50 Things Only People Who Lived in the 1970s Will Remember

Feeling nostalgic for a simpler time lately? You're not alone. Here’s one thing everybody who was alive during the 1970s can agree on: The entire decade still feels like it only happened yesterday. Seriously, how can the '70s be five decades in the past? It's just not possible that the era ruled by bell-bottom jeans and 8-track cassettes was half a century ago. For those of us who lived through it—and survived that groovy yet perilous time—it will forever be a part of our souls. Here are 50 things you still remember from the decade that will fill you with 1970s nostalgia. And for a film flashback, revisit these 30 Movie Quotes Every '70s Kid Knows by Heart.

1 | Roller disco parties

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All the fun of a discothèque with the extra awkwardness of having wheels on your feet. We might all remember these parties fondly, but it's a miracle we didn't break any bones trying to dance along to a Bee Gees song while skating at frightening speeds. And for more some tunes you might need a refresher on, check out these 25 Huge Bands from the '70s You Totally Forgot Existed.

2 | Coveting an Atari video game console

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No, you may not have owned an Atari console during the '70s, but at the very least you knew somebody who did and you made sure to do everything in your power to win their friendship. The very idea of playing video games in the comfort of our own homes without ever worrying if we had enough quarters seemed unfathomably futuristic.

3 | Waiting for the phone

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Everybody in the '70s had just one phone in their house. It was a rotary phone that stayed in some central location, with a cord that could only be stretched so far. If someone was on that phone, you just had to sit and wait for them to finish. Family members hogging the phone were the cause of many sibling battles during this era.

4 | Pretending to be “bionic”

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If you truly are a '70s kid, we don't need to explain what's involved in pretending you're bionic. But for those who aren't, you simply start running in slow motion, and then you make a sound with your tongue that sounds vaguely robotic. Decades after The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were canceled, trying to imitate Steve Austin or Jaime Sommers still makes us feel powerful. And for more series that will make you nostalgic, these are The Best '70s Shows to Rewatch in Quarantine.

5 | Playing Simon

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So simple, and yet so addictive. When this electronic game came out in 1978, every kid had to have one. The gameplay wasn’t too involved—you just had to tap on the right series of four colored buttons to repeat a sound pattern—but we played it with the intensity and focus that kids play Fortnite today. And for more habits that defined the decade, see if you remember these ​20 Funny Things People in the 1970s Were Totally Guilty of Doing.

6 | Gas station lines

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The 1973 oil crisis (and the second oil crisis a few years thereafter) caused a nationwide panic resulting in around-the-block gas station lines that never seemed to move. Some stations even started posting color-coded flags: Green indicated they still had gas, while red alerted customers that they were out. Every car trip you took with your family in the '70s felt like it might be your last.

7 | Annoying (or being annoyed by) your sibling on road trips

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But that didn't stop you from going on road trips! When a family piled into the station wagon for a long trek across the country in the '70s, kids didn't have the distractions they enjoy today. There were no iPads or smartphones to keep us occupied. The only way to pass the time was to see how much we could torture our brother or sister sitting in the backseat with us. It was either annoy or be annoyed, the latter of which required constantly demanding justice from your oblivious parents trying to ignore you both in the front seat.

8 | Waiting until Saturday for cartoons

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If you wanted to watch Bugs Bunny or Fred Flintstone or any of your favorite cartoon characters, you had only one chance to catch them—Saturday morning. If you missed it, you missed it, and those precious few hours of animated bliss were gone forever (or at least until the next Saturday). It taught us important lessons about delayed gratification. It just wasn't possible back then to see every cartoon ever made with the press of a button.

9 | The Watergate hearings

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Even if you didn’t give a hoot about politics, everyone was at least vaguely aware that something bad was happening in Washington. It was the topic of every dinner party conversation, and the evening news reported each new detail like the Watergate scandal might very well be the downfall of democracy. Seeing the disgraced Richard Nixon leave the White House forever and get into a helicopter was one of the most unforgettably surreal moments of TV viewing for just about everybody in the country in the '70s.

10 | Living in a world without Darth Vader

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The '70s was the last decade when a person could wake up one day having no idea who Darth Vader was—and by dinner that night their head would be spinning with thoughts of the Dark Side and black helmets and lightsabers. The world was suddenly divided between “before Star Wars” and “after Star Wars,” and nothing would be the same for us again. And for more '70s movie magic, rock out to these 17 Movie Soundtracks Every Kid from the '70s Loved.

11 | Being oblivious to "stranger danger"

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The world was no less dangerous for kids in the 1970s than it is today—our parents just weren't as freaked out about it. Many of us weren't warned that every unfamiliar face might mean us harm. So we made friends with just about everyone, even random adults that we didn't recognize.

12 | Memorizing the lyrics to “Rubber Duckie”

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There was a limited amount of quality TV for kids in the '70s, so when something came along that resonated with us, it burned into our subconscious. Sesame Street provided many of those pivotal memories. Even today, long past the age when we're regularly taking baths with toys, we can recall Ernie's ode to his rubber duckie in its entirety.

13 | Short shorts and tube socks

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Rarely in the history of fashion has a clothing style been universally accepted by both men and women. But that was the case in the '70s with short shorts and tube socks, even though nobody looked especially good in the getup. In hindsight, tube socks that stretched up to your knees and shorts that were way too tight wasn't the most flattering combo. But at the time, we all thought we looked cool.

14 | Hitchhiking

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No car? No problem! Just stick out your thumb and wait for a kind stranger to pull over and offer you a ride. It seems unthinkable today, but for a '70s free spirit who didn't have the bread to buy their own car (or was too young for a license), hitchhiking seemed like the best option when your own two feet couldn't get you there.

15 | Having a favorite Charlie’s Angel

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Some kids were always rooting for Jaclyn Smith, and some only had eyes for Kate Jackson. The vast majority of us, however, were smitten with Farrah Fawcett, and not just because she had the most iconic poster of the '70s (and, arguably, of all time). Whatever your preference, they were the coolest crime-fighting trio on TV, and proof that ladies could kick as much criminal butt as the boys.

16 | Going outside without sunscreen

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These days, most health-conscious people won’t even leave the house on a winter day without slathering their exposed skin in sun protection. But in the '70s, you could walk around shirtless on a blazing hot summer day and nobody would think to ask if you’d applied any sunscreen. Wait, sorry, we mean suntan lotion. There was limited sun protection in the '70s, just lotion to help you get some color. And when you didn't get a tan, you got a sunburn—which nobody took all that seriously. There's a lot we didn't know about the long-term consequences.

17 | The metric system

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Thanks to the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, we were all prepared to start measuring things in meters, liters, and grams rather than feet, pounds, and quarts. It's hard to overstate how big a deal this was in the late '70s, especially if you were a kid. In school, we were inundated with pro-metric system films, which tried to win us over with the adventures of the Metric Marvels. You couldn’t find a kid today stressed out about metric conversion, but in the '70s, we all lived with the fear that we’d have to be metric-ready at a moment’s notice.

18 | Brutal playground equipment

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Playgrounds in the '70s were about as user-friendly as modern-day adult obstacle endurance races. Sure, there wasn't as much barbed wire, but the equipment was just as unforgiving and brutal. Monkey bars were made of cold steel that could break bones without mercy. Everything—from the slides to the seesaws, the swings to the merry-go-round—was built to withstand military strikes, and no '70s kid would use them without anticipating at least the occasional bloody injury.

19 | Being terrified to go in the water

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When Steven Spielberg'sJaws first hit the theaters in 1975, it's hard to quantify exactly how big an impact it had on our collective psyche. We weren't just scared of getting into the ocean—even lakes and ponds and wading pools seemed to disguise shark fins. We looked for sharks virtually everywhere, certain that their ferocious fangs were just waiting to bite down hard on our toes and pull us underwater.

20 | Smallpox vaccine scars

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Before most doctors stopped routinely giving smallpox vaccines in the early '70s, every kid had the same familiar scar on their upper arm, caused by the two-pronged needle that punctured our skin with all the delicateness of a staple gun. Yeah, it was scary, but smallpox was eradicated. And the fact that we all had the same scars almost felt like a badge of honor.

21 | Being tricked into learning by Schoolhouse Rock!

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Saturday morning is supposed to be about eating sugary cereals and vegging out in front of the TV, watching animated shows with no educational content whatsoever. But the Schoolhouse Rock! shorts tricked us, teaching us about multiplication, history, and the differences between conjunctions and interjections without our even realizing it. Thanks to their catchy songs, we knew all about the different branches of government and what carbon footprints are without ever cracking open a book.

22 | Having the Oscar Mayer commercial stuck in your head

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That Oscar Mayer commercial with the cute kid fishing while eating bologna played so often—and was so catchy—we could hear the familiar melody reverberating around our brains over and over and over. The only thing worse was when it got replaced by that “I’d like to teach the world to sing” Coca-Cola commercial! (We're sorry.)

23 | School assignments printed on ditto machines

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Any worksheet or homework assignment passed out to students in a '70s classroom was likely created using either a ditto or mimeograph machine. Who could forget the way they left purple ink on your fingers, or that unmistakable odor?

24 | Using Silly Putty to preserve newspaper comics

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We felt like geniuses for discovering that Silly Putty could be rolled over the comic section in a newspaper and perfectly reproduce our favorite Garfield strip. Today, most newspapers use non-transferable ink, so any kids wanting to try this experiment are out of luck.

25 | Pencil cases with attached slide rulers and sharpeners

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It was an essential school supply back in the '70s, the epitome of high-tech pencil gadgetry. Pulling one of these out of your backpack meant you were serious about learning—or at least looking like the coolest student in your class. Pencil cases have become as extinct as... well, pencils. But the plastic pencil case in 1975 was the iPhone of its era.

26 | Bowl cuts

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If you're unfamiliar with the bowl cut, it's exactly what it sounds like. Mom would put a bowl over your head and use scissors to cut around the edges. The resulting distinctly '70s haircut made it seem like you were wearing a salad bowl as a hat—maybe not the most flattering look, but hey, if it was good enough for Pete Rose and Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill, it was good enough for anyone.

27 | Walt Disney World becoming a kid mecca

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When it opened to the public in 1971, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, instantly became the white whale for every kid in America. It had an almost mythological stature as the ultimate destination, and didn't yet have a reputation as a tourist trap filled with overpriced food and exhaustingly long lines. Those kids lucky enough to convince their parents to take them talked about Space Mountain with hushed reverence, and the rest of us plotted ways to trick our parents into making the journey south.

28 | Never consuming Pop Rocks and soda at the same time

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Every '70s kid had heard that terrible rumor about Mikey, the picky eater in the Life cereal commercial. Apparently, despite the warnings of his friends, he had consumed the deadly combo of Coca-Cola and Pop Rocks, and the carbon dioxide had caused his stomach to inflate to a lethal degree. What happened next? Well, his stomach exploded, of course, and poor Mikey died on the spot! The rumors were, of course, completely false. But that didn't stop us from believing them. In a world without Snopes, we had no choice but to trust what the smartest kid on the playground was telling us.

29 | Moving the TV antenna for better reception

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TV reception in the '70s was unreliable at best. If the picture was distorted with zig-zag lines—or, worse, the dreaded “snow,” where everything was fuzzy—the only way to fix the problem was to adjust the antenna, otherwise known as “rabbit ears.” This involved twisting and turning until slowly, so slowly, you captured a better signal and the picture started to come into focus. But even then, just removing your hands might cause the picture to disappear yet again. It was a long and arduous process to get the kind of visual consistency that TV audiences today take for granted.

30 | Typewriters

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Decades before email or texting existed, if you were writing to a friend or family member, you either did it by hand—a long and excruciating process, especially if you had a lot to say—or you used a typewriter. The unmistakable metallic clang of typewriter keys pounding on paper is something that few of us who lived through the '70s will ever forget.

31 | Taking selfies with photo booths

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Sometimes in the 1970s, you were out with friends and wanted to take a quick photo but nobody in your group was carrying around a camera. The only way to capture the moment was if a photo booth happened to be nearby. You'd all crawl inside a cramped little space and wait for the camera to flash three or four times. If you didn't like the photos, well, tough beans. You could pay the machine for four more chances, but even then you might not be satisfied. Taking dozens if not hundreds of photos to get the perfect selfie was unheard of.

32 | Secondhand smoke everywhere 

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Smoking wasn't just acceptable in the '70s—it was ubiquitous. In offices, restaurants, airplanes, homes, and most public buildings, everybody was puffing away on their cigarettes without a care in the world. Thankfully, we all know better today.

33 | Getting freaked out by Watership Down

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If an animated movie with this much gore and bloodshed were made today, it'd get a hard R rating for sure. That's how traumatizing the original 1978 film version of Watership Down was for a generation of kids, who watched in horror as bunnies were gassed, trapped in barbed wire, and brutally killed by other rabbits. If you asked a '70s kid to name the most terrifying film villain of his childhood, he wouldn't pick Darth Vader or the shark from Jaws. He'd likely point to General Woundwort, the mad king in Watership Down.

34 | Debating what "American Pie" was all about

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What was going on in Don McLean's 1971 hit? Nobody knew for sure, but plenty of kids had a lot of theories about who the jester was and why he was stealing the king's thorny crown, and if "Jack" was supposed to be Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan or somebody else entirely. Was the whole song really about Buddy Holly dying in a plane crash and McLean feeling sad about it? In those pre-internet days, your guess was as good as anybody else’s.

35 | Shaking "instant" Polaroid photos to help them develop faster

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As Outkast reminded the world with their 2003 hit "Hey Ya!," the '70s taught us how to “shake it like a Polaroid picture." Or at least, that's what we all believed. The moment a new picture slid out of a Polaroid instant camera, we pinched it between two fingers and shook it vigorously, as if air drying was the only way to get the clearest image. It wasn't until 2004 when we finally learned it was all bogus. As Polaroid helpfully explained, "shaking or waving has no effect."

36 | Bicycle helmets not being required

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If you wore a helmet while riding a bike during the '70s, it meant either that you were recovering from a serious cranial injury or you were terrified of even the most minor of accidents. We just weren't as safety-conscious back then—and sadly, some of us suffered the consequences.

37 | Laff-A-Lympics

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It was only the real Olympics that mattered. It doesn't matter who you rooted for—the Yogi Yahooeys or the Scooby Doobies (otherwise known as the “good guys”) or the treacherous and immoral Really Rottens. We knew the whole thing was scripted (and, duh, animated) and that there was never a question about who would be victorious, but we still watched every episode like actual Olympic gold was on the line.

38 | Clackers

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So simple and yet so entertaining. Consisting of two heavy acrylic balls attached to a string, you basically knocked the two balls together as fast as you could... and that was it. Somehow it kept us entertained for hours, or at least until some kids started overdoing it with the clacker enthusiasm and the balls shattered and caused shrapnel-related injuries. Clackers were deemed weapons of mass destruction and officially pulled from stores.

39 | Being captivated by Patty Hearst

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Everything about the strange case of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of publishing titan William Randolph Hearst, was like something out of a Hollywood movie. First, her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and then, even more shockingly, her new identity as "Tania," joining forces with her once captors and helping them rob banks in San Francisco. As it played out on TV, we all had to wonder, “Is this really happening?”

40 | Aluminum can tabs

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Opening a soda in the '70s required pulling a ring that tore open a small wedge shape on the top of an aluminum can. Then the ring would be thrown away, usually on the ground where somebody would invariably step on it and hurt themselves. Injuries from those metallic tabs became a nationwide epidemic. One 1976 New York Times report remarked that a large percentage of beach injuries "were due to cuts inflicted by discarded pop tabs,” Slate noted. Getting a tetanus shot was the only way to survive in a world littered with soda can tabs.

41 | Fixing mistakes with Wite-Out

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The "delete" button of the '70s came in a little jar full of white liquid, which could be painted across anything in a letter or school assignment that we wanted to make disappear. It wasn't quite as magical as it sounds, since you had to wait for what felt like forever for Wite-Out to dry, and sometimes you had to blow on the paper, which just made you feel ridiculous. By the time it was ready to put back in the typewriter, you’d have completely lost your train of thought.

42 | Sea-Monkeys

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Those ads in the back of comic books were too irresistible for most kids. Why would we not want to have our own anthropomorphic sea creatures, living in a tank and looking reverently out at our bedrooms like we were gods? But when the Sea Monkeys arrived, we learned the hard lesson that you shouldn't always believe advertising. The creatures didn't look anything like tiny humans at all, because they were actually a type of brine shrimp, the most boring aquarium pet a kid could ever ask for.

43 | Station wagons with wood trim

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Why so many people were drawn to cars that looked as if they were made at least partly out of wood is anybody's guess. Maybe they were responding to some residual hippie influence, and they couldn’t resist a car that was seemingly constructed from biodegradable materials harvested in pesticide-free gardens. It was all bunk, of course—the wood texture, more often than not, was just vinyl siding—but especially in the '70s, appearance was more important than reality.

44 | Drinking tons of Tang

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The makers of Tang drove home the idea that their instant beverage, which tasted vaguely of oranges, was the nutrition of choice for astronauts everywhere. And that was enough for us to believe that just drinking Tang for breakfast put you in the same intellectual company as the brave astronauts of NASA. Even though Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, once famously said he was not a fan of Tang, that wasn’t the popular opinion in the '70s.

45 | Pet Rocks

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Think kids today waste their time by sharing pointless internet memes? Well, in the 1970s, we all collected rocks—rocks with googly eyes that we purchased with money. For $4 a pop, we "adopted" a rock of our own and took care of it like it was an actual pet. This was not a fringe movement or a handful of kids trying to be funny. Everybody had a Pet Rock, and we didn't feel at all foolish about it.

46 | Relating to one of the Brady Bunch kids

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Whether it was ambitious ladykiller Greg or awkward middle child Jan or young dreamer Bobby, there was somebody among The Brady Bunch that resonated with just about every '70s kid. The oversized family that was too perfect to exist in the real world somehow still managed to reflect our individual quirks and idiosyncrasies.

47 | Metal lunch boxes

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A plastic lunch box? That would’ve seemed inconceivable to a '70s kid, who proudly carried around a lunch box sturdy enough to protect bologna sandwiches from an air strike. The characters featured on the front of these lunch boxes, whether Evel Knievel or Strawberry Shortcake, said a lot about our personalities.

48 | Hassocks

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These round ottoman seats became weirdly popular during the '70s, and always in the most outrageous colors—like avocado green or neon orange. They were meant as foot stools but kids knew they were perfect for stretching out, or curling up on for cat naps, or even spreading out on stomach-first and pretending we were flying like Superman. Ah, those were the days.

49 | Taping songs off the radio

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The music piracy of its day! When you had a new favorite song but there wasn’t enough in your piggy bank to buy the album or 45 rpm single, you would sit next to the radio with your portable cassette recorder and wait... and wait... and wait... until finally that song you loved so much started playing, and you immediately pressed down on the record button, capturing those beautiful sounds for free.

50 | TV test patterns

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Television wasn't available 24 hours a day during the '70s. At some point at night (or really, very early in the morning), the station would sign off and some sort of test pattern would appear. Sometimes it would be an American flag; sometimes, a portrait of a Native American. That was the only viewing option for the restless insomniac hoping for some pre-dawn distractions. You were out of luck until at least 6 a.m.