Cartoon by Barry
This cartoon is drawn by Jenn Lee, who added so many great 1970s details!
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has seven panels. Each panel shows different characters and scenes. The first six panels are all set in the 1970s.
PANEL 1
Two women lie in bed chatting and petting a cat; one of them is holding a newspaper which has the simple headline “NIXON!”
WOMAN 1: Hmm… Should I spend today waiting in line at the gas station or the unemployment office?
WOMAN 2: Gosh, they both sound so enticing!
PANEL 2
In a bar, a blue-collar looking man is waving a disco LP around angrily while drinking. Another man, in a suit and tie, smiles agreeably.
BLUE COLLAR: “Disco” music is liked by Blacks and gays and even gay Blacks! Let’s burn records and riot!
SUIT: That seems reasonable.
PANEL 3
At the counter of a 7-11 style convenience store, one that has tons of cigarettes for sale, a clerk is selling a pack of cigarettes to a ten year old girl. A boom box radio is on the countertop.
RADIO: First they let women have bank accounts, now they want to make it a crime for us to rape our own wives! Whatever happened to family values?
PANEL 4
We are looking at a large (by 1970s standards) TV, much heavier and thicker than any TV today would be. On the screen, a news reporter is reading from a script while he holds a lit cigarette in his other hand. The air around him is filled with cigarette smoke.
TV REPORTER: Our forecast says smog will be high today. So if you must leave your home, avoid unnecessary breathing.
PANEL 5
A well-off-looking man stands on the front steps of an expensive looking club, talking to a couple of reporters.
MAN: Merely because our club doesn’t allow Jews or women or Blacks or Hispanics or Orientals or gays is no reason to call us prejudiced! I consider that a slur!
PANEL 6
A bohemian-styled woman and a punk-styled man are walking together on a city sidewalk. She looks like she’s pondering something, one hand holding her chin. He is struggling with a high stack of thick hardcover books he’s carrying and has a big grin.
WOMAN: I need to look up some basic facts…
MAN: That’s why I always carry an encyclopedia!
PANEL 7
An enormous caption says DECADES LATER.
A middle-aged man sits in a chair at the barber shop, reading something on his smartphone and looking a little sad, while a barber is using clippers on the back of the man’s neck.
MAN (thought balloon): Sigh… Things were so much better when I was a kid.
1970s DETAIL WATCH
Jenn slipped in so many 1970s details to this cartoon! And she sent me this list! Take it away, Jenn:
I just realized that I have, yet again, illustrated a Barry strip that end with a grown man yearning for the way things were in his youth. For most of the 1970s I was single digit in age and am mostly glad I survived it what with riding free in the back of pickup trucks, bouncing all the way, playing in junkyards, skateboarding without a helmet and all the rest. What follows are the details I remember from that time:
PANEL 1
Wicker Headboard
As with many 1970s decor, this probably started in the later 1960s but held on in popularity for at least another decade. They were most commonly natural as seen here, or painted white.
Green walls
So many green walls, anywhere from avocado to fern.
Spider plant
Most everybody had a hanging spider plant.
Macrame plant hanger
Those and macrame wall hangings. Such great dust catchers, not unlike the wicker headboard.
Faux oil lamp electric bed lamp
Colonial touches like these were hugely popular in the run up to the U.S.A.’s Bicentennial in 1976. Anything alluding to 1776, musicals, Mr. Magoo cartoons, movies, Halloween costumes, furniture and so many decoupaged plaques of colonial America scenes with torn edges.
You also saw the outside of houses adopting decorative window shutters, porch pillars redone in the Georgian style or an eagle plaque over the door.
Pet Rocks
Rocks with painted eyes were a thing that people actually paid money for.
A digital equivalent is Tamagotchi which had a recent revival. I confess I had one decades ago that I let “die” will watching “Trainspotting” with Barry and others at Cinema 21, which seems relevant all around.
Ziggy Mug
Ziggy was a popular sad sack character that had a certain charm. He was a comforting proletarian character you could imagine hugging.
Orange comforter
Orange was a prominent color in many soft goods.
Nixon!
He was talked about for years after Watergate. Rich Little’s impressions helped that along I’m sure.
Gas lines
Not only were there gas lines, but you were only allowed to get gas on certain days depending on if your license plate ended in an even or odd number. I remember trekking a half mile in the snow to check for my mother if it was an even or an odd day based on the cars being served. (She had just gotten off a double shift as a nurse in the CCU [Cardiac Care Unit] and needed to catch up on her sleep).
PANEL 2
Wood paneled lounges and bars
I remember these all the time as restrictions on minors in these places were loose and variable.
“Animated” waterfall beer pictures
Many beer brands had these alternating light advertisements in bars, sometimes with a clock jammed in there. Fresh water of distinct source was something many beers boasted about. They were often yellowed by tobacco smoke and made a grinding noise as the mechanism simulated running water.
Disco Album
Most compilation albums of disco music featured rainbow coloration.
Blue collar worker
Actually wore blue shirts or overalls by and large.
Billy Beer
President Carter’s brother Billy was shameless in leveraging his connection to Jimmy. Absolutely not appropriate but was a fart in a hurricane in comparison to today’s indiscretions.
Mustache
Mustaches were quite a thing in the 1970s. Not so much beards.
Wide lapels and ties
Haute couture in business wear then.
Brown suits
Very common. Along with a touch of light blue, a combination I am actually fond of.
Harvey Wallbanger
An iconic 1970s cocktail will vodka, orange juice and radioactive maraschino cherries.
Red leather Padded bar edge
Classy.
PANEL 3
Convenience Stores
A little bit of everything but mostly cigarettes, candy and magazines. Overcrowded and informal, often with a spinner rack of comics and brown paper wrapped porn mags, but also easy access to Heavy Metal magazine.
Tic-Tacs
These zig-zag displays were always delightful to me. And dusty.
Portable radio
How music was streamed, along with car radios. I have a play list in Tidal called “Red Panasonic Clock Radio” of 1970s songs I actually like. I had to explain the title to my daughter who was appalled I had no control over the music I ‘streamed’ as a kid and had no option but to endure commercials.
Tacky uniform shirt
Bright colors of a poison dart frog in polyester. Garnished with a name tag. Did not breathe and smelled funky in combination with body heat, no matter how many times it was previously washed.
Kid buying cigarettes
This was me, with a note from my mom saying I could buy cigarettes for her. Though, instead of Marlboros, she smoked Benson & Hedges Menthol 100’s Ultra Lights. Which did cost 47¢ back in the day. Though I actually usually bought a carton of 10. (Yes she was the Assistant Head Nurse of CCU. I was aware of the irony even then.)
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
I loved the Virginia Slim Ads that pictured back in the day versus the more liberated attitude to women smoking now. Mostly for the elaborate reconstruction of the “then” scenes.
Keep on Truckin’
Back when memes were carried through bumper stickers and t-shirts. My favorite one being a take on the Christian Bumper sticker of “My boss is a Jewish carpenter” altered to “My carpenter is a bossy Jew.”
PANEL 4
Television as furniture
Real wood casing of a bulky cathode tube TV unit where the max screen size was limited to 30 inches and color was still not the default. And no remote controls. Any channel over 13 was UHF where the public access channels lived, the equivalent to You Tube today. The fact my family had one of these beasts was due to a generous gift from my mother’s parents. Also we displayed our nativity scene on top of it every Christmas. (The mantel for our stockings was draped over an accordion style steam heat radiator which made Santa extra magical).
Orange shag carpet
Nothing more 1970s than that. I remember ours as uncut loops.
Dried pampas grass in floor vases
A decor choice that extended into the 1980s and 1990s, only the color and treatment of the vases changed. This was another great dust collector of the time, along with aluminum vertical blinds. Lots of my memories of the 1970s involve dust.
Fuzzy toile wallpaper
Everywhere, meant to imitate velvet flocked Victorian wall paper. But was just more dust filled polyester (hat tip to Barry for this touch).
Anchor smoking on TV
Never actually happened as far as I know. But people did smoke EVERYWHERE. On line in the pharmacy, in restaurants, staff rooms, you name it. And I’m sure anchors would smoke on air if they could.
Leaded gasoline
Speaking of air borne toxins from car exhaust, there’s a theory that there were so many serial killers in the late 1960s to early 1980s due to the lead added to automobile gas to get rid of ‘knocking’ noises in car engines starting in the 1920s. With the invention of the catalytic converter in the mid 1970s, the ‘need’ for the lead was eliminated and eventually made illegal nationwide n the 1990s. (When Barry and I and others first moved to Oregon, there were still leaded gasoline pumps).
Cigarillo
A short thin cigar considered classy in the 1970s.
PANEL 5
Men’s Clubs
Were a big deal as that was the main place deals were struck in business, politics and other fields and so an important barrier to overcome for any non Anglo-Saxon male member of society.
The BO Club
I named it the BO club as a reference to Boys Only but also the Warner Bros. Cartoon Insult for body order, usually delivered after the target said something objectionable.
The adult onesie
A ridiculous piece of impractical ‘unisex’ wardrobe. The only men who made this outfit look remotely cool are the BeeGees on the cover of “Saturday Night Fever.”
Blond feathered hair
The unisex hairstyle was there for Farah Fawcett and Peter Frampton.
Tanned skin
A resurgence of the leisure class’s ability to cultivate an even and pleasing tan from the 1920s as a sign of health and natural good looks.
Female reporter
Long natural hair, bulky turtle neck in a natural color and hand written notes.
Male photographer
Bulky specialized camera, army surplus utility vest and strapped knit top. Also natural hair afro.
PANEL 6
The OG BoHo Lady
Honestly the Boho trend is a call back to the “peasant” look of the 1970s, an urban “gypsy’” with flowing hair, loosely tied hair scarf, oversized tinted sunglasses, peasant blouse, bangles and a large beaded necklace.
Metal Trash Can
Oscar the Grouch’s home, the ordinary made magical, a big theme in the the 1970s in all sorts of media.
Punk
The other proletariat movement, a more confrontational one with Mohawks, piercings, safety pins and studded black leather. Never mind the music and its anti-establishment message. But just regular folk for the most part.
Encyclopedia
From the Greek for “general education,” the pride of any home before the internet, the jumping off point for any serious research at a library. Huge double shelf volumes of varying spine widths with annual updates.
PANEL 7
Traces of retro:
Lava lamp
First a feature of the 1960s, it continued as an item prized in the 1970s and has been revived several times since.
Smiley Face sticker
First introduced in the early 1960’s, it remained popular as a prototype emoticon in the 1970s.
Flower power “Love Bug” Sticker
The first “Herbie the Love Bug” movie was released in 1969 about a sentient Volkswagen Bug with sequels throughout the 1970s. Along with “Benji” movies, following the trials and tribulations of the all American mutt.
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