Sometimes it’s difficult to focus on just one aspect of life in the 1970s and 80s. It was different in so many ways from today. This post focuses on several ways life was different by dividing things into what we DID have and what we DIDN’T have… back in the day.
What We DID Have:
We had the Bicentennial. In 1976, I was a kid when we celebrated our nation’s 200th birthday by going to parades and watching people dressed up in sun bonnets like Laura Ingalls, even though Laura Ingalls wasn’t around until almost 100 years after the Revolutionary War. Most of us, however, wore whatever we had that was red, white, or blue. We also ate a boatload of food with red and blue food coloring in it.
We had rugby shirts, corduroy pants, and knee-high hose. And sometimes we wore this hot fashion combination all at the same time. We also wore white painter’s pants that had places to hang hammers, paintbrushes, and such. When we got older and more sophisticated, we wore bell-bottom pants and platform shoes. Our parents also got in on the fun. Our moms wore maxi dresses, while dads wore leisure suits.
We had people, at least in the country, who drove around with shotguns on racks in their truck. If there were kids in the family they might be sitting, or standing, in the bed of the pickup truck while Mom or Dad was driving. If it was warm enough, we’d ride in the back of the truck, even if there was enough room to sit inside. In rural areas, kids and adults alike were often spotted riding in the back of pickups, hay wagons, and farm vehicles on a fairly regular basis.
We had cool toys like Baby Alive. These pseudo-infants actually ate, drank, pooped, and peed. For those of us with few maternal instincts, we had slime to play with. This was a mixture that resembled what you might get if you put snot and glue in a blender. We also had nerf balls, Star Wars action figures, and Stretch Armstrong.
We had family mealtime, pretty much every night. We all sat down at the table and ate things like cube steak and tuna noodle casserole. Fast food was for special occasions, like when we had extra money. A lot of moms stayed home and cooked, cleaned, and drove the kids around. Many of them watched soap operas, or their stories, as they were sometimes called.
We had coming-of-age movies that were all the rage, especially in the 1980s. We had classics such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. There was also Sixteen Candles, Stand By Me, and Dirty Dancing. Less Than Zero was a bit on the dark side but was still a pretty good 80s movie.
We had the aerobics phase. When this kicked into high gear, getting fit was a big deal. Almost everyone drank Diet Coke. Stir fry was the go-to healthy eating option of the 1980s. Even though most kids didn’t get into Jane Fonda fitness videos or any other type of fitness craze, almost all of us were skinny. Kids weren’t obese, pre-diabetic, or insulin resistant. Even though we were healthier, we often lived in a cloud of smoke because it seemed everyone smoked and were allowed to smoke everywhere.
What We DIDN’T Have:
We didn’t have smartphones, which also meant we didn’t have instant access to everyone we knew within seconds. It meant we couldn’t take pictures without lugging around a real camera. We couldn’t play games without setting up a board on a table and arranging physical pieces for the games. Checking messages meant turning on the answering machine by the phone that was connected to the wall.
We didn’t have all the issues that went along with advanced technology. People couldn’t as easily ghost you when you met in real life. Besides ghosting, we didn’t have all the rest of the online dating issues, such as getting benched, catfished, and zombied. There is also the high probability that the person who looks like a 9 in the online photo is at best a 5 or 6. Back in the day, what you saw was what you got.
We didn’t have any way to identify who was calling us on the phone. If you were in the mood to be a prankster, you might call someone on the phone and ask if their refrigerator was running. After they responded that it was, you’d tell them that they better catch it. If you were out and about with your friends and got into some kind of trouble, you might have to make a collect call and hope whoever answered would accept it.
We didn’t have constant entertainment at our fingertips. We entertained ourselves, and this was often a lot more interesting. We flexed our brain muscles and came up with all kinds of fun things to do like playing games outside such as Red Rover, freeze tag, and Mother May I. When we got older, we moved on to more mature activities like going TPing (toilet papering) and soaping in the fall months. For those who don’t know what this is: TPing is throwing toilet paper into the trees and covering windows with soap.
These were just a few things we did or didn’t have… back in the day.
Back in the Day... 
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