41 Things That Were Totally Normal In The 70s That Are So Not "Groovy" By Today's Standards

We recently asked what things were so common in the 1970s that would be considered super weird by today's standards, and wow...y'all grew up like this?! Here are some of the things considered normal back then that blew my 2026 mind:

1. "In the '70s, no one batted an eye at 8-year-old me buying cigarettes for my mom. At the pharmacy. The '70s were indeed weird."

2. "I had a one-speed 25-pound bicycle to get around town in the '70s. Once home, I never used the kickstand. I cruised up the driveway and laid my bike on its side until the next day, not worrying about anyone stealing it."

3. "All the bus drivers were juniors or seniors at the high school. That was totally normal back then!"

4. "Having regular bomb drills all through elementary school."

— trendycoyote447

5. "Back in the '70s there were no common household computers, printers, or cell phones. So when you were assigned homework in school, it often involved research at the library followed by a 3–15 page report. And you wrote it by hand, using cursive writing, which you learned by second grade. I also wrote three pages of notes during a class each day. I went through so many collegiate lined notebooks then."

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6. "Driving from Miami Beach to Philadelphia in a Toyota Celica, and only spending $17 in gas for the whole trip!"

—Anonymous, 76

7. "Airplanes used to have ashtrays in the armrest because you were allowed to smoke on the plane. And it was normal to do so."

8. "I'd often go to a friend’s house on Friday or Saturday night, and we'd order pizza and beer for delivery. When the delivery person arrived and asked for the adult who ordered the beer, the guy with the deepest voice would be upstairs with the shower running (so he couldn’t come to the door) and yell down that it was okay for 'his kid' to accept the beer. It worked every time."

—Anonymous, 76, Male, Ohio

9. "'Momnet.' Your best friend's mother had the same power and authority over you when you were under her roof. If your friend's father had to call your father about anything, you were in deep, deep, trouble."

— trisec

"My friends’ moms all had permission to spank me. Good times."

— cassandra46

10. "It was common to tan with baby oil mixed with iodine, but I preferred another way. When I was a teen, my grandpa worked for the candy conglomerate Mars Corp. and would bring home bags of cocoa butter. I would grab a ziplock bag full, and my friends and I would head to the pool to fry ourselves."

11. "If I was sick, the doctor would stop at my house on their way to the office. That was the norm."

— sleepingorc10

12. "When at my second job out of college in 1978, I told my boss I was pregnant (married for two years at the time). I was told that meant I would no longer be considered for the promotion I was due because I wouldn’t be able to handle the responsibilities. Well, I never went back to that place after our baby was born."

—Anonymous, 70, Female, Mid-Atlantic

13. "My dad smoked these small cigars called De Nobili cigars. They looked like dark brown, shriveled Chihuahua dog turds. If smoked in an enclosed area, the blue smoke from those cigars caused flies buzzing around the room to land, flip over, and die."

14. "Because we didn't have blow dryers for our hair, my sister would turn the AC on, then run outside and blow-dry her hair as the warm air blew out of the large AC unit in our backyard. My mother would get so angry with her because it wasn't hot outside, it was 7 a.m., and the sound of the AC turning on woke her up. She was mad that our electric bill would be high. But oh, our long hair would get dry quickly and look fantastic!"

—Anonymous, 68, Female, Michigan

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15. "It was standard to dress formal for flying. Women would hear heels and dresses while men donned suits or at the very least, a sports coat."

16. "Taking the chalkboard erasers outside and banging them together to clean them for the teacher."

17. "I started teaching in 1971. For Halloween in my fifth-grade class, we would carve pumpkins in class with actual knives. We did the activity for 10 years with no issues."

— shysinger253

18. "It was very normal to wait in line for newsstands to open to grab one of the papers early on. I’d wait at a newsstand in either Queens or Manhattan for the early edition of The New York Times so I could do the crossword puzzle when I got home from socializing."

19. "It existed much longer, but in the '70s, it was absolutely normal and so common to put things on layaway. If you don't know what layaway it is, you'd basically pay for something over time in installments with no interest."

— sleepingorc10

20. "Having 10 or 15 different phone numbers memorized!"

—Anonymous, 68, Male, New York City

21. "Draft lottery number drawings during the Vietnam War. Yikes!"

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22. "Race riots at school were common. There would be school-wide fights at lunchtime at my elementary school, where boys would team up by race and just start brawling until adults got it under control. There was also a visible presence of the KKK in San Bernardino County, who regularly committed hate crimes."

23. "Our high school had an outside smoking area."

24. "I'd often ride shotgun in the car while my dad openly drank cans of Coors beer — no seatbelts, speeding down the highway, smoking, openly drinking, windows rolled down."

"He never got stopped."

—Anonymous, 59, Male, Los Angeles

25. "I worked for NAC, a credit card company, starting in the '60s. I would work in a room the size of a fourth of a football field, with files full of thousands of index card-like credit info on our clients. When a store called for a credit purchase approval, I had to RUN to that file drawer, make a judgment call on the approval, put a slip in the file, and run back to tell the cashier whether that credit purchase was approved! Just imagine being in line at Korvette’s waiting for that approval!"

26. "If you couldn't get a hold of a friend because the phone line was busy, you called the operator to break into the line, telling her it was an emergency."

—Anonymous, 65, Female, Texas

27. "Instead of Facebook, we had Slam Books. They were passed around and you could read and add a 'slam' on another person."

—Anonymous, 65, Female, Texas

28. "Randomly walking outside and finding a friend to play with. No call, no place, just straight up finding them."

29. "Getting out of the car to open the heavy garage door."

—Anonymous, 65

30. "I grew up in rural Kansas. Boys who had vehicles often had shotguns or rifles on a gun rack or in the trunk of their car on school property. Nearly every boy carried a pocket knife at school."

31. "When I was a baby, I rode in a cardboard box with a blanket under the front dashboard of the car. As the youngest of five children, we frequently had seven people in an average sedan."

32. "Summer camp, 1970. I was 13 years old. No internet, no cell phones. 60 kids, four weeks away from home. Five of the kids were from the United Nations International School in New York and from several countries all over the world. There were arts and crafts, sports of all kinds, mentally stimulating classes, cool counselors, guest speakers, and field trips. There were no parents for a month, except on Family Day. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I wish more kids today could enjoy this."

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33. "When flying, you got incredible meals. Even on short trips."

34. "My son was born in 1970, and I wanted his father to be with me during the delivery. I contacted every hospital and obstetrician in the area, and they all said it was impossible. Fathers had to stay in the waiting room. The only other choice was a home birth, which I didn’t want to do. Now, the whole family makes a party of it, with little kids even."

—Anonymous, 80, Female, Oklahoma City

35. "Back in the '70s in high school, you'd have to be absent maybe two or three weeks in a row before the school would finally send somebody to your house to find out why."

—Anonymous, 63, Male, Texas

36. "Not being able to get the book you needed for a report because the only copy had been checked out was a common experience. Encyclopedias helped as long as the subject you needed was in them. If you needed more than one reference, it was off to the library."

37. "Patients were allowed to smoke in their hospital room. As long as you or your roommates weren’t using oxygen, you could smoke. The nurse would even provide you with an ashtray!"

38. "I remember I had an infection in my finger. Almost lost the tip of it. Our family doctor drained the infection. For aftercare, I had to get this special prescription cream from a drugstore. It was $20! That was an unheard-of,' high' price because back then, the average prescription cost was about $1 to $2."

—Anonymous, Pennsylvania

39. "Quaaludes were 50 cents, acid was a only $1, and pot cost $20 an ounce for Colombian."

40. "I asked the Personnel Director for a raise based on the amount of work I accomplished and was told not to worry about money because I 'was cute and would be marrying soon so my husband would take care of things.'"

—Anonymous, 69, Female, Richmond, IL

41. And finally: "I worked at a full service gas station in junior high. In the men's room, it was common to have the dispenser filled with condoms, the Spanish fly machine, and the 'instant p*ssy machine' — you could buy a lot for a quarter!"

What are things from yesteryear in the '70s that were totally considered normal back then that would make someone malfunction today? Share your experiences in the comments or the anonymous form below!

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