Things From the 70s: 20 Things You'll Only Remember If You Were There

Shag carpet, 8-track tapes, CB radios and avocado-green appliances. A nostalgic list of things from the 70s that people remember from childhood.

By Daily Bluten Insights Editorial Team

Published September 11, 2026·1 min read

If you grew up in the 1970s, these everyday things were simply part of life. Today they're pure nostalgia. How many do you remember?

At home

Shag carpet: deep, plush, and often orange, brown or green. Some families raked it.
Avocado green and harvest gold appliances: the signature kitchen colors of the decade.
Wood paneling on the walls of every den and basement.
Macramé plant hangers holding spider plants in every window.
Lava lamps glowing in the corner.
Console TVs: big wooden cabinets that were furniture as much as electronics.
Rotary phones on the wall, with very long cords.
Fondue sets: a must-have for dinner parties.

8-track tapes: the songs sometimes switched tracks right in the middle.
Record players and album covers you studied for hours.
Roller rinks and roller disco.
Schoolhouse Rock!: the Saturday morning cartoons that taught grammar, math and civics, starting in 1973.
Drive-in movies on summer nights.

Wood-paneled station wagons with a rear-facing "way back" seat.
CB radios: truckers' slang went mainstream in the mid-'70s.
Gas lines: the oil crises of 1973 and 1979 led to long lines and odd-even rationing days in some places.
No seat belts in the back (or nobody wore them).

Mood rings and Pet Rocks.
Polaroid instant cameras: shaking the photo while it developed.
Bell-bottoms and platform shoes. See our look at 70s and 80s fashion trends.