Oh and PANELING!!!
Avocado green appliances.
Huntley-Brinkley, bell bottoms, muscle cars, cruisin’ all night for $2.00, Tie Dye, LPs, 8 tracks, Braniff, Doomsday Defense, CB radios, Arab oil embargo, Watergate, Pong, Jeff Beck, Layla, Honda Trail 70s, Schwinn Continentals (or Varsity), Holley carbs, Crager Mags, Edelbrock manifolds, Hooker Headers, motorcycle boots, wide leather watchbands, braided belts, IZOD, fondue, Avocado and Harvest kitchens, VietNam war on the evening news, Jonestown, Don Harris and despair as sucky ass disco started becoming popular.
Sesame Street - I was born in 1973. Even into the late 80s when I caught a glimpse of it they were still showing clips and animation that seemed to come straight from the 70s (plus the 70s seemed to have the whole friendly urban neighborhood thing going on moreso than the 80s or today at least.)
Nixon, mood rings, platform shoes, Love’s Baby Soft, Abba, Lip Smackers lip gloss, blue jeans that had rainbow stitching across the back and down the sides, the book series “The Bastard”, the TV show Emergency!, Tiger Beat magazine, the DeFranco family, Farrah hair, the Osmonds, Super Friends, the Banana Splits, the Monkees, The Partridge Family, watching wrestling on TV with my brother - I’ll stop now but I could go on all morning. 
Ugly clothes… yeah, I had em… born in 1957. Viet Nam and wondering whether it’d still be going on when I hit 18 and the possiblity of getting drafted.
The 70s saw me through the ages of 4-14.
At pre-school age I remember HR Puffenstuff (sp?) and Pop-Tarts.
In grade school I had feathered hair, painter pants, rugby shirt, all dressed up with my gigantic Boston belt buckle.
Later, there were clogs and blue eyeshadow .
Most pop music in any decade is crap. I’m not a big Boston fan, but they sound like Mozart after you listen to “My Humps.”
Waffle Stompers
Leisure suits
Women had those horrid wooden purses with all manner of crap glued to them. They also wore croched vests and hung all their houseplants an macreme’d hanging baskets.
There were only two kinds of athletic shoes. Kids wore Converse and adults wore Adidas.
Tennis was big, as was soccer because of Kyle Rote Jr.
born in '61, the first thing I thought of was the Hang Ten logo on the shirts we used to wear in junior high
Actually Boston sounded pretty good to me back then, and I hesitated before putting them in that list. Maybe we should substitute Foghat.
Purple microdot
Pot
Quaaludes
Tons of music
Chukka boots
Andy Travis’s hair. Born in 1960.
Black light posters and headshops with all kinds of stuff in them.
I was born in 1960, so I ended my adolescence (at least I think it’s ended) in 1979.
Do y’all know what a headshop is? Some of my younger friends don’t seem to know.
Saturday Night Live with the original cast. 1975, baby!
Blotter acid.
Paul McCartney & Wings. Steely Dan.
Cher singing “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” ad nauseum on my first portable radio, which I listened to with earphones after my folks went to bed at night.
“Dark Shadows” (but only VERY early in the decade).
TAB cola
Zip-up tunic-length vests with those huge ring zipper tabs to pull up and down.
Malibu Barbie.
Shag haircuts, a style I still like to this day.
Schwinn 10-speed bikes with those spidery, skinny tires and rams’ horn handlebars.
Sigh. I miss every dreadful, tasteless moment of that decade!
–Beck, who was 12 in 1970
No, WE lowered the thermostat until it squealed at my house too. Good thing those thick wool johnny-collar sweaters were so popular to wear in those (winter) days, in a variety of fun, muted neutral colors like tan, beige and ecru. I wore one over my flannel nightgown to bed. Just barely warm enough as I recall, but what a sensational fashion statement. One that screamed “VIRGIN” for everyone in the neighborhood to hear.
Not only were cigarettes less than a buck a pack, but anyone of any age could buy them. My mother often sent me to the neighborhood grocery store with a CHECK, signed by her, for a dollar and a half or so for about 3 packs, and this was when I was 12-13 years old. Unbelievable.
–Beck
No, I believe it–because I also did it. I made many, many errands to the corner drugstore for my Mom. Two dollars would buy two large packs of cigarettes, a candy bar for me, and leave Mom enough change that it meant something.
On April 2, 1971, Dark Shadows came to an end. I staggered into the kitchen were my parents were drinking coffee and gasped, “It’s over. I think that was the last episode.”
The ‘seventies for me were when I came of age, lost my innocence, fell in love, and danced until dawn. I wore a mood ring, jumpsuits, and acetate shirts.
Salieri compared to “My Humps.”
Ok I’m being a little unfair to the zeros or the aughts or whatever we’re calling this decade by picking what may be the worst popular song of all time to represent it. But I stand by my contention that while the 70’s deserves it’s miserable rep for fashion, the music of the time is as good as any era. Even disco was better (IMO, of course) than the robotic thump of modern dance music. At least disco often had a decent melody and a somewhat complicated beat.
Another thing about the seventies: hitch-hiking. I hitched all over the place, sometimes for hundreds of miles. And you’d see hitch-hikers all the time too. You don’t see that any more.
The Gremlin! That’s the one I was trying to remember.
Re the contacts: that must be it, that soft ones were coming out. I remember reading about them in the Chicago Daily News–and excellent newspaper and one much missed still.
platform shoes, knickers (not underwear), ponchos, gauchos, toe socks (socks like gloves), leg warmers (more 80s perhaps)…
I remember Watergate as a bunch of old men yelling at one another and being mean to our President. It’s good to learn history instead of relying on memories…
I am still a child of the energy crisis–my thermostat is set at 68. I like sweaters (really).
Remember cowl necks? Their coming back, more’s the pity…
Helen Reddy roaring, Sonny and Cher have a TV show, as does Flip Wilson (loved him), and WLS was THE radio station in Chicago for Top 40, unless you listened to WCFL–the JDs had a rivalry going.
Not quite so light-hearted: my mother couldn’t get a credit card in her own name in 1972, when my dad up and left…good times.