Kathleen Valenti

Back by (Un?)popular Demand

Last year, my  daughter sported clothes that looked as though they were pilfered from my high school closet. She rocked neon. She popped her collar. She Laupered (if that’s a verb) her hair. I suspected a 70s fashion homage wasn’t far behind. And I was right.

We just went back-to-school shopping and the racks were rife with bell bottoms, earth tones, and take-me-to-Funkytown prints. 

Honestly? I love it. 

Sure, sure, this fashion revival is a reimaging that’s not 100000% (check my math) faithful to the original. 

The fabrics are more breathable–and less flammable. The cuts are perhaps a wee bit more flattering. But I still love this sartorial nod to Nothing New Under the Sun. 

My affection for retro doesn’t stop there. There are other trends from Way Back that I’d gladly welcome, although I’m the first to admit that not everyone shares my views. 

I mean, my less-than-popular opinions aren’t as polarizing as whether running can be categorized as “fun,” if Q should really be a letter, or why three meals a day is a cute start.

But I’m pretty sure that not everyone yearns for the days of pantyhose like I do. 

I know. I KNOW. Hosiery is (fill in your favorite thing that’s not your favorite thing). But there’s something about the way my legs shimmered beneath “suntan”-hued Lycra that’s just *chef’s kiss*. 

Of course, there are things that I think many of us miss–or at least remember fondly. 

For me, that list includes the sound of a busy signal (at least you knew why they weren’t picking up), the scritchy scratch of a record needle placed on a record, and movies that involved train travel and valises stuffed with frothy gowns. 

I also like to wax nostalgic about curly telephone cords, VHS tapes, Jazzercise (which I still did up until a few years ago), and recording songs off the radio.  

And don’t get me started on food. Or maybe do. I’m not going to go bananas for meat-based gelatin salads, but I do enjoy a well-deployed can of Cheez Wiz and armadillo-toothpick-cheese creatures. 

The 70s and 80s were also the heyday for many of my favorite treats, including but not limited to Bottle Caps, Laffy Taffy, Bit O’ Honey, and Big Chew gum. 

I guess this is one of the things I love about reading. Books can transport me to another place and another time. In both cases, a lot more easily and affordably than a trip to the mall with my daughter. 

Dear friends, what trends, foods, fashion, music, and movies do you miss from days of yore?

56 thoughts on “Back by (Un?)popular Demand”

  2. I do miss the days of the multi-component stereo system. Receiver with built-in radio tuner, turntable, cassette deck, and (later on) CD player. Of course you needed to have at least two, if not four, speakers (featuring Twitter, mid-range, and bass) that were as big as a dorm mini-fridge. The ideal situation called for a component rack, on which to house the magnificent pieces of musical technology. One could listen to music all day, from radio to vinyl to cassettes to CD’s, completely immersed in the experience. Great times!

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    4. I still have all of my stereo equipment mentioned above hooked up including a reel to reel. I have all of my records, cassettes and CDs that I ever bought. And I have all of my father’s 8 track tapes and equipment.

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  3. Every time I’m someplace that sells dresses, I search for the perfect shirtwaist dress so I can vacuum Mrs Leave It To Beaver-style wearing my pearls and heels. Of course, my “pearls” will be dog hair and my “heels” will be Oofos.

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  4. Ha! I still grieve shoes I had from the 70s that were lost to the Great Purge of Mom and Dad Selling the Family Home.

    What do I miss? Huarache platform sandals. Remember those? What don’t I miss? 80s shoulder pads. And perms. And all 80s architecture. Blecch!

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  5. I love retro. But not the 70s and 80s. I have nightmares of bell bottoms. And tie dyed t-shirts! I prefer going back to true vintage.
    Poodle skirts and sweater sets. And pearls showed you had class, no matter what you wore.
    You didn’t have to worry about the hair because, ponytails!
    Vinyl music, that’s all I need to say on that.
    Swing dancing.
    Talking on the phone while lying on the kitchen floor, listening to the mom yell to get your homework done.
    Soda shops! A date sharing a piece of pie and a shake.
    Yes, meat gelatin molds were horrendous. But appetizers were big back in the day, parties showcased them.
    And do you remember the saltines with butter slathered on them, as a snack for us poor kids? Kids today think they invented that! Nope! We are talking 60s and 70s kids that those daily!

    Okay, I’ll get back to reality now.

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  6. Being a child of the ’50s and ’60s, I miss Post cereal’s Toasted Oat Flakes (why did they discontinue them?!), metal lunch boxes with a thermos (preferably with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on them), Beatle hair cuts, cars with fins and pastel colors, and 45 records that you stacked on your turntable in the order you wanted to hear them.

    But not bell-bottoms or panty hose….

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  7. I miss the ads (no joke!) with all those clever slogans and jingles. “Does She or Doesn’t She?” “Kinda young, kinda now, Charlie! Kinda free, kinda wow!” “She Brings Home the Bacon and Fries it Up in a Pan…” “Her hair held up, but she didn’t.” And those poor turn-of-the-century Virginia Slims women whose husbands always caught them smoking. (“You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!”) But at least I can still wear Dr. Scholl’s in various shades. And may I just add, Kathy, that Q is an awesome letter, especially in the middle of one’s name! 🙂

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    1. Q is awesome!!! And it’s especially awesome in your name. ❤

      Oh my gosh, the old slogans/taglines! I almost posted about a vintage soda machine I procured. (Perhaps next time!) The tagline: Get real action!

      Um, whut?

      And yay for Dr. Scholl's and our toned calves (lol!)!!

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    4. Lisa, how about “Mother, please I’d rather do it myself” or “Ring around the collar”? I loved Dr. Scholl’s until I broke my ankle hurrying down some stairs in 1981.

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      1. Mary, So sorry about your ankle. I used to step out of mine a lot and the wood edge went right into my heel. And yes, “Ring around the collar”–right up there with “The heartbreak of psoriasis. ” I had to look up the Mother ad (at first I saw the amazing parodies on YouTube), but I do remember the one with the kid in that same Anacin campaign. Mom is at her sewing machine when the kid bursts in, lol. He’s lucky he didn’t get his lips sewn up.

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        1. I’d forgotten about the “heartbreak of psoriasis”. Ouch, ouch, ouch to the wooden edge going anywhere. I really loved Dr. Scholl’s and it was my fault for dashing down the stairs, but I was afraid to wear them again after five months in a cast.

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  9. I miss hand drawn animation. Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy computer animation. I just wish we could have both instead of just computer animation these days.

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  10. I remember Tab and Fresca drinks–probably healthier that they went away, though they tasted like the drinks of Space Aliens. Oh, and TANG. And long, long hair and the commercials for treating split ends. Who talks about split ends anymore?

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      1. Kathy, you can still buy Body on Tap, LemonUp, Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific online at the Vermont Country Store. (As me how I know that. Smells the same.)

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  12. I miss a lot of the above things mentioned in the comments above. I miss being young and skinny. I miss first love and infatuation. I miss the simpler times. I miss my yellow Princess phone. I loved Bell bottom pants and the old movies and songs from the 1930s to the 1990s. I miss putting the stereo on full blast and rockin’ to the music. I miss the Beatles. I miss all of the cars that had a different look and personality. I love retro. I don’t miss working.

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    1. Ha, Madeleine! All great things. I would have been so jealous of your yellow Princess phone. Ours was olive and hung on the wall outside the kitchen. Ugh.

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      2. Thank you. Well, your kitchen sure was colorful. We had white square tiles with light blue tile edges, and I do not remember what color the cabinets were. I later painted the cabinets yellow. And now all of those colored phones are collectibles. I was thrilled with the yellow princess dial phone that I got for my birthday back in the early 1960s. We only had one other phone in the house and that was a square black Western Electric 302 that had been there since the 1940s. My parents had a phone friend put a jack on it and put jacks in several rooms so we could move it around as back then you rented the phones from the phone company. I did not have a private line on my phone though. Too expensive. But I loved it. Wish I still had it though I do have a collection pf princess phones now.

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          1. I agree. I love yellow. I used to have a lavender bedroom when I got old enough to know who Kim Novak was (her favorite color) but then I decided to paint it yellow. Even though lavender is light colored, you would not believe how many coats of yellow it took to cover that up as it kept darkening the yellow.

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