# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/61 "2017-06-12T03:44:40Z")
To expand on the above posts about cars not starting during the winter, my recollection is that many cars came equipped with electrical plugs sticking out of the front grill that you would hook up to an extension cord in the garage to run juice to some device that heated up the engine block. Regardless if you had one or not, \<30F meant starting your car a half hour, at a minimum, before you had to leave in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/62 "2017-06-12T03:47:30Z")
When I started reading comics there were still reverberations from the price going to 12 cents from 10 cents. The 80 page “annuals” were 25 cents. I read my brother’s MADs, I think they were 35 cents. In 1965, a pack of cigarettes was 34 cents. At my dad’s store, you could get 3 packs for a dollar. Candy bars were smaller than they are now and cost 5 cents. Battles were fought between boys who wanted to grow their hair long (bangs and over the tops of their ears) and their parents. Wearing jeans to school was another battle. For girls, it was mini skirts. Girls wore hip hugger jeans. Your parents were always telling you to turn DOWN the volume of your music. Everyone watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights. ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/63 "2017-06-12T03:50:51Z")
You behaved appropriately in public or else. I have the dent in my arm to prove it. You spoke quietly in stores, restaurants, libraries and doctors’ offices. Our elementary school had Christmas pageants and Easter parties. If your car or motorcycle made a lot of noise, people would make fun of you for having a POS. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/64 "2017-06-12T03:52:47Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > I read my brother’s MADs, I think they were 35 cents. Cheap! It was before my time, but from looking at cover images online, it appears Mad Magazine was 25 cents at the beginning of the sixties. It was 60 cents an issue by the time I started buying it in the late 70s. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/65 "2017-06-12T03:53:53Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Yeah, this is…strange. Some stats regarding motor vehicle deaths: > > In 2015 just over 35,000 Americans were killed in car crashes. > > That number is less than ANY year in the 1960s or 1970s. 1960 and 1961 are only about 1000 more, but beginning in 1964 it never dropped again below 44,000. > > The 1960-1979 numbers of course were in a much smaller population (180 mil in 1960, over 300 mil today) and with many fewer vehicle miles traveled (719 billion in 1960, over 3 trillion today). > > So: fatalities per 100 million miles driven: the best figure in the two olden decades, 3.25 (1976), and more commonly in the 4+ range; the figure today, 1.12. > > And fatalities per 100,000 people: best olden decades figure is 19.7 (1961), and other than that, 20-26; today, 11.3. > > Sure, better medical care, better emergency rates, better driver training, etc., may play roles in preventing fatalities. But there’s really no argument to be made that cars were safer “back then” than they are now. In fact, the opposite is almost certainly true. > > Stats from [Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year). [1959 Chevy Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevy Malibu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/66 "2017-06-12T04:01:56Z")
We had milk delivered every morning, through a “milk chute” in the kitchen wall. We kids used to hitch rides on the back of the milk truck, where there was an enormous block of ice to keep everything cool. At Halloween, every single house gave out candy, on both the 30th and the 31st. We used to get four shopping bags of candy. The Miss America contest was a big deal. Everyone watched it. Mail was delivered twice a day around Christmas, and even on Sundays. Everyone sent Christmas cards, and it was a big event when you’d get stores’ Christmas catalogs. We’d go out to play in the morning, and not return until it got dark. Nobody worried. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can remember buying a new paperback book for ninety-five cents. And comic books were twenty-five cents. I remember when paperbacks were a quarter, and comic books were a dime. There were some “trashy” paperbacks that were a dime, but I never bought them. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > More generally, cars broke down/quit running/wouldn’t start a lot more often; but there was a better chance that there was something you could change or add or fiddle with to get it to run again. Cars were stuck on the side of the road all the time, with someone fiddling with the engine or changing a tire. We used to yell “Get a horse!” at them. > [@jerez](#): > > You’d come across old coins in your change. Yes, I remember getting Buffalo Nickles, Mercury Dimes and Walking Liberty Half Dollars. Yes, half dollars were in common circulation. > [@davidm](#): > > If you missed an episode of a favorite TV show, unless that TV show had summer reruns, it was gone forever and you’d never get another chance (at least that’s what we thought). Yup, miss an episode of _Twilight Zone,_ and you’d never see it again. Or so we thought. ---
**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 12, 2017, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/67 "2017-06-12T04:08:00Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > … > Kids went outside. > It wasn’t raining buckets, GET OUT! > Get out or do chores. > > The phone was this sturdy thick plastic thing that you had to try to break. > It was attached to the wall, permanently by a cord (no RJ11 back then) > It had a loud clanging bell, anyone calling after 9pm better be dying, or they will be. > You sat where the phone was to use it. > > You watched TV when the show was on or you did not watch it. > 11:59pm the TV station was probably going off the air. > All things depending so might the radio station. > … > Not much was open 24/7 no walmart shopping at 2am, but that was no big deal, you planned accordingly. > > … I related to just about everything you listed. Wanted to comment on a few things. Kids outside: you wanted to be outside. To be kept in was a punishment. Outside you were away from parental scrutiny. When I watch House Hunters, I’m amazed that mothers consider it a requirement that their kids be within sight at all times. The phone: yeah, a phone call after 9 pm had to be bad news. Also, my mother wouldn’t let me phone anyone before noon, so as not to disturb. If I wanted to play with someone, I’d go outside near their house and hope they saw me. TV stations going off the air at midnight: a film of the flag being lowered and someone singing the “Star-Spangled Banner.” When we lived in Niagara Falls, NY, we got CBC, and watching their signoff, I learned the words to “O Canada.” 🙂 Stores and businesses not being open: especially on Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/68 "2017-06-12T04:59:50Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Traveling on a plane was considered luxurious. Only “rich” people flew. Rich people, and also businessmen–for they were mostly men–on expense accounts. > [@](#): > > Soda/pop was sold in glass bottles, and you returned the (empty) bottles to the store. In many states the store paid you for each returned bottle. And the money was well worth the trouble. IIRC you could get a couple of bucks for a case or two, and that was a lot of money for a kid back then, being enough for your choice of quite a few cool toys or model kits. Today, if you want money for your bottles you have to take them to a recycling center, and then you still get only a buck or two per case. With today’s prices, that’s like nothing, apart from the fact that it gets you back down to the shelf price for that twelve-pack of beer or 24-count case of bottle water. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/69 "2017-06-12T05:02:31Z")
> [@stolatt](#): > > You behaved appropriately in public or else. I have the dent in my arm to prove it. A _dent_? Are you a robot? ---
**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 12, 2017, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/70 "2017-06-12T05:05:12Z")
Walmart and McDonald’s were not that common. Many mid-sized cities (population 30,000 or so) had neither. There were no Starbucks. Tires used to “blow out”. It was common to see strips of rubber along any highway. You still see some now, but it’s obviously from big rigs. A blow out on the highway in the family car was a scary experience. Remember finding 1943 zinc pennies in your change? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/71 "2017-06-12T05:45:01Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > Walmart and McDonald’s were not that common. Many mid-sized cities (population 30,000 or so) had neither. I never even heard of Walmart until sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. In the 60s and 70s, it was K-mart. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/72 "2017-06-12T07:34:30Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The girls were prettier. I was just talking about that with a friend the other day. Young girls were far more natural, often didn’t use make-up, some still went braless, though that was becoming uncommon as time went on. If a girl was on the chubby but not fat side many guys thought that was attractive; and that was the same for skinny girls with flat or nearly flat chests. There was no such thing as a makeover and girls didn’t dye their hair green and tattoos and nose and body rings were extremely uncommon. Much of what it now considerable acceptable, even desirable, as in downright hip, was considered cheap forty years ago. I’m not saying it was, just sayin’ :rolleyes: Also, the concept of cheap still existed and there were still young women who aspired to be ladies. All gone, gone, gone… ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/73 "2017-06-12T10:46:12Z")
I thought of an odd difference yesterday as I was walking across a parking lot. Does anyone else remember needing to watch your step on parking lots due to oil stains? If you didn’t you’d get stains on your shoes (and track them in). Modern cars hardly leak at all. The old ones left stains wherever you parked them. ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/74 "2017-06-12T12:36:42Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > A _dent_? Are you a robot? Clearly you are not familiar with the “Polish death grip”. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/75 "2017-06-12T12:47:54Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I related to just about everything you listed. Wanted to comment on a few things. > > Kids outside: you wanted to be outside. To be kept in was a punishment. Outside you were away from parental scrutiny. When I watch House Hunters, I’m amazed that mothers consider it a requirement that their kids be within sight at all times. I think the whole “stranger danger” thing came into fruition in the late 80s-early 90s, maybe? “Stranger danger” = “helicopter parenting”. If your parent(s) kept tabs on you you’d never hear the end of it from your peers. Being called out for it automatically put you in the whatever-was-the-nerdy category social pecking order, which back then was considered a VERY bad thing. Yes, I know this from experience. Parents weren’t your friends. They were your PARENTS. You were expected to be afraid of their wrath; ergo, you learned how to sneak around. > [@](#): > > The phone: yeah, a phone call after 9 pm had to be bad news. Also, my mother wouldn’t let me phone anyone before noon, so as not to disturb. If I wanted to play with someone, I’d go outside near their house and hope they saw me. I wasn’t allowed to use the phone after 7PM. If I wanted to call somebody the earliest I could do was was 10AM “because you never know if somebody’s still asleep, especially on the weekend.” My friends were rather spread out within our town, so I couldn’t get in touch via phone and we had something planned I’d have to ride my bike to their house. [QUOTE] TV stations going off the air at midnight: a film of the flag being lowered and someone singing the “Star-Spangled Banner.” When we lived in Niagara Falls, NY, we got CBC, and watching their signoff, I learned the words to “O Canada.” :){/QUOTE] I only remember the low-power stations signing off for the night, and they usually had their logo or that horrible buzzing snow. > [@](#): > > Stores and businesses not being open: especially on Sunday. All our stores were closed on Sundays until my state repealed their blue laws. Within that, it goes town by town whether they can sell alcohol. My town doesn’t allow it, but the next town over does, but only within a supermarket – the actual liquor store is closed. ---
**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 12, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/76 "2017-06-12T12:51:24Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Ermm, not in the 60s and 70s. > > 65¢ for a pack in 1977. Some regional variations to be sure but $1.20 would be way out of range. When I started smoking (1967?) I popped a quarter in the machine and out came the cigs. Of course, that was in Virginia, a very tobacco-friendly state. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/77 "2017-06-12T12:58:55Z")
> [@Periwinkle](#): > > It seemed like divorce was more rare, I remember kids whispered about it if another kid had divorced parents. Divorce was also more difficult. California was the first state to enact a no-fault divorce law, in 1970. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/78 "2017-06-12T13:07:33Z")
Those low cig prices were before the politicians started thinking “we can’t possibly raise income taxes, where are we gonna get the money from? Hey! Lets take a dime a pack tax on cigarettes!” Repeat about twice a year. In the 60s-70s: [ul] [li]No cable news or Hate Radio. We all were working with the same set of facts.[/li][li]Got a research report due? Head your ass down to the library and start going through the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. Then go through microfilm. None of that pussy Google stuff.[/li][li]To play ball, get on your bike and ride around the neighborhood and recruit players. No need for adults in any capacity.[/li][li]It was a big deal the night each year that the Wizard of Oz was shown.[/li][li]Educational films on 16mm or on film strips. Sometimes the filmstrips came with an LP that emitted a beep to advance to the next frame. Sometimes it worked.[/li][li]If you were lucky, you got to clean the blackboard erasers by going outside and smacking them against the building and raising lots of white dust.[/li][li]You went to the gas station to pump up your bike tires. And of course you ran over the little hose that activated the bell to tell the attendant a car had arrived.[/li][li]The girls often dressed really nice for school and we boys appreciated it. But not as much as when the young teacher wore a mini.[/li][li]You had one television in the house and three channels. You would fight over who got to watch when there were two thing on at once.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/79 "2017-06-12T13:08:09Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > There were no Starbucks. Outside of college campuses and a very few areas of big cities wth either current or recent bohemian/hippie reputations, coffeeshops were unknown, in the sense of an establishment subsisting primarily through the sale of coffee. As the term was used then, a coffeeshop was usually a casual chain restaurant like Denny’s or IHOP, although they usually didn’t mind you spending an hour or two there ordering only coffee. Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688/80 "2017-06-12T13:23:43Z")
If you wanted a smoke, you lit up a cigarette. Any where and every where. Employers could ask women about their plans for marriage and children. It was assumed they would eventually get married, leave, and raise a family. The only people with any power were white Christian men. And there were no queers or lesbians. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-was-different-in-the-60s-and-70s/788688.md?page=5)