I recently found myself reminiscing about growing up in the 1970’s. Here are some of my memories.
Our family had recently moved to the East Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. Large sections of East Mt. Airy were previously open tracks of land that developers bought to build housing for the recently returning World War Two veterans and their rapidly expanding families.
Unlike many of the crowded neighborhoods that these new homeowners arrived from, these newly developed homes, came with many desired features including a bigger footprint that had larger front and/or back yards, and private off-street parking.
At first, these new homes were sold almost exclusively to white purchasers who quickly settled in and started living their American Dream.
Our house was built in 1950. We purchased it in 1969, a year before the 1970’s began. When we bought it, we were one of only a few Black families who lived on our street. By the end of the decade, it had been transformed into a virtually all black middle class oasis. It was a very stylish and desirable place to live.
Typically, these homes were furnished with shag carpeting that would cover (as I can still remember the tv ad saying) “The living room, dining room, stairs and hall!” What upwardly mobile young homeowner could resist a sales pitch like that?! Also, the furniture in these homes were often clad with custom “slipcovers” that covered every inch of the fabric with a thin coating of plastic that would squeal when you moved across it with bare skin. It also had a tendency to make your skin hot and sweaty if you stayed in one position for too long. There were also console TVs, diamond block floor to ceiling mirrors as well as other ‘70’s era accoutrements.
American cars were still the vehicles of choice when I was a teenager in the ‘70’s. Old muscle cars, Chevy impalas and Caprices’ as well as Buick Rivieras and Electra 225’s which we called Deuce and a quarter were all ubiquitous. But for our money the luxury car brand of choice was Cadillac. Mercedes was a status brand as well, but when it came to the zeitgeist of our era, Cadillac was at the pinnacle.
The oil embargo of 1973 had exposed some cracks in the dam, but because the vaunted reputation of Japanese auto quality along with American automaker’s complacency hadn’t been cemented in the mind of the car buying public just yet, Coup De Villes and El Dorados and later Seville’s were still THE luxury automotive status symbols to have in Mt. Airy in the 1970’s.
This is the setting, the atmosphere, the milieu that my love for this era was born into. Of coarse, times seemed simpler then. Less complicated, less cynical. Passions were more intense, more earnest. I’m definitely thankful for the memories that I had growing up back then. There will be more posts from this era to follow. In the meantime, i’ll leave you with this song that captures the essence of those times written and first performed by William DeVaugn in 1974 titled “Be Thankful for What You Got”
