I and my brother are different:

I was born in the '60s / He was born in the '80s
I like McDonald's / He likes Burger King
I grew up with The Brady Bunch / He grew up with The Simpsons
I started 12th grade the year he started Kindergarten
I paid off my mortgage in 2010 / He assumed his mortgage in 2010
I smoked cigarettes as a teen / He chewed tobacco
I'm an adopted child / He's a biological child
My folks divorced / His stayed married
I grew my hair long as a teen / He always wore a buzz-cut
I had Atari / He had Nintendo
My first car was a '73 Beetle / His was a new car
I've traveled all over the country / He's never been further west than Connecticut
I'm a native Cape Codder / He is not
As a kid I often slept over friends' houses / He did not
As a kid we lived in 5 different places before mom bought the house she currently lives in / He lived in the same house until he bought his own place
I've had my own business / He's always worked for someone else
My first piece of real estate was land / His was a house
I'm an introvert / He's not
I've never really been a guy's guy / He is
I'll never marry and have kids / Someday he will
I hate golf / He loves golf
I suck at pool / He's good at pool
I had a moped / He had a motorcycle
I have a blog / He doesn't

Post-'70s remembrance:

Back in '98, I lived in the above yellow house (it was white at the time). It's on Route 28 in Orleans Massachusetts right next to the Christmas Tree Shop, and it had 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. A friend and I rented the house and then sub-rented the remaining 4 bedrooms and 3 baths to Wendy's to house their foreign workers for the Summer. We had about 15 people (total) from Jamaica, Ireland, Dominican Republic, England, The Czech Republic, and one gal from Poland. We called it "The Hall Of Nations". I've lived in a few towns on Cape Cod, but if I ever went back it would be to Orleans (well, and if I could ever afford it, it's a pretty pricey town...)..

Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun:

For some reason I love old McDonald's ads.

Candy cigarettes:

I preferred bubblegum cigs myself. I'm guessing they don't make these anymore, at least here in the States. They were pretty commonplace back in the day and nobody really thought anything of it, but now looking back it all seems so obscene and perverse. I have to admit there are some things back then that I don't miss at all.

1976:

Everyone was so young back then. I'm amazed at how fast 35 years can go by.

Random fact:

'Til her dying day, my grandmother insisted that Liberace was straight.

Misc.:

In the mid '70s when I first tried a shamrock shake, I hated it. In the early '80s, I loved them. Now I'm not really into sweet things anymore, so I don't ever get them. Of course, if they poured a couple of shots of Bailey's in them, that might make all the difference..

Random Observance:

In the '50s they had Fred and Ethel / in the '70s we had Stanley and Helen. Both wives were hot for their husbands and got no action, and both husbands were insulting and condescending to their wives. I guess since the beginning of television there've been dysfunctional marriages (even hundreds of years before television with Punch and Judy puppets). I don't know why we we're so amused by them. I guess for those who have good marriages, it makes us glad that it's "them not us"; or maybe for those with dysfunctional marriages themselves it makes us glad that it's "them too and we're not alone". Whatever.

"Joe, put it on channel 25. I want to watch Candlepins For Cash."

At 12:00 on Saturday morning, mom would make me turn the channel so she could watch Candlepins For Cash. It was the most boring show ever conceived. Ever. She'd watch it all the way to the end. The "winner" would win at the most $50. To this day I'm convinced she only watched it to get rid of me for the rest of the day. I wouldn't put it past her..

The Phil Donahue Show:

I didn't watch this back in the day because mom couldn't stand the show, and it happened to be on when either my back-to-back Flintstones episodes were running, or when the Gilligan's Island / Brady Bunch episodes were on. Phil might have been quality programming, but he was definitely no match for The Flintstones as far as I was concerned...

Fact:

Some people just don't seem to work well under stressful conditions..

Number one!

We are the champions, my friend.

And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.

We are the champions,

we are the champions.

No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions

of the world.

Do any of you remember...

... those sandals that had a button on the side of the sole that when you pressed it, wheels popped down and they became roller skates? I wanted a pair but they were girl sandals. I remember the commercial where the girl was late for class but "all of a sudden" remembers that she's wearing a pair of sandal skates so she pushes the button and skates across campus to her class. I'm guessing they don't make these any more, but who knows..

In my opinion:

Darrin and Samantha had a pretty decent looking house. I wouldn't mind living in a house like that. Although, if it was my house, those hideous circus-tent awnings would be the first things to go...

Misc. remembrance:

It's amazing how noise travels in the summer. When I was a kid in the late '70s, we had neighbors - a husband and wife named J. and E., who used to argue all the time and yell at each other. Mostly it was the wife who did all the yelling. Our kitchen window was close to their house, but didn't face their house so mom used to stand at the open kitchen window and listen to their arguments (you could hear every word, she might as well have been in the same room with them). One time the wife yelled out "And you think you're so good in bed??? Well you're not!". I don't think she eavesdropped much more after that, it was a pretty awkward moment..

The Deep:

I bought this in the Summer of '77. Never read past the first chapter, after the shipwreck and the guy who's walking his dog finds the dead captain on the beach under a plank of wood or a board or something like that. I tried to force myself to, but after that it just didn't hold my interest; but then I guess not many 9-year-olds could've made it past that first chapter, it seemed to really drag after that. The cover said it was "terrifying", but I wouldn't say so. On a side-note, I have to say that Mr. Benchley sure seemed to have a "thing" for leggy chicks on the cover of his books..

Random find:

When I was a kid I loved Fruit Stripe Gum. I found the above when I was doing an image search for the previous post about gum wrapper chains. I'm not sure what year the above was, but I'm guessing mid-'60s. I've always known Fruit Stripe Gum to have a zebra as its' logo, so I must say it came as quite a shock. To find out I was wrong . ..

Gum wrapper chains:

A friend tried to teach me how to make these, but for some reason I never able to master it. I knew how to make the soda can tab chains, but there was no way I could've drank that much soda to make a decent length of chain..

????????????

I've been trying to come up with a caption here, but I honestly have to admit that words fail me on this one..

Do you remember...

... those satin gym shorts with the white piping trim back in the late '70s?? I had shorts that were similar but not satin. I used to wear them with those knee-high white socks with the 3 colored stripes at the top. And a t-shirt with an iron-on picture on the front. With my name on the back across my shoulders. How embarrassing...

If you're driving into town with a dark cloud above you, dial in the number who's bound to love you:

But if you've got too many doubts, If there's no good reception for me Then tune me out, 'cause honey Who needs the static, It hurts the head. And you wind up cracking, And the day goes dismal From "Breakfast Barney" To the sign-off prayer.What a sorry face you get to wear. I'm going to tell you again now If you're still listening there: If you're driving into town With a dark cloud above you, Dial in the number Who's bound to love you. If you're lying on the beach With the transistor going, Kick off the sand cause honey The love's still flowing. If your head says forget it But your heart's still smoking, Call me at the station The lines are open.

Random:

I never really cared for cigars. Or bigots.

Disney's Wonderful World Of Reading:

My grandmother (dad's mom, not the Chatham grandmother) signed me up for this program for 2 years, and I got a book every month in the mail. The above was one of my all-time faves. I read this thing for hours. Pictured are the cover, the inside cover, and a page (I would've posted more but the above 3 were all I could find). The only drawback with these books was that there was hardly any content in them, so they took, like, 5 minutes to read through. Still, I loved the illustrations.

Did you know...

... that in 1974, a Joni Mitchell concert ticket only cost $5.50???

The previous post started me thinking about...

... the old Virginia Slims ad campaign that ran throughout the decade. I saw these ads in the TV Guides we'd get. I knew alot of women who smoked back then (most all the women in our family did), but none of them smoked Virginia Slims (Mom smoked Marlboro Lights, and Gram smoked Winstons). I guess they weren't liberated or enlightened enough...

No thanks:

I found the above when I did an image search for "1974 ads". As much as I love lemon flavor, I can't say I'm really tempted to try them..

In my opinion:

McDonald's always had the best collectors glasses. I only had the Hamburglar glass, though, which was fine by me. I didn't really care about the others.

Random find:

I found the above when I did an image search for "I'd like to buy the world a coke". I couldn't resist it.

Ain't that a pip:

I have to say my favorite character on The Jefffersons was Florence Johnston. Of course, if she was my housekeeper, I might feel differently..

I'm guessing...

... Louise isn't buying it. I'm not sure what George did, but by the look on her face she's not going to let him get off easy.

Random find:

I found the above pic when I did an image search for "keep on truckin". Is that a bizarre rig or what..

R. Crumb:

I wasn't into the art of R. Crumb back in the day because I was a little too young for it, and my folks were a little too old for it. I really didn't see that much of it. I kind of like it now, even though I find it all mildly disturbing. The above were the results of a recent image search I did, and I have to say that some of the stuff he did was pretty insane, but there's no question he was an excellent artist.