# What the Hell Was Wrong with People in the 1970's? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635 "2006-07-22T22:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/41 "2006-07-23T04:35:22Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > However, I don’t think that anyone will ever look at photos from say 1995 and burst into hysterics. I would never let someone who wasn’t at least 50% related to me by blood see my pictures from 1998. > [@Harmonious Discord](#): > > New art types > Drugs like LSD and Mushrooms > Sexual revelution “Free love” > Mini skirts Check, check, check, check. > [@Harmonious Discord](#): > > Tank tops, and holter tops without bras, the more boobs and butt cheeks the better. > Jeans with patches all over Check, check, check. > [@Harmonious Discord](#): > > The every day thought of Nucular Annihilation > The gas shortages and price hikes. Check, check. Come on, dude, this is a thread about the SEVENTIES, not the 90s and 2000s. > [@Nic2004](#): > > Oh. And Disco still Sucks. > [@What Exit?](#): > > And it always will! Having never been to the seventies, I have a theory that everyone who bashes disco was secretly a maniac on the dance floor in 1978. I’ve never been proven wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/42 "2006-07-23T04:57:05Z")
You guys will love this: [Interior Desecrations](http://lileks.com/institute/interiors/index.html). My personal favorite in the “What were they thinking?” department has got to be shag rug. I mean, the really long shag rug that looked like yarn. Not only was it hideous, but you just didn’t want to know what was living in it. Entire families of mice could hide in it. When I was in college in the 1980’s, my apartment had been finished in the 1970’s, complete with bright green shag rug. Then I had to move down the hall, and that apartment had bright red shag rug. Oh, my poor eyes. The lack of taste of the 1970’s was result of the drug-addled baby boomers getting old enough to have some say about fashion and design. It was a uniquely ugly decade. It’s not just that it’s old and quaint - the 1940’s, for instance, were very stylish and tasteful. 1940’s fashions are now in vogue again, for the simple reason that they look good. But I have to say that we’re heading dangerously back in the direction of hideous style again. What the hell is with all the bling on cars, for instance? Car wheels are getting out of control. I saw a soccer mom driving an SUV with what looked like 22" wheels on it, in this really garish sort of buzzsaw-looking chrome pattern, with _spinners_ on it. In case you haven’t discovered the idiocy and ugliness of spinners yet, they are hubcabs that are designed to freewheel so that when the car starts moving it looks like the wheels are standing still, and when it stops at a light it looks like the wheels are still turning. It’s stupid as hell, and tasteless. And what’s with boys wearing _swim trunks_ that look like long shorts that go below the knee? What is this, the 1920’s? There’s a reason we wear small swim trunks - it’s becuase 20 pounds of sodden cloth clinging to your legs and knees really sucks. Cut it out. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/43 "2006-07-23T04:59:31Z")
I must say, though, that being a teenager in the 1970’s totally rocked. Great music as long as you weren’t into disco. We had long hair, wore jeans and T-shirts and jean jackets, had bush parties, and women didn’t wear bras. What was not to like? ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/44 "2006-07-23T05:38:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] You guys will love this: [Interior Desecrations](http://lileks.com/institute/interiors/index.html). [/QUOTE] I just went through the first few of these, and laughed so hard I almost threw up. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/45 "2006-07-23T05:48:27Z")
[QUOTE=CanvasShoes] I burst into hysterics now whenever I see one of those young men with a pair of those “toddler with a poopy diaper” pants on trying to step up onto a curb. Or heck, just walk for that matter. Those have been around since at least 1995, and they’re funnier than ever. It really cracks me up when they have to hold up the crotch as if they were little old ladies of the old south holding up a hoop skirt! 😃 [/QUOTE] But how many teenagers do that now adays? 10, maybe 20 percent? Everyone seems to be going their own direction this decade. While there are trends, they come and go seemingly every year, sometimes less. Hippie clothes, Uggs, black with pink “motorcycle” attire, popped collars - it’s not only nothing unique to our time, it’s nothing that a vast majority follow and it never lasts long enough to make an impression. I mean, what’s the typical hairstyle of a teenager? What does a typical teenager wear? And their shoes? I just don’t think we have a single unified trend anymore. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/46 "2006-07-23T06:01:59Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope] As the wheel of fashion accelerates, though, the 80s are already edging out the 70s as the nostalgia _du jour_ (has there ever been a generation as collectively nostalgic as the current 20somethings?). _Napoleon Dynamite_ was a turning point, and if you look through the clothing selections at Target, you’ll see quite a lot of apparel that wouldn’t have been out of place in the video for “Let’s Get Physical.” [/QUOTE] Ain’t that the truth. I was just looking through the clothes for little girls at Mervyn’s, and right next to the chocolate-brown embroidered peasant skirts was a rack of pink and grey striped dresses that could have been worn by any of my friends in 1985. It was really weird to see something _that_ exact; usually a retro fashion will look updated somehow, but these were precise recreations. (Pink and grey is back?!?) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/47 "2006-07-23T10:04:39Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] I suspect that a lot of it was a desire to do _anything at all_ differently from how one’s parents did it. Just a WAG, though. Me, I would live in the 70s in a heartbeat if somebody gave me a time machine. Some of the hairstyles and fashion trends of the 70s were actually quite awesome, and “retro” stores make a good amount of money selling them to people born in the mid-80s like me. Ever notice how many companies use all-lowercase letters in their logos? Looks good, don’t it? That came from the 70s (I think). Baseball jerseys looked better then. My mom had a very 70s art piece, all in that dark orange everyone loved back then, of a cat laying on a checkerboard, which looked awesome. 70s cars looked way better than 80s cars, and for that matter so did 70s hair. I for one think nothing says “badass” like a giant afro. [/QUOTE] I would return to the seventies tomorrow if possible. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/48 "2006-07-23T10:43:09Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] …bright orange kitchen… [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] …orange and brown everything… [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=fetus] …that dark orange everyone loved back then… [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=CanvasShoes] …the oranges, browns and avacado… [/QUOTE] That “orange” in the '70’s was known as “Harvest Gold.” It was what my Mom did with the kitchen, a color I will never forget. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/49 "2006-07-23T11:03:38Z")
According to Martin Mull (70’s talk show host) leisure suits cause cancer. And what happened to all of those white 3 piece suits (that John Travolta wore in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER)? Honestly, I agree with the 70’s home decor-it was awful! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/50 "2006-07-23T11:45:10Z")
They really mean dark orange, whe they say dark orange. Not Harvest gold, witch is a mustard yellow brown. The problems with appliances back then was a selction of three colors and no more. The women bounced on the new color for an appliance, when it was ten years between releases. White, Harvest Gold, Avacodo, Dark Brown were what was available. They changed the tone a little and gave them new names in the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/51 "2006-07-23T11:56:24Z")
Farrah. 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Foldup\_Rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Foldup\_Rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foldup_Rabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/52 "2006-07-23T12:10:03Z")
I don’t know. The house my mother bought in the nineties clearly had not been redecorated since it was built in 1975. Not only did we have long, thick shag carpeting, but it was forest green. So lush and verdant that it _looked like grass_. This carpeting came with a rake. Y’know, so you could get the two-inch carpet bits to point in the same direction. This rake was not just your average garden rake, either. On the side, it read, “KARPET RAKE”. That’s right, this rake was made _specifically for shag carpets_. The nature-terrific carpeting was not, however, the worst seventies decorating mistake made in our house. Our entryway had wallpaper. _Paisley_ wallpaper. _Gold_ paisley wallper. _Furry_, gold paisely wallpaper. I shit you not. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/53 "2006-07-23T12:24:53Z")
Was there any such thing as postmodern design and architecture in the 70’s? Looking at the photos of the Gobbler hotel linked to above, it looks real “PoMo” to me–elements from several styles all sort of just, so to speak, jumbled together, objects and materials used outside their conventional function, etc. Just a guess. Can anyone confirm/disconfirm? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/54 "2006-07-23T12:36:56Z")
Ah, yes, the 70’s. I graduated High School in 1975, and I have a name for the decorating schemes then: Mid-70’s Grotesque. It fits. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/55 "2006-07-23T12:39:31Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] They really mean dark orange, whe they say dark orange. Not Harvest gold, witch is a mustard yellow brown. The problems with appliances back then was a selction of three colors and no more. The women bounced on the new color for an appliance, when it was ten years between releases. White, Harvest Gold, Avacodo, Dark Brown were what was available. They changed the tone a little and gave them new names in the 80’s. [/QUOTE] This is true. I would say about 80-90% of the people we knew had kitchens in one of these four color schemes. Personally I hated the Avocado and didn’t mind so much the Harvest Gold my mother had selected. The stove, refrigerator and dishwasher were all Harvest Gold (the white washer and dryer were in another room). We didn’t have a micorwave. My aunt chose the brown for her kitchen color scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/56 "2006-07-23T13:50:01Z")
[QUOTE=Foldup Rabbit] Our entryway had wallpaper. _Paisley_ wallpaper. _Gold_ paisley wallper. _Furry_, gold paisely wallpaper. I shit you not. [/QUOTE] The wallpaper was flocked. The houses built in the fifties and sixties, had four inch plastic squares, that covered the kitchen and bathroom walls. They stayed on the walls until the 80’s in many homes. There was a pearly white, yellow, pink, blue, and black. Any place that ceramic went, this was hung. Our kitchen had yellow, and the bathroom white. My grandpa’s bathroom had pink until it was sold in about 2001. The tub and sink were pink. The floor was green. His house and second wife, were my inspiration for the old people description previously. You knew multiple families that had the green sculpted carpeting. I swear a third of the houses had that carpet. It gets worse. They bought the same one, when the old one needed replacing. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/57 "2006-07-23T14:51:24Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp] That “orange” in the '70’s was known as “Harvest Gold.” It was what my Mom did with the kitchen, a color I will never forget. [/QUOTE] No, no. The four colors of the apocalypse were harvest gold, burnt orange, avocado and brown. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/58 "2006-07-23T14:54:44Z")
I should clarify. Burnt orange was not an appliance option, but was often seen in decorating tandem with the other colors. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/59 "2006-07-23T15:22:16Z")
While I’d agree the 1970s were a bad time for interior design, I think you folks have your heads up your collective asses to a large extent. Interior design’s probably better now than then, but are things overall really uglier? I have to point out that we are, right now, probably the worst-dressed people in the history of Western civilization, at least in North America; the fashions of today are just appalling, far worse than in the 70s. We’re living in a time when many grown adults consider it perfectly acceptable to go out in public wearing flip-flops, which prior to about 1993 no self-respecting person would wear outside a shower. (I will not even speak of crocs, a.k.a. “Retard shoes.”) Pyjamas are commonplace replacements for pants. People go to dinner wearing what in the 1970s (or 1960s, or what have you) would have been considered beach attire, and crappy beach attire at that. Men wear huge, ridiculous shorts. Casual attire is wrinkly amd unflatteringly loose; what a middle class person would wear today is sometimes indistringuishable from what a homeless person might wear. I absolutely guarantee than in the 2020s and 2030s, the 2000s will be remembered for clothing exactly the way we now look at the 1970s for interior design. (I also suspect the infantile obsession so many people have with carrying water bottles at all times and sucking on them like a replacement breast will be regarded in the same way we now regard leg warmers and pet rocks.) So don’t get too cocky. Your kids and grandkids will be laughing at us for what we wear. At least an ugly living room doesn’t travel with you. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635/60 "2006-07-23T15:36:50Z")
The thing that always strikes me about the 70s (I was born in `77, so this is mostly based on photos and video clips) is that fashion was turned on its ear for people of ALL ages and professions. Here’s an example: Male TV presenters in every other decade, before and since, have favored the typical timeless (if boring) business suit. In the `70s, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and a young [Bill O’Reilly](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0301061billo1.jpg) could be found dressing like outright pimps. Another example: The powder blue tuxedo. Based on wedding photos from the `70s, including my parents’, it seemed to pervade society for a short time, and then somehow everyone reverted back to plain ol’ black. Sure, every decade has its own unique style, but I think there was definitely something _different_ about the way it manifested itself in the `70s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-was-wrong-with-people-in-the-1970s/365635.md?page=4)