60's-70's predictions

Idea from another thread...and I don't want to be the first one ever on this site to hijack a post from it's original intent, so here goes.
Another poster asked about weather from the 70's and how the trend back then was the anticipation of an other ice age starting.

My parents ran what is now referred to as a convenience store, it had everything, including a post office. Whenever the towns people would show up for their mail, a conversation would usually start. Topics varied wildly with a few emblazoned in my memory forever. This was the 60's and the cold war was at it's height. Of course, there was the another ice age is coming!

Another topic I remember was that those damm russians are experimenting with "weather bombs" which would support the first topic, also.

We sold bottles of soda pop for 10 cents. Candy bars, potato chips, paks of gum, frozen ice cream treats were all 5 cents. And of course, penny candy. Lots of it. As I remember, one whole display case was dedicated for penny candy.
Being in a smaller town out away from anything, the gas we sold was around 33 cents a gallon. And I remember people driving 7 miles (and more) in order to save a penny per gallon!
The delivery guys were usually met by my brother (younger) or me and we managed to put on our hungry face so they would throw us a pack of hot dogs or candy or whatever it was they delivered. Didn't happen to often, but when it did, we would take the hot dogs into the woods and build a fire and roast the whole pack of 'em! They were actually hi grade dogs, not the ones you see now-a-days.

Lots more stories to add. What are yours?

 

In the 60s there was a building boom in our town. After school we would wander the half finished houses to find the empty soda/pop bottles that the workers left. 2¢ for the small ones, a nickle for the larger ones. On a good day we could cash them in for an ice-cream sundae, about 50 to 75¢ depending on the toppings.

Those were the days we could wander around town after school as long as we were home "before it started getting dark." We never knew how we were supposed to know it was going to start getting dark before it happened.

KaptJaq

 

My parents taught me that it got dark at sunset. Little visual aid there.

 

If the sun was already set we were too late since it had already STARTED getting dark. Especially if we were on the other side of town when we noticed the sun was setting.

Definitely were simpler times. Everybody in town knew whose kid you were and were proxy parents when you were within their sight. "Shouln't you be headin' home by now, your mothers gonna be worrying..."

KaptJaq

 

I can remember 24 cents a gallon around 1968 in Ohio where we lived. Played outside all day with the neighbour kids until it got dark.No warnings about talking to strangers.
Winter seemed to consist of about three weeks with snow on the ground for our sleds.

 

Two things I remember from the late 70's:

Kids could walk down the street to the sand pit with their plinking rifles over their shoulders and no one freaked out. We usually knew them or it was a friends older brother.

Gas fills on cars were behind the license plate. Nowadays, people pull in to gas pumps in every which direction or they forget which side the fill was on.

 

One of the first times I got the car to go driving with some buddies, Dad said "no driving up to town with it" and of course after I had the car loaded up with buddies, of we went to town. When it was getting time to go home, I thought I had better put some gas in the tank to appease him. Buick special with a V6, 1964 I think. Well, I took a collection from everyone in the car pulled into a Clark station and told the attendant "$3 please".
The gas sold for 24.9 cents a gallon that time, and filled up the tank! Next morning on the way to church, he asked, "Did you go to town?" My brother (younger) starts snickering and gets that you're busted look in his eye.
Yes.
What did I tell you about going to town?
You told me not to go.....BUT, I filled up the tank for you! (It worked.)
Best part of it was that it wasn't the cheapest gas in town!

 

Yeah, and in the 60's, there were no auto shut offs on the gas pumps! The gas just started spilling all over the ground once the tank was full!

 

Saw a lady one time pulled up so the pumps were on the driver side,gets out of car grabs gas hose and oops gas cap is on passenger side!
Puts hose back gets in car and pulls around to other side with pump still on the drivers side,gets out grabs gas hose and oops gas cap is still on the passenger side!

Now for the rest of the storey she was a 7th grade teacher in our school system!

Gary

 

Is this her Gary...

 

All I know is that by now, I was supposed to have conveyor belts in the floors and robots that feed me, shave me and brush my teeth. And a flying car, where's my flying car dammit?

 

When I was a kid I can clearly remember sitting on our white fence in Vermont, figuring out how old I was going to be when it turned over to the year 2000... and concluding I was gonna be 46. That seemed older then (thankfully, not so much now) and I wondered what new and exciting things would be invented. The space missions always had my undivided attention. My folks were amazing looking back. Their stories of life during visits at the farm during the 1st depression were burned into my mind. Later, when we moved to Maine thru my HS years, I learned how to drive school buses and worked as a driver for my school district as a senior, along with 4 other seniors. Probably unheard of in today's legal cautious world. Gas, at the pump we filled the buses at, was 32 cents a gallon. My 1st "car" was a 1968 Chev wagon that was handed down. Hated it at first... until I had a girlfriend around 1970. Loved that car...

 

Reminded me of borrowing a panel van to go to the drive in movies with my then girlfriend. Wow! What comfort!

 

Bet that van got borrowed a lot...

 

I was just telling a coworker how I used to do that. I would shoot a whole brick of 22s in a weekend. Cops would wave as they drove by.

 

I dont remember the 70's all that well, having been a toddler. But as a kid in the early 80's I was absolutely fascinated with space, used to build Estes model rockets. I had a plastic model of the Saturn V that I painstakingly painted.. and would watch all kinds of shows and read books about space, apollo, skylab, the shuttle, and so on. Of course in the 80's the space shuttle was the latest and greatest and the old space capsules like Apollo and Gemini where old news. Someday we where all going to vacation on Mars right? Then challenger happened. I remember watching it live in school



Fast forward to today, and the project Orion capsule just made its first test flight 4 months ago. Looks awfully familiar doesn't it?

 

For sure, gas station attendants were the norm. And remember the giveaways to keep you as a loyal customer? The station my folks had (Standard) sold motor oil but we had to go in the garage and pump it out of a holding tank into a glass bottle with a metal screw on spout. Still have those pumping tanks and I think I could scare up one of the oil bottles also!
Then, oil switched over to cans (still 1 quart), but you had to have a special spout that slide into the metal top of the cardboard (not always) oil can.

As a child, we always had a dog running around with us. Usually a heinz 57, but always loyal. Never tied up. I don't think anyone in town tied their dogs for that matter. Just the mean ones.

Used to catch wild animals for pets, also. The basic ones-squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, racoons. Even had a fawn for awhile, but that was pushing it. And it seems there was a never ending supply of frogs and turtles.
The bigger snappers were always a challenge-and stinky!

About everyone had bikes, some kids had new ones and of course, everyone wanted to take it for a spin.

The town where I grew up also had an old fashioned water pump at the town hall. I don't know how deep the well was, but I do remember that it was hand driven! Man, that water tasted good on the hot summer days. There was one household that lived next door to the town pump and it was their only source of water-year around. Of course, they also had no indoor plumbing, either.

 

Since the 60-70's, technology has advanced at an exponential rate.....................while at the same time the average intelligence of most American citizens has probably dropped quite a bit.

I've no way to quantify that.................but it sure seems so!!