Yes. The new information was very welcome.
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 14:55 (one year ago) link
Again, repeat posts are not frowned upon in this thread, they are welcomed. Which in itself is a repeat post.
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 14:56 (one year ago) link
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 15:02 (one year ago) link
Macrame
Macrame mucho
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 10 September 2022 15:47 (one year ago) link
Ha.Johnny Mathis albums. Although I think they were borrowed, at least in our house.
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
God’s Eyes.
― put a VONC on it (suzy), Saturday, 10 September 2022 16:49 (one year ago) link
Hi suzy, was hoping you would be back to contribute some more.
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 16:51 (one year ago) link
I feel like, even if there is some small thing that we may have missed on this thread, we still have all the basic DNA required to clone one of these houses if needed.
― Jean Arthur Rank (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2022 18:10 (one year ago) link
That mustard yellow rubbermaid pitcher with the white top that twists. Saw one on an episode of The Americans set in 81 or 82. Must have been a holdover from the 70s...
― that's not my post, Sunday, 18 September 2022 14:26 (one year ago) link
^Good one!
― Ride On Proserpina (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 18 September 2022 14:41 (one year ago) link
Great pick. I actually saw one at a yard sale a couple months ago... Strong Proustian Madeleine moment --- my entire 80s childhood, we drank orange juice (reconstituted from a cardboard tube of frozen concentrate) out of one of those. We had a blue-ish one too, used by my Mom to rinse shampoo from our hair when we were really little.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 18 September 2022 14:42 (one year ago) link
Tupperware parties and Avon ladies.
― Ride On Proserpina (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 18 September 2022 15:01 (one year ago) link
Fiddle Faddle and/or Screaming Yellow Zonkers
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 18 September 2022 20:57 (one year ago) link
The coffee table book "Gnomes"
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 18 September 2022 21:09 (one year ago) link
We had “Gnomes.” But what about B. Kliban books, maybe they were too counter-cultural for every ‘70s home, but we had all of them.
― Josefa, Sunday, 18 September 2022 21:49 (one year ago) link
Oh man we definitely had Rubbermaid pitchers, I think including a yellow one. Also, juice concentrate! I was just thinking about the other day, how it seems to have disappeared. That was all we drank, frozen Minute Maid OJ and lemonade.
Here's an article from Vice about the decline of fro-jay: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x5nzq/nobody-gives-a-damn-about-frozen-oj-anymore
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 18 September 2022 22:06 (one year ago) link
And B Kliban, wow, this whole thread is like visiting my childhood home. My dad is a big comics/cartoon fan, so we had everything from classic Little Lulu to R. Crumb, including a shelf of Kliban.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 18 September 2022 22:14 (one year ago) link
When I was a kid my mom used to take my brother and me with her to visit some adult friends of hers who didn't have any kids, but they did have a gigantic coffee table book that had about 40 years' worth of Dick Tracy anthologized in it and I used to sit there and read entire plotlines that must have taken months to play out a day at a time in the 1930s or whenever.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 18 September 2022 23:10 (one year ago) link
watched Klute again and the brown, rust, yellow, olive and beige car colors of the early 70s look really good in retrospect
― Dan S, Monday, 19 September 2022 00:04 (one year ago) link
I guess by yellow I mean harvest gold
― Dan S, Monday, 19 September 2022 00:07 (one year ago) link
In every early '90s home ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi0uz8JD9Aw
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 19 September 2022 00:24 (one year ago) link
In every 70s grandparents' home ever:
Candy that only grandmothers buy. In my case, it's nonpareils in covered glass candy dishes, and Chiclets and Necco Wafers in the purse.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/2019-12-27_15_44_29_A_packet_of_Christmas_Nonpareils_produced_by_Hollabaugh_Brothers%2C_Incorporated_in_the_Dulles_section_of_Sterling%2C_Loudoun_County%2C_Virginia.jpg/640px-thumbnail.jpg
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 19 September 2022 03:44 (one year ago) link
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 19 September 2022 04:10 (one year ago) link
cologne bottle shaped like a green glass car
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 19 September 2022 16:53 (one year ago) link
Stored in the attic or basement, let's not forget tents with metal poles! A joy to set up and take down for backyard slumber parties.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 19 September 2022 16:58 (one year ago) link
Slip ‘n’ Slide
― put a VONC on it (suzy), Monday, 19 September 2022 18:33 (one year ago) link
In every early '90s home ever:If I’m not mistaken, one of the ingredients is petroleum. Just plain petroleum. Ingredient list reads something like, “water, high fructose corn syrup, orange flavoring, petroleum, xanthan gum…”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 19 September 2022 19:11 (one year ago) link
In Every Miniature 70s Home Ever
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1355608872556376064.html
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 9 January 2023 14:54 (one year ago) link
Oh man, that's fantastic. Versus a lot of mid-century house imagery, it's very much in the spirit of this thread, in capturing the junky, cluttered and texturally mismatched quality that these spaces often had in reality.
Also, I'm aware that building miniature houses of this kind has grown from a niche hobby into a whole Thing (we even watched a few episodes of a pretty badly-made competition show about them), but this seems like an especially excellent showcase of craft and attention to detail. Look at all that stuff! Look at those rugs! Love it.
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Monday, 9 January 2023 15:11 (one year ago) link
The Lincoln Log house constitutes a dollhouse within a dollhouse. Dollhouseception.
― I got two Clark Gables and a slide trombone (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 9 January 2023 15:43 (one year ago) link
Perky Pat's summer house
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 9 January 2023 18:43 (one year ago) link
@pplayouts
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 9 January 2023 18:48 (one year ago) link
Love the pictures of the soup can wandering the house
― jmm, Monday, 9 January 2023 18:56 (one year ago) link
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZGQ2OTlmMzAtZTAyNy00Zjc2LTg1ZDgtZDgyZTM5MWMyYTljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTkyNDA3NDY@._V1_.jpg
should've been this guy
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Monday, 9 January 2023 19:41 (one year ago) link
beef stroganoff
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 25 March 2023 17:31 (one year ago) link
See also Hamburger Helper discussion upthread starting here: In every 70s US home ever
― Old Man Reacts to Cloud (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 March 2023 18:07 (one year ago) link
Can we take a moment to talk about commemorative glasses? Hell yeah. Collect all four or five or six or whatever.
Most of mine got lost or broken or otherwise scattered to the winds, but thanks to my wife we DO miraculously still have a Great Muppet Caper glass with Fozzie on it. It is among our most treasured possessions, long since retired to a secure display case and insured by Lloyd's for six figures.
To think that people like me just, like, drank orange Fanta out of them like it was nothing. Like they were just common drinking vessels, instead of the rare and priceless collectors' items they would one day become.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/G0IAAOSwq3Nhd~Xc/s-l400.jpg
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:18 (one year ago) link
Lol. That reminds me of something I can’t remember posting about before. Near the checkout at the A&P was a giant stack of commemorative bicentennial plates made of thick amber glass, embossed with some kind of Spirit of ‘76 imagery, one of which I bought as a present on some occasion. We never even thought of eating off of it, although now that I think of it, maybe they would have wanted us to do so as a multiplier to sales. My dad liked it so much that he went in the basement and made a little stand for it with his jigsaw if not one of his other saws.
― Old Man Reacts to Cloud (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:30 (one year ago) link
Lol at the elder Mr. Redd's collection of various saws. Each with their purpose. Lovingly oiled, sharpened when necessary. Hung on a pegboard in its appropriate place, outlined in Sharpie.
Anyway yeah I suspect it's a blurry reflection of the British tradition of having commemorative plates of the umpteenth Royal Wedding or Diamond/Platinum/Emerald/Tungsten Jubilee etc.
Tungsten Jubilee would be a decent band name
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:37 (one year ago) link
Jarts
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:44 (one year ago) link
Most important saw of all was the radial arm saw, which was like a giant manually operated robot arm with a table of its own.
― Old Man Reacts to Cloud (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:50 (one year ago) link
He came, he sawed, he conquered
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:53 (one year ago) link
Cigarette dangling out of the corner of his mouth
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:53 (one year ago) link
Overalls with a loop specifically to hold a ball-peen hammer
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:58 (one year ago) link
But back to the Bicentennial for a moment.
The stylized star logo felt so fresh and forward-looking. Negative space, bold curves. Makes me think of Jimmy Carter and NASA.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/American_revolution_bicentennial.svg/220px-American_revolution_bicentennial.svg.png
There were mailboxes that were painted to look like Continental soldiers. Some of those held on for a while; one still occasionally saw them years later.
Every now and then I get a Bicentennial quarter in a handful of change from 7-11. I know they're not rare or valuable but I still have trouble parting with them. Sheer nostalgia.
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 20:06 (one year ago) link
Stopped smoking when my sister was born. Never wore overalls, just classic cutoff shorts, farmer tan and VBC (does this TLA already exist?) Work dress was often a vaguely Captain Kirk-like combo featuring Beatle boots, even though he hated Star Trek: TOS.
― Old Man Reacts to Cloud (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 March 2023 20:11 (one year ago) link
I remember being really disappointed after I took out a new 7-Day Loan library copy of The Bicentennial Man with the little yellow sticky with a red-lined rocket inside an atom on the spine denoting SF. It must have been really new since it still smelled primarily of binder’s glue without any of the hearty overtone scent of fine tobacco. Disappointed because it was so bad. Of course now in hindsight I can reflect “Isaac Asimov? Of course it was bad.”
― Old Man Reacts to Cloud (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 March 2023 20:18 (one year ago) link
I've always found the Bicentennial melancholic. I was born that year - in the UK, but I remember growing up reading coffee table books about science and technology, and they always had stock NASA photos from the 1970s. There was always a photo of the Arecibo telescope and some concept drawings of wheels in space. It was an odd period when "Big Science" and "Big Engineering" were still red-hot but people were also concerned about reusability and efficiency as well.
The Bicentennial logo suddenly reminded me of NASA's early wind turbines, which were built around the same time as the Bicentennial, and I realise now they're red, white, and blue! Presumably as a way of getting funding. "Mr President, wind energy is not communist, and in any case the model is the colour of our glorious flag". They were called MOD-1 and MOD-2 etc.
https://cdn10.picryl.com/photo/2013/12/31/mod-0a-wind-turbine-block-island-rhode-island-dedication-92ead6-1024.jpg
It's sad, because those books always presented wind turbines and alternative energy as The Future, marvels of science etc. Even the space shuttle's big selling point was that it was efficient, low-mileage, reusable, less wasteful than Apollo. I have the impression that the men and women dedicating that wind turbine had high hopes. But they all had to go into hiding because wind turbines and environmentalism eventually became tantamount to Communism. I was fed dreams of a better world.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Saturday, 25 March 2023 22:51 (one year ago) link
Ashley, the bicentennial year was significant for me because it was the year of my family's rather narrow escape from Missouri and our move to DC. There was something especially exciting about arriving in the capital and seeing it all decked out and celebratory. It was like the part of "Wizard of Oz" where it shifts from black and white to color.
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 22:56 (one year ago) link
An eBay listing for James Redd (no stand included).
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2TgAAOSw3ktfH4KF/s-l1600.jpg
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 26 March 2023 12:58 (one year ago) link