I have played space invaders, The one of the first gameboy anyway. My mum watches the brady bunch all the time. It ois really funny actually.

I remember the 70s very well and and enjoyed those years greatly. Many good memories ... and then a few sketchy ones ...

The vest in the pic on the left had a matching red, white, and blue jacket; taken in 1974 for my 4th Grade class picture. Sharp looking, yes? The denim suit on the right was quite the thing to be wearing in 1978. Yes. I know. The hair looks funny. Don't let mom cut your hair ... ever.

Oooh. October 1, 1971 ... The Magic Kingdom (Disney World) opened in Orlando, Florida. I recall visiting there in 1972. My folks complained about the admission fee: $12.00 USD.

I saw the HP-35 and groaned, Shadowlander. My older brother had one. I wanted to be cool like him and carry one on my belt like he did. Laugh if you want, but back then, it was as cool as an iPod on your belt. So there.

Mmmmm. ABBA. I still listen to them today.

*fires up a little ABBA Gold (really!) and digs out a nice lime-green leisure suit from the decade in question (NOT!)*

Great opening post once again, Shadowlander!

This was the decade from which I went from middle school to university, so I could reminisce ad nauseum - but I'll try to refrain.

Everyone remembers disco but (as Shadowlander mentions) there was actually some other music then. A few examples:

Three Dog Night - Shambala, Joy to the World, Mama Told Me Not to Come (appropriately included in the recent Perry Jackson movie during the Lotus-Eaters scene)

Lynyrd Skynyrd - in additon to Free Bird, I prefer their other Southern rock anthem, Sweet Home Alabama - written as a response to Neil Young's "Southern Man."

Boston - their self-titled debut album was all the rage in the dorm "stereo wars" the fall of my freshman year. More Than A Feeling still brings back memories of those days.

Queen - Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, and others in addition to their famous "We Are the Champions"

The Eagles - Hotel California may have some odd or controversial lyrics, but check out this later-released acoustic version that showcases their musical talent.

During this decade I saw my first solar eclipse: it was partial here in Minnesota; the narrow path of totality crossed Mexico and went up the US East Coast and into far eastern Canada on March 7, 1970, allowing millions to see totality from their own homes. Carly Simon mentions this eclipse in her hit song You're So Vain:

Then you flew your legion up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun

My first total lunar eclipse came January 30, 1972, but the one I saw in May 1975 was a lot more memorable - I stayed up all night with some friends from high school to see the entire event. Toward morning one of the guys got cold, so he went into a nearby grove of trees and retrieved some wood and built a fire.

In February 1979 I traveled to Brandon, Manitoba with a friend (now Ryadian's father) to see the last total solar eclipse in the continental US until 2017. Here's a shot of the diamond ring effect taken from another town in Manitoba.

The United States celebrated the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1976. I mention this primarily because it came just weeks after I graduated from high school, and the two events are linked in my memory.

I remember that scientific calculator, Shadowlander. I know some friends who had one.

And my first university-level computer class was on a mainframe with a language called MNF (Minnesota FORTRAN - not Monday Night Football, which also got its start in the 70s ). It used those wonderful punch cards:

One mistake on any one of them would abort the program and you'd have to go through all the cards to find the error, fix it, then go stand in line again to get a terminal to try to run the program again and hoped it worked.

Whoa, love those photos, cep! (Your hair is so cool ... especially in the first one ).

So, if we're showing photos of ourselves in the 70s, here's mine. I was 20 in 1978 and in Nigeria for the summer in between my 1st and 2nd year of university. I don't know if there is anything, really, from this photo that stands out particularly '70s', but that was me, then.

Btw, Shadowlander, fantastic and thorough opening post yet once again!

*puts on a pair of groovy shades to protect her eyes from stargazer's lime green leisure suit* (I enjoy reading your eclipse memories. )

Other key personal events:
~after many years of hard work, achieved my grade 8 piano/grade 2 theory
~graduated from high school, and attended Bible College for a year (/76-'77)
~moved from Toronto to Montreal back to Toronto with my family (my dad, a banker, was transferred), then headed to Waterloo, Ontario for university ('77-'80)
~went through a few boyfriends (glad that era is over!) and have some great memories of times with friends, both girls and guys
~very involved with church youth group

In music, I enjoyed Chicago ♥, Abba, the Bee Gees, Bread, the Carpenters ♥(Karen's voice is still my all-time favourite female voice), Phil Keaggy, Captain & Tennille, John Denver, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Olivia Newton-John, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Simon & Garfunkel, B.J. Thomas, Chuck Gerard, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Doobie Brothers, Eagles, the Guess Who, Three Dog Night ... (Gracious, that Carly Simon song brings back memories, 'gazer!)

As for fashion, I enjoy classic styles, rather than fads, so, aside from bell-bottoms (which was the only style of pant available, seemingly ), I would not be an iconic representative for 70s styles.

I didn't watch a whole lot of TV (too busy doing other stuff: youth group, music/piano, social life), but sometimes had fun with The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. And I never wanted hair like Farrah Fawcett ; rather I loved the short, cute look ... and still am rather partial to that, even though my hair is shoulder-length now.

I well remember living through the Watergate Scandal months. Now, I faithfully listen to Chuck Colson's "Breakpoint" daily 5-minute broadcasts, little knowing back then when he was thrown into prison, that his life would be revolutionized and affect so many in such a positive way years later, including mine!

How could I forget the Captain and Tennille ("Love Will Keep Us Together" was on the radio all the time - not to mention "Muskrat Love" ) or Barry Manilow?

And what about "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes? I wonder how many people tried a pina colada for the first time after hearing this? I'd never heard of one until this song came out.

Your list, jo, reminded me of other 'classic rock' that shaped what I listened to back in the 70s, and I've enjoyed listening to them again today:

Journey - Lights, Wheel in the Sky, Faithfully

Kansas - Dust in the Wind, Carry on My Wayward Son

The Rolling Stones - too many to name; for some reason "Angie" comes to mind today

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven, but don't forget their LOTR-influenced Battle of Evermore

Seals and Croft - Summer Breeze, Diamond Girl, Get Closer

Elton John - Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Robert John - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (watch out - this one's an earworm!)

Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - a semi-historical account of the sinking of that ore freighter in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, when "the gales of November came early"

Even this just scratches the surface, but it'll do for now.

Movies: it's hard to describe the wonder that the theatrical premiere of Star Wars brought to the big screen. There'd really been nothing like it before, and despite being panned by many critics the movie...well, you know the rest of the story.

On the other hand, I found Close Encounters boring. I suppose I could try again some time. Nevertheless, it prompted my to request a stopover at Devils Tower on our first trip to Yellowstone some years later.

TV: The premiere of the Battlestar Galactica pilot was interrupted by a special news report about a peace treaty being signed at Camp David. Later that evening, the airing continued at the point it had left off.

The Voyager missions were pretty exciting times for space-science nuts like me. They took advantage of a rare planetary alignment which allowed engineers to use gravity assists ('slingshots') from one planet to the next, allowing greatly reduced flight times to the outer planets. The original mission, dubbed the "Grand Tour," was scratched and replaced with the less ambitious Voyagers - whose discoveries revolutionized planetary science.

The Skylab program followed the last of the Apollo missions; it (along with the later Soviet Mir and the current International Space Station) was visible from the ground under the right conditions. (My earliest memory of seeing it was from the car as we traveled to my paternal grandfather's funeral in May 1973)

Spectacular Comet West was gloriously visible in the pre-dawn skies early in 1976 - and proved to be a far better sight than famous Comet Halley (during its 1985-86 passage).

My first nova came in late August 1975 when Nova Cygni 1975 disturbed the familiar pattern of the Northern Cross. It was one of the brightest novae of the latter half of the twentieth century.

More later?

stargazer, I remember learning about the punchcard system for computers in Computer class in one of the college courses I took. It is so very hard to believe it was so rudimentary and complicated (especially if one made an error!) or that keyboards were such a novelty. I know that the CRAY supercomputer was lurking about somewhere...did you ever get to use one of those, perchance?

Well, if we're sharing pictures I guess I'll toss one of mine up as well. My Maternal Figurehead has almost all of my kid pictures from the 70's (I was born in 72) so I only have one taken around 1974...try not to guffaw too much.

*hides his face*

I remember the Bicentennial somewhat, although I was only 4-5 at the time. As with other things I probably would have appreciated it more if I had been older, but alas, I was just a little kid. What I do clearly remember are the commerative Bicentennial quarters they released that year. They're still in circulation, although you don't see many anymore. I hoard them whenever I find them!

I thought the Bicentennial dollar coin was the coolest of all, with a Liberty Bell set against the moon...my parents have a few of these set aside.

]Btw, Shadowlander, fantastic and thorough opening post yet once again!

Why thank you! This one took me only 5 hours.

it's hard to describe the wonder that the theatrical premiere of Star Wars brought to the big screen. There'd really been nothing like it before, and despite being panned by many critics the movie...well, you know the rest of the story.

Indeed...there were lines going out of the theater and you had to wait a while to see it. My sister Liz took me to see Star Wars seven times! And I was on the low end...I had friends who got to see it 20 times. Liz also purchased a short 8mm reel for our home projector, but it was silent (it had subtitles) and was in black and white. Turns out it is quite the collector's item now.

And of course no Star Wars discussion of the 1970's is complete without mentioning the Star Wars Holiday Special they aired on TV in 1978, which I did not get to see. They aired it only once, and George Lucas was so disgusted by the thing he has the only existing "official" copy. There are some bootleg VHS tapes of it that can be found occasionally but by all accounts it was pretty terrible stuff. But it's still Star Wars. It also marked the first on screen appearance of Boba Fett.

I wasn't alive in the 70's, but I some times think I should have been.

Once again, I haven't seen any of the popular movies in their entirety. I have seen some of one of the Star Wars.

Oh Lord...please, make it stop! *shields his eyes*

Don't look now but several of those styles are back in style (or at least a variation thereof.)

My sister and I spent hours watching Brady Bunch when we were growing up. We didn't have cable so my grandma taped them and sent us to them. I absolutely love the Partridge family. I have all four Seasons on DVD. Coincidentally, a mixture of my favorite Partridge family songs and Shaun Cassidy songs was playing in my car today until I changed it after work to the PC sound track. (probably way more info that you needed ) My favorite show of all time: Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries aired form Jan 1977 - 1979 (Although Nancy Drew was dropped for the third season ). I have the first two seasons on DVD and I am waiting for the 3rd season to come out on DVD. No news on a release date yet ... I also have the first three seasons of Charlie's Angels. Personally, I don't like the style of Farrah Fawcett's hair.

I see that this is a cue for the old and infirm among us to raise our greying heads....
Well,....
Nobody has mentioned that the decade began with a variety of music, including folk, country & western, Bubble-gum, and overly sweet/sentimental pop. We still sing this stuff at parties, and when I am in an old folks' home, we will gather around the guitar and sing Simon & Garfunkel till our voices crack!

Plenty of the worst fashion trends simply grew out of the 60s (where I think lava lamps actually belong), but this doesn't account for wide cuffed trousers called Oxford Bags, the Maxi dress, the Midi dress (yep, mid calf), and those abhominations (Narnian spelling) Bell-bottomed trousers and Flares.
The 70s were to me what the 40s were to my parents; in them I formed my opinions, did lots of exams including 2 university degrees, made lots of friends, turned old enough to marry, vote, drink, and borrow money.

I noticed at least one TV programme in the introduction that was a USA copy of a successful English one. The 70s began a number of wonderful comedies from BBC and other producers, some of which are of cult status now.

I wasn't alive in the 70's, but I some times think I should have been.

If for no other reason than to own and operate a Big Wheel! Oh you poor, deprived woman!

My favorite show of all time: Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries aired form Jan 1977 - 1979 (Although Nancy Drew was dropped for the third season ).

I watched that when I was very young...well, specifically I watched Hardy Boys because Nancy Drew was "for girls....ewwww" . I think there were some episodes where the Hardy's and Nancy would team up to tackle an investigation together, but it's been a really long time. I seem to recall Shaun Cassidy was the younger Hardy brother...I could be wrong, it's been an awful long time!

But in the end I usually watched Battlestar Galactica (Best. Show. Ever.), and Buck Rogers and lots of the Dukes of Hazard. Loved the General Lee!

I see that this is a cue for the old and infirm among us to raise our greying heads....

Yeah I know...these kids have no idea, do they? For the record I'm starting to sprout some grey hairs (including this one really annoying one that stands straight up and wobbles a lot right where I part my hair at the front, like it's putting on a dance show...I have to pluck it every other month because it reminds me of those irritating feathers at the top of Big Bird's head) so I guess I'm technically in the boat with the rest of the old timers.

Ah the memories! Not because I lived then! I'm only seventeen. Because I had parents who lived then and I grew up on ABBA and (I love them!) and had parents who showed me a video of Deep Purple singing Smoke on the Water.

I also saw numerous pictures of my aunt in year books with Farrah Fawcett hair. We also have a picture of my dad wearing plaid bell bottoms. (Needless to say, he hates that picture!)

I grew up on the Dukes of Hazzard. My family has all seven seasons.

Oh, and why did we wear those dreadful platform shoes? (in my case it was obvious I needed the height, but...) So that in the future we could tell young people that we had already ruined our ankles and they shouldn't bother to wear them too!

Words like psychedelic and groovy are so 60s, but we still said "cool, man" if we were trying to seem sophisticated - or joke.

Cute 70s pictures, everyone!

I managed to evade platform shoes for the most part. Whew!

I know that the CRAY supercomputer was lurking about somewhere...did you ever get to use one of those, perchance?

Alas, no. They were far too rare and valuable for mere university students to use. But I remember it was a big deal because Cray was headquartered here in the Twin Cities.

Keyboards were indeed rare, and printers were really slow (I don't recall the exact speeds) and were more like fast manual typewriters than the multi-purpose ones we take for granted now. And while predecessors to the internet were out there, it was all very primitive and with the relatively slow processors of the day, it took forever to do much of anything.

I never managed to see that Star Wars Holiday Special when it aired. In fact, I forgot about it for a long time, until Weird Al mentioned it in his White and Nerdy parody.

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor: Doctor Who (like Star Trek) was one of those popular shows at university. Much later, when I first saw the BBC production of The Silver Chair my response was "Puddleglum is Doctor Who!"

Popular colors included burnt orange and avocado green....

Yes, they were everywhere! My parents' growing family prompted an addition to the house early in the decade, furnished with all the trappings: shag carpet in those colors, and a new refrigerator in avocado.

When I first moved to the Twin Cities in 1976, the church I attended had been recently remodeled - also in those colors and with shag carpet. At the time it seemed very up-to-date, but now... (It was remodeled some years later with the 70s trappings removed).

Nobody has mentioned that the decade began with a variety of music, including folk, country & western, Bubble-gum, and overly sweet/sentimental pop.

My older siblings were a significant musical influence on us younger kids in the 60s and 70s - we were exposed to a lot of different music we may not have been otherwise. My older sister favored pop and bubblegum singers like Tommy Roe and 1910 Fruitgum Company (biggest in the 60s but lasting into the early 70s) while my older brother played rock like Deep Purple or Steppenwolf. Quite a contrast.

My brother and I would play the old 45-rpm records on the scratchy old record player. Ah, memories.

In those days, we were lucky to get 4 over-the-air TV stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, and - on good days - Iowa Public Televsion). A staple in our house was The Lawrence Welk Show every Saturday night: "Turn on the bubble machine!" Most of my friends remember growing up to the same thing each week - and of course it was very "uncool" for teenagers to like the old fashioned, big-band influenced Welk style of music. (And now I cringe watching some of those 70s-era reruns, with his orchestra members dressed up in powder-blue or bright green suits. )

*Pops into the thread to see what the 70's were all about*

I was not around in the 70's (yes, I am one of "those kids"). In some respects I do not envy the "people of the 70's", but, on the other hand, I admit the 70's were loaded with "groovyness"!

For my contribution to "the 70's" I would like to mention a TV show that is unquestionably one of the most popular TV shows of all time. That TV show is... (drum roll) ... M*A*S*H!

Okay, so the show is VERY irreverent, but we just can't help but laugh anyway.

As a personal note of the show, I prefer Harry Morgan as Col. Sherman T. Potter as opposed to McLean Stevenson as Lt. Colonel Henry Blake.

In those days, we were lucky to get 4 over-the-air TV stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, and - on good days - Iowa Public Televsion).

I remember those days. You had your VHF channels (2-13) and then the UHF ones (14-60-something). Rabbit ears were all but a requirement. Even on a good day you could seldom get more than 5-6 channels. My folks upgraded to cable in the late 70's so we had a bit more variety. Did everyone always get Chicago WGN or has it always been like that?

Watz, I can't claim to have ever been a MASH fan. It just seemed odd to have a war show with no war...I tended to gravitate towards Black Sheep Squadron on that front. Watching Pappy Boyington and company blasting away Zeroes each week was fun, plus the planes were just beautiful!

And I must admit to being a major Dukes of Hazzard fan. The General Lee was the coolest car on TV. At least until the advent of KITT from Knight Rider in the 80's.