# Stuff that was different in the 60s and 70s **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688 "2017-06-11T14:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/261 "2017-06-18T01:45:58Z")
Gas stations gave out S&H green stamps. We got most of our drinking glasses and flatware with those. My first savings account paid 5% interest. I didn’t get an allowance, but made a fair amount baby-sitting from the age of 12 on. We got a fake-wood-sided station wagon for $1000. Traveled cross country in it several times, two parents, four kids, a dog and frequently a grandmother. The dog and two kids rode in the back. I still play peekaboo with strangers’ babies at the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/262 "2017-06-18T02:21:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Some thread just reminded me of this one, a flashlight was a big heavy thing with multiple C or D cells that produced barely enough light and lasted barely long enough to find more batteries. And if you didn’t use the thing for a while there’s a good chance when you needed it the batteries would have leaked and ruined the flashlight. > > There were also cool toy guns that looked like real guns without a red cap on the end. And cap guns with caps on a roll. Fourth of July, we used to light off firecrackers in our hands and then throw them. I can remember doing that as young as age six. My parents would buy them for us. I can even remember the M80s, which were pretty darn big, and cherry bombs. I was a bit older when we had those, but maybe around 9. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/263 "2017-06-18T02:26:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > True. A rock would do but a hammer was more fun. Of course we’d try to hit a whole roll with a hammer to get them to go off at once but it didn’t work. There were stick on caps also and we’d stick a bunch of them together to try to get a bigger bang but that didn’t work all that well and it was boring sticking caps together so we’d go down to the creek and throw rocks and catch crayfish and stuff. I wonder if kids still do that or do they just use a creek app on their phones? I did get a whole roll of paper caps to go off with a hammer, once. It was glorious. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/264 "2017-06-18T02:33:57Z")
I recall other kids taking firecrackers, .22s and shot gun shells apart and blowing up a street sign. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/265 "2017-06-18T02:57:58Z")
When there were only a few of us in the park we invented games to play with baseball gloves, bats, balls. Sometimes it was just one guy hitting pop-ups to a group of guys spread out in the outfield. We took turns. Sometimes we played something we called home run derby. The defender(s) would stand in front of the backstop and the hitter would drive balls at him from second base. If you hit the top part of the backstop it was a home run, middle part was a double maybe? I can’t remember all the rules, but we could have a mini baseball game with only two people. It was great. As long as you were OK with having baseballs drilled at you from 130 feet. At other times, we played ball hockey on the street. Just a couple of nets and a tennis ball, and whoever wanted to join in did. We’d throw all our sticks into a pile and one person would start randomly separating them out into two piles. Whatever pile your stick ended up in was your team. Game on! And of course the ubiquitous “car!” call when a car was approaching: an automatic time out as the nets got moved off the road. And then you were expected to go back to your last position, and the game started up again. Sometimes the goalie would have a baseball glove and foam pads laced to his shins. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/266 "2017-06-18T03:04:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > A man who molested little girls was considered a child molester. A man who molested little boys was considered a homosexual! Homosexuality was officially classified as a mental disorder until 1974. I suspect that a lot of medical professionals were turning away from that thinking in the 1960s, but I think it would be fair to say that most straight people in the 1960s considered homosexuality to be a disorder and homosexuals to be deviants and likely child predators. I can’t imagine many parents in the 1960s who would allow their children to be alone with a gay person, other than maybe the “odd bachelor uncle” a lot of families had. We weren’t really taught about homosexuality, but you “knew” it was something bad and dangerous and you wanted absolutely no part of it. If you were gay, I’m sure that caused enormous anxiety. That began to change in the 1970s, but very slowly. The first time I can remember seeing a sympathetic gay character on TV was Billy Crystol’s character in _Soap_, which was late in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/267 "2017-06-18T03:09:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > …The first time I can remember seeing a sympathetic gay character on TV was Billy Crystol’s character in _Soap_, which was late in the 1970s. Billy Crystal, but yes quite true. _Although All in the Family_ tackled it too in a couple of sympathetic episodes. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/268 "2017-06-18T03:16:53Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Billy Crystal, but yes quite true. _Although All in the Family_ tackled it too in a couple of sympathetic episodes. Now that I think about it, _Laugh In_ had a gay character, or rather one of the actors who had a gay character as part if his repertoire (Alan Sues). He wasn’t necessarily sympathetic, but he wasn’t portrayed as some kind of sick-o. At the time, though, I was too young to think he was anything other than “funny”. It’s only in seeing re-runs much later that I went: holy shit! that guy is supposed to be gay!! How did we not see that!?!? But like I said, I was only about 13 or 14, so maybe it just went over my head and if you were an adult you saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/269 "2017-06-18T03:26:27Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Now that I think about it, _Laugh In_ had a gay character, or rather one of the actors who had a gay character as part if his repertoire (Alan Sues). He wasn’t necessarily sympathetic, but he wasn’t portrayed as some kind of sick-o. At the time, though, I was too young to think he was anything other than “funny”. It’s only in seeing re-runs much later that I went: holy shit! that guy is supposed to be gay!! How did we not see that!?!? But like I said, I was only about 13 or 14, so maybe it just went over my head and if you were an adult you saw it. I recall him and had completely forgotten about him, but yeah, along with Paul Lynde who was the same kind of character, I had no idea at the time… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/270 "2017-06-18T03:41:29Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I recall him and had completely forgotten about him, but yeah, along with Paul Lynde who was the same kind of character, I had no idea at the time… I would not have remembered had I not seen some re-runs a few years ago. Speaking of re-runs, I’d be interested in hearing what younger folks think of those. I thought they stood up amazing well over time, but I could be biased. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/271 "2017-06-18T11:34:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I was in MA during my formative drinking years, and the drinking age was 18, so no problem. We had a bar on campus (at college, not HS 🙂 ) and used to get loaded there. Ah, the good ol’ days!! I was 21 when I moved out to CA, so I never had to skip a beat. > > Now, we did have blue laws in MA, and you couldn’t buy even beer anywhere (package store) after 8:30 on Sat night. No matter how much we bought, we always ran out on Sunday and someone had to make a run up to NH to restock. Oh god, I remember those run-up-to-NH days, LOL. I was in college when the drinking age shifted from 18 to 19 to 20. Talk about traumatic – the off campus neighborhood bar was the place to be (they had a great arcade area), so you could legally go in there in one turn and suddenly be turned away when the law changed. We still have blue laws, btw. Packies are still closed on Sundays AFAIK (at least the one nearest to me is), but if a supermarket sells beer/wine, they can do so at the discretion of the municipality they’re in and only during a certain time period. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/272 "2017-06-18T13:28:26Z")
I had a good friend from MA visit me when I first moved out to CA. We had to pick up some stuff at the grocery store, and she almost fainted (with joy) when she saw Vodka for sale there. And it was probably on a Sunday, too. This would have been late 70s. It was unthinkable. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/273 "2017-06-18T13:29:59Z")
In the early '70s I used to zip around on country roads on my Yamaha 100cc LT2. I was 11 years old. No one cared. A decade off I suppose. But in the late 70s-mid 80s, a game of volley ball in the park complete with beer and weed did not turn any heads. It’s pretty cool now that marijuana is becoming legal. But you can’t smoke in public places like a park. Sort of an odd juxtaposition. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/274 "2017-06-19T12:37:15Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I did get a whole roll of paper caps to go off with a hammer, once. It was glorious. I used to get rolls of caps, five rolls stuck together side by side in a box. One time I laid a whole box on the driveway and hit it with a sledgehammer. The hammer bounced back up - not violently/dangerously, but enough to make it clear that the rolls of caps had definitely contributed some impulse. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/275 "2017-06-19T15:41:06Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Kids could sit in the front seat. > > Kids could walk to school on their own or with friends - having a parent walk you to school was unheard of past Kindergarten. I’m not kidding, a few years ago my friend wouldn’t let her 12 year old daughter walk to school which was only a few blocks away by herself - she thought the one intersection was too busy. > > Everything went into the garbage because recycling didn’t exist. I get the stink-eye for letting my 11 year old walk or ride by himself to his friends’ houses. And he doesn’t even have to cross busy streets! Kids spent a lot more time then running around in packs by themselves. I also remember being left home alone more often. I occasionally leave my son to his own devices for an hour or two after school if there’s no one there to pick him up, much to the horror of one of his friend’s parents. I also remember riding in the “way back” of our station wagon. Or even better, loading the luggage in the way back, spreading the cover over it and sleeping there. That was awesome on long road trips. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/276 "2017-06-19T21:47:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I started listening to FM regularly in 1971, so unless this happened more or less overnight, I think you are misremembering. Those FM stations in 1971 were just normal stations without the bubblegum music that made up much of AM broadcasts. In this poster’s defense, some FM stations played classical music (because who cares about fidelity with pop music?) and switched to more popular music (i.e., rock) late at night. This was certainly true of two local stations where I lived in the 60s and was also true of my college radio station from 1970-1974. The net effect would be as described. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/277 "2017-06-19T21:57:58Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > In this poster’s defense, some FM stations played classical music (because who cares about fidelity with pop music?) and switched to more popular music (i.e., rock) late at night. This was certainly true of two local stations where I lived in the 60s and was also true of my college radio station from 1970-1974. The net effect would be as described. I don’t recall rock on FM in the 60s. Mostly because I had no FM radio to listen to. In the 70s there was WMMR in Philadelphia, a hard rock station, and other popping up everywhere. This is where I heard Springsteen before he hit it big. I see from the [WMMR wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMMR#History) they went to progressive rock in 1968. Not sure what that meant at the time. Other stations in the area had tried rock in the 60s and didn’t stay with it. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/278 "2017-06-19T22:06:40Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Or if you’re a Simpsons fan. A lot of shows did Rashomon-type episodes, including Gilligan’s Island. Even if you didn’t know the source, you’d understand the effect. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/279 "2017-06-19T23:08:44Z")
Kick the Can…Freeze tag…TV tag…Marco/Polo. Lightning Bugs…lots of them. Dangerous Kids Lawn toys…I had this… [Space Trainer](http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/space_trainer/) I played the living hell out of it, It was much more fun (and mobile) off of the stand. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/280 "2017-06-19T23:13:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > When we lived at Otis AFB (Cap Cod) in the late 1950s they were always building new housing units. And yeah, after quitting time and on weekends the empty, unsecured buildings made great sites for hide & seek, jumping out of ground floor windows (no glass in them yet), shouting up the stairwells to hear the echoes, roller skating on the concrete floors. Good times. I was born on Otis AFB Feb/60…Maybe your parents knew mine?? and, back to the OP…playing “King of the hill” at construction projects in 60’s/70’s was ubiquitous for kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=15)