For those of you who were teenagers during the '70s.... (1 Viewer)

[John Randolph]

How was life for teenangers different during the 70s? How were the actual teenagers themselves different? I'm fascinated in this time period, and would GREATLY, GREATLY appreciate it if someone could answer these questions. One more question: would you say the 70s or 00s (present time) were/are a better time?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Sorry, but those of us who were teenagers during the '70s were doing too many drugs and having too much guilt-free, pre-AIDs sex to actually remember the decade very clearly.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Robert Crawford]

John,
The 1970's, was a great decade for young adults and I wouldn't trade it for present time at all.





Crawdaddy

 

[Greg Z]

Joe is right. Way too much drinking and drugs...not so much sex but I would take that era over this any day. I felt more safer going out. Did'nt have to worry about crazy people or road rage or drive by shootings. People were in to having a good time and getting high.

 

[DaleR]

sex`n`drugs`n`rock`n`roll.
actually, most of the music sucked. big time.
styx. boston. reo speedwagon. kansas. chris de burgh. etc.etc.

 

[Ron Etaylor]

The 70's were ok until disco came along. Also there were lotsa crap vinyl albums made from recycled vinyl(due to the petroleum shortage). The clothing sucked, but the rest was ok. Concerning safety/comfort I didn't really feel much change until 9/11/01.

 

[Craig S]

actually, most of the music sucked. big time.

Well, yeah, if all you listened to were the groups you mentioned. But you also had Led Zeppelin, Allman Bros., Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, Elton John, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Yes, Genesis, Eagles, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Cars, The Police... Lots of great artists hit their peak in the 70s.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I agree with Craig about the music -- there was a lot of great music in the '70's (you just had to ignore the disco). I grew up during this era. It seemed like kids then were not into materialism as much as todays kids. No one was shooting each other over overpriced tennis shoes, and most of us were not into buying designer clothes. We lived without cell phones and pagers (how underpriviledged we were!), and it was underheard of for parents to buy their kids brand new cars. Most of us had junkers that we worked on ourselves to keep them running.

I guess that Madison Avenue had not gotten its hooks into us like they have today's younger generation.

 

[MikeH1]

The 70s have always held me in bewilderment. The 60s I understand, the 80s I do but the 70s I can't figure out. Well, at least there was Pong.
And Bo Derek.

 

[DonnyD]

I was past my teen years in the 70's but I would say that the 70's were certainly a better time for teens than today is. Too much materialism with youth today and way too many more serious drugs.
The 60's were my teen years and they were way more innocent than the 70's. College in the mid 60's was a fun time and lots of girls, girls, girls. I was raised in a very small town and went away to college in a big city and the life there just really opened my eyes ..... and perhaps dropped my pants!!!
I still listen to oldies from the 60's and 70's and much prefer it to todays "music". People were different and more trusting and life was easier. Too bad a lot of that is history.

 

[Walt N]

This springs to mind as a major change in societal outlook: It's hard to imagine this these days, but in the 70's you could drink and drive (metropolitan Phoenix) and it wasn't much of a big deal. I remember being pulled over in the late 70's for speeding twice with a beer in my hand and a buzz, but I only got speeding tickets both times. Nowadays they'd lock you up and throw away the key for that. No doubt an improvement!

 

[ThomasC]

*sigh* i wish i grew up in the 70s...:frowning:
oh wait, i'm chinese. would i be called a chink, or was the racism against chinese mostly out by then?

 

[John Tillman]

I finished HS in the early 70's and remember it very fondly. The music was great then, and still great now. Dark Side of The Moon, All Things Must Pass, Imagine, CCR etc.
Politics & Science, end of war, Watergate, men on the moon, oil embargo, death of muscle cars, death to the Ayatullah, BS from NYS college for less than $5,000, Computer, what's that? Internet, what's that?... Hey check out Billy Joels 'We didn't start the fire'.
Life for my 11 yr old & 18 yr old is different in many ways. Economically, we (and many parts of the world)are better off than the 70's. There is more 'stuff' in their lives (like HT stuff )which yields a better quality of life. But more information etc means more complexity... I come from the school of 'Keep It Simple Stupid' so I'm not sure if being bombarded by complex info at a young age is good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

John,
I'm not so sure that kids today have a better quality of life than what I had in 1960's to early 1970's. At least in my youth, kids played outside without parents worrying about harms way coming to their children from whatever direction.




Crawdaddy

 

[Anthony Hom]

The 70's as a teen was so much simpler. No one had computers, very few video games, cable was pretty basic, you didn't need a helmet to ride a bike, no car seatbelts required. You could go out by yourself and not feel unsafe anywhere. As kids our parents left us to our own devices. I imagine its not that way these days.

That 70's show comes close to hitting the nail on the head. Jackie and Kelso are so much like people I knew in how they behaved and how they looked.

Oh yes, racism was alive and well in the 70's, but , mostly it was kids teasing other kids. By the time HS rolled around, kids broke up into cliques as usual.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's still alive and well today!




Crawdaddy

 

[Scott Dautel]

High school class of 1980 ... I guess I qualify for "growing up in the 70's" ... which was age 8-18 for me.

I came from a pretty conservative family and I managed to avoid the drugs, but pot was everywhere. I remember most days walking home from school past the "potheads" partying away in the woods. Coke was considered hard-core and not too prevalent in high school, but friends were beginning to experiment with it by 1980. High school parties were mostly beer & wine affairs for my clique ... but this was nearly every weekend. WAAAY to much drinking & driving ... I hope that's better now.

Sex in high school was almost non-existant compared to my perception of today. There was lots of talk, but almost no action before age 17 or 18. We rarely even saw R rated movies, HBO & VHS tape was just beginning in the later 70's.

High School sports were big .. as usual. Probably not much difference there. The jocks got the best dates to the dances. I was a swimmer & skier .. not mainline team sports, but my group was the jocks.

There was such an innocence then. Kids (even younger ones) would go out to play at 9AM and be gone all day ... parents never worried. We would bike everywhere, shopping centers malls, etc. (I still scoff at helmets, but make my kids wear them) By 1978, I even had a Moped (remember those), which expanded my turf. I got a car in 1979 (Camaro Berlinetta - how cool was that!) Ahhh, the vivid memories of driving to school blasting Tom Petty - Damn the Torpedoes.

Music was fantastic then. Forget disco, my earliest vinyl was Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kansas, Boston, BTO, Cars, Kinks, (read the above list). Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac were also rising strong. Then there was the George Carlin & Richard Prior stand-up stuff.

Clothing ... most everyone was similar. Oxfords & LaCoste shirts with Levi's or Sears "Toughskins". Shoes were Converse all-stars or suede Puma's if you were cutting edge. In the summer it was cut off jeans with a hang-ten t-shirt or the Jaws iron-on! My room had the Farrah Fawcett poster and a few blacklight posters from Spencers. Then there was the Panny all-in-one receiver, record player cassette deck.

Now you've really got me thinkin ...

Scott

 

[Jim_F]

I graduated HS in 1975.
I was pretty much lazy, stubborn and rebellious (in a passive agressive way more often than not) I didn't really care much about anything besides partying and sex (but I just settled for partying for what seemed like an eternity) I loved music that most older people couldn't stand. I was sure my parents couldn't understand what it was like to be a teenager. Adults were sure that the younger generation was going to hell in a handbasket. I resented my dependency on my parents, but didn't have the means or any marketable skills necessary to do anything about it. I was often awkward and wasn't sure where I fit in and had little or no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
Nothing like the way things are now.
There were some fun times, and a lot of the music was good through the early '70s (followed by a long drought IMO) but I wouldn't want to be a teenager again for anything in the world.

EDIT: EVERYBODY NEEDS A BIKE HELMET!!!

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Mike Watt was there in the 70s (me too), and here is what he has to say (sing) about it:
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70s.....it's not REALITY....just somebody else's SENTIMENTAAAALITYYYY!

 

[Grant B]

It's all different but the same