“Perhaps another thread for ’70s appreciation is in order, too,” writes Ray Brandes of yesterday’s post focused on the darkest aspects of our formative years.
Toby Gibson concurs: “While my dark, apocalyptic views of the ’70s (and my gritty black-and-white memories) seem negative, I wish I could go back for so many things that are gone now, and to get away from so many things that are just WAY worse.”
Let’s accentuate the positive! Many of us idolized the ’60s, but most of us spent the majority of our minority in the ’70s. What memories of the era warm you up when the modern world seems cold?
Columbo, Dirty Harry, and of course growing up with Looney Tunes.
Wacky Packages!
I started naming things I liked in the 70s in the trauma thread, so pardon me if I repeat some:
click-clacks (which I think were banned because they were too dangerous), pop rocks, wacky packages and odder-rod bubblegum cards, braided key chains made from vinyl cord, Dittos, hot wheels, disco, Hawaii 5-0, Sunday night detective shows (Columbo, McCloud, etc), Happy Days’ early seasons, the Carol Burnett Show, Bob Newhart, Saturday Night Live, Barney Miller, MASH, Hang Ten and OP shirts, adidas sneakers, AMC Pacer
Cool. Love this one. For me the seventies is divided into two distinct periods: the first, up until 1976, when my family and I lived in Bay Park/Clairemont and I went to Toler Elementary School and Marston Junior High. These were the years I look back at fondly. Mid-summer of our nation’s bicentennial year, we packed up and moved to Hillcrest/Mission Hills, where I discovered that I was poor and that I was much less cool than I thought I was!
Anyway, fad waves used to roll through my elementary school in the early seventies. For a couple of months it was click-clacks, the next month it would be yo-yos, the next month every kid would bring a hockey stick to school! Hundreds of kids rushing out to buy the same plastic crap to play with on the blacktop before school, at recess and after lunch! There were also fads with “crafts” like macrame everything, but I distinctly remember bracelets made out of little aquarium tubes filled with colored water, and the braided lanyard key chains Dean refers to above. For a while, when I was in about the fifth grade, kids began to find and collect the colored wire that is found in phone lines. Everyone was making rings and bracelets. One of the coolest fads I remember was cinnamon toothpicks! Kids would buy cinnamon oil, and soak wooden toothpicks for a few hours. It seems like all of Toler Elementary School was sucking on cinnamon toothpicks in the early seventies!
Playing in the canyons of Mission Hills was the best! Slip & Slides, clackers, making parachutes for plastic army men from napkins and string and throwing them out the second-story window. Fads at Fremont Elementary School in Old Town included marbles, a group of people holding hands in a chain and running to propel the person in the center who would crouch and “surf” on the dirt playing field, and the cinnamon toothpicks also.
Later on the music was fantastic (earlier too, I was just too young to appreciate it): Rolling Stone’s Some Girls, David Bowie, Devo, The B52’s, Aerosmith, Led Zep (KGB played every hit of the latter 2 continuously), all the Funkedelic I missed at the time, and I have to stop here ’cause it’s endless.
Canyon adventures (San Clemente Canyon along I-52) is a major part of my 70’s recollections too.
KInd of a small detail, but on the opener for the early seasions of the Bob Newhart show I was always fascinated by the way he flipped his arm out to look at his watch as he walked along. Such a cool move, perfected by years (I’m guessing) of watch-checking. That was a highlight from the nightly syndicated BobNewhart/LoveBoat/FantasyIsland/CarolBurnett lineup on….Channel 39? While doing homework, of course..
Completely forgot about the cinnamon toothpicks!
“Toyota trucks just keep on truckin’, and take a load off of your mind..”
Ohh..I miss wearing my OP or Lightning Bolt shirt and Stubbies shorts while checking out Hot chicks with flared hair wearing Ditto Jeans (like Farrah Faucett).
I fondly remember hitchhiking from Escondido to Encinitas during ‘Intersession’ [3 week breaks every nine weeks at year-round school]. Hitchhiking in the 8th grade, because their were no creepy perverts like there are now…
My first albums (Judas Priest & Boomtown Rats). Wasn’t there an AM rock station called “the Mighty 690”?
Cinnamon kissing potion. Lee press on nails. Rula Lenska.
Enjoli perfume:
“I can bring home the bacon,
Fry it up in a pan.
And never ever let you
Forget you’re a man!
Cause I’m a woman.
ENJOLI.
Bionic woman! I totally wanted to be her. I even wrote a letter to Miss Lindsay Wagner telling her so.
Saturday morning cartoons (starting at 6am and ending with Shazam/Isis hour at noon).
Dynamite magazine.
Plastic records that came in books -- they were square and could really play -- I had one with a song by Mr. Bill. Oh Noooooooo! It’s Mr. Bill!
Bjorn Borg -- totally hot swedish tennis player in tight shorts.
Mail order magic tricks and pranks.
Dolphin shorts! my fave pair was red on one side and white on the other. I wore ’em with knee socks and my tennis shoe roller skates.
Mork suspenders -- I think Matthew had a pair 🙂
K-tel superhits albums (also mailorder)
The Hardy Boys! Leif Garrett! I have a centerfold of him from an old 16 mag somewhere -- I gotta scan it. It’s hilarious.
The cinnamon toothpicks reminded me of Binaca breath spray. My dad kept some in his car.
MAD magazine, Oasis Skatepark, Organ Power Pizza, OP Shorts and Knee high tube socks, Goddie Combs, Hot Babes and Total Studs, Hang Ten shirts, Flying kites, Hang Gliders, Sleepy Time Tea, Home Made Wood Shingled Camper Shells, photographs of lovers with watching the sun set ……………………………
>>>….photographs of lovers watching the sun set
mounted on a piece of wood with shellac over it! Godseyes. Safety Patrol Camp. Total studs wearing op shorts and hang 10 shirts who’d come over and limpy me in the head --
the best 70’s movies: Foxes and Lil’ Darlins.
Anything with Richard Pryor.
Ha! Judy Blume books.
Farrah Fawcett’s nipple.
Kristen, you left out-
photographs of lovers watching the sun set with edges of carefully burnt
mounted on a piece of wood with shellac over it!
the best 70’s movies: Switchblade Sisters
Driftwood walking sticks nome or wizard heads carved in them , the mimes at sea world, planet of the apes…not that order of course.
Big combs with sayings on them in the back pocket of your hipsters (not your Dittos, because those didn’t have back pockets) and big Dr. Pepper flavored Bonnie Bell lipgloss.
I’m currently sporting a woven plastic lanyard on my keychain that all the kids at the elementary school started making again last year. What comes around…
Matt quite poignantly slid in the comment, “Farrah Fawcett’s nipple.”
Bought it on Ebay. I wear it on a keychain like a rabbit’s foot. Lucky thing.
Yep Farrahs nipple on that poster that had a mexican blanket in the background.Supposedly that was the most sold poster in the history of posters! Ya Kristen had the name right,it was called a Limpy!!! Damn those Mo-fo’s hurt, I’m gonna bring it back!
Canyon play was the best, I tried to explain it to my son last month when in SD but everywhere I tried to point out ,there was a tract home,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Teather ball “SP”?
Evil Knievel stuff, my favorite was the motorhome that turned into a jump.
Singing Jackson 5 in front of a space heater…I guess swating made us feel like stars.
Planet of the apes
We need an edit button………
Sweating not swating. See above
All of my above memories were of the early seventies.
Then they invented POT.
It was also fun in the Canyons
Dylan , I played my first organ recital on the mighty Wurlitzer at Organ Power pizza in like 76 or 78 . It was awesome . . . I felt like a giant on that thing .
I remember Freakies cereal and had all the figures and all the magnets . I think that was the first time I sent away for something and got it . it was very exciting .
I had a good friend who’s brother was a pro golfer and he had this metal flake brown Baja bug , which was a new thing at the time . It was bass boat style flake with a full black naugahyde interior and a 4 foot stinger off the motor . We all thought he was pretty amazing .
We used to go out in the street and play ” Rollerball ” with my friends . I had this giant wooden ball from my dad who worked at Nasco , im not sue what it actually was but we painted it silver and would through it down the curb along the sidewalk to a few guys a couple houses down an they would catch it in a catchers mitt and charge us . oh yeah , of course we were all on roller skates with one or two of us on bikes . that game ended up causing more than a few black eyes and bloody noses .
i remember my first skateboard in like 1974 , i would have been 8 . it was a green plastic Makaha with red plastic wheels . pretty dangerous but i was hardly a stunt rider at that point . as i got better & kept upgrading to better equipment , i used to go to a skatepark in spring valley called Skateboard Heaven . we used to get chased around by the SVBT ( spring valley bong team ) a bunch of 30 something biker types and stoner dudes who all rode around on tankers because they had no drivers lisences for what ever reasons . we could always hear them ” sneaking up ” on us because they had a dozen or so keys & thing hanging off their belts and sounded like a prison guard when they were on the move .
Toby: I’m sorry…but you bought Farrah’s nipple on ebay and wear it on a keychain?! A little Ed Gein-ish wouldn’t you say?
Freakies! Tasted the same as Captain Crunch or, anyone remember King Vitamin? I also liked Quisp, which had an alien on the box. Sugary cereal with Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch on Saturday morning…good times.
Farrell’s, Chevy Vans, B-100, Bongs made out of Sparkletts Bottles…
Carlsbad, El Cajon, and Spring Valley skate parks. My friend’s dad owned a gunite company that did all of ’em except Carlsbad.
GS Fibreflex and wood kicktails, Chicago and Tracker trucks, zig zags and yo yos, Skateboarder magazine (I sold all my issues from #1 in the early 80s for peanuts!).
Taking a Schwinn hi-riser and converting it for BMX. Casa De Oro BMX track that we used to race at.
Minibikes and Kawasaki dirt bikes.
Best movie of the 70s: American Graffiti. My Dad took us to see it in 1973 the Campus Drive-In that used to be on El Cajon Blvd across from where Off The Record was later. It started me on liking 1950s music and collecting records. What was great about the movie? Exacting attention to detail on clothes, hair, and cars, entire movie plot covers one night, great music, fairly unknown actors for the time, many who later became big stars. American Graffiti doesn’t look like a 70s movie at all -- it never looks dated like other 70s movies about the 50s like The Lords of Flatbush.
Dazed and Confused seemed like a tribute to American Graffiti -- authentic clothes, hair, cars, mostly takes place in one night, many unknown actors who later became famous. Also, it still looks like the 70s -- not like a 90s movie trying to look like the 70s.
Fruit roll, TANG, space food sticks, Skittles, Starbursts.
Farrell’s of course! I started working there in 1979.
Remember stretched soda bottles as decorations?
Mike is that prison guard key from first hand experience? ha ha!
Cereal aisles were very different places in the seventies: Sugar Frosted Flakes, Super Sugar Crisp, Sugar Pops, Sugar Smacks, etc.
Anyone remember that stuff called moondust that you were supposed to sprinkle on your already sugary cereal? It’s always fun going into a diabetic coma before school in the morning!
From 1970-1972 I was a Cub Scout. As a Cub Scout, I received a subscription to Boy’s Life magazine, which was pretty unremarkable except for the ads in the back, from which I bought loads of very remarkable crap, like X-Ray Specs and a “remote control ghost,” which consisted of a balloon with a ghost face, a plastic sheet, and a spool of thread for “remote control operation.”
Del Mar Fair
Quisp & Quake cereal
Going to Miller’s Outpost to get 3 piece denim suits?
Ray I just wanna know once and for all did those X-ray specs work? A Cubbie Ray? Who’d of ever thunk it?!! Actually not as much of a ghost in the closet as Miller’s Outpost and a three piece denim suit…..Paaauuulll?
Not to mention disaster movies -- What a genre. Earthquake, Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Meteor, Airport, Airport 1975, Airport ’77….Singular production value, bad acting, bad writing, but lots of opportunities for washed-up actors and actresses to get a paycheck & get their mojo working again. Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, and the father of them all, George Kennedy.
Fall into…the GAP.
You asked for it, you got it Toyota.
Here’s to good friends, tonight is kind of special, let it be Lowenbrau.
Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks;
Tough kids, sissy kids — even kids with chicken pox!
Paul, was the handlebar moustached manager named Mr. Ortman? I remember him as the nice regional manager. Then there was Mr. Kellerman, the mean one. He smoked a cigar and would come in the restaurant cussing and yelling at everyone and smelling up the place with his stogie. One time we went in the parking lot at night and pissed on his company Pinto’s door handles. And one of the cooks put a jumbo hot dog in the gas tank of his car! Guess that car didn’t last too long.
Kellerman was a real bastard. I worked at the UTC one off and on for a couple of years -- Lumpy was there for a while as well. What was the name of the woman Kellerman used to come around with? She was pretty cool & thought Kellerman was a dick. Ortman did have a mustache & ran UTC for a little while.
Paul P -- there’s a whole friggin’ stream on Farrell’s in the section in here if you want to see videos and hear about dropped zoos.
Dean I actually never learned his name, but he went from a demanding asshole to a wimpering begging sod in about 5 min. flat!!!
Bea Arthur’s nipple.
Penny for a gumball Popeye!
Picnic N Chicken, it’s the pick of the chick.
Lite brite, making pictures with light. Outta sight making things with Lite brite.
Wow. My brain is like Fred Sanford’s junkyard.
Dean the Farrells company car was a Pinto?!!! How appropriate!
Ayds Reducing Plan!
air hockey
foosball
Pinball
Pong
Did Space Invaders start in the 70s?
Channel 100
Oui & Penthouse magazines we stole from White Front / Fedmart, which me and my friends preferred because they were more racy than Playboy but not as raunchy as Hustler
National Lampoon
Wow Kristen I don’t think we ever met back in “the days” but you are one of the most insightful, hilarious chicks I on this site! I know you and Alena hooked up recenetly @ Claire De Lunes, I actually came by with Pia but I missed the chance to meet you,my bad,sometime soon I’m sure!
I used to sneak into my Mom’s Ayds and eat them. I was a pretty wired kid!
Here comes Wrangler, and he’s one tough customer
and he knows what he likes when he sees it……..Wraaaangler!
and the Brick Shirt House (worst clothing store name ever)
My family used to eat at a restaurant on Convoy called “That Italian Place”……guess there really was a precedent for That 70’s show but I don’t remember many other “that” thangs
Command performance…where you keep on looking like you looked when you left.
How much mind-room does this stuff take up??? Is there recycling going on or is it all synaptic landfill?
Sorry guys but I can’t resist:
“Pintos explode when hit from behind”.
You belong in the zoo, the San Diego Zoo!
You belong in the zoo, ’cause the zoo belongs to you!
Who was the car salesman with the tiger? “Yadda Yadda and his dog Spot.”
Members Only jackets. (I thought they should make a jock strap.)
Angel’s Flight jeans.
Go see Cal go see Cal go see Cal. It’s Cal Worthington:
“I will stand upon my head until my ears are turning red”…..
If you’re looking for a better set of wheels,
“I will stand upon my head to beat all deals!”
Where? At the Wherehouse!
We are the Freekies, we are the Freekies, this is our Freekie Tree!
We never miss a meal, ’cause we love our ce-re-eel …
You call it corn … We call it maize.
Manly, yes — but I like it, too!
Mmroth says, “you call it corn…we call it maize”. Classic!!!! I still use this one but people look at me with the puzzled expression of a moribund cow. No one seems to remember it.
Gee, your hair smells terrific!
My parents and I lived on the Seneca reservation for a couple of years, and my adoptive clan grandmother thought that maize ad was high-larious!
Those DIRTY rings!
Wine coolers
Riunite on ice tastes nice.
Blue Nun
We will sell no wine before its time.
Give a hoot don’t polute!
This commercial used to make me cry:
How do you handle a hungry man?
When it’s time to relax, one beer stands clear …
A sandwich is a sandwich but a “Manwich” is a meal! 🙂
Chow chow chow!
Why am I laughing so hard at these? I’m not stoned. swear.
“Golden nuggets and rich meat chunks!” It’s a commercial for dog food but they try to make the food look really delicious to eat. Are dogs watching tv? These are the questions I asked myself continually.
I’m a Pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too….
and then he turned into a werewolf.
Mom … Do you ever get that not-so-fresh feeling?
DON’T SQUEEZE THE CHARMIN!!!
Gosh! Was Mr. Whipple OCD?
Mason Reese.
In Search of!
That show made me who I am today. Now a proud member of many online unexplained phenomenon and cryptozoological groups, I can thank Leonard Nemoy for exposing me to all these mysteries and hooking me in. Bigfoot. Amelia Earhart. The Bermuda Triangle. Vlad the Impaler.
Everbody was kung-fu fightin’!
streakers
Kristen,
You are killing me! Keep ’em coming!
“Hey good lookin’! We’ll be back to pick you up later!”
Right on with the In Search of! I LOVE cryptozoology, and even took a trip to Portland a few years ago to seek out the Western Bigfoot Society!
Rodney Allen Rippy!
Ricky Seagal, the cute kid who was brought on to the Partridge Family, cousin Oliver-style, to save the day when the little ones started to grow ugly!
“Gas, Grass or Ass: Nobody Rides for Free”
There’s a fragrance that’s here to stay and they call it… Charlie. Kinds fresh, kinda now, Charlie. Kinda new, kinda WOW, Charlie.
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing…
rich Corinthian leather
Hit it Hal…Ewy, gewy, rich and chewy inside. Golden, flaky, tender cakey outside. Wrap the inside with the outside it’s a good, darn, tootin! Call it the Big Fig Newto…here’s the tricky part…the Big Fig Newton…one more time! The Big Fig Newton!!!
Here was my version of the Burger King song:
“Moldy pickles
Wilted lettuce
Shut up lady you upset us
All we ever ask is that you throw it away”
I hanker for a hunk of….hey look! a wagon wheel!
Ray, most everyone up here knows Mt St Helens killed Bigfoot.
RIP my sasquatch friend.
Madge: “You’re soaking in it.”
“Ancient Chinese secret, huh?”
“It isn’t nice to fool Mother Nature!”
A M*A*S*H tangent: Chris Rock famously said of the verdict in the O.J. murder trial, “I haven’t seen white people this mad since they canceled M*A*S*H!”
In my own hugely unscientific polling (like, three African-American friends), this seems to be a common sentiment — M*A*S*H was an extremely Caucasian enthusiasm, even before it got all touchy-feely, bleeding-heart in the last few seasons.
And — cross-pollinating with our ’70s trauma thread — M*A*S*H was on when I learned John Lennon was dead. I don’t think I ever watched the show again … That’ll teach ’em! LOL
(Plus, it really did jump a big blow-dried, limousine-liberal shark at the end there.)
Back to the free association!
“Carter Country”
“Greatest American Hero”
“Mork & Mindy”
“Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” (now optioned for the big screen!)
Marijuana, marijuana,
LSD! LSD!
College kids are making it!
High-school kids are taking it!
What can’t we? Why can’t we?
“Dare to go where cows have only gone before. Bandini mountain!”
Tshirts:
“Go Climb a Rock”
“I’m with Stupid”
And girls: how many of us made chocolate cake in our Holly Hobby Easy Bake Ovens? Or snowcones with our Snoopy Snowcone Machine?
Our son Lucas discovered Star Wars a couple of months ago with the Clone Wars and now he runs around the house all day with a light saber! We spent three hours last night playing the LEGO Star Wars II video game.
Blondie! Blondie! and more Blondie!
Afros for white people.
Watergate trials.
The Zoo at Farrells.
Wide World of Sports
Turning my Murray bicycle into a bmx before there were such things.
Bane skateboards with neoprine wheels.
THe WHo at sports arena after Keith Moon died! sucks!
model trucks
All Star game at the Murph
TG & Y
7/11 model and yo yo competitions-those YO YO dudes were gods
Just lookin’ out of the window, watchin’ the asphalt grow,
Thinkin’ how it all looks hand-me-down …
Keepin’ your head above water,
Makin’ a wave when you can,
Temporary layoffs (Good Times)
Easy-credit ripoffs (Good Times)
Ain’t we lucky we got ’em? Good Tiiiiimes!
(Filmed before a live studio audience)
This clip I found on YouTube of San Diego freeways in 1975 is a little like time travel:
>>”Hey good lookin’! We’ll be back to pick you up later!”
Ray: No matter how many times I tried it, this line never worked for me.
>>”Hey good lookin’! We’ll be back to pick you up later!”
>>Ray: No matter how many times I tried it, this line never worked for me.
That’s because you delivered the line from your white van.
>>>>Ray: No matter how many times I tried it, this line never worked for me.
>>Matthew:That’s because you delivered the line from your white van.
The predatory “white van” association comes from serial killer Ted Bundy, as this was what he drove in the last days of his spree in Florida.
No woman wants to hear that line from a guy like that.
>>No woman wants to hear that line from a guy like that.
Actually, I don’t think anybody wants to hear that line from anybody. It was one of the strangest moments in the history of ’70s advertising … Yelling that from a convertible full of smirking youngsters is obnoxious — and yes, yelling it from a potential murder-wagon would be grounds for calling 911.
Certainly the most egregious use of Mr. Microphone demonstrated in the ad, although many of the other applications looked pretty dreadful. (The guy high-stepping down the hill with the boom box singing Christmas carols seemed to be having fun but probably not pleasing many bystanders.)
Interesting serial killer fact: quite a few of them (including Bundy) drove Volkswagen Beetles in the early seventies. Bundy’s switch to a van in Florida probably represented an “evolution” in serial killer transportation. The Hillside Stranglers and others used vans quite obviously because of the extra room they afforded. Okay, I’m creeping myself out now.
I’m not so sure why the title “Mr.” was added to the product. It’s pretty much just a microphone, isn’t it?
The van offered concealment obviously. I read the bio on Bundy and it is beyond anyone’s comprehension of terrifying -- what he did to those women and how he lured them -- I shudder.
Getting yelled at from cars has always baffled me -- does that ever work for anyone? I mean, do some guys actually score that way?
I assume it’s an act of intimidation, not seduction … Of course, when you’re waving a silly little red microphone, it’s an act of absurdity!
How’d Ted Bundy get into the fun ’70s thread? Back to ’70s trauma with you, Ted!
Back to our program:
Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!
Eight is enough to fill our lives with love!
We tease him a lot, ’cause we got him on the spot — welcome back!
Fall into the Gap…
Word Jazz meets the 70’s
Ken Nordine Sells In.
“James at 15.” The season closer, with the foreign exchange student. You know what I’m talking about!
Just to clarify, because the quotations seem to have been reversed: it was Matt who had terrible success using the line “Hey Good Looking, we’ll be back to pick you up later!” I have never shouted anything from a vehicle, moving or stationary.
Speaking of vans, I remember seeing some awesome vans in the seventies. My favorites had little bubble windows and seascapes or unicorns painted on the side. Inside, wall to wall shag carpeting and perhaps a nautical theme. Maybe a customized console with a CB radio . . .
I gave a girl a ride in my wagon
She crawled in and took control
She was tired ’cause her mind was a-draggin’
I said, get some sleep and dream of rock and roll
“If This Van’s Rockin’, Don’t Bother Knockin’!”
Miller’s Outpost, the Padres baseball team’s brown and gold uniforms, earth shoes, Peter Frampton ‘Comes Alive’, K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s ‘That’s the way I like It’, B100 ‘Boogie Balls’, Happy Days t.v. show, Mrs. Roper’s mu mu’s and Sun Tea. Okay now I feeling a little queezy so I’ll stop…
“The Gong Show”
Definitely CB radios. My dad had one of those things. His handle was ‘the Blue Beetle’ because he had a blue ’64 Corvair. My dad, what a card!
Thank god for Chuck Barris!
“Very special episodes” of … Everything. Remember when Edith Bunker was attacked (on the show)? Remember when “Barney Miller”‘s Jack Soo died (for real)?
Last episode of “Mary Tyler Moore.” Last episode of “Carol Burnett.”
The “Annie Hall” look.
The Hudson Brothers’ variety show.
Elvis’ death.
Shields and Yarnell.
“Beatlemania.”
Anita Bryant.
And who can forget the whole Bicentennial thing. Friggin’ party man!
I think it’s safe to say that the 70’s was probably the last time we saw any kind of variety show(Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, etc.) My wife and I went to the Silent Movie theatre around Halloween and they were showing made fore t.v. movies from the 70’s with a Halloween theme. They showed ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ and The ‘Paul Lynne Halloween Special’ from 1976. Incredible!! Paul had Florence Henderson, Witchy Poo (from H.R. Puffenstuff) and KISS! Unbelievable. but so entertaining. I’m sure I was being nostalgic to some degree but there were ‘kids’ in their 20’s who were honestly being taken in by the whole thing.
Project UFO:
Space 1999:
“Kolchak: The Nightstalker”
All those Sunday-night detective shows: McMillan and Wife, McCloud, Columbo …
Project U.F.O. “The facts just the facts.”
We had these “CB Radio Cards” when we were kids. We’d take ’em on long road trips to flash at cars driving by. They said stuff like “Sit on it!” and “Turkey!”. Did anyone mention BJ and the Bear yet?
Sherriff Lobo.
Boss Hog and Rosco.
Animal sidekicks.
Benji!
Rolly Fingers pitching for The Padres.
Mike, thats very cool you played the “Mighty Wurlitzer” at organ power pizza. What strange idea that only could have come out of the 70’s pipe organs and pizza, that place was a trip.
YOU GOT YOUR CHOCLATE IN MY PEANUT BUTTER!
My I NEED VANS!
He won’t eat it! He hates everything….
MAN I NEED VANS!
Captain Kangaroo.
On 70s sitcoms, every character on every show needed a catchphrase that would cause the audience to burst into applause upon hearing it:
“Up your nose with a rubber hose!”
“Dynomite”
“Watchu talkin’ ’bout Willis?”
“Hey hey hey,” etc.
We went to Shakey’s Pizza on Midway (by the now deceased Frontier Drive-in)
Who could forget the quintessential 70s game show, Match Game?
We used to go to the Shakey’s in Clairemont. Didn’t they used to show silent movies and serve big pitchers of root beer?
I’ve never had anyone but myself remember “Toughskins” jeans.
It’s vaguely a blur of going to the Sears at Parkway Plaza to get some.
There were ads w/ kids jumping on trampolines made of them.
And they were colored as well and they came w/ the same colored jacket. Uber geeky.
Also “In Search Of” and “Chariots of the Gods”.
Did a shoot w/ Eric Von Doniken (author of COGs) about 10 yrs ago.
He was a fantasticly bizarre bullshitter.
Charles Nelson Reilly and Richard Dawson are very ______!
Matthew: Can’t we have a Che Game Show at the reunion?
I mainly grew up in Poway from 1970 to 1976 (1st to 6th grade). I remember my mom would make us put on ‘nice’ clean clothes to go to shopping at the Escondido Village Mall or the Kmart, lest we be consider backward hicks from the dinky town that Poway was. At Twin Peaks M.S., I fondly remember sixth grade camp for a week in the Cuyamacas. [Do they still have a week long camp?]. Great fun singing camp songs, hiking, making fires, eating berries, making manzanita tea, and carving manzanita wood.
Ironically while in college, I ended up working at summer camps in the Cuyamacas with many of the guys who were my camp counselors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ci2ev8FZY
“These cards are MARKED!”
“They’re a MESS! A CHOCOLATE mess!”
Movin’ On and BJ and the Bear -- no real truckers ever worked so little!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX127VE9vVs
Scott, I wore Toughskins too. My folks were too cheap to buy me Levis!
Ha! This thread is trippin’ me out. This whole site in general is so addictive. I find myself getting lost… “Huh? Where was I?” Anyway, SHAKEY’S! Remember that oh-so well. Our family use to go to the long-closed-down one on University Avenue @ 69th. Player piano, pitchers of Root Beer, watchin’ the guys makin’ the pizzas through the little window — ah, those sweet, good ol’ days. {Nice & old timey.} Shakey’s is still around. There’s one up at Grossmont Center in La Mesa. Haven’t been — just doesn’t have the same feel to me. I dunno. I guess I could check it out. Give it a chance…
I LOVED Quincy, ME! Wanted to be a forensic coroner so badly — and at only 13! Jack Klugman was the man. There was always the question: “What is Quincy’s first name?” to which he would answer “Doctor!”.
Ooh, and Schoolhouse Rock! I don’t know about you, but those songs def helped me remember my math, grammar, science, politics, etc. I still can sing some of those ditties. “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.” Permanently etched in the noggin. Believe it or not, those guys still perform live from time to time — they were just here in SF a couple of years ago.
Another show from the Saturday morning lineup, H.R. Pufnstuf. Talk about freaky! AND the opening scene was filmed at Big Bear Lake! Oh, and who could forget the even freakier Lidsville? Also compliments of the Krofft brothers. That quirky Charles Nelson Reilly (who later went on to be a regular on Match Game, among other game shows). A land of hat-humans! Huh? It was one big acid trip. And at 8, I didn’t even know what that was. Hmm, perhaps a precursor for what lie ahead…
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned this commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlo_Kdscw_A&feature=related
I guess Space 1999 came out after Star Wars was popular, but there was another show around that time too… it was about a giant space ship with connected domes, drifting around in space. Each dome was like a different planet, and the main characters would travel to a different dome in each episode. What was that one called?
Oh wow, Dave. I don’t think I ever saw that Nesbitt’s commercial! Crazy cool — so psychedelic Peter Max. I def would have wanted some of that if I saw this commercial. Heck, makes me want some right now! Can you still get it?
How about Tang, the beverage of astronauts?? Around third grade, those commercials convinced me that mass consumption of Tang would bring me into closer orbit with the space program.
I didn’t get on the shuttle, but I did learn that guzzling enough Tang will put a shocking Day-glo orange cast on your — ahem! — digestive processes.
… And that, my friends, is why I’m not with NASA today.
Sci-fi in the 70’s! omg. I could write a whole column about it. This was an exciting and prolific time as sci-fi got out of its “spaceman” box and became more imaginative. Among these apocalyptic gems was the first concept of “old future” -- Ridley Scott’s Alien was one of the first movies to portray advanced technology in a grimy run down environment. You see it all the time nowadays. Bladerunner (same director) had that going on in its design too.
Ripley is my all time hero. She totally put her life on the line to save a little girl and a cat!
Alien (my favorite movie of all time)
Blade Runner (2nd fave movie)
Logan’s Run
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
Star Wars
Clockwork Orange
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Escape from New York
Mad Max
Soylent Green
Planet of the Apes
Silent Running
The Man Who Fell to Earth (with David Bowie)
A Boy and his Dog (with Don Johnson! great Harlan Ellison story)
Errata: Bladerunner came out in 1982. My bad.
Just one…there was this English import SF show on Saturdays I used to watch when I was about 9 years old…this would be ’74… called ‘UFO’ all about a whole empire of spy/space warriors with a real swinging-60s style about them…they protected earth from these weird UFO things who tried to attack the moon a lot too.
“Interceptors 1,2&3 Prepare for launch!”
They had a “Commander Straker” who was a kind of cross between James Bond and Lorne Green in Battlestar Galactica.
Kristen,
That Sci-Fi list is nearly perfect--although we mustn’t forget Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I was right in the midst of a pretty major UFO obsession when that film came out, and was heavily into John Fuller’s book on the Betty and Barney Hill case, Interrupted Journey. I took the bus down to the Cinema 21 and saw it alone about four times. I used to recreate Devil’s Tower, Wyoming out of my mashed potatoes . . .
Here you go, Pat. I used to watch this one, too. It was on in the early evening, I think--not quite prime time. I remember really liking the purple haired moongirls.
Matt,
I’m sure the astronauts currently manning the International Space Station would gladly trade you what they are drinking for a few gallons of Tang:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111210838.htm
Ray: Look again, it’s fourth down on the list -- should’ve made it third down I guess? How could I forget that classic? I still have the vinyl soundtrack as well as a 45 of the main theme. I was into UFO’s as a kid and read Chariots of the Gods along with Linda Goodman’s Sun signs and was convinced that aliens helped create the pyramids, and colonize the earth,(bringing on the whole Cain theory) blah blah I’m geeking out.
Enough said, these interests didn’t win me many friends and the boys I played with were the Bill Gates of tomorrow. In the 70’s I was a girl with braces and a library card.
Thanksgiving dinner next week? Perfect time to make a mountain out of mashed potatoes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JinBKqSCSac
“Rather large. Rather juicy… Mahvelous. Wet. Wild. All that. Mahvelous. Absolutely mahvelous.”
Hmm, were they really just selling soda?
Matthew: Don’t forget some Space Food Sticks for that Tang. And in case anyone has a hankering for some, ck out: http://www.funkyfoodshop.com/spacefoodsticks-c-23.html A lovely site where you will find an assortment of funky foods.
Kristen , I’d like to add for the more low buck film fans among us . . .
Damnation Alley
Food of the Gods
Laser Blast
3 classics that seem to have been forgotten throughout the ages .
So when I was a kid , I was also super into crypto stuff and things like sasquatch and ufos etc . . . I was about 7 and started a ” club ” on my street called the BAM club .
It stood for Bigfoot And other Monsters . We had 3 members and met under a tree in my front yard to discuss Bigfoot and Loch Ness and various other alleged life forms . We disbanded after a few meetings due to lack of participation .
I kinda remember a real “B” masterpiece of the era about gargoyles. Very Toby Hooperish at the beginning and all leading up to this whole manifesto/speach by the head gargoyle to all the (arizona) locals out to kill him and his kind.
I distinctly remember as a kid figuring out that the hatchling gargoyles MUST have been kids in really cool costumes and wondering…how cool could THAT be?!
“What I did on my summer vacation…got dressed as a gargoyle and made a movie…”
Right up there with Food of the Gods…which was, yes, godlike.
Patrick Works
gargoyle wannabe
There was a slew of nature gone amok films in the early seventies. My family saw “Frogs” at the Frontier Drive-In. Anyone ever see “Night of the Lepus”?
Hey Patrick,
Is this the one? YouTube says it’s a TV movie from 1972:
Commander Straker is from a show called UFO, genius spy puppetry. An early form…
Those Brits knew the 60t’s and Television.
Go 90, Captain Scarlet and Mysterons, and we all know Space 1999.
Ray that’s it for sure .
I remember thinking the same thing as Pat about how cool it would be to have a little gargoyle costume when i was 6 . . . that movie scared the shit out of me when they attacked the shed where the skeleton was stored , and the the battle with the king gargoyle at the end . . . his glowing gargoyle eyes . . . whoa man good times to be a kid .
Pat: If you show up to the reunion in a gargoyle costume you will get a prize.
I’m sitting at our local garage next to an Esso sign. Remember what a big deal it seemed when Esso switched to Exxon in 1973?
Indeed! Many names were condensed into abbreviants during the brevity seventies (although in ESSO’s case they grew a bit and traded the SS’s for XX’s). Atlantic Richfield became ARCO. International House of Pancakes became IHOP — they gained a kangaroo ad mascot but lost their globe-ihopping cred.
All years ‘n years before the “Mc-ky-D” and “Sunny-D” dementia and before the Colonel got KFC’d. And eMpTy-V of course.
Bubble yum. Bubblicious. Hubba Bubba. Sugarloaf. Five pieces at once and then blowing huge bubbles bigger than my head. It pops and mom’s gotta chop off all the long hair.
That’s how I came to have a Dorothy Hamil haircut in the 70’s.
The KFC Colonel. Ok. He is obviously a southern plantation owner and the commercials are targeted at african americans??!
Big Daddy Roth and Rat-Fink-a-Boo-Boo! (I asked about this on Facebook and got the answer from — among others — Rocket from the Tombs bassist Craig Bell. Which proves how hard Facebook rocks.)
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Mr. Natural.
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are Phineas, Free Wheelin Franklin and Fat Freddy….and don’t forget his cat! I loved reading those…tho’ not as a child, thank goodness.
And now that we’re mentioning comicbooks, anyone dare to admit that they read Elfquest?
Kristen: I am ashamed to admit my utter inability to grok fantasy fiction. I think cramming all the Narnia books as a first-grader and getting to the last one where all the characters … Ooooh, spoiler! Never mind … Left some neuroreceptors permanently closed to the charms of the genre.
I was a massive sci-fi geek, but as soon as characters started playing lutes and smoking runes in glens and heaths, I was outta there. :-/
Matthew: No Phillip Jose Farmer River World? No Elric?
it’s the bedrock of heavy metal.
Kristen: I knew I was … different … from the other boys when The Black Cauldron became all the rage in my fifth-grade class, and I just. Couldn’t. Read it.
I did read “The Hobbit,” but I sorta lost the thread after that first one. I tried.
Actually, I recently read and enjoyed Pullman’s “Dark Materials” trilogy. And I loves me some Terry Pratchett! So maybe the spell’s broken.
I’ll be the one at the Che weekend in the tights and jerkin. (Off.)
Matthew: OK. I won’t ask you to “DM” at the reunion. LOL!
Wendell turned me on Pullman’s trilogy years ago and it is in my top 10 fantasy stories -- great stuff! edgy. ooh! the specters are spooky! too bad the movie sucked.
True confessions…er…snitches time. Jerry…care to confess your Elven past?
Patrick Works
Elf Snitch
You guys have hit many of the high points already. But here’s a song that I heard in the supermarket today that I don’t think has been mentioned. It took me right back to a transistor radio on the beach in 1972.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDpwaj213tI
This isn’t my usual genre, but this song is a real guilty pleasure.
Somehow the crappy vid the guy made goes quite well with it.
And another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtzmjM3Q3O8
Farrah Fawcett hospitalized. This makes me sad. Her teeth were terrific. I remember her being one of the first people boys my age talked about when it became cool to like girls.
That is sad and I can’t think of a more horrific kind of cancer.
I first saw Farrah in her bit part as the “plastic surgeon” receptionist in the movie Logans Run. A bit of foreshadowing for the years to come, eh?
I remember all the boys having that famous poster.
Her son was arrested the day she was hospitalized for possesion of drugs. He was dropping friends off to se someone in jail and they popped him. That adds to the sadness level.
Oh, no! Bea Arthur died!!
David Carradine?? NOOOOOOOOOO … OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO …. oooooooooooooooooo
I knew we should’ve gotten him to MC the Che Games when Jerry couldn’t make it. Missed opportunity.
Rumor has it Farrell’s will be opening some new locations in Southern California soon . . .
Reminder that this president is our age:
Lori Stalnaker-Bevilacqua Says:
I LOVED Quincy, ME! Wanted to be a forensic coroner so badly — and at only 13! Jack Klugman was the man. There was always the question: “What is Quincy’s first name?” to which he would answer “Doctor!”.
Do you remember the Quincy Punk rock episode? This one broke my heart, I used to love this show up until then.
Quincy punk rock episode link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYd7bOn52M
Skylab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkO9fVBky0I
Megan: Beau Bridges is stylin’!
wasn’t divorce very 1970s? Everyone was doing it, even my own parents in 1974. It was like this huge marital sinkhole.
Yet also the age of Love, American Style. No wonder we all got so many mixed signals.
mixed signals… a band name i waited for in vain.
::scratch that… there IS a band called mixed signals… and they are… um… well you be the judge…::
http://www.myspace.com/themixedsignals
http://www.fabulousfurryfreakbrothers.com/
Here is the thing about Mr Whipple and the Charmin squeezing and why it was wrong. People scolded him because HE WANTED TO SQUEEZE IT WITHOUT BUYING IT. If he had bought a package, he could have squeezed it all he wanted to, right? Anyway, I’m on a mission to make people aware of a funny new ebook called ‘Life Seemed Good, But’ and if you google it you will see on the cover a jeep full of drunk clowns. It’s very funny and I need people to spread the word, please.