Why do I hate the 1970s so much?

[jamespowers]

And in high school in the mid '50s, my dad was doing everything to avoid getting beaten up by black leather jacket-wearing "greaser" gangs. Cross country track and the Boy Scouts were his salvation. Then, in college, he was doing everything to avoid becoming a grey flannel-suited, sexless business drone. The NROTC and the Navy were his salvation.


It's not when you lived, it's where and how you lived.


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Geez, where did he live---South Central? :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

Of course you know we all want to see the pictures now! lol

Yep, post the hippie.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Geez, where did he live---South Central? :eusa_doh:

My dad grew up in Staten Island, NY -- home to NYC's Italian Mafia. Then, he attended Columbia University in NYC.

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[jamespowers]

My dad grew up in Staten Island, NY -- home to NYC's Italian Mafia. Then, he attended Columbia University in NYC.

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Same thing then.
My suggestion---move. I would have.

Regards,

J

 

[Marc Chevalier]

My suggestion---move. I would have.

Hard to move when you're a teenager being raised by your grandparents, who don't have the money or gumption to do so.

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[RedPop4]

I half agree with you, Red. As you pointed out (and I'm glad you did), ex G.I.s and their families were not moving to the suburbs to "fly" away from minorites, but rather to "fly" toward new homes, which is fine -- I would have done it myself.


However, minority G.I.s and their families were not particularly welcomed to "fly" along with them. The result was that these new suburbs became divided along racial lines. In Southern California, at least, the homeowners' associations in some suburbs deliberately excluded minorities from living there.

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I'm going by what I learned on local shows about New Orleans history. This is what occurred here. I don't know that we had overactive or any HOA's here, way back then. Must be racism in SoCal, I guess.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Must be racism in SoCal, I guess.

Yep. There was a lot of it going on here in the '50s and early '60s. A brief example:

In the L.A. city of Glendale, blacks -- any blacks, of any age or social level -- were not allowed to be on the streets after sundown. Cop cars would pick up any that were around, and dump them across the tracks in East Hollywood. If the police saw any black people driving through Glendale at night, they would follow them to the town limits -- or give them a citation for "driving recklessly," "failing to signal" ... you get the idea.


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[RedPop4]

Not to take this TOO far fftopic: it is my understanding from friends of mine from East Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan (guys on Cigar Weekly) that there were, into the 70s and 80s, 6:00 whistles in a lot of towns for the blacks to vacate town. One in Michigan, iIrc said he's heard them still in the last couple years.

 

[jamespowers]

Hard to move when you're a teenager being raised by your grandparents, who don't have the money or gumption to do so.

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:eusa_doh:

Now back to I hate the 70s.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Not to take this TOO far fftopic: it is my understanding from friends of mine from East Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan (guys on Cigar Weekly) that there were, into the 70s and 80s, 6:00 whistles in a lot of towns for the blacks to vacate town. One in Michigan, iIrc said he's heard them still in the last couple years.

The rest of the country has long blamed the South for every racial ill, without making the effort to examine their own 'glass houses.' It's been so easy for the rest of America to say, "Quit complaining, [minority of choice]. Things are so much better here compared to the South." What an excuse to keep on keepin' on! It was, and is, a smug and hypocritical thing to do.


As a whole, the South didn't and doesn't deserve to be lumped together under one big, simplistic stereotype, which perpetuates ignorance and prejudice against an entire (and complex) region and population.

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[reetpleat]

I'm going by what I learned on local shows about New Orleans history. This is what occurred here. I don't know that we had overactive or any HOA's here, way back then. Must be racism in SoCal, I guess.

Up through the sixties in Seattle, you could not buy homes or even live in many neighborhoods if you were asian, black, or hispanic sometimes. A journalist who wrote abood I read had to get a proxy buyer to buy into a neeighborhood as the developers would not sell to african americans.

While I agree that part of the motivation was to get land and affordable housing, part of the motivation was to flee the percieved problems of the city. Those were many, but ot many, part of it was related to minorities. I read an interesting book by Ray Suarez on the american city. he said that the biggest factor in a neoghborhood being abandoned by anyone who can afford to get out is the perception of the shool. Once the school turns 50% black, the perception tends to be that it is not a good school, and the whites flee, the blacks with money flee and the school very quickly becomes high percentage of blacks. Once that happens anyone that can afford to leave will, taking their money with them. At this point the neighborhood is pretty well lost. Until the yuppies gentrify I guess.

Certainly there are class and poverty issues involved. But there is definitely a racial element. The seventies was a high point for block busting, the technique of scaring everyone into selling by selling to or starting a rumor of blacks moving in.

I can't help but think the NO had some race issues involved.

 

[jamespowers]

The seventies was a high point for block busting, the technique of scaring everyone into selling by selling to or starting a rumor of blacks moving in.

I can't help but think the NO had some race issues involved.

Actually the fifties was the high point for block busting as you call it. Several realtors were prosecuted here during that time for doing it.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Know what I hated the most about the '70s? Itchy wool/polyester blend pants that were really tight in the thigh (and uselessly flared from the knee down). As a kid, I hated going shopping for new pants: it meant that I had to try them on. Ouch!


For me, one of the greatest gifts of the '80s was the resurgence of looser trousers in soft wool gabardine.


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[warbird]

Know what I hated the most about the '70s? Itchy wool/polyester blend pants that were really tight in the thigh (and uselessly flared from the knee down). As a kid, I hated going shopping for new pants: it meant that I had to try them on. Ouch!


For me, one of the greatest gifts of the '80s was the resurgence of looser trousers in soft wool gabardine.


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My God if that whole last statement wasn't the complete truth strike me down now.

Oh how I hated those pants.

 

[Viola]

People actually LIVED back in the '70s?

I just inheirited the funky wallpaper.

-Viola

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"Young whippersnapper" is the term that comes to mind.

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[Viola]

Aw Marc you know the wallpaper was bad. And the brown wood panelling. And the shag rugs.

I have a couple books with quilt-patterns that were published in that era...who knew that an all-brown design in seven shades of brown was so popular? Brown-brown-brown-brown, with rusty orange accents. Decor to slit your wrists by.

-Viola

 

[LizzieMaine]

Be thankful you didn't experience the very most worstest 70s decor trend: self-stick carpet squares. "If your kids spill food on them, you can peel them right up and put down new ones," said the salesman to my mother. Except he didn't sell her enough squares to replace all the ones that got peeled up, leaving the living room floor looking like one of those sliding-number puzzle games.

 

[dhermann1]

Avocado fridges

Those avocado and banana yellow color schemes certainly are nausea inducing. I think they were reactions to the antiseptic looking pure white that had been prevalent for so long. It just shows how hard it is to stay balanced in the middle. Seems American culture is just one backlash after another against some sort of extreme.

 

[Paisley]

It makes me think of those rust-colored wahing machines for sale now. The rust will just blend in. I guess that's a good thing.

You might enjoy the book Interior Desecration by Jim Lilek. He also has a web site that shows some hideous 70s decor.