Living in America in the 1970s

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The gas shortage only lasted a couple years, after that it was pretty much back to normal.



I was in college in the 70's and I remember sometimes after pulling an all night-er we would pile into the car and drive to Vegas for the $1 buffet breakfasts. Do you believe that. Gas was so cheap college kids could drive to Vegas just to eat!
 
[quote author="alan" date=1219481641]The gas shortage only lasted a couple years, after that it was pretty much back to normal.



I was in college in the 70's and I remember sometimes after pulling an all night-er we would pile into the car and drive to Vegas for the $1 buffet breakfasts. Do you believe that. Gas was so cheap college kids could drive to Vegas just to eat!</blockquote>
Heh, what I can't believe is that the 20 or 30 person-hours it took to get there and back was worth so little next to cheap gas and $1 breakfast!



I remember as a wee little dude asking my mother what inflation was. After she explained it I thought for a few seconds, and then told her that all we had to do to beat the problem was to buy several years worth of whatever we needed, then just sit back and enjoy the savings from my shrewd strategy. I was quite proud of my five-year-old self.

My early memories include an Olds 442 that was parked in the garage until I was about 7, but which was never driven. My father, convinced that such a gas guzzler would never be worth anything, pretty much gave it away. The car guy in me cries a little bit each time I think about it.
 
I was in college during the '70s.



Stroh's Beer was sold in long-neck returnable bottles for $4.88 per case of 24. Oil peaked at about $40/barrel. My five years of graduate school were paid for by the energy shortage of 1973. The government funded lots of research projects on alternative energy and energy conservation. As a graduate student, I worked on one of these -- and by 1980 some technologies were in the full-scale construction or demonstration phase. My first job after graduation was for an environmental consulting firm in Portland, Maine in the fall of 1979. Gasoline was short that year, also, so fewer tourists made it up to Maine. Live lobster was $0.89 per pound in the grocery store. Cheaper than hamburger, which had to be trucked in from far away.



All of the alternative energy programs fell by the wayside in the late 1980s when oil prices fell back down to $10.00 per barrel. People forgot the gas lines, inflation, econo-box cars, and high fuel prices. Importing oil from unfriendly countries didn't seem to be a big deal.



rant on

In the early 1980s, I worked on the design and construction of a large oil pipeline to transport 300,000 bbl/day of crude oil from the California coast above Santa Barbara to various U.S. refineries between here and Houston, where the pipeline ended. There was even a proposal to build a new refinery southwest of Phoenix. A heated pipeline was the most efficient and safest means of transporting the oil to market. That pipeline was completed in about 1986. It employed thousands of construction workers during the recession of the early '80s. It was funded entirely by $1.4 Billion in private investment, not government pork barrel projects. In our "wisdom" of the time, we Californians then decided NOT to permit additional off-shore oil drilling. No oil development -- therefore no oil to pump in the pipeline. The pipeline closed and was abandoned.



Who was it that said that people who forget the past are bound to repeat it??? When I see all the news about our current energy problems, and the fact that any proposed solution is decades in the future, I want to scream! When I hear about our state legislators being unable to devise a balanced budget, I imagine the amount of oil royalties the state would be collecting from off-shore oil production, and I want to scream some more.

rant off I'll go take a pill now and calm down...
 
[quote author="PANDA" date=1219048105]I am sure that the majority of the people who are regulars on this forum were a child in the 80s. Most of us only lived through the most prosperous time in U.S.'s history. I am really curious to hear from people who lived through the 1970s in the U.S. Was it possible to invest in foreign equities back then? Was it easy to buy stocks back then? Were 16% mortgages rates considered a norm. Did Americans put down a bigger down payment for their houses? What was the typical american's lifestyle and mind set like seeing the inflation get out of control and seeing the U.S. currency decline against foreign currencies. Did anyone ever experience food storage in places like Absertsons or Ralphs? I have a genuine curiousity of anyone who lived through this extraordinary time in the U.S.



Panda</blockquote>


I was in elementary school through 79 in suburban L.A. I grew up in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood with dual working parents bringing home good money for those times. We never saw any shortages, though oil prices had an effect on employment later in the decade. I had a key to my hosue and from 4th grade either walked 3 blocks to take a school bus or met up with friends and walked ~1 mile through neighborhoods to school. It was very safe then, and no one worried about 9 year old kids doing such a thing. Star Wars and Kiss were huge. "Disco Sucks" was a motto that defined a racial divide in the public schools I attended. LA had awesome radio. KLOS and KMET (now The Wave ugh!) found new competition late in the decade with KROQ and their "New Music" format. Racing home after school to watch Dodgers-Yankees World Series. Drive-ins were big. The most popular youth sport by far was Little League. USC was dominant and UCLA was very good. Maybe Ricky boy can get them back there someday.
 
In 1972, we moved to Fla to go to law school, and bought a house for

22,500.00. Yep, you read it right. We looked at a cute house in Coral

Gables for 27k, but felt we just couldn't afford it. Sigh. There was a bubble

in the latest 70s in Miami, which busted when the interest rates went up

so much in the early 80s. (Our interest rate on thde 72 house was 9%)



We bought at exactly the wrong time in 81. Our note rate was 15%, but

since I represented an S & L, I got an employee discount to 13%. Our house

promptly went down 10k. We had no thought of selling; we had put 21%

down & could afford the payments. Our neighborhood was unfinished

for 8-10 years, like those pictures you're seeing from California. We liked

the vacant lots!! We shot model rocket off on the lots was were sad when

they were finally developed. When I went to work for a different law firm,

my rate went to 15%. Then the new S & L I represented bought my note

and we modified the loan to be an adjustible which steadily went down, and

I think ended up around 8%. I remember gas lines, but we really didn't

use all that much gas, in the 70s. I worked and went to nite law school at the Univ of Miami,

and often biked. The hub worked at the hurricane center also then at the U of

M. I often had my daughter on the back of the bike and dropped her off at Montessori

school which was just a few blocks from the U of M. I got a discount on the

tuition for myself and hub (they ended that racket shortly.) Our mtg payment was

umm, less than 200, and then went to a big $330 when we got a 2nd for

home improvements. We doubled our money when we sold.



In spite of collecting a number of degrees, and not having rich parents (tho

my mom inherited some money and easily paid for my college), neither one

of us ever borrowed a cent for school. And we went to private places. So,

I think that the colleges and universities are royally ripping the present day

students off. Because they can. Altho we moaned and groaned about it,

really tuition was very reasonable.



Also, when we first got married in '66, we lived a short distance from Hopkins

in a 3rd floor walk up townhouse, under a tar roof with no ac. Our rent was, however,

$75.00 a month which included all utilities but the telephone. We lived on about

$4500 a year, which was the hub's fellowship. Our parent helped a bit, but not

that much. And yes, he did walk to grad school in the snow (less than a mile).

I commuted to Catholic Univ in DC. I nearly got into a car accident in 67-68?

when I saw tanks driving over the BW Parkway towards DC from Ft. Meade,

during the riots.



How's that for some history?
 
[quote author="Astute Observer" date=1219581957][quote author="bkshopr" date=1219470126]BK posted on Ten's behalf:



Here is a picture of me and my 10 girlfriends I can't remember much. I think my 70's looks like this:



<img src="http://scienceblogs.com/loom/uploads/sperm.jpg" alt="" /></blockquote>


I was surprised that Ten was not offended by this, or make any comment. Either he knew it is completely innocent remark, or he is very forgiving.



If you really think about it, it is quit insulting to imply people involved in incest or one's mother have multiple sex partners during a single scenario. But I am sure it was just a harmless comment that implies Ten was too young to remember the decade.</blockquote>


Wow!



You are so analytical and thought about it beyond the basic concept. Are you an Asian engineer? Ten is a good sport and knows that I pick on him being a young baby having girlfriends around him all his life and he picks on me being an old man. I was certaily not thinking about any of the logistic you mentioned.



You forgot one scenario this may be a swimming party at the sperm bank.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1219461373]

Discount by volume and membership shopping was big. Chain Supermarket like Safeway, Alpha Beta, and Luckys were everywhere. Fedco, Gemco, Best Products, and Federated were the big box merchants families shopped. Bookstores were not popular at all as most people frequented the libraries. Crown Books and D. Dalton were the only 2 that really existed back then and they mostly sold bargain useless books that rank as high as fruitcake during Christmas.

</blockquote>


I used to live in Lakewood and recall walking down Del Amo to go shop for fishing tackle stuff at Gemco by Del Amo & Bloomfield in 1983. Then I'd take the near gear over to Cerritos Regional Park to go fishing. Back then it was actually easy to catch bass there. Large mouth bass in the upper lake (NE corner) and small mouth bass in lower SE corner. hehehe. Lots of catfish too.



We also shopped at the Fedco across street from Cerritos Mall... there was a Federated store by Cerritos mall too, towards the north side. Back when Jack Tremiel owned Fedco they'd sell Atari ST computers, my friends with ST and STe computers would go buy stuff there. Spent many hours playing Bard's Tale and Dungeon Master on their computer. :)
 
[quote author="ipoplaya" date=1219660397]Gotta love American TV in the 70's...



<img src="http://www.uiowa.edu/~ijcs/images/figure9.jpg" alt="" /></blockquote>


Fresh off the boat in 1981, this was Panda's favorite sitcoms as a four year old. "Here's a story of a lovely lady, la, la, la, Brady Brunch!"



I also remember telling my kindergarden teacher, "USA is Great!"
 
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