'70's life

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I know I'm kinda new around here; but yes; I did live through the 70s in Southern California. For me; those were the "good ol days". We used to go to the Pomona Sears parking lot area on saturday nights and meet up with the "Street Racers" (Big Willy from Long Beach; long story) We'ed race just east of there in the desert. (Wasn't developed much out there yet back then) When we weren't street racing; back yard parties used to dominate Friday nights or Saturdays. They would attract 300 + kids. A few I went to around Pasadena had Van Halen playing (just before going big) Police would show up at 10pm and usually disband the party peacefully. Pot smoking was rampant just about everywhere in public places. Drunk in public was a normal thing. It was surely a different world. "Disclaimer: I don't do any of those things any more" (except some of them) ; but we sure had fun! I wouldn't recommend it though. I now have a daughter that is 22 and going through her "party days" made me realize what i put my parents through. Wow have things changed.

Great idea for a thread!!!!
 
MOPE, you really did miss it. Here is an example. When I attended college, I worked full-time evening shift in a NY State nut house. We used to leave there faced almost every night at 11:20 and head out to party.

One night, one of the girls at work invited everybody in the unit over to her house for a party, so a buddy and I jumped into my GTX, picked up a case of beer, and hit the road. We broke into the beers and burned a couple of doobs while thrashing around on the south shore of Long Island, trying to find her house. We both had to take a leak and we sat at a red light that never seemed to end. There was not another headlight in sight, so I said "screw it" and eased out across the intersection. This was in Bumfuck Nowhere, no lights of any sort in sight, only pine barrens. Of course, flying out of the woods, comes a copper with lights ablaze. Balls! And I had to take a wicked leak, too! Well, the cop came over and asked what we were up to. I told him that we just got off work and were trying to find the party and had to take a leak. He saw the beers in the back, including a bunch of empties. I'm cooked, I thought.

All he said was, "Be careful," told us how to get to where we were going, and said that we could take a leak at the edge of the woods before leaving, as long as nobody was coming down the road. We were dumbstruck.

The Suffolk County cops could have had us on numerous occasions for some serious stuff back in the '70s.
 
ckj688 said:
Well, looks like my gen got f@#$cked. You can't do anything now, people are out to get you nowadays...
Click to expand...

Im 20 (21 in july) and me and my friends partied WAAAYYYYY harder then they do in that movie! I went to highschool in Vegas though.:-D
 
Grinder said:
Im 20 (21 in july) and me and my friends partied WAAAYYYYY harder then they do in that movie! I went to highschool in Vegas though.:-D
Click to expand...


im 50/50 on that i definatly went to some bad parties (im21) but they DEFINATLY had more freedom......
 
I'm like fishbreath; haven't seen it. American Graffiti was certainly like a night out of my high school life!
I'm sorry but I lost track of what I was going to say.....did you guys see Waggin's lady, Anita? She's got better lines than Curtis' purple Duster! She's got it goin' on! Way to go, Waggin!
 
Smoky burnout competitions in front of my buddies house 4am Sun.
Brakestands with studded snow tires in Safeway parking lot[smoke & sparks]
Street racing all weekend long.
Staggering / driving around in an induced stupor.
Getting driven home in my car by the police [too drunk to drive the last two blocks]
Can't believe it all actually happened.
 
Never saw the movie, but factory muscle was CHEAP. A buddy bought a 440/stick '69 Coronet R/T for under a grand off a local car lot. Decent 340 stick cars could be had for $800-$1200 anywhere, Hemi cars were still pricey, usually around 6K in this area. Lots of street racing, but in my experience, you got hassled for driving a rump rump alot more than you do now. I have been pulled over with slicks & open headers in recent years, and was simply told to "go home". Pulled over with slicks MANY times, got nothing more than a "nudge nudge wink wink" kind of response. In the '70s, I was busted at a street race with slicks on the car. It wasnt even moving it was parked. They impounded it, wrote me up for everything they could think of. So some pluses, some minuses. But I would say the cheap cars & parts outwieghs it.Personally, I liked the eighties better. The cars & parts were still relatively cheap & common, the cars were faster, the street racing was probably more "intense" at least around here, & I was older & had more money to buy parts. The eighties street racing scene was pretty nuts around here. Low elevens/high tens were fairly commonplace.
 
The early 70s was the best part of my life.
Growing up in NYC, the place was going bankrupt but there was still strretracing, the music was good & although I didn't do 'em, drugs were plentifuland you could still go to a junkyard & actually get parts you could use on a racecar cheaply. The clothing left something to be desired (notice NO ONE is bringing back polyester suits:happy7:) . But it wasn't ALL fun-'n-games. VietNam was winding down, no one really knew or believed in PTSD, drug addiction was high & racial issues grew really big. Despite that I REALLY miss those days & think today's youth got screwed out of a good time.
Nowadays everyone is lawsuit happy & have no sense of accountibility (GOD, I sound like my Father:eek:ops:) and everyone claims to know what's "best" for someone else. So would I like to go back to the 70s? ABSOLUTELY!:cheers:
 
1000.00 for a 68 FormulaS.
75.00 each for 3 8 3/4 posis.
Only thing that was expensive was G60 14 Polyglass GTs.(several pairs at 150.00 a pair]
The end result, memories that are PRICELESS.
Somehow I can't see Grand Theft Auto 4 leaving too many lasting memories.
 
hemicop said:
The early 70s was the best part of my life.
Growing up in NYC, the place was going bankrupt but there was still strretracing, the music was good & although I didn't do 'em, drugs were plentifuland you could still go to a junkyard & actually get parts you could use on a racecar cheaply. The clothing left something to be desired (notice NO ONE is bringing back polyester suits:happy7:) . But it wasn't ALL fun-'n-games. VietNam was winding down, no one really knew or believed in PTSD, drug addiction was high & racial issues grew really big. Despite that I REALLY miss those days & think today's youth got screwed out of a good time.
Nowadays everyone is lawsuit happy & have no sense of accountibility (GOD, I sound like my Father:eek:ops:) and everyone claims to know what's "best" for someone else. So would I like to go back to the 70s? ABSOLUTELY!:cheers:
Click to expand...
Some REALLY good points here, although accountability was already kind of shaky. lets not forget "tricky Dicky" LOL
 
You're right, of course. The point I think all us old geezers are making, is that I think life was just (overall) more fun. Sure we were younger & it may have just seemed easier but you look at today's kids or young adults & I don't see the same bright future as "we" looked forward to.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go uncork the headers & bolt-on the slicks --- I have a cruise planned for the week-end:razz::yawinkle:
 
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and was a teen in the 80's. It was sort of like that where I grew up. We didn't get hassled a lot for stuff. Where I'm at now, the cops would take your beer and keep it and send you off or give you a ride home if you were too drunk. We used to do some street racing and never got busted. We never drove drunk, always stayed at the party place over night. The difference back then was we didn't have internet and cell phones tying up our time. We rode our bikes, hung out at the mall, swam in the summer at the beach, and just DID stuff. I never touched a video game in the summer. Kids, get out there and live while you have the time and energy.
 
gts340 said:
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and was a teen in the 80's. It was sort of like that where I grew up. We didn't get hassled a lot for stuff. Where I'm at now, the cops would take your beer and keep it and send you off or give you a ride home if you were too drunk. We used to do some street racing and never got busted. We never drove drunk, always stayed at the party place over night. The difference back then was we didn't have internet and cell phones tying up our time. We rode our bikes, hung out at the mall, swam in the summer at the beach, and just DID stuff. I never touched a video game in the summer. Kids, get out there and live while you have the time and energy.
Click to expand...

I agree, I think technology has tarnished freedom, directly and indirectly. Sure, cellphones are great sometimes, and yes, I have had spent a few of my days playing video games WAY too much, but when I actually go out there and DO something, it just feels more gratifying and time well spent. Now if I sit to play a video I feel like it's time wasted because I could be out somewhere experiencing something. Sure rules have tightened up a lot, but that really shouldn't discourage us adolescence to not have fun. You just have to have fun a lot more carefully and have a have a good head on your shoulders to know when you've gone too far. They street race around my town, not as open as it used to be (for anyone that lives in central MA, A@M used to be THE street that people used to race on). I actually had the privilege of going down there when it was still popular and see a few races about 8 years ago, then the police would come because of noise complaints and my father would throw us all in the truck and cook out of there. The point is, times suck, but don't let that get you down. I feel like Ive been robbed of my childhood when I hear stories from "back in the day" but you still gotta make the best of whats out there now. I bet you 30 years from now you'll be wishing it was like today, because things are only gunna get worse!
 
gts 340 makes a real good point on there not being internet and cell phones tying up young ppls times. I'm 26 so im still fairly young but i was about 14-15 when the internet came out so it wasn't huge when i was younger. I was always out on my bike, building forts, playing guitar, swimming or going downtown at night to see all the hot rods do burnouts on the main strip(no riceburners back then!).
Technology aswell as parents relying on technology to babysit their kids is robbing kids of a fullfilling youth. Not to mention a lot of parents now a days are so scared of their kids getting hurt etc... that society is slowly boxing everyone in with new rediculous laws. I'm sure a lot of ppl here see this happening. Annnd when a someone does get hurt people are more likely to sue you then take responsibility for it themselves. This is has alot to do with why our sense of freedom is getting smaller and smaller. Apparently anyone born up untill the mid 1980's lived a barbaric childhood, it's amazing any of us survived! LOL

thats my rant hope it was a fun read lol.
 
Wanna know what life was like in the 70s? Watch "Life on Mars"---- aside from the inaccuracy of Gretchen Mols character, the clothing, cars, attitude,etc. of the characters all reflect NYC in '73. Plus, you'll love all the old Mopar cop cars............
 
Man, I was 12 years old in 1970 so it was my decade. Wow lots happened, no convitions by the way although I have seen the inside of a cop car/station several times. It was fun, lots of good stuff, some bad stuff but all in all it was a great time to grow up. The music was fantastic.Now at 50 years old I sometimes have a hard time understanding todays youth but I do appreciate its a different world and they face different issues. Our biggest problem was finding someone to buy our beer after collecting my paper route money on Friday night, then going out to the bush to drink it, fight and barf, ah the good old days! Then we discovered the wild wood weed oh boy! I remember the first time I really got wasted. It was in the back of a 69 VW beetle and we were puffin on Black Lebonese hash on a pin using a cut down glass 26 oz ginger ale bottle Wow. We ended up at the A&W but we were too paranoid to get out for food, we thought everyone was staring at us.
I think the munchies finally took over the fear.
When I turned 16 I bought a 72 Kawasaki 500, 2 stroke, tripple cylinder crotch rocket. Boy then the fun began, cruzing, racing, running from the cops, they really were the good old days.
 
I seen the movie once, thought it was pretty close to my upstate NY 60's growing up. I just got this email:


UNDER-30 CROWD!!!


If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning



Uphill... barefoot...



BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,
there was no way in hell I was going to lay

a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it
and how easy they've got it!



But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you
don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the damn library and
look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write
somebody a letter, with a pen!


Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ***! No where was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! You wanted to
steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone cause that's how we rolled dig?


We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you
were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school,
your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video
games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games
like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You
actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or
screens, it was just one screen
forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting
harder and harder and
faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!


You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was
on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off
your *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel! There was no
Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons
on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK
for cartoons, you spoiled
little rat-bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!



That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids
today have got it too easy.
You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted
five minutes back in 1980 or before !

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd



(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile, Whether they are under 30 or not.)
 
This whole thread is depressing me.

I would like to see how your (over thirty crowd) life would have been if you had to grow up under todays conditions! :p
 
Life today is definitly different than when I grew up.
I'm 52 and farmed in my early years.
Those old movies do show some of good times and are
accurate to a point but there were still the problems of the day just as there are today.
Alot of the things I believed in and lived have gone away or
have be replaced by new thinking and technoligy.
I love my life now and in the past, I know it sure is an easier life
for me now.
I know it's a tough time for a lot of people and kids are really gonna
have it tough for the forseeable future.
I think this is a time to rally round your family and friends, Figure out
what is important to you and your communities and go change things.
Speak up, write to the athorities.. partisipate.. this is still a people
owned sociatity and goverment... get involved.
Laws and rules are meant to be reviewed and changed when they
no longer serve as they should.
Be unafraid to speak up, make a commotion, it's good for you
and will awaken your spirit and soul!

As a side note the 60's, 70's, 80's were similar to those movies
with a lot of hard work in there to.
 
I'm surprised at the posts of "longarm" and "clhyer". The very things you guys talk about are what made the 70s so good. Sure kids now have it easier in alot of ways. Perhaps too easy. With things handed to them & little if any responsibilty & built-in excuses to not put forth an effort what sort of people is society developing? Now we have "instant excuses" for bad behavior, even criminal behavior that simply wouldn't have been tolerated then. Kids now actually have to worry about health issues that were really only concerns of the elderly or infirm. Why? They're too lazy to go out & actually DO SOMETHING resembling exercise. Here our schools don't even require Phys Ed.!
Sorry, I can't see this as a better time for kids or young people. If I was growing up today I can only imagine the excuses I'd use & I guarantee you my parents would have been jailed at least once for their treatment of me when looking back, the fact is the occassional ***-whipping probably did mem some good.Jobs are scarce, prices are high, technology is over-running out lives & the environment & legal system is falling apart --- hardly "good times", IMO..........
 
hemicop said:
I'm surprised at the posts of "longarm" and "clhyer". The very things you guys talk about are what made the 70s so good. Sure kids now have it easier in alot of ways. Perhaps too easy. With things handed to them & little if any responsibilty & built-in excuses to not put forth an effort what sort of people is society developing? Now we have "instant excuses" for bad behavior, even criminal behavior that simply wouldn't have been tolerated then. Kids now actually have to worry about health issues that were really only concerns of the elderly or infirm. Why? They're too lazy to go out & actually DO SOMETHING resembling exercise. Here our schools don't even require Phys Ed.!
Sorry, I can't see this as a better time for kids or young people. If I was growing up today I can only imagine the excuses I'd use & I guarantee you my parents would have been jailed at least once for their treatment of me when looking back, the fact is the occassional ***-whipping probably did mem some good.Jobs are scarce, prices are high, technology is over-running out lives & the environment & legal system is falling apart --- hardly "good times", IMO..........
Click to expand...

I don't see myself as lazy. I worked since the day I was able to. Everything I have I've rightfully earned. I haven't gotten a single dollar for anything that had been handed to me by my parents. They told me I had to learn the hard way and it would pay off, and I would say so far it has. I have learned to make a wage and handle responsibilities. I have learned that if you want something bad enough you have to apply yourself. I don't blame anyone or use excuses if I do something wrong. When I did something wrong, I got my *** kicked, and I never reported it because I valued my family. I know there may be a fair share of people who do get handed a lot of things, but I can tell you this quite honestly, the people that I party with on the weekends are busting their *** during the week trying to make ends meat in an economy that we didn't create.
 
Hemicop,
I'm not quite sure what you see that cannot be changed.
I had it hard as a kid and I've done alright, this is not what
I had in mind for me and my kids but I,m not starving and
niether are they.
I've raised my kids to understand that nothings free and
the world is setup to seperate them from their money.
They now are fully functioning citizens that have a say in
what their world will be like.
They and I have the ability to change our worlds by our words,
deeds and acts.
They will raise their kids, my grandkids in this way also.
Perhaps things at this time are too driven by the quest for
money and instant pleasure.
 
Gentlemen, if all what you say is true you both are indeed in the minority & I apoligize if I offended. My experiences simply don't reflect yours-- my friends give their kids whatever the want so they don't "suffer":puke:then wonder why they act like such spoiled little b******ds. I frequently come in contact with families that show & encourage absolutely no respect for their elders & authority and have the attitude "so long as I get mine who cares?"
These are things I surely was never taught yet it seems acceptable today. I also see little benefit in some of the newer technology as its cost at the very least is outrageous. I don't need GPS--I can read a map, I don't need a calculator--that's what I learned math for, I don't need a cell phone-- I'm not that important that someone might need me immediately, I don't need "On Star"-- if my car was taken for a joyride & abused, do I REALLY want it back? But I think you see where all this is going.
The point is, we've all become too dependent on this high-tech stuff and over rationalize our attitudes & actions with 21st century catch phrases.
To get back on topic, the 70s just overall were more fun I think as we had more fun with less & did it, as I recall, far cheaper --and wasn't that at least half the fun of it all...........
 
clhyer said:
I seen the movie once, thought it was pretty close to my upstate NY 60's growing up. I just got this email:


UNDER-30 CROWD!!!


If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning



Uphill... barefoot...



BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,
there was no way in hell I was going to lay

a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it
and how easy they've got it!



But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you
don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the damn library and
look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write
somebody a letter, with a pen!


Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ***! No where was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! You wanted to
steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone cause that's how we rolled dig?


We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you
were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school,
your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video
games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games
like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You
actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or
screens, it was just one screen
forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting
harder and harder and
faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!


You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was
on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off
your *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel! There was no
Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons
on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK
for cartoons, you spoiled
little rat-bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!



That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids
today have got it too easy.
You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted
five minutes back in 1980 or before !

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd



(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile, Whether they are under 30 or not.)
Click to expand...

I would EASILY give up all of that crap in heartbeat if I could live in a world more like the 60's or 70's. In fact, that's one of the reasons I bought a 1970 Plymouth Duster as my first car instead of some brand-new fuel-efficient low-emissions computer box with wheels. Most of the technology we have these days is useless and I'm tired of being forced to use it in school and at work.
 
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