What was daily life like in the mid-70s and early 80s? (recessions, army)

[Votre_Chef]

I don't know if anyone said this or not, but brown paper bags in grocery stores.

I didn't see plastic backs until the late 80s and that's when they began to ask you "paper or plastic?" Now, they don't even ask anymore.

Grocery store was always brown paper backs back in the day, and they were strong.

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by Votre_Chef

I don't know if anyone said this or not, but brown paper bags in grocery stores.

I didn't see plastic backs until the late 80s and that's when they began to ask you "paper or plastic?" Now, they don't even ask anymore.

Grocery store was always brown paper backs back in the day, and they were strong.

And meat from the butcher wrapped in that thick wax paper and held shut with masking/freezer tape. When we got home we either kept it in the paper or rewrapped it in aluminum foil before putting it in the freezer.
Virtually all drink cups at low end restaurants were waxed paper cups.

[mr bolo]

No such thing as Super Size or free refills

and they would fill the cup with crushed ice so they give less soda, if you wanted more you had to buy another soda, no refills

you could ride a motorcycle without a helmet

if you had thinning hair people would do the comb over or wear a hat

it wasnt popular to shave your head clean like today , they would have laughed their socks off ROFL if they could see all the you guys with the Mr Clean shaved heads today

they would of called you old man or mr baldy or Kojak and offer to shine your head for a quarter

[MaryleeII]

We could let our cats go outside without an HOA taking us to court

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by ilovemycomputer90

I'm curious as to what daily life was like during this time period (roughly 1975-1984). Reading through various threads on this forum and hearing stories from relatives, I have this general image in my head, i.e., clunkier cars, lots of smoking, children always playing outside, going out to dinner was a rare treat, colorful appliances and interior decorating, etc. I knew smoking was allowed in restaurants (heck, the ban is relatively recent), but I was surprised to read that people also smoked in the grocery store. Overall it seems like it was a less sterile, dirtier, grittier time compared to the present. I mean that literally and metaphorically. How did the food taste? Was it better, worse, or on par with today? Did a cup of coffee or a cheeseburger in 1980 taste the same as it does in 2012? I'm especially interested in what was life was like in the early 80s since it doesn't seem to be discussed much for some reason. When did the 80s become distinct from the 70s? Was 1982 really that different from 1978? Was the disco era confined to the mid-to-late 70s or was there any spill over into the early 80s? I understand this was a rough time economically with high unemployment, inflation, etc. What was it like when the economy came roaring back (I ask that considering we're still in a malaise from the most recession)? Economically, politically, and culturally, how would you compare this time period in the US to the present?

I know this is a hodge-podge of both specific and broad questions, but I've been thinking about this for a while and would like to hear your thoughts.

Yup people smoked everywhere. And I mean everywhere even hospitals
Food tasted the same,I mean a burger then us a burger now. There are more flavors and food brands out than back then
We did a lot more playing outside.
Computers were a novelty because they were fairly rare. The economy in the 80s was just getting going and really didn't start moving till the early 90s. That's whebpn computers came on strong, the Internet and the dot.com boom.
Politically in the 80swe had a I take no s**t from anyone president. In the 70s we had Carter. Pretty bad president IMO.
Culturally there was still some influence from the 70s but that changed. Cars were dirtier in smog simply because the EFI was still fairly new. The materials and plastics just weren't there. Remember that everything that you have now is the same stuff available in the 80s. The difference is the technology advanced thus making everything faster smaller better.
It's no different than comparing stuff from the 50-60s to 80-90s. It's just advancement.

Politically we are more fragmented today than back then
Economically we went off the deep end with the crazy housing bubble and subsequent pop
Culturally I think the information is just there faster and available to people faster. People depended on media to get news either tv or print.

[cpg35223]

We smoked lots of dope, went to countless orgies and listened to the Allmann Brothers 24/7.

[Slater]

There was the "Disco Sucks" theme from about the late 1970's through 1980 or so. Kind of a "Rock vs Disco" war went on for a while there until disco faded away and New Wave took over the rock scene (to some extent, anyway).

I suppose if you were a Country & Western fan then the whole thing was meaningless anyway

[marlinfshr]

A couple things to add to my previous post.

Cokes and other sodas were in glass bottles and had real sugar. They tasted so much better.

The glass bottles were actually returned for several cents as well.

I think the typical coke bottle was 12ozs but since I was a kid they seemed big. I think it was later in the 80's that the 16oz plastic bottles started coming out, which are small now days.

Fried foods such as chicken was fried with that tasty unhealthy oil, but it was so good.

Yes, a lot of people smoked, but not everybody. It didn't seem to be looked at as negatively as it is today.

We definitely did not go out to eat as much as we do now.

Family's still had a dinner time and sat at the table.

A family could still get by on one income, but of course we didn't have all of today's extra bills and gadgets such as cable/satellite, cell/smart phone, internet, computer for everyone, TV in every room, video games, second car payment, and nanny services/day care, etc...

Us kids actually had to do work and chores around the house. Lawn care wasn't something our parent's payed a company to do. same thing with car washes. Those were chores for us kids. And a way for us to earn a couple of bucks.

I think I remember the changes coming around 82 but that could also be because that was the year I entered high school. Also by then most family's in my area had cable so MTV and the cheesiness (in a good way) of the true 80's seemed to really take off by then. To me it was definitely different after 82 then the 70's leading up to 82.

[Ryderspa]

Wow, being 18, first time being away from home... it was great. I lived in a dorm on campus for my 1st year but soon moved into a frat house. Mainly because the blacks did not want whites in "their" dorm. Other kids lived in apartments. Smoking pot was the norm but much less powerful as today. There were preppy kids and farm boys. I was the latter. We had the only frat house on campus and could pretty much do what we wanted to do. We owned 5 acres and didn't have to follow campus rules. If uve watched animal house, that's pretty much the was it was. Bell bottoms and puffy shirts were in and long hair was the norm. Not everybody had a car but getting a ride was easy. Gas was .70/gal and thirsty Thursday was cruzing day.

It was a great time in my life and will never forget the good times.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by belmont22

Were ATM machines commonplace by the late 1970s/early 1980s, or did they come later?

The larger banks in my city all had ATMs ("ATM machine" is redundant ... ) by 1980. Not every branch had an ATM, however, like the majority of bank branches do today.

Originally Posted by cpg35223

We smoked lots of dope, went to countless orgies and listened to the Allmann Brothers 24/7.

Didn't I know you in college?

Originally Posted by marlinfshr

The glass bottles were actually returned for several cents as well.

One afternoon a friend and I wanted to go to the community pool -- admission 25 cents -- but she had only a dime and a nickel, along with a Canadian nickel and a pop bottle. We took her treasures to the local lunch counter/magazine-candy-cigar stand, and the benevolent owner gave her a quarter for all that. The owner liked us kids -- heaven knows we spent enough of our money there on penny candy and comic books.