20 Things Only Nerds Will Remember About The 1970s

[@leniere309]

In the early 1970s I managed two pinball parlors, in the one I looked after we had pinball machines, popcorn makers jukebox and eightball tables, I love working in them. Cheers.

[@DaantjeEeltink]

The casio calculator watch was my first gadget!

[@glennso47]

The only radio show that I remember from the 70s-80s was A Prairie Home Companion on public radio and Car Talk also on public radio.

[@WilliamHostman]

I did a lot of radio listening in the 70's... Including Prarie Home Companion. Local celebrity Herb Shaindlin hosted "Desperate & Dateless" on an Anchorage radio show (Keep in mind, until the late 90's, men outnumbered women in Anchorage).... many a guy found romance thanks to Herb's Curmudgeonly advice... and women taking pity on them. Last I checked, there's still an imbalance, but not the 3:1 it used to be. And one of the stations had a bush messages show... Kind of voyeuristic since I lived in the city... but it was how a lot of people told loved ones in the bush communities (keep in mind 95% of named population centers in Alaska are not connected to roads at all, even now) that you had a new kid, or were going to hop a plane and be there next week....

[@mham1330]

They forgot to mention MAD Magazine and CRACKED were collected as well by us kids.

[@dennissmith8199]

Ahh. why did you show footage of the Space Shuttle in the section the Apollo missions?

[@gkiltz0]

tHE SPACE SHUTTLE SHOWN ON YOUR VIDEO DID NOT FLY TILL 1981

[@WyteRabit]

I noticed that too. Not to mention that none of the launches shown were of the Saturn V rocket (the one actually used in moon missions since Apollo 11, the first moon mission).

[@billyg8614]

Some of these inventions, like the calculator watch, were released during the early 1980's.

[@jimdennis2451]

OMG, I forgot about Heavy Metal magazine. Loved it and hoped my mom didn't find it.

[@jimdennis2451]

Tom Baker was MY Dr Who.

[@SuperChaoticus]

Nobody gathered around the radio to listen to shows. That era was long gone. I used to listen to radio dramas, but they were on public radio and just a part of a Friday night nostalgia show, playing random old shows from the 30s through the 50s or so.

[@robertmaxa6631]

I still have my VIC 20.

[@jimdennis2451]

Heathkit: "... finally powering it on and seeing it work" ... or not because you shorted something out with a blob of solder.

[@jimdennis2451]

With the HP-35, you missed mentioning Reverse Polish Notation (RPN).

[@JamieStuff]

The fake "dirty film" effect is extremely distracting. Couldn't even make the 2 minute mark.

[@glennso47]

I remember that the 1970s was the beginning of Contemporary Christian Music.

[@WilliamHostman]

Y'all need to do some research... 'cause you clearly don't know what you're on about. Note that Sliderules were still required for aviators into the late 1980's; you weren't allowed to use any electronics on the FAA written in early 1988... you could use the electronic ones in flight, but you still were supposed to carry the E6-b "flight computer" - a circular slide rule. With some other features on the back. Oh, and the calculator watches were 1981... the full on computer watches 1982. I desperately wanted one... Star Trek live action was only in reruns - the 1970's Star Trek was the Filmation animated Star Trek. Or the Motionless Picture of 1977... And most trek fans of all ages are aware of the Original Series... You showed both 2000's BSG and 1970's BSG - totally different tone, and most of the morality play of the 70's were intentionally absent from the 00's. D&D is one of the most played non-computer games in the world... with an estimate from 2019 of 2 million players participating in the D&D Adventurer's league program, and at least as many more playing at home. And it's picked up with people playing via Voice over IP. Marvel and DC are still publishing. And still collected. So are Baseball cards, for that matter. And Football (my cousin Fritz Shurmer was on a football card... defensive coach for the Packers. Ironically, his collector card is the only photo I have of him. The only time I've spoken with him was at my grandfather's/his uncle's funeral.) Dr Who has a new season up on Disney Plus as of June 2024... and most of the episodes from about series 3 onward are available online... legally or not... Model building is less common, and the kits are now insanely expensive, but it's still a hobby with local chapters of the IPMS meeting in various towns sharing the skills across the generations. Python, C#, and C++ have replaced BASIC as the intro languages for most... Chess is still popular... but now everyone "knows" the right computer can stomp any human. As of 2015, there were still chess clubs in the Anchorage School District, tho I don't know if they were coordinated at the district level or just local to the school. Bottom line, many of the things you claim only the nerds would remember are still going strong, and more visible than ever. Even computer text adventures....

[@glennso47]

Never got the hang of slide rules. 👎