Back in 1973

I was 6. I can remember more than one house of ours (and friends) that had green shag carpeting and 'avacado' was a big color for kitchen appliances

Most tv's didnt have remote, and only a few people had this new thing called 'cable'

Everyone had cb's in their cars and homes

Albums were the bomb but the new and stunning technology of 8track tapes would rule stereos.

Custom vans were In. Everyone had a van that had intricate airbrush artwork outside, shag carpeting, tv and beds on the inside

In 1973 I was 18 and turned 19. I had just married my high school sweetheart and had moved to Germany with him as a military wife.

I remember the gas crisis and all of the Europeans on their bicycles with Arab Sheik costumes on in protest of rising gas prices. I remember awesome concerts where crowds gathered before doors were opened and calls of "swine" were launched at police officers. Pipes were passed through crowds and reloaded by people here and there, then passed on with no interference from the police.

I remember very short skirts and very stylish and high heals with ankle straps, pictures from friends at protests.

I remember our tanks being painted, rail loaded, and sent to Egypt and letters that came from family in the states asking if it looked like we'd be going to Egypt after the tanks already returned.

I remember local cops who were more helpful than militant.

I remember fresh food with no chemicals, additives, or other poisons or genetic tampering.

I remember being playful in public and not be carted away to a cop shop for it.

I remember being able to say whatever the hell you wanted to say and someone might smack you or turn away and refuse to associate, but nobody ever sued you.

I remember kids getting scratched by cats or bitten by dogs and getting in trouble for harassing the animals instead having animals put down and families sued for everything when it was the kids fault for being bitten.

I remember when blacks burned down a multi-million dollar warehouse on an army base in protest of having to cut their afros - and nobody was called a bigot for arresting them for it.

I remember a formation on my ex's base where all the brass were in attendence and someone played Jimmi Hendrix's Star Spangle Banner out of one of the barracks windows and the commotion that ensued as troops were sent to flush out the offender. And I'll never forget the look on the General's faces, LMAO.

I remember a USD/Mark exchange of 1 dollar to 3 marks and a USD/Franc exchange of 1 dollar per 12 Francs.

I remember walking streets late at night with no thought of self defense.

I remember people treating each other with respect and value even if they earned little money.

I remember bell bottom jeans with really wide bells.

I remember walking through forests with no litter and drinking from streams untouched by pollution and bacterias - the taste of the water, the smell of the land.

I remember wild lands where you could walk for days without seeing another human where housing developments are now predominant.

I remember class assignments to read and analyse classic books that are now banned from schools.

I remember knowing only people I had met face to face.

I remember finding out that it wasn't only in ghettos that men hit women and children were abused.

I remember fireworks over Heidelberg and dancing until the sun came up.

I remember 1973 - it was a good year, it was a bad year, it was my first taste of people of cultures different from mine but very much the same in will and spirit. It was a year that people still valued freedom and happiness and integrity and the purity of nature and people of ideas rather than fortunes.

Thanks for the blast to the past, Gareth. I needed that.

Great post Sal,the really sad thing is that those people that made it so great back then are the ones that have also made it so sad today. Like it or not it's our generation thats made our country the way it is now.
By the way, We always lived in a metro area and we never got more than 3 VHF channels. If you were lucky you got an additional 1 or 2 UHF channels.
PS: I also remember this saying that turned out to be so true:
We are the people our parents warned us about.

Remotes WEREN'T that common in the 70s. My father bought an EXPENSIVE Quasar, I even remember the sounds they played, and all, in the company's commercials. Anyway, It was a 60s entertainment center. It WAS a piece of furniture, complete with radio and turntable.

It DID have a remote. It was ultrasonic! It actually had a speaker in front to play the sound. You couldn't hear it but, as long as the set could, it would work. Of course, the set had TUBES! Such a thing was RARE though. It got more an more likely until,sometime in the 80s, it was all but EXPECTED!

I actually DID cave and bought ONE 8-track tape player. Sadly, the little amplifier burned out. 8-( It is a shame the 8 tracks were so unweildly. They were the FIRST continuous play, fairly random access tapes anyone apparently really came up with.
I won't bore you with details.

Tina, You should have gotten a UHF splitter! You might have had more channels!

Steve

Does quasar even make televisions anymore? I remember my gramps having a quasar back in the day.

I can remember watching hee haw religiously

nobody wore seatbelts, and young kids would even stand in the front seat next to mom and dad. Car seats? pfffft..never heard of 'em. no airbags, no cellphone, no beeper. and everyone's car had a wing in the side windows that whistled at highway speeds.

In 1973 I had just graduated high school and was doing a lot of partying so I don't remember much. Come to think of it that lasted until 1978 when I sobered up.That's pretty much when life as I know it started.

Your talking about the front seat wing windows, right? I wonder when they stopped making those.

Yep, Hi/Low on the floor. And column shifts. In 73 I was 19.

I was 4 in 1973. I don't remember much, but I do remember that we had a planter that looked very much like this one:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/main...4_19_terra.jpg

Anyone else remember these?

Let's see in 1973 my MOTHER was 8 LOL, I was -8, so I don't remember anything LOL.

Wow! 1973. That takes me back. I was two years out of high school. Purchased my first brand new car, a 1973 Pontiac Firebird Esprit for $7000. Gas was 38 cents a gallon. Pack of Camels was 35 cents. You could still get a cold bottle of Coke from the machine at the gas station for 5 cents. And that's when Coke tasted good! I was roughnecking on oil drilling rigs making around $40,000 a year. Good income back then, but you earned it. Stayed in good shape on that job!

yeah man coke used to have a special flavor - or have we all lost our sense of smell

No, they all taste different than they used to. They switched to high frucose syrup to save money and they have fed us that slop ever since.
I was always a Dr Pepper fan, and there is one place you can still get Dr Pepper made with real sugar, here: Dublin Dr Pepper

wow i just got a vivid memory of the taste of coca cola popsicles, and fanta

mmm and the rasberry and blackberry lollies i used to love - dont indulge in these things anymore

I was 16 in 1984 - the **** i used to get up to - man

Title: Mark Wills - 19-something lyrics

Artist: Mark Wills Lyrics

I saw Star Wars at least 8 times
Had the pac-man pattern memorized
And I've seen the stuff they put inside
Stretch Armstrong

I was Roger Stauback back in my back yard
Had a shoebox full of baseball cards
And a couple of Evil Kinevil scars
On my right arm
Well, I was a kid when Elvis died
And my mama cried

Chorus:
It was 1970- something
In the world that I grew up in
Farrah Faucett hair-do days
Bell bottoms and 8-track tapes
Lookin' back now I can see me
And oh, man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
It was 1970-something

It was the dawning of a new decade
When we got our first microwave
And Dad broke down and finally shaved
Those sideburns off
I took the stickers off of my Rubix cube
Watched MTV all afternoon
My first love was Daisy Duke
In them cut off jeans
A Space Shuttle fell out of the sky
And the whole world cried

Chorus:
It was 1980-something
In the world that I grew up in
Skating rinks and Black Trans Ams
Big hair and parachute pants
Lookin' back now I can see me
And oh, man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
It was 1980-something

Now I got a mortgage and an SUV
But all this responsibility
Makes me wish sometimes
Sometimes....

chorus:
It was 1980-something
In the world that I grew up in
Skating rinks and Black Trans Ams
Big hair and parachute pants
Lookin' back now I can see me
And oh, man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
It was 1980-something

1970-something
Aw, it was 19-Something

In 1973 I was 9.

That was the year the upstairs apartment (we lived in the bottom half of a 2-family house) burned, thanks to an idiot falling asleep with a cigarette. And his 5 year old son woke his parents up and saved everyone.

We took turns being the remote for my parents.

Lived in a NYC suburb and still only got 6 channels.

I had never heard of FM radio. We only had AM radios in the cars. WABC and WNBC were the pop stations - played the hits of the day probably 12 times each.

Summertime - playing in the neighborhood until the street lights came on.

Being able to go to ANY house in the neighborhood if I needed anything. Every parent kept an eye on every kid.

My father coming home from work (he was a roofer) and would stop his pickup truck at the end of the block, and about 10 kids would jump on the back and pretend we were firemen or garbage men riding down the street.

The stickball games.

Playing stoopball with my brother with those pink rubber balls.

Having the only swimming pool on the block.

The family barbecues where my grandmother would get toasted on Schaefer beer.

Riding our bikes (the ones with the banana seats and the high sissy bar - rust color) and jumping over stuff with our home made ramps.

Kick the can in the summer.

My first foray into spin the bottle. And truth or dare.

Not having to worry about the stuff we worry about today.

Ah, the good old days.

I had a chopper bike with a banana seat, high handle bars, a small front wheel and a gear stick.

Got it for Xmas and I was so scared of the damn thing it was two years before I learned to ride it.

My one was metalic green

if you remember the '70's you weren't there

You still have your chopper ?

I sold mine to a friend and he wrecked it - much as he did everything.