# 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:** 20
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/381 "2017-06-26T11:35:53Z")
So this weekend I saw that the movie _Butterflies Are Free_ was scheduled to air on MeTV. It was released the year I was born, but I vaguely remembered seeing it on TV when I was a child, and I was curious enough to watch it again. In the apartment of the male main character, there was a refrigerator with the compressor on top. I can’t remember ever seeing a refrigerator like that, even though I must have seen refrigerators from at least the late 1960s when I was a child. So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/382 "2017-06-26T11:42:12Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > You could go see a concert from the biggest band in the world, have great seats, and pay only $10 or less for your ticket. . . . I paid $5 to see the Rolling Stones in 1969. Opening acts were B.B King and Terry Reid. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/383 "2017-06-26T11:53:58Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So this weekend I saw that the movie _Butterflies Are Free_ was scheduled to air on MeTV. It was released the year I was born, but I vaguely remembered seeing it on TV when I was a child, and I was curious enough to watch it again. In the apartment of the male main character, there was a refrigerator with the compressor on top. I can’t remember ever seeing a refrigerator like that, even though I must have seen refrigerators from at least the late 1960s when I was a child. So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) I was born in 1957 and I’ve never seen one. Our fridges all had flat tops with the compressors at the bottom inside a housing. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/384 "2017-06-26T12:23:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So this weekend I saw that the movie _Butterflies Are Free_ was scheduled to air on MeTV. It was released the year I was born, but I vaguely remembered seeing it on TV when I was a child, and I was curious enough to watch it again. In the apartment of the male main character, there was a refrigerator with the compressor on top. I can’t remember ever seeing a refrigerator like that, even though I must have seen refrigerators from at least the late 1960s when I was a child. So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) I was born in '56 and I’ve never seen one in real life, just in old ads like the ones you linked to, and that page states that they’re from the 20s and 30s. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/385 "2017-06-26T12:49:09Z")
The first stereo LP was issued in 1957. By the 1970s, stereo was the default. But during the 60s, buyers had a choice between mono and stereo. The decision was usually based on whether or not the buyer had a stereo player. [LINK](http://www.rarerecords.net/stereo-records-or-mono-records-which-one-to-buy/) > [@](#): > > In 1960, only one album in 50 might have been sold in stereo, but by about 1966, the ratio of mono to stereo records in terms of sales became about 50-50, as stereo playback equipment became more affordable. By 1967, stereo records were outselling mono records by a hefty margin, and by 1968, most American record companies came to the conclusion that sales of mono records were decreasing to the point where it was not longer profitable to continue selling them. > [@](#): > > As stereo records were largely a niche product when first introduced, the record companies added a one dollar surcharge to the retail price, making the already-expensive record album even more so. Atlantic Records charged $5.98 for stereo albums in 1960; a price that equates to more than $50 today. Not surprisingly, the high price of stereo records did not encourage more consumers to buy the equipment to play them. Most record companies continued to charge $1 more for stereo records right up until they stopped making mono records in the U.S. in late 1968. The first rock LP I bought was [With the Beatles](https://www.amazon.com/Beatles/dp/B000002UAC) in 1965. It was probably mono. It cost $2.67 at Kmart. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/386 "2017-06-26T13:19:36Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > I paid $5 to see the Rolling Stones in 1969. Opening acts were B.B King and Terry Reid. I paid $9. to see Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review in 1973. No one I knew had ever **heard** of a ticket that cost that much. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > …So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) > [@cochrane](#): > > I was born in 1957 and I’ve never seen one. Our fridges all had flat tops with the compressors at the bottom inside a housing. > [@davidm](#): > > I was born in '56 and I’ve never seen one in real life, just in old ads like the ones you linked to, and that page states that they’re from the 20s and 30s. I was born in 1948 (and lived in LOTS of different places), and I’ve never seen one except on TV. ---
**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 26, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/387 "2017-06-26T13:32:08Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So this weekend I saw that the movie _Butterflies Are Free_ was scheduled to air on MeTV. It was released the year I was born, but I vaguely remembered seeing it on TV when I was a child, and I was curious enough to watch it again. In the apartment of the male main character, there was a refrigerator with the compressor on top. I can’t remember ever seeing a refrigerator like that, even though I must have seen refrigerators from at least the late 1960s when I was a child. So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) Only saw one at my grandmother’s house. But she also had a “washing machine” with a ringer attached to it and wheels on the bottom so it could be rolled out and hooked up to a sink (like the dishwashers we were talking about). There was nothing new fangled (built after WWII) at my grandmother’s house! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/388 "2017-06-26T13:57:15Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I was born in 1948 (and lived in LOTS of different places), and I’ve never seen one except on TV. Thanks, all. The movie was based in roughly the time it was released (1972) so I suppose the prop is supposed to say “_damn_, this is a lousy apartment!” (The refrigerator is visible in [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibqavQbDbDk) clip from the movie, on the far right of the screen in the shots showing the guy.) ---
**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 26, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/389 "2017-06-26T13:59:04Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I paid $9. to see Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review in 1973. No one I knew had ever **heard** of a ticket that cost that much. I saw that concert in college. And it was my junior year so that would be 1975/76. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/390 "2017-06-26T14:05:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But she also had a “washing machine” with a ringer attached to it and wheels on the bottom so it could be rolled out and hooked up to a sink (like the dishwashers we were talking about). Now my family had one of those in the 1970s. A lidless white barrel with an electric mangler attached to the top. ---
**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 26, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/391 "2017-06-26T14:12:00Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Now my family had one of those in the 1970s. A lidless white barrel with an electric mangler attached to the top. Electric? No, no, no, no, no. Hand crank or nothing, baby! ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/392 "2017-06-26T15:12:17Z")
Speaking of concerts, if you wanted to get good (or any) seats to a concert, you would usually have to get in line at the venue’s ticket office at least the night before tickets went on sale and sometimes earlier. We would take sleeping bags and go in groups so that if someone needed to use the ‘restroom’ or go get some food and hot drinks, at least one could stay and save our place in line. ---
**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 26, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/393 "2017-06-26T15:16:04Z")
Squirt guns. There were no Super Soakers. There were some fairly big squirt guns shaped like a sub-machine gun but they still just shot a thin stream of water. If you wanted to soak someone you used a hose. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/394 "2017-06-26T15:17:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I saw that concert in college. And it was my junior year so that would be 1975/76. 😉 Hey! I remember you in the audience! You were the know-it-all, amirite? 😉 (Okay, the \*cute \*know-it-all.) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/395 "2017-06-26T15:37:44Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > You could go see a concert from the biggest band in the world, have great seats, and pay only $10 or less for your ticket. $10 represents 8 hours of work at a $1.25 minimum wage. ---
**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 26, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/396 "2017-06-26T16:08:22Z")
I think it was 1972 I paid $10 bucks each for tickets to a J. Geils concert. Would have been around $1.60 an hour washing dishes at the Woolworths then. ---
**Author:** ![Last\_Glacial\_Maximum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Last\_Glacial\_Maximum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Last_Glacial_Maximum)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/397 "2017-06-26T18:05:01Z")
Here’s an event I can’t see happening nowadays… This story is going back to 1973 or 1974. My Mother was a widow and married my stepfather in 1972. I knew he was not my “real” Dad but as an 8 year old, any adult male is an authority figure. Well, one day, my stepfather decided it was time to clear out all the brush {sticker bushes we called them} on the property lines of our 1 acre suburban lot. His solution? Fire! It was just him and I home alone on that fateful day… Now by 8 years old, I was well seasoned concerning “playing with matches” and I knew you had to be careful… I sheepishly mentioned that maybe using fire was not such a good idea. My stepfather answered “I don’t wanna mess with those thorns”. Pretty soon there’s a nice fire going, and a few minutes later my stefather yells “get the hose” ! I give him the hose and run into the house. Afraid… A few seconds later, I glance out the back window of the house and there is an inferno roaring on our property lines. {Think of those videos from southern California where clumps of brush are on fire everywhere and the flames are shooting high into the sky}. A second later, my stepfather rushes into the house and yells: “sonofabitch ! The backyard is on fire” ! His face was covered in soot, except for two circles around his eyes where he had been rubbing them. It’s funny to think about now in hindsight. The fire department was called and had the fire put out in a few minutes with no damage except to my stepfather’s pride. I never really brought the subject up until over 20 years later when I was an adult. The funny thing is, that this was the only time he did something dangerous. He was an excellent carpenter and always thought things through. He taught me many things {mostly by example}. He passed in 2009. I do miss him. . ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/398 "2017-06-26T18:59:51Z")
Beer came in steel cans. My father believed (correctly) that they would simply rust away to nothing he he sunk them in the lake while fishing. So, that’s what he did. I’m still horrified. ---
**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 26, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/399 "2017-06-26T19:27:40Z")
You were a Tough Guy if you could crush the can in your hand. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/400 "2017-06-26T19:41:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So this weekend I saw that the movie _Butterflies Are Free_ was scheduled to air on MeTV. It was released the year I was born, but I vaguely remembered seeing it on TV when I was a child, and I was curious enough to watch it again. In the apartment of the male main character, there was a refrigerator with the compressor on top. I can’t remember ever seeing a refrigerator like that, even though I must have seen refrigerators from at least the late 1960s when I was a child. So were compressor-top refrigerators still a reasonably common thing in the late 60s to early 70s, or was the prop used to signify just how outdated and run down the apartment was? (The one in the movie looked much like the one directly below the very cool red one on [this](https://hubpages.com/living/GE-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-The-Most-Recognized-Vintage-Refrigerator) page.) It’s a crummy, run-down apartment. He wanted to get away from his over-protective mother, so he took the first place he could get, and he couldn’t afford much. Although, to be fair, you could repair appliances, and stuff lasted forever then. In our Manhattan apartment, we had a really old stove and refrigerator. I don’t think the stuff was from the Depression, but it was probably from the Eisenhower administration. When we moved into a house in Queens, it had appliances that were less than 10 years old, and my parents fussed over them like they were brand new. The house had a BUILT-IN DISHWASHER! OMG! We were living like royalty! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=21)