In every 70s US home ever

fear of flying

alex haley’s roots

shogun/the thorn birds/all other novels later turned into richard chamberlain miniseries

In every 70s home ever, UK edition:
In every 70s UK home ever

All of this suggests 70s US homes were very different from 70s UK homes.

I imagine that US homes were fancier, but still had that '70s naff' aesthetic.

Table centrepiece made of wheat sheaves and shellacked bread in wicker basket tied with grosgrain ribbon

Seashells gathered on holiday in basket in bathroom.

Excerpt from “Desiderata” hanging on the (guest bathroom) wall

Entranced by this canned pear and mayonnaise delicacy (Southern homes only, apparently):

Someone brought pear salad to our big family Christmas lunch. I propose this is the worst dish the South ever invented. 🤮 pic.twitter.com/OEMr3hHaAH

— Anna Claire Vollers (@acvollers) December 26, 2019

We had the full Desiderata framed on our wall, you lazy bones.

tbh I think most, maybe all had the full “Desiderata,” I just wasn’t able to mentally summon up a picture of all those words.

They're all good!

the words?

thin brick/faux brick wall

https://stpaulsbaltimore.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/desiderata-pamphlet.pdf

stained glass chandelier

a bunch of these things apparently still exist in the Home Depot catalogue, for example, but I haven’t seen them in wild in decades

as is also the case with

World’s Best Dad

Ferns

A jade plant, hung in a macrame plant hanger

Hamburger Helper

Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat

A BEAD CURTAIN

all good. what about the close sibling of this last: the accordion door?

Yup, in faux-woodgrain

Crock Pot.

Whole Earth Catalog
Fondue set
Reader's Digest
The Book of Lists

Dad’s Own Bar, complete with, ahem, humorous signage with respect to opening and closing time, such as cardboard clock face with twelve 5s.

2-3 dozen copies of "Apartment Life" magazine

A lazy susan, or possibly several

"Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

A weird, singular wood table that appears to have been carved out of an actual tree, drenched in clear lacquer, that isn't really great for most practical purposes but looks sinister and cool anyway, probably situated in the den

Oh yeah, burning Citroën knows the vibe. Musta visited my parents' house in '75.

People's Almanac / People's Chronology also big in those years

Massive console TV that takes no fewer than four people to move, so fuck it, let's just leave it there for the next seven years.

Usually a Zenith model, with SPACE COMMAND remote

Encyclopedias
Too many National Geographics

lava lamp
beanbag chair

the poster from the inside of "dark side of the moon"
a paperback book of Polish jokes that nobody will claim responsibility for
Stacks of old newspapers

Wood-grain speakers

solid wood bookshelves built into nooks

An electric organ, with many multicolored switches/presets.

pong

^was wondering when we would get to that

Another bar accoutrement: wave form light thingy that is basically two dimensional analog of a lava lamp

stray beans from beanbag stuck in shag carpet
Yahtzee
Sears catalog
poker chip carousel
Erma Bombeck books
crocheted afghan blanket (squares pattern)

reminds me to post
Dogs Playing Poker painting

TV Guide (although not in my home)

cb radio
"Bless This Mess" kneedlepoint sign

Habitrail
aquarium
many items featuring Peanuts characters for no particular reason

Orange sinks
Bathroom wallpaper with old-timey advertisements

partially completed rug hooking
terrariums
sand candles

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/88/ae/75/88ae75efce5244fc22206fd8ac16439c.jpg

Noxzema
The World Book
Penthouse (hidden from view)
Skateboarder magazine
Guinness Book of World Records
Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock
10-speed bikes
Life magazine
tobacco pipe (dad)
wallpaper
store catalogs
Yellow Pages
Peter Frampton Comes Alive
Hardy Boys
Rugby shirts
Chemistry set
Creem
Circus

Sea Monkeys

Wow, I definitely was assigned those Houghton Mifflin readers in grade school (late ‘70s - early ‘80s) — I remember Panorama and Fiesta. And James Redd, sorry to hear you got screwed on that Beatles book. I remember flipping through it at my local library and digging the illustrations, most (all?) of which were by Alan Aldridge, who had also done the Who’s A Quick One cover.

The other thing about The Beatles book was that it didn’t seem to have any of George’s songs, let alone Ringo’s, but instead included some Lennon-McCartney-for-hire audition fodder numbers such as “Like Dreamers Do.”

Hmm. Maybe that book actually has a few George songs but not all. Perhaps it’s a Northern Songs/Harrisongs thing.

That one PSA looks like some Parallax View-level mind control psy-ops.

Just confirmed that Alan Aldridge also did the Captain Fantastic artwork.

We used those Houghton Mifflin readers from K-6!

We used something called SRA Reading Laboratory.
https://bookriot.com/a-box-of-nostalgia-the-sra-reading-laboratory/

Color-coded folders containing one or two page stories along with accompanying questions. Color-coded so the kids supposedly wouldn’t know that their classmates on the Gold Level were more advanced than those on Maroon Level, they even scrambled the colors from grade to grade to throw you off the scent.

At some point later on I felt maybe we should have been reading more challenging formats but at the time it was a very addictive, gamified process, like a precursor to Duolingo.

If no one else owns up to using those think I am going to feel like I had some kind of multiverse slip.

I vividly remember the big SRA boxes in my grade school classrooms. I have no memory whatsoever of myself or any of my classmates actually using them.

Perhaps they were already being phased out by the time you arrived in the system.

We also used SRA, and took SRA tests in fifth grade.

Oh I was totally schooled via SRA. Haven't thought about that in decades, ha!

Definitely remember the giant SRA box — in fact I have so many memories of the SRA box Im wondering which ones I should and should not share.

I went to school in the 80s fwiw

Please share whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Either on this thread or a new one if you think that would work better.

The author of this piece didn’t like the system, but her write-up – along with sample card! - seems to remind me of the appeal.

http://hackeducation.com/2015/03/19/sra

Fidgit! The Fidget Spinner of its day!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Ms14Weak0E/Tu6KJDlk7KI/AAAAAAAAANo/NGOa_g8MIxU/s1600/fidgit2.jpg

^this wasn’t some kind of mood thing?

In any case, that one is slowly working its Proustian madeleine magic on me this morning, thanks for posting.

I don't remember if it was temperature sensitive like a mood ring. It was some kind of oily I-don't-know-what that changed colors as you smushed it around with your fingertips.

I thought I remembered every stupid device of the era, and I have zero recollection of the Fidgit.

I recognize it, or the general principle. Maybe we had a differentlyre-formed, no-name knockoff from a few years later.

I don't remember the Fidget thing. But randomly it triggered memories of GI Joe action figurines. Google sent me to an vintage TV commercial for GI Joe with Kung Fu grip. From today's vantage point, yikes. Don't think my parents were particularly anti-Vietnam War but that figurine is OTT.

In (many) 70s homes in NYC and the Tri-State Area: mini-bagel necklaces with names on them given as souvenirs for going on Wonderama.

"A jade plant, hung in a macrame plant hanger" absoilutely

I didn't see this yet in this thread

https://i.etsystatic.com/8777027/r/il/dc4ba3/730668538/il_fullxfull.730668538_4ei2.jpg

Oooh, we had one of those. I remember sitting around it with my parents on Friday nights pretending it was a campfire.