# 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:** 22
**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 27, 2017, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/421 "2017-06-27T11:43:05Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Ah, that nostalgic 60-cycle hum. And we’d curse the DJ if they decided to talk over the song’s ending! ---
**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 27, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/422 "2017-06-27T12:52:31Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > The secret was to hold the can with the seam against the palm of your hand (cans were not stamped out of one piece of metal then), and crush the can with your fingers on the side opposite the seam. > > I also remember linking the pull top rings into a chain so you didn’t litter the ground with them. The secret was to use someone else’s head. You could collect pop-tops to get dialysis for people, and cigarette packs to get respirators. And Mikey died in Vietnam, and Paul was dead. I’m not sure how this stuff spread without the internet, school buses I guess. ---
**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 27, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/423 "2017-06-27T13:50:18Z")
You _could_ get money for collecting lighting bugs, back before they cloned the lucifren and lucifrace genes. ---
**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 27, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/424 "2017-06-27T16:29:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “They make them out of aluminum now, Gandy. Anyone can be a tough guy.” > Maybe. You remember The Rockford Files better than I. Hmm, I got my quote from a Rockford-friendly website, but your wording sounds more correct, more like I remember it. Aside, in one episode Rockford describes how he coped in prison, by being the toughest, baddest guy in the cell block. No one would mess with him. Until one day, a bigger, badder dude showed up. Lesson - there’s always a badder dude out there. I wonder if that dude was Gandy? Did they ever say for sure? ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/425 "2017-06-27T20:42:45Z")
**Stuff that was different in the 60s and 70s** Grannies Back in the day, grandmothers all looked like [this](https://em.wattpad.com/9dd90593bf5864e5ac8419d97d841d0d973d037a/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f33777946363464744b4c2d6c63773d3d2d3232303936383238312e313433333339366366363538636330322e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280). Now, they all look like [this](http://i1.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article5470734.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/OAPs-Behaving-Badly.jpg). …not that I’m complaining… ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/426 "2017-06-27T21:01:05Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > **Stuff that was different in the 60s and 70s** > > Grannies > > Back in the day, grandmothers all looked like [this](https://em.wattpad.com/9dd90593bf5864e5ac8419d97d841d0d973d037a/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f33777946363464744b4c2d6c63773d3d2d3232303936383238312e313433333339366366363538636330322e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280). > > Now, they all look like [this](http://i1.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article5470734.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/OAPs-Behaving-Badly.jpg). > > …not that I’m complaining… I just was thinking about this. You’re right. Both my grandfathers were in their late forties-early fifties when they died. I’m currently in my mid-fifties, older than either of them ever got to :(. I don’t think I look especially young for my age, but there’s no question that I look younger now than either of my grandfathers did when they were in their late forties–ten years younger than I am now. My wife is my age and she looks younger by at least a decade than my grandmothers did in their mid-fifties, too. Smoking is part of it, I think, and so is heavy drinking (most of my grandparents did both, we don’t do either). But I don’t think it’s just that. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/427 "2017-06-27T22:29:11Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Smoking is part of it, I think, and so is heavy drinking (most of my grandparents did both, we don’t do either). But I don’t think it’s just that. It’s more than the smoking and drinking. It’s also the clothing - Archie and Edith Bunker weren’t even 50 yet when All in the Family went on the air, and Edith looked older than my now 77 year old mother does. But in the '70s , you just didn’t see 40 year olds and up wearing the same clothes as 20 and 30 year olds. They didn’t wear jeans or khakis and the women wore “housedresses” , not any sort of pants. I don’t even think you can buy those dresses anymore- the last group of women who would have worn them would be nearly 100 years old by now. The clothes I wear now in my midfifties wouldn’t look out of place on a woman in her mid-twenties - and the fact that I don’t dress the same as my 27 year old daughter has more to do with size than age. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/428 "2017-06-27T22:34:04Z")
My parents didn’t have a dial telephone until the mid sixties. My first car with the revolutionary new radial tires was my '64 Volvo. Also my first with 3-point seat belts, but there were lap belts in my '62 Beetle. There was an all-polka radio station in the 60s in Poynette, Wisconsin. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/429 "2017-06-27T23:39:02Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > My parents didn’t have a dial telephone until the mid sixties. > > My first car with the revolutionary new radial tires was my '64 Volvo. Also my first with 3-point seat belts, but there were lap belts in my '62 Beetle. > > There was an all-polka radio station in the 60s in Poynette, Wisconsin. Wow i was late 1st radials i bought were in like 1986ish ---
**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 27, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/430 "2017-06-27T23:46:00Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There was an all-polka radio station in the 60s in Poynette, Wisconsin. The world wonders. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/431 "2017-06-27T23:52:28Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > It’s more than the smoking and drinking. It’s also the clothing - Archie and Edith Bunker weren’t even 50 yet when All in the Family went on the air, and Edith looked older than my now 77 year old mother does. But in the '70s , you just didn’t see 40 year olds and up wearing the same clothes as 20 and 30 year olds. They didn’t wear jeans or khakis and the women wore “housedresses” , not any sort of pants. I don’t even think you can buy those dresses anymore- the last group of women who would have worn them would be nearly 100 years old by now. The clothes I wear now in my midfifties wouldn’t look out of place on a woman in her mid-twenties - and the fact that I don’t dress the same as my 27 year old daughter has more to do with size than age. My neighbor across the street wears house dresses. And I think she’s younger than me. I’m 66, and I’m currently wearing camo cargo shorts. I don’t think women have blue hair any more now. At least, not that looked like [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKWD9kAWrls/Tn5cmrFGhWI/AAAAAAAAGLs/BLZFlEtF7pA/s1600/bluehair.jpg). ---
**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 28, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/432 "2017-06-28T00:12:45Z")
What the hell was the idea behind blue hair, anyway? ---
**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 28, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/433 "2017-06-28T00:15:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > My neighbor across the street wears house dresses. And I think she’s younger than me. I’m 66, and I’m currently wearing camo cargo shorts. > > I don’t think women have blue hair any more now. At least, not that looked like [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKWD9kAWrls/Tn5cmrFGhWI/AAAAAAAAGLs/BLZFlEtF7pA/s1600/bluehair.jpg). Only “kids” in their 20s have blue hair now. 🙂 Yeah, parents wore “parents clothes” when I was a kid, and now I wear pretty much the same thing 20-year-olds wear. If I’m hanging out with a multi-generational group, we’re all pretty much wearing the same stuff. No one looks like a dorky adult compared to the young’uns. Some women still poof up their hair when they get older, but more and more are just wearing it loose (but probably dyed). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/434 "2017-06-28T00:19:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > What the hell was the idea behind blue hair, anyway? It’s a consequence of the [Blue Rinse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_rinse) hair dye used to reduce the appearance of white or grey hairs. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/435 "2017-06-28T00:25:27Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The world was both a lot more uptight and less professional. You’d wear a suit to work and get drunk/tipsy during a 2 hour lunch. Now you can wear jeans, and a two hour lunch (much less the freedom to openly drink in the middle of your shift) is never seen. Let me tell you some stories about the wonderful world of journalism… 😉 ---
**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 28, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/436 "2017-06-28T01:57:48Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > It’s a consequence of the [Blue Rinse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_rinse) hair dye used to reduce the appearance of white or grey hairs. But it is _blue_. Why didn’t they dye their hair to the original color? I would ask my maternal Grandmother, but alas, she is dead, blue hair and all. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/437 "2017-06-28T02:21:14Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > But it is _blue_. Why didn’t they dye their hair to the original color? I would ask my maternal Grandmother, but alas, she is dead, blue hair and all. Blueing is supposed to counter the yellowish tone that some white-haired people have, if it’s not overused. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/438 "2017-06-28T06:03:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yeah, parents wore “parents clothes” when I was a kid It’s not just the clothes–it was a matter of social roles. Your parents were your parents…not your friends. The family, like all of society, had an authoritarian structure. Today, things are informal, and much much more egalitarian. Kids don’t mind if their parents come to the rock concert with them. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/439 "2017-06-28T11:57:32Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Blueing is supposed to counter the yellowish tone that some white-haired people have, if it’s not overused. The most common product was Alberto VO5 “Blue”. Hair setting goop. Still [sold](http://www.vo5haircare.com/products/vo5-styling-5-vitamin-formula/), labeled for gray hair. Yeah, I had a grandmother that overused that. ---
**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 28, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/440 "2017-06-28T13:20:22Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > It’s not just the clothes–it was a matter of social roles. > Your parents were your parents…not your friends. > > The family, like all of society, had an authoritarian structure. > Today, things are informal, and much much more egalitarian. > > Kids don’t mind if their parents come to the rock concert with them. Definitely. When I was growing up, there was the kids’s world and there was the parents’ world, and they rarely intersected. We played outside all day with our friends, and the parents did… well, they did whatever parent-type people did. And we liked it that way! We valued our Generation Gap, but then they had to go and make it into a game show… I guess we did eat dinner together, usually, but we weren’t supposed to talk at the table. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=23)