What objects would make you think of 1975?
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6rant6 (
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January 13th, 2011
I’m writing again…
I’m trying to come up with objects which would make you think it was 1975. Preferably things that might be found in an office or military setting. So far I’ve got a Selectric Typewriter. Other ideas?
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52 Answers
Boat people, helicopters, the US embassy in Saigon.
Items that are starting to show up for the 1976 Bi-centennial celebrations.
Patti Hearst, Viking 1, US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz 9 spacecraft link up in space and Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts shake hands, first disposable razor is launched by Bic, Sony introduces Betamax videotapes and Matsushita / JVC introduce VHS,
Popular Culture 1975
Bruce Springsteen releases his third album, Born To Run, widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time
Saturday Night Live debuts on NBC
Muhammad Ali beat Joe Fraser in the “Thriller In Manilla” match
Popular Films
Jaws
The Towering Inferno
Benji
Young Frankenstein
The Godfather Part II
Funny Lady
Murder on the Orient Express
The Return of the Pink Panther
Tommy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Popular Musicians and songs
ABBA
Aerosmith
Black Sabbath
Chicago
Bob Dylan
David Bowie with ” Fame ”
Alice Cooper
The Eagles with ” Best of My Love ”
Jefferson Starship
Elton John with Island Girl and ” Lucy in the sky with Diamonds ”
Kiss
Led Zeppelin
John Lennon
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Paul McCartney and Wings
Pink Floyd
Paul Simon
Queen
Bruce Springsteen
The Who
ZZ Top
A fringed jacket.
Facial Hair.
Double knit leisure suit in power blue…...
I think of “Op Art” like florescent posters, motion lamps, and those soda bottles that have been heated and stretched out to make a cool bud vase.
Patchouli oil, mushroom posters, electric blue eyeshadow…. Mood rings
I may keep coming back to this question. I was in Jr High and EXPERIENCED it!
My brothers green baret from his tour in Vietnam.
IBM Selectric II typewriters. My high school still had a bunch of those in the 80s.
AMC Pacer cars
Bell bottom jeans
A photograph of Carlton Fisk in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds hitting his game-winning home run and giving it body English from the first base line and willing it to stay fair.
That photo by itself says “1975” to me (and to a lot of other New Englanders).
I’m writing in a blotter calendar, mobile phone, and Dymo labeler. Great ideas.
FYI, the mobile phones of that day were only owned by the super-rich, were as big as a city’s phone directory and were actually car phones that were powered through the car lighter. There were no mobile phones like we have now in 1975.
I never saw a mobile phone until 1980. If they were around us common folk never knew about it!
Carbon paper for making a duplicate as you typed on your Selectric.
The interior of a uterus.
(born in early 76 if that flew over anyone’s head)
How about an old school Rolodex sitting next to a rotary dial phone.
A bumper sticker with a yellow happy face on it that says Have a Nice Day stuck to a cork bulletin board with colored plastic pushpins (no magnetics, no dry erase boards).
Tools of the desk and office: single hole punch
plain metal letter opener
cellophane tape on one of those big heavy black tape dispensers
a plastic rotary phone in black, putty or avocado green
a desk blotter (with faux black or brown leather side panels and faux gold leaf piping design)
big heavy scissors with black handles
pink eraser
typing correction fluid (with packaging from that exact era)
fat black “marks a lot” felt pen (not a sharpie)
yellow #2 pencils (no other colors)
plain old small sized silver colored paper clips
manila folders with the string closures
“smoked” color plastic in/out box
yellow lined legals pads
a plastic insulated coffee carafe (in that copper color) like this
metal base Sparklett’s water cooler with a glass bottle on top, with either a dixie cup dispenser or a solo cup dispenser (with those cone shaped paper cups) next to it
a metal upright drinking fountain like this
a lunch box like this
a 1975 calendar (from a soda company like bubble up)
a thin black framed wedding photo like this
a candy machine (it would be older than 1975 cause it’s been there awhile) like this
a set of desk “clackers like this
a goosneck desk lamp like this or this
a wooden office desk chair like this
metal folding chairs like these
Rubik’s Cube—invented in 1974; very popular in 1975!
platform boots! moonboots!
Afro Picks
I know there still around but not a much as in the 70’s.
Tight shorts, Afros, Disco, platform shoes, very shitty karate movies ext.
How about one of those old school digital clocks where the numbers are written on little cards that flip down as the mechanism rotates.
An adding machine where you punch in the numbers and then pull a handle on the side to add them up. A cash register where you do the same thing.
Stereo system with huge speakers.
short track shorts with tall athletic socks with colored stripes.
Polyester leisure suits
A large radio
49 cent gas
long hair parted in the middle with leather headband (both sexes)
OceanPacific shorts
8 track player in the car maybe with a CB radio.
Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert on Saturday nights
shag carpeting in gold or avocado green
console TV
Bell bottoms and peasant blouses. I actually like clothes like that.
Some of those macrame plant hangers that Jude hates.
@Earthgirl I have my spider hanging in one of those right now :)
ChocolateReigns, ha ha, personally I like macrame, but I remember reading a question recently by jude and she was saying anything but those goddawful macrame hangers!
Things in red white and blue colors. I remember things before the bicentennial became very “red white and blue”.
String art
Anglepoise lamp
Leather topped desk
There was a saying all over the place “keep on truckin’” and it was on bumper stickers with this cartoon guy taking a long step. I guess it came out in 1968‘_(comics)?wasRedirected=true” but it was still popular in 1975
Oh, @Judi, I remember that, R. Crumb did that.
He’s a really weird guy, that guy.
dont forget about people who were streaking everywhere
Avacodo colored appliances.
And earth shoes like these
I had Earth shoes and an AMC Hornet.
1975 was a milestone year for me.
Houseplants were a very big deal around that time. We were putting plants in every teapot, cup and container that we could. Terrariums were popular too and would fit an office setting.
It’s amazing how many of these things getting listed are in my house. About @Adirondackwannabe‘s avocado colored appliances, our oven hood (the thing with the fan in it above the oven) is avocado colored. Our fridge and stove were that color, also. The kitchen is wallpapered with bright yellow flowers and we’ve got orange countertops. This house was built in 1971 and stayed much the same until about 2004 when we remodeled. We had orange carpeting through a lot of the house. Yellow, dingy green, and orange were everywhere. Too bad there aren’t more pictures.
Oh, and how about a terrarium with a spider plant growing in it. And one of those “stretched” coke bottles that you got at the fair. And mood rings.
You don’t want me to answer this. Really, you don’t! :)
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