people, and people never change. Some parents are strict, some are not, some are highly religious, some are not, etc.Memory Posted By: Julie
Teens and children in school may be shocked to hear this fact. However, it is true. This is not news, but deserved to be repeated.Memory Posted By: Anon
As a teenager, I would get up around 4 in the morning to deliver the Des Moines Register in rural Fort Madison Iowa. I had Westwood Drive and my own drive, Timberlane. It was always so dark and beautiful, the stars shone so bright. Around halloween it used to get scary, especially when I had to deliver papers across from the cemetary on Denmark Hill. Life was easy then, I had no worries whatsoever of being abducted. Many people left their doors unlocked so I could just slip the paper inside their homes!! When collecting, I would tear off the little 'receipt' tag in exchange for a few bucks plus some change or treats for me. Adults back then were so awesome. They were so inspiring.Memory Posted By: Bob
In 1973, my wife, son and I left the Boston, MA area to move to Los Angeles, CA. It was during the gas shortage, and I equipped our 1960 Ford E300 Econoline 1-ton van with an 'accessory' electric fuel pump, where I could feed a long fuel line out through a small rusted-out hole in the rear panel and feed it into a parked car's gas tank. The feed line would reach our gas tank. I know it sounds nasty, and I do know it would have been stealing if I had actually used it, but I would have left some cash to pay for the gas. Fortunately, once we got away from the East Coast, the fuel lines were no-longer 2, 3 or even 4 hours long with limits of 10-gallons or less. It was for 'survival' purposes only. I think I still have that electric fuel pump around here somewhere, still never been used! I think gas was about $1.50/gallon at that time.Comments Al said Hi, I was on the front lines at a gas station during this "gas crisis". We had 3 lines of cars, about 40 or more cars long each, going out of our station.
At one point we started running low on gas, and the boss told me "I have these magnetic signs here, I want you to take these and put them on the last car in each line". The sign said "Last car in line for gas". I remember being really surprised and shocked! I said where in heck did you get these? He said the Mobil Oil Co. Head Office had sent them to him two weeks before, and he was mystified when he got them. So they all knew it was coming!
Memory Posted By: Jack
As I watch the prices of gas go up it reminds me of the late 70s , I think it was 1979 or 1980 when gas broke through the $1.00 a gallon barrierMemory Posted By: Joyce
I was browsing your blog and came across 1971 , what a memorable year .