Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question about the 1970's

A few more things I remember from the 70's

Drive in movie theaters
Leisure suits
Afro haircuts

Also purchased my first car in 1975 a 1969 Chevelle SS that I paid $750.00 for. The money was made by hauling square baled hay which is rarely seen around here anymore.

The million dollar question here is whether you owned or ever wore a leisure suit. Or was that the eighties?

Never owned or wore one. Honest. PM me and I'll tell you where to send my million....
Ingwe

my mother says she still has pictures that could surface if i cross her

Some of my old co-workers used to refer to me as a �child of the 70�s�. I came of age then, so how could I not be?

Body counts on the news in the first part of the decade, our pullout in 73, the fall of Saigon in 1975. As a teenager, wondering if this was going to continue until you hit 18.

Seven boys from the small community I grew up near coming home in boxes. A large percentage, considering our small population. I once calculated a nationwide casualty figure using that percentage � it would have resulted in something like 750k. It wasn�t that the locals couldn�t duck; we just had a lot of volunteers.
A close family member, who did two tours without a scratch, got killed on his civilian job about his 3rd day back. When your number�s up��

Comparing our daily trapping take in the school parking lot each morning during season � a couple of us ran traps on the way to school.

The armed Chinese fire drill that was the school parking lot the first week of dove season � everybody ran from school to grab guns out of their cars and then piled amazing numbers in a single vehicle to head to the dove fields after school. Same-same during duck season.

You skipped school during deer season.
Speaking of deer � if you even saw a deer, you had a successful season.
One year, a hunting buddy killed a deer on the 3rd day of bow season, we made the county newspaper, such an early success being newsworthy.

I come from pretty humble beginnings so the decade�s financial woes kind of went over my head. I didn�t know we were poor, and I damned sure didn�t waste time sitting around listening to those who would tell me I was. I didn�t have much money, but I certainly was rich.

Loved the music of the first part of the decade, the last part of the decade was a musical desert, with only a few exceptions like Van Halen. Music was a big part of my life; I earned my beans from 1976-1978 playing guitar. Had all the hair and some of the habits.

Twas the decade the drive-ins died. Steamed window filled fond memories there, I�ll tell yah!

A couple of guys in my class were banging the school guidance counselor � all of the rest of us were jealous. When it was finally squelched it was kept just as quiet as the relocation of the local Catholic priest who wrecked his car with two drunk teenagers on board. None of today�s outrage over a female staff member banging a healthy teenager.
Where�s the victim? Said tongue-in-cheek, mostly.

Drugs? I find it hard to imagine drugs any more popular at school than they were during the 70�s. Our whole basketball team were speed freaks. Most of us played around with it and then completely walked away from drugs and never looked back. I don�t regret my experiences � it certainly helped prepared me to speak with three sons on the subject.

I could go on and on, but won�t bore everyone. The 70�s were great.

I bought my first high-powered rifle, a model 788 Remington in .308 Win., in 1979. Got it at the local TG&Y store and it came from the factory with a 4X Tasco.

You sure didn't see many deers back then and no turkeys. People around here hunted mainly quail and doves.

I would like to say no but my senior pictures would prove me a liar.

I said I make no apologies for LBJ, but as far as paying off our debts with paper or gold, the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 which made the US$ the world's reserve currency guaranteed that we would pay off our debts with specie. The fact that Nixon reneged on that deal and defaulted on our debts and obligations-no matter to whom-set up the inflationary debacle that was the 70's, and opened the door to expansion of government through fiat currency creation. Adhering to our obligations and cutting expenditures would have been the right and proper course of action, but one that was not chosen. For that I blame Nixon. Had he toed the line, he could have strangled the Great Society plan that LBJ initiated, but instead he decided to enhance and feed it. His actions lead directly to the problems we're encountering today.

Nixon would not and could not destroy the Great Society if he wanted to. Blame lays at the feet of Congress, like it usually does.

Paying off the debts would have resulted in the same: no currency backed by gold and fiat spending, 'cause Congress has got to spend, whether we have money or not. Think Lincoln started the racket.

Hard to toe the line against Dem. controlled Congress who always have the knack of raising min. wage and "budgeting" fiat spending. How are you going to cut spending when Congress makes the programs and spends the money? Not sign it twenty times?

Reagan didn't even dent the Great Society....you pick your battles, no matter how they suck.

CB radios.
Customized vans.
Trucks with roll bars and KC lights on them.
Black power hand afro picks.
Sitting in line to get a maximum of 5 gallons of gasoline.
Funny little cars like Toyota's and Honda's.
Crappy Harley bikes.

Burnouts from the 60's who just floated around.
By the late 70's people never talked about the people who went to Vietnam.
Popping pills was the "in thing" for a lot of "adults" who just floated around - uppers followed by downers.

Spirit of '76. It was a big thing. Every little town had something going on. Remember going and seeing the Freedom train that came to town.

I was a kid in the early 70's and my dad would just take me out of school for two weeks in the fall for the start of deer season (We hutned out of state) and teachers would just give me homework ahead of time. Probably throw you in jail for that nowdays.

schit Nathan i had to go to court because my A honor roll 12 yr old son had a few unexcused absentes. he had to do 20 hr community service while the saggy pants flunkys are out walking the streets. that schit really pissed me off. wish i could put him in private school

Can't let him think he's better than anyone else.....even when he probably is.

No reward for first place anymore...

I think the statement "would not" applies more than "could not". He could have done had he so wished. If I'm not mistaken, Presidents had impoundment powers then, which allowed them not to fund programs. As a matter of fact, Nixon used them so much that Congress passed the Impoundment Act of 1974 to prevent their further "intrusion" into Congressional authority to spend. Saying that he couldn't have strangled Medicare/Medicaid etc, is not accurate. He could have, he chose not to. Use of the veto pen would have also done much to change things. Getting 2/3's of both houses on board for anything is hard work no matter if the majority party is in opposition, and a few allies in the Senate would have gone far in filibustering any override threats.

I lay many things at the feet of ALL politicians, as there are only 545 people in this country responsible for making decisions. The fault lies with all of them, Congress, SCOTUS and the Ececutive. It lies even more so with the voting public for keeping these thieves and charlatans in power.

Nixon was always worried about what people thought of him and what people said about him; vetoes and fighting such matters made him feel vulnerable (which got him in trouble). I agree with the "would not".

LBJ didn't give a schit what people thought of him and I'd say he had free reign for awhile, which Nixon never did.

I don't agree with Nixon being worse than LBJ, but I TOTALLY agree with your last statement.

Or an Afro haircut Leisure suits were 74ish.

platform shoes and dingo boots

I was double lucky...

...a kid in England in the 60's with Mods, Rockers and the rise of Skinheads. The "Mersey beat" weren't an invasion over there. And I still fondly recall the '66 World Cup, England vs. West Germany at Wembley, one of the very top sporting events of the Century, went into overtime, we won, the whole country erupted

...and a teenager here in the '70's. Eight tracks playing down by the railroad tracks on warm summer nights, Boonesfarm Strawberry Hill, and high school girls with cigarettes and pot on their breath. If the Cops picked you up drunk they'd just ask where you lived and brung you home.

I hear the flatulent bleat of tricked out "imports" today (complete with rims and mandatory airfoil on the trunk) and I remember the squeal of Mickey Thompsons, rumbling V8's, cars still in bondo and primer paint(complete with faux air scoop on the hood ).

The 'Stones (of course), Zep, Black Sabbath, Bad Company, Johnnie and Edgar Winters, Iron Maiden, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Santana, and we all had the hots for Linda Ronstadt (long before she was Mexican)... ...as seen on the "Saturday Night Special" TV show (followed by "Chiller Theater", who else remembers that hand? )

Me I drove a '67 Veedub bus (40 raging horses on tap, third gear and 45 mph up hills on the Interstate ), steering box so loose I had hitchikers actually ask to be let out Turn hard with it full of people and the inside rear wheel would lift clear off of the ground.

Gas was 55 cents a gallon.

Before that I rode a 12 speed Schwinn Varsity. Oughtta be dead the way I rode it hands free, even down long hills

In college (still in the '70's) I drove a rusted-out AMC Scout, everything was rusted out(remember holes in the floorboards?) , even the door lock on the driver's side. So that when I drove it I WOULD TAKE OFF MY BELT AND STRAP THE DOOR HANDLE TO MY THIGH Didn't think anything of it at the time, nobody wore seat belts much back then either.

We was in the aftermath of the "sexual revolution", all the girls were on the pill, all we worried about was syphilis and gonorrhea, and nobody we knew had them.

Political Correctness hadn't set in yet, but all the people who would later impose it were in school, same as we were. And when Alice Cooper sang "Smokin in the Boys' Room" he weren't kidding, guys would cut class and smoke in there. Most teachers had yellow fingers too.

The Eagles, Boston, Bruce Springsteen .... not all the later 70's music was that bad, and like someone else said this was a golden age for country music.

...and then KC and the Sunshine Band had this hit called "That's the Way", from this strange music Gays (thats when that term came in) listened to called "Disco". Might have marked the decline of so much I dunno.

But what I really miss? All the woodlots and old fields we shot our .22's and bows in are all gone under now, for houses...

Birdwatcher

BW,

good account of what it was really like!!

Im just a whipper snapper, but my dad graduated in 76 with 5 people in his class.

Him, my mother, another couple that married and are still good family friends.

The 5th guy in their class had a run in with the law and is on death row.

But anyway the track coach would make then run down the dirt road behind the school for exercise and they had to sign a sheet in old man Mayfields mailbox.

My dad and his buddy would run about 400 yards where they had fishin poles stashed in the woods and let my mother and the other girl sigh their name on the sheet, and they would fish till the girls came back buy, then fall in line and run back to school.

I hear stories about just asking and most any farmer would let you hunt, fish, whatever, I wish it was like that now days, I have 440 acres of crap hunting land that i have to save for to lease.

Dingo boots...forgot about that one
Guilty....
Thought I looked bad-azzed too....
Ingwe