Random childhood memories in and around the 1970’s.
Sure, it was a time that will mostly be remembered for Vietnam, Watergate, playing in the streets, drinking for garden hoses and unlocked front doors. But, for those of us who grew up in the ’70’s it was the sweetest time to be alive. It was an innocent era where disco reigned supreme and nothing was more joyously terrifying than Jaws. The absolute best years to be a kid as we slid into the early 80’s with fanny packs and shoulder-pads.
Vibrating washing machines that would roll around, manual music speed selectors, soft drink vending based on honor systems, pet rocks, swim buoys that helped drown children, single use expensive flash bulbs, handmade Xmas decorations, mum applying mercurochrome ointment on everything, slime, mail order sea monkeys, mood rings, gerbil cages, ashtrays everywhere, rag drives, being smuggles into drive-in movie theatres under blankets or in the boot, sexual innuendo, EKKA showbags for 20 cents, boiling hot bum metal slides and so much more…
Do me a solid, take a chill pill, boogie down, sit on it and get the skinny… Here are just some of my childhood memories collected down under and in the USA. Cool beans. 10-4, good buddy, I’ll catch you on the flip-side.
If you recognize most of my childhood memories, you are as old as me.
Jaws, Star Wars, Grease, Mad Max, The French Connection, E.T.. Alien, Back To The Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gallipoli, Carrie, Ghostbusters, The Exorcist, Beetlejuice, The Godfather and Die Hard were some of the most memorable movies in our lifetime.
On the idiot box, The Mary Tyler More Show, Charlies Angels, M*A*S*H, Laverne & Shirley, Get Smart, Dragnet, The Bob Newhart Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Dallas, Maude, The Love Boat, Happy Days, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch and Hogan’s Heroes got primetime accolades.
Some of the most well known TV & movie stars included Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Burt Reynolds, Al Pacino, Lucille Ball, Mel Gibson, Woody Allen, Jane Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Alan Alda, Gene Hackman, Eddie Murphy, Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Jack Nicholson, Goldie Hawn, Jodie Foster, Walter Matthau, Robert DeNiro, Donald Sutherland, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Danny DeVito, Dan Aykroyd, Harrison Ford and John Travolta.
In the 70’s and early 80’s we listened to 8-track tapes of Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer and Marvin Gaye, while my jackaroo brother listed to Slim Dusty in his ute. Disco rose and with us on 33’s and 45’s with the sounds of ABBA, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer and migrated to pop on cassette with George Michael, Wham!, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Billy Joel. Artists like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Leonard Cohen told tales of restlessness while Don McLean‘s “American Pie” meant to eulogize Buddy Holly and the early years of rock ’n’ roll became a 70’s anthem. On the rock front, bands like the Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Tears for Fears, A-ha, David Bowie, Phil Collins and Queen dominated airwaves. New Wave in the early 80’s entered the clubs with Culture Club, the Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell.