7 Reasons I'm Grateful I Was A '70s Kid

"Avocado green was the hot appliance color."
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I’m a certified nut for nostalgia and I recognize that in myself; a toy, a song, television show or a glimpse of anything ever made in a ceramics class tend to make me misty.

Last weekend, as my husband and I watched the series The Seventies on CNN, I turned to him dramatically and said in all sincerity “I AM SO GLAD I GREW UP DURING THIS TIME,” with tears in my eyes following a clip of All In The Family.

I told you, I’m nostalgic. Here’s why:

Simplicity

Simplicity is the most obvious difference between being a kid back in the day and a kid today. Computers were giant monsters the size of a bedroom dresser that existed mostly in offices or in movies; copy machines and calculators were considered high tech and phones were attached to the wall with a long coily cords you’d twirl between your fingers. Handheld devices were Merlin, Speak & Spell and Mattel’s Electronic Football.

Décor

Avocado green was the hot appliance color. Harvest gold and tulip orange were hot too. Wood paneling, a “rumpus” room and a bar in your basement, intricate stone work that looked like it was straight out of Bedrock. And these wooden folding doors that were in our living room. All this ‘70s glory screams childhood to me and makes me very happy.

Birthday Parties

Birthday parties were at your house, and your friends put on dresses and Mary Jane shoes to attend them. Mom would order pizza and make a doll cake. There would be games where you had to eat a saltine cracker and whistle, pin the tail on the donkey or carry an egg on a teaspoon without breaking it. Balloons, crepe paper, little plastic goody bags. Birthdays were special.

School

I just finished buying school supplies for my 8- and 11-year-old boys and felt like the oldest lady in the world as I said over and over, “Remember when you’d just show up to school with your notebook and some pens and pencils? Do you? Huh?!” I loved my elementary school teachers like they were members of my family, square dancing in PE, practicing cursive and lunch ladies making amazing meals and homemade cookies.

Fashion

Terrycloth shorts, muscle shirts, designer jeans, knee-high athletic socks, headbands, sweatbands and wristbands ― I long for each and every one of these bands!

TV/Movies/Music

The Jefferson’s MASH, Good Times and Mary Tyler Moore and don’t forget Saturday morning cartoons and School House Rock! So many films of the decade are considered classics today like Rocky, Jaws and The Exorcist. And the soundtrack of my youth was listened to on an 8 track tape in that rumpus room — The Bee Gee’s, The Rolling Stones, Blondie and The Jackson 5. And God Bless you John Travolta for being my crush through every one of these mediums — my neighborhood gang would “play” Grease in our yard, taking turns singing “Summer Lovin” back and forth to each other.

Freedom

Summertime sun up to sun down bike rides on my banana seat without a care in the world. Walking several blocks to the bus stop/library/deli on the corner on my own. Day Camp where we were left to flip baseball cards, play jacks or run around like fools on the playground. Fun.

All of these things and so much more make me grateful to have been a kid during the ‘70s; when the Good Humor man wore a little white cap and neighbors on our block would “stoop sit” at night on their front steps, watching the kids play to the tune of the transistor radio.

Lori’s website, Drawn to the ‘80s, is where her 5-year-old son drew the hit music of the 1980s. Her blog, Once Upon a Product, is where she writes about important things like beauty products, food and her Mick Jagger obsession.

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