Old timers, remind me of some early 70's stuff

Cafe Society
141

Speaking of commercials, 74-75 was the run of those Mean Mary Jean ads for Chrysler-Plymouth. Mary Jean was a young hottie in a football jersey and denim short shorts. I still remember the stupid jingle (sung by a barbershop quartet, IIRC):

Hello Hello Hello
Mean Mary Jean
Our superstar
Tell us about our Chrysler Plymouth cars

(and then she would)

Mary Jean was played by Judy Strangis.

Also, Ricardo Montalban’s Chrysler Cordoba ad (“soft corinthian leather”) came out in '75.

Also the era of Miller Light’s “Great taste!” “Less Filling!” ads, wherein various famous athletes would take one side or the other in the debate.

142

I collected Mod Rods by Tonka. Dragon Wagon

These were done by the mid 70’s.

Those multi color pens were a big item about 1976. They were at least an inch in diameter.

Those paper chains were also big. They could be made from a gum wrapper.

Pop top chains were a kid challenge also.

143

Bic lighters were the new thing in 1973. “Flick your Bic”. All us kids had one, even if we didn’t smoke.

The first UPC bar coded products appeared in 1974, but it was a lot longer before the scanners were ubiquitous.

144

patchoulli oil
banana seats
clackers

145

We wore a lot of tie-dye and other colorful second-hand stuff from the '60s. Mom liked that because she could watch a bunch of kids playing in the schoolyard and easily determine which ones belonged to her.

Dad sometimes let one or two of us ride in his wagon’s spare tire compartment!

One of my earliest memories is being in the wagon with Dad, just the two of us, going to the local Ford dealer. I think that was when he ordered his commuter car: a '71 Pinto. That little yellow Zeibart-protected thing somehow managed to last at least 15 years! It had developed a problem with retaining oil by then, though. I’d have owned it after graduating high school but one of my brothers got to it first.

146

Hawaiian shirts.:slight_smile:

147

Love brand cosmetics

I remember lots of commercials for the dry shampoo called Psssssst I still remember the song, that’s how I knew how many esses (s’s ?) to use.

We were just starting to get a proliferation of hair care and cosmetic products. Prior to that there was maybe Breck and Prell shampoo, not a bazillion. We had creme rinse, not conditioner. Eye shadow came in blue, green and brown. Maybelline had one kind of mascara in black or brown, cake eyeliner, reeeaal basic stuff.
Walgreens: Pharmacy, Health & Wellness, Photo & More for You

148

Dashikis, halter tops, hip-hugger jeans, elephant bells, wide belts. I remember outfits that were a mini-dress with matching panties called sizzlers. Polyester was HUGE. Oh oh, oh, men’s leisure suits :smiley:

link to leisure suit baby blue :smiley: http://www.vintage70sclothing.com/Mens/Jackets/13562e.htm

149

Green leisure suits.
Pooka beads
Farrah posters
Buick regals that the plain clothes detectives drove so we all knew who they were.
NYC with trash piled up every where and taxi drivers driving tourist downtown via queens.
kids games like “red light green light”
ALUMINUM SIDING.
those long annoying phone cords that were always wadded up.
Heavy red velvet furniture (this may just have been an Italian thing)
All in one record players, tape decks and radios.
The Fonz;s “AAyyy” and Welcome back Kotter. “up your nose with a rubber hose”
paneling in pink and blue
shag carpet and those little plastic rakes. “go rake your room”
Forgive me if these are repeats.

150

Nu-Vinyl, for all the shit that was made out of vinyl, from car interiors and roofs to furniture to footwear.

151

The mall in Waukesha County had one of those, with green threads. And phoney plastic plants.

152

Legionnaires’ disease 1976. There was a nation wide scare of catching it until they figured out what it was. That and swine flue.

153

In the Bigfoot/UFO theme, the Wisconsin Kangaroo Outbreak was a little mystery in our own backyard.

154

I can authoritatively date that game back well into the 60s.

EDIT: knowing kids’ games it was probably popular in the 1660s

155

When I was a kid in the early 70’s, these are the things I remember:

Slinkys, silly string, Hot Wheels, and silly putty were popular toys. I had the Lemon Twist thing. It was fun and cute because there was a plastic lemon on the end of the tether.

Speaking of tethers, tether ball was popular at my grade school, along with Four-Square.

Hong Kong Phooey, HR Pufnstuff – all those Sid and Marty Krofft shows. Land of the Lost, superhero shows on Saturday mornings (Shazam, Isis). I recall superheroes in general being pretty popular: Batman and Robin, Aquaman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, etc.

Chiffon “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”, and Coke “I’d like to teach the world to sing” commercials seemed to be shown a lot.

156

I’ve only seen a kangaroo out break in Wisconsin in the last decade. Where and when was the one you refer to.

157

G.I. Joe - the big ones - like a foot tall and they were American!

158

Thought I was the only one to remember this piece of doggerel. Good on ya!

159

Harvey Comics (especially Richie Rich, who had 20-some simultaneous monthly titles going in the mid 70s–and I collected them all)
Space Food Sticks
Sizzlers and the Juice Machine (Hot Wheels cars you could plug into a gas-pump-shaped thing to power them up)
Zotz candy
Wacky Packages
Breakfast Squares
Marathon Bars
Fonzie/Happy Days (huge fad in our area when I was in 4th/5th grade)
Patricia Hearst kidnapping/the SLA
SST Racers
Vertibird
Johnny and Jane West and all their friends and various gear (including a buckboard just the right size and configuration to hitch to the family cat…but wait, I’ve said too much :D)
Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy)

160

Who knew they had traffic lights in the 1660’s?