Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Supermarkets had a price gun with a roll of small stickers. Turn the knob to show the price and pull the trigger as you place the gun on the product. The sticker was now on the product and the price was printed on the sticker. People use to try to remove a lower price sticker and attach it to a higher priced product. Then the sticker maker put some precut lines in the sticker. Try to remove the price and it tears at the cuts. If no sticker was on a can, price check was faster than a price check at Walmart, better employees.
Debit cards didn't exist. We had credit cards but no magnetic strip. Card was placed on a device face up, a piece of paper with carbon copies attached was placed on top, grab a handle, slide it across the top of the paper, tear off one copy, hand copy back with credit card. No electricity or computers required.
We didn't buy "gift cards". We bought gift certificates. Stores prefer gift cards because people tend to use almost or above the value on the card. With certificates. They'd buy something small to get the rest back in cash and buy what they want from another store or restaurant.
Media: more newspapers, even in small markets. Even a few free ones that were mostly advertising. Many AM stations played music; many listeners went through life never tuning in to an FM station. Only a few TV stations in most markets yet people found ways to waste hours watching it. A laptop was your cat.
I forgot to touch on seat belts. I remember my mom driving across country from Kansas city to New Mexico and back and we played in the back of the car and on the floor board. It's crazy to think we drove on ice and snow without them too. And if we had to make a sudden stop, my mom's arm flew right in front of me as if it could stop me from going through the window shield. I started riding in the front seat of the car when I was 3 years old, now it's unheard of.
I still armslam my passengers if I need to touch the brake. It's a habit that never goes away.
It was considered unladylike for a lady to smoke while walking. At one of my first jobs, men were allowed to smoke in their office or at their desk; women had to go to the ladies room, which had a break type area with a couch and ashtrays.
I was born in 68 so I was a young kid through the 70's. I entered high school in 82. I remember it as a good time to grow up. This would be my perspective as a kid from suburban MD right outside the capital beltway in PG county.
I lived in a community where everyone knew every one. For the most part we all hung out together, at least by age groups. Our parents knew the other parents. It was a very safe neighborhood. Bike riding all day without helmets or playing in the woods or catching crayfish in the creek. We got banged up. We got cuts. We ate dirt. We drank from a hose when thirsty. We didn't come in till dark. Everybody's back yard was fair game to run around and play in and one of the neighbors had a field which was a good place to play football.
Mostly traditional families were in our neighborhood with our dads going off to work in the morning and back around 5. Most of the mom's didn't work. Most were married.
Block party's during the 4th of July where we set up games for everybody and every family brought a picnic table and some kind of food to set up in the court.
Fun times trick or treating at Halloween. We all new the cool houses to go to. I remember one had his whole house set up as a haunted house where you went inside and took the scary tour.
Rotary telephones and expensive long distance calls which might only be to somebody a couple of towns away.
Rabbit ears and only a few channels on TV, which was for us still black & white and no remote. We didn't get cable until 80, 81ish. And it came with a big clunky box and a remote.
AM radio and 8 track tapes.
TV dinners and reheating leftovers on the stove because of no microwave. Got first around 81.
CB radio in the car.
Station wagons and family trips for the weekend.
In our community we took the bus to elementary school but the junior high (7,8th grade) and high (9th through 12th) were a mile away so we didn't get the bus. We walked.
Disco (Yuck), funk (double Yuck!!) I grew up on country music. It was actually pretty popular in the area. I really didn't start listening to Rock until Junior high/high school.
dark wood grained paneling was popular in the houses.
Ugly carpet colors and even uglier appliances. I think ours were some kind of rust colored.
Custom vans with elaborate murals painted on them.
Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, Welcome Back Kotter, Happy Day's, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Smokey & the Bandit, Saturday morning monster movies. WWII movies and westerns were still popular.
We played cowboys & indians or war with our cap guns.
We got in fights with our best friends over the dumbest things but would be best buddies again an hour later.
We respected our elders.
1976 and the bicentennial celebrations, especially since I was in the DC area.
Were ATM machines commonplace by the late 1970s/early 1980s, or did they come later?
I remember getting my first bank account and that new ATM card to go along with it. You could get $5 out if you wanted just $5. The ATM's for our bank gave out $5 and $20 bills.
Were ATM machines commonplace by the late 1970s/early 1980s, or did they come later?
I don't remember seeing them until the mid-80s. I grew up in the suburbs (of Seattle) and the few banks we had out there didn't have them. They might have been in the downtown Seattle area. When my parents wanted cash, they went into the bank and got cash by filling out a withdrawal slip or went through the drive-thru.
I was very active in the Women's Movement during this time but I swore my mother not to tell my father. I was in graduate school (on my own dime) but knew his right wing self would make my life miserable. Every time he called he asked me if I had "found a husband by now". I was in my middle 20's but then it was considered horrible not to be married by then. My friends and I lobbied for ERA but we knew we were being mocked and made fun of.
"Love it or Leave it" bumper stickers were everywhere especially in OKC where I was in school. People thought if you demonstrated against the Vietnam War you hated USA and military. Not true. The Vietnam War tore families up for many years.
I remember seeing the POWs coming home on TV it was very poignant when I found out the soldier whose name was on my POW bracelet was dead. I still have that bracelet.
I married at 30 in 1976 and we decided we would both keep our own names. My father was dead by then but other family members chided me. Had one friend of my mother's say to me when I got married "Now aren't you glad you got all that crazy women's lib stuff out of your system?" like that was a way of thinking only for single women while in fact the majority of my NOW friends were married women with kids. I think many if not most people assumed if you were a single women involved in the feminist movement you had to be a lesbian. Stupid. Ignorant. here it is almost 38 years later and still some people make judgements about women who keep their own names when they get married.
Some companies didn't pay with a check. Some gave cash and a pay statement. If you were paid with a check, it was a mad rush to the bank to cash it. Some grocery stores cashed paychecks for free because they knew the customer was going to spend the money on groceries. One thing I liked was savings accounts earning over 5% APR. I checked my credit union and bank and their saving APR is about 0.05%. At that rate, why bother? Banks were busy on Friday with people withdrawing cash to cover their weekend. Not many people I knew had checking accounts.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
