Growing Up in the ’70s: Very Different Than Today — Two Guys Who Blog (2024)

Growing up in the ’70s vs. today was very different. I was born in 1968 and spent many of my formative years as a child in the 70’s. I’d post pictures of my horrendous clothes and embarrassing school pictures but they are just that, horrendous and embarrassing.

Many things have changed since the ’70s. Some of these changes involve technology and innovation while others are due to the times we are living in now.

My parents are/were very loving people. (Dad passed away in 2001 but mom is still very much alive and kicking) They were both children of Italian immigrants so their life was very different. My dad was one of 7 while mom had one brother. Both families were very traditional. Big Italian Sunday dinners with multiple courses. You never really left the table on Sunday, as eating was an event.

Their generation was more of a “hands-off” generation. They were aware of just enough of what was going on in my life but not on my back regularly unless they needed to be. They probably should have been more involved when I look back. Both my parents attended back to school nights but there were never really questions asked, they just went and listened. I don’t believe they took one note at back to school night, ever.

They “knew” who my friends were on the fringe but didn’t really know anything more about them unless they were close neighbors. “Whose house are you going to and when will you be home?” was the staple question. Dad worked long hours and had a very long drive to and from work so all he wanted to do at night was relax.

Overall safety has changed dramatically from the ’70s both in personal safety and in the car.

A drive in the car in the ’70s was a safety nightmare. There were no shoulder harness seat belts or 5 point harness car seats for children. This was your car seat as an infant if you had one. What could possibly go wrong with this contraption?

The car we drove was the equivalent of a tank and the dashboard was hard as a rock. There was no padding or anything that resembled padding. Airbags were not invented but we had even better protection that doesn’t exist today. Dad’s arm. In the event of stopping short, dad’s arm would spring across your body holding you back preventing you from flying out the windshield. If his reflexes weren’t quick enough you had to rely on the single lap belt that went across your waist. Therefore, there was always the chance that the lap belt might split you in half.

We did, however, have the station wagon. This “car” had a fold-down tailgate and a large cargo area that doubled as an extra seating area. The only problem is that it really wasn’t designed for people to sit so there were no seat belts. You were left to roll around the back like a ball whenever a turn was made. It wasn’t uncommon to see the scene below on any major roadway in the ’70s. Today we have the luxury of cars that park themselves, drive themselves and literally cushion you in a giant pillow in the event of an accident. Everyone has a seat and we are safer than ever in our vehicles. Child car seats use safety systems similar to NASCAR drivers.

I was never worried about walking anywhere as a child. You heard stories about abductions and were told not to take rides from strangers but it wasn’t a fear I had. I just went about my day without a care in the world. I didn’t look over my shoulder or ever really feel uncomfortable.

Our children do however have more safety fears than ever. Internet stalkers and strangers in parking lots seem to pose more of a danger than ever before. They need to constantly be vigilant to their surroundings and take their face out of their cell phones.

Growing up in the ’70s I left my house on the weekend or during the week in the summer at 8:00 am and came home when necessary. No questions asked. If it was dinner time and I was in the neighborhood behind me I would hear my father whistle and I knew I had to leave. It was only temporary for dinner and I would be back out as soon as I finished.

That whistle was my “pager/beeper” and the only sound I had to hear to know I needed to be home. Sure we had landlines in our houses but my parents never really knew where I was to call anyone, aside from a general “Have you seen the kids?” They had a general idea of my vicinity but that could change at any moment.

We walked and rode our bicycles everywhere we needed to and were continuously on the go. The one rule we had in our home was that if we were going to miss curfew, which may have been 10:00 or 11:00, we were to call home from someone’s house to check in and let them know where we were. Once that call was made, however, we were on the move again. My parents were strict with this rule so I never broke it.

Without knowing where our friends would be at any given moment we had to make plans the night before for the next day. There was much more conscious planning involved in my youth vs. today. If you missed a party you only heard about it the next day.

Nowadays we can track our children’s every movement via cell phone, or call or text them whenever we want. We know where they are at all times. We make plans on the fly via a simple cell phone call or text message. Social media provides the youth of today the ability to observe everything they are missing in real time.

Dinner was a meal that was almost always eaten together with my family. We weren’t as busy as children today with the exception of Little League in the spring. Since my father was a coach the family was on the same eating schedule the nights when there was practice or a game.

We almost always ate meals that were self-made. We didn’t go out to eat with the exception of Friday and Saturday. Friday night was pizza night and Saturday was the “big night out”. Saturday night after church we would all go to a hamburger place called “Wuvs”. (a strange name I know but the burgers were good from what I remember)

We’re lucky to all eat together as family 2–3 days a week. Between my work schedules, my wife’s and my children’s work and dance schedules, we can’t ever seem to coordinate dinner as a family. It is something I miss but in this short term, it needs to happen.

When my sister was born my mom gave up a career she had in insurance to be a stay at home mom. That’s just what you did back then. She did all the traditional housewife things like cooking, cleaning, and watching her soap operas (her stories as she called them). To this day mom says she hates cooking and I believe her. She wasn’t the best cook in the house. Her meals were edible but it wasn’t her forte.

My father worked in purchasing for an electrical supply house for over 40+ years. Same job, same location. Talk about monotonous. He didn’t complain much about it. It seems to have paid the bills and he was part of the electrical union so he had great benefits.

Today the stay at home mom is somewhat of a thing of the past. I do see it often when children are young as daycare becomes too costly to afford for many so mom just stays home with the children. My wife did the same when our children were young and I appreciated that commitment. Taking care of a house and family is a full-time job and I have no problem with stay at home moms or dads.

I realize much has changed in technology and I could write pages on that alone. Fax machines, cell phones, Virtual Reality, Computers, etc. The television itself has gone from a gigantic piece of furniture to a mere inch thick, crystal clear picture. Children today will never know what it was like to see the picture shink on the TV as the “picture tubes” started to get old. I can clearly remember banging on the side of the TV to get the picture clear. We didn’t have remote controls so if you didn’t like what you were watching you either got up and changed it or waited until something else came on. There was no channel surfing.

Prior to cable television, we have a handful of channels to watch on any given day. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and WPIX were our main channels at the time and we had some outliers like our local stations. But basically, it was channel 2–13. There was quality family programming on TV at the time, programs that we could all get together and watch and enjoy.

Shows like Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, MASH, Good Times and The Jeffersons were some I recall but there were many others. This was the golden age of television in my book. You could sit for an entire evening and never have to change the channel, plus who wanted to get up!

The news came on at 6:00 and 11:00 and it was read in an unbiased format by legends like Walter Cronkite. We watched Bruce Jenner (remember him?) win the Olympic Decathlon and OJ Simson become the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards. Strange how times have changed for those two. If we didn’t watch the news we read about it the next day in the newspaper.

We’re constantly in an all-day news cycle with continuous crawls on the screen with top stories or the daily stock market numbers. 24 hours of regurgitating the same story from different sides with a different talking head every hour. The constant bombardment of news doesn’t end on television. Now it has bled into social media where everyone is a political expert.

The ’70s were a fun time to grow up. It was a simpler life and easier in many ways. We spent more time together as a family and led less busy lives. I value my childhood years and sometimes wish I could go back to those easier times. Just with better clothes.

For an interesting similar read visit one of our first articles ever written on our site. If you’d like to learn more about the ’70s visit History.com

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Best

Scott