Top 10 Things From the 1970s We Will Never Do Again

Top 10 Things From the 1970s We Will Never Do Again

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the weirdest, darkest, and quirkiest things from the 1970s that are unlikely to stage a comeback.

#10: Disco Clubs

Yeah, nightclubs are definitely still a thing, but we’re not talking about nightclubs. We’re talking about disco clubs. In the ‘70s, these were the cultural epicenter of music, glamour, liberation, mirror balls, and platform shoes. And yes, there was also a seedy underbelly. Disco biscuits, anyone? But disco faced a huge cultural backlash in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and new genres like new wave and eventually hip hop started taking over. And while disco has been resurfacing in various forms, it’s more a curated pastiche or the subject of a theme night, not a living subculture like it was in the 70s. The night fever, we don’t know how to do it.

#9: Adult Movies In Theaters

Imagine just walking down the street and seeing a poster for an adult movie in your local theater marquee. Well, that was actually a thing in the ‘70s! To some extent. Big cities were packed with grindhouse and adult theaters that showed explicit films throughout the day. And these weren’t exactly tucked away where kids wouldn’t see them. These were in Times Square. Adult content even had a brief flirtation with mainstream respectability. Movies like “The Devil in Miss Jones” and “Behind the Green Door” were released in regular theaters, became huge cultural phenomena, and were reviewed by professional critics. But VCRs and the internet killed this, and needless to say, it probably won’t be happening again any time soon.

#8: Questionable Toys

The 1970s were a wild time for toys - creative, often unregulated, and sometimes shockingly dangerous. You’ve got your clackers, which often shattered violently and sent shrapnel into kids’ faces. Lawn darts had the power to pierce skulls. Chemistry sets often came with real chemicals like sulfur and ammonium nitrate. Easy-Bake Ovens and Thingmakers scalded their users and gave them permanent skin grafts. BB guns were often given as gifts, and you better believe that young boys shot each other with them. Heck, even playgrounds were often “Final Destination” deathtraps with loose screws, rusty nails, and those old sheet metal slides that reached temperatures unknown to science.

#7: Wandering Kids

It’s not to say that kids don’t play outside anymore, but it’s really not the same. Back then, the idea of “free-range kids” wasn’t even a concept - it was just normal life. Kids left the house in the morning and didn’t return until dinner, and God knows what they got up to in that time. Parks, the woods, restaurants, the movies - the world was their oyster. And of course there were no cell phones, so parents just had to trust that they were all right and that they’d be home for dinner. But technology, media-driven fear, and changing parenting styles have effectively killed this untamed sense of freedom. We’ll go back to it when a solar flare wipes out our technology, but until then…

#6: No Seat Belts

It really is amazing that we survived the 70s as a species. The kids were shooting themselves with BB guns and the adults were driving around without seat belts. While seat belts were required to be installed in new cars, people often chose not to wear them, with usage rates hovering around just 15%! The reasons were many. Some thought they were uncomfortable, others thought they were unnecessary, and believe it or not, it was not a legal requirement to wear one - it was really just a suggestion. In fact, the first mandatory state seat belt law wasn’t passed in the U.S. until 1984! As such, fatality rates were about two to four times higher per mile driven in the 1970s compared to today.

#5: Corporal Punishment

Something tells us that smacking kids with giant pieces of wood is not coming back in style any time soon. In the 1970s, corporal punishment was both legal and commonly practiced, with methods varying from giant wooden paddles to canes to leather straps. If a kid was misbehaving in school, they weren’t put on a time out or whatever - they were whipped across the hands by a thick piece of leather. Public support of this was fairly high at the time, and many parents expected schools to discipline their children this way. However, the practice became increasingly controversial throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s as we began questioning if maybe whipping kids with a cane wasn’t the best approach to problem solving.

#4: The Colors

Never say never we suppose, but something tells us that the interior decoration of the 1970s is staying firmly in the 1970s. This was a…visually interesting decade. The ‘70s are widely known for their earthy and intense tones - avocado green, dirty yellow, burnt orange, and brown. Brown, everywhere, as far as the eye can see. These colors aren’t just ugly, but they also had an impeccable way of making a room feel dark, claustrophic, and intense. Talk about visual overload. Some of these colors are coming back in style, albeit with a modern and balanced restraint. One look at a ‘70s room and you can just smell the smoke that has seeped into the walls.

#3: Leaded Gasoline

We used to add tetraethyl lead to regular gasoline, and this improved engine performance in vehicles. It was introduced in 1923 and was the dominant form of fuel by the 1970s. But as it entered the atmosphere through exhaust pipes, it caused all sorts of horrible problems. Neurological damage in children, heart problems, reproductive issues, environmental effects, you name it. In fact, many experts attribute the crime wave of the 1970s to leaded gasoline, arguing that widespread lead exposure resulted in lower impulse control and increased aggression. Luckily, we eventually realized the error of our ways, and tetraethyl lead is now banned and considered one of the worst public health hazards of the 20th century.

#2: Carpets In Bathrooms

The 1970s was a very weird time in human history. A time when we all looked at our bathrooms and thought, “You know what would be great in here? A shag carpet.” Comfort and warmth was the name of the game in the 1970s, so that meant getting rid of those cold, white tile floors and installing a long, difficult-to-clean, avocado green shag carpet. This wasn’t just cool - it was a luxury, as wall-to-wall carpeting was considered the peak of modernity in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Yes, the carpet often stank to high heaven. Yes, it got all moldy as it collected moisture. Yes, it probably held little pockets of uncleaned pee. No, we have no idea what they were thinking.

#1: Smoking Everywhere

If there’s something we often take for granted in the 21st century, it’s the lack of lingering cigarette smoke. This stuff was, quite literally, everywhere in the 1970s. There wasn’t a building or a structure you couldn’t smoke in - restaurants, airplanes, offices, buses, even hospitals. Pregnant women smoked. Parents chain smoked with their kids in the house. Even worse, they chain smoked in the car. And often with the windows rolled up. So, even if you made a conscious decision not to smoke, there was still no getting away from it. You were going to smell. You were going to have a hard time breathing. You were going to inhale that secondhand smoke and possibly get cancer. Weren’t the ‘70s wonderful?

Do you think these are dead, or will they stage a comeback some day? Let us know in the comments below!