Modern History And Scary Times - The 70s Fads

Okay, so it is my personal opinion which I am sure many share, but I could swear the hippie druggies of the 60s were still tripping! The clothes! The hair! The fads!

Out there are pictures of me in the 70s I would love to burn.

I guess you could say the fads of this decade were to try and make the baby boomers forget they failed to change the world. Tune out and become self obsessed.

If you were in the disco crowd, it was free love and free sex. Of course, this was before anyone ever heard of AIDS.

Some fads turned into highly polished fads of today. Others I think most would like to forget. There are a few oddities that faded from center stage, but still have their merits. You decide which is which.

The Rubik's Cube

A square, rotating block of individually colored blocks that you scramble and try to put back together in its original color scheme. There were many different ways to come back to the answer, but for the cheats among us, the quickest way to the end was to either peel off the labels and stick them in the right place which would tend to lessen the holding power of the stickers or to take a flathead screwdriver, open it up and re-assemble it.

The Pet Rock

Proof that people will buy anything! It was plain and simple, a rock. The only pet you don't have to walk, feed, comfort or anything. Simply pay attention to it whenever you felt the need for your pet. The perfect solution for those too wrapped up in their own self awareness to pay attention to the needs of a real animal.

Primative Music Video

Before MTV many local station mavericks toyed with the idea of airing music videos. Many were local bands or little known talents. A few rare big name stars such as Paul McCartney made videos before the cable hits. At first these local stations aired free. Once MTV hit the big time, they mostly disappeared with a few holdouts who would later add in a 900 number request line.

The Colors! The Patterns!

Bright pastels with off contrasting matches on clothing. Flowers and pasley and polka dots, oh my! Indoors there was that ugly green shag carpeting, dark orange kitchens with matching appliances, macrame everything, beaded partitions, plastic on the furniture. Hand me the sunglasses, please!

Polyester

A popular material of the 60s continued on in the 70s. You know, that strong stuff that doesn't air out very well. If you thought it was bad in the 60s, it only got worse in the 70s with the print patterns and styles. What in god's name were the fashion designers on?

Leisure Suits

Meant as garb for men to wear informally soon became the fashion statement at the local disco. Eventually it was only worn by pimps. YUCK!

Jump Suits

Worn mostly by those syrupy bands such as the Osmonds and the fake group the Partridge family, it was a one piece top/bottom that you wore with a shirt underneath. Usually the undershirt was a hideous ruffled top or a top with a floppy, large collar or even a non-collar.

The Afro

While not new in the 70s, it's popularity went beyond that of the African American communities. The bigger the 'fro, the better. Some prided themselves on afros bigger than their head. White people with curly hair added to their natural frizzies and used picks to expand their locks.

Streaking

It was just a daring thing to do. Take off all your clothes and run as quickly as possibly by a large and unsuspecting audience. Just hope you don't get caught as you would be charged with public nudity and lewdness.

Disco

Discos were not a new thing. It was generally a place were people went to dance and particularly hot on the homosexual night life scene. Sometime during the mid-70s mainstream people started to frequent these dives as a regular weekend getaway. The movie Saturday Night Fever picked up on this frenzy and further gave it credibility to the mainstream. Studio 54 went over the top with the disco theme and created a depraved nightlife that everyone wanted to sink to, but few were allowed in to that world of sex and drugs and music and all kinds of lewdness. Disco music took over the top charts and even traditional rock stars such as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart went disco. Thankfully punk came along and killed it! Steve and Gary came behind and literally blew it up.

Rollerskating

A popular activity of children for many decades, especially to the baby boomers who were now becoming parents. Why let go of a childhood favorite? So what if you were over 20! Eventually roller rinks were popping up all over the place. What could kill this fad? Lawsuits of the 1980s. Imagine, all those people rolling around on concrete floors in a dimly lit area with little to no supervision. I remember going to those places as a child. On each occasion I remember at least two people had to be taken away by ambulance.

Roller Disco

What happens when you mix two popular fads? Tacky! That is the only word you can use to describe this fiasco. Not only did you have the aura of the singles' scene under disco strobe lights, but you had to act cool on rollerskates. Thank goodness this fad was short lived!

Magnavox And Atari Video Game Systems

Today there is Play Station and Ninetendo, the cutting edge of video games that are sleek and compact. Back then we had these dinosaur machines that were almost as big as the tv set with a few cartridges about the size of a video tape. The selections of games were few and far between, but back then it was impressive. As impressed as people are now with the technology, all I can say is wait about 10 years and you may feel repulsed at today's big ticket items.

Pong

The original video game. On a black screen there were two long strip white lines on opposite sides of the screen that could only be moved up and down. In the middle was a small sized square white ball that would bounce back and forth between the two sticks. The object was to hit the ball and not miss. This was great stuff back then, although laughable now.