During the year 1973 and then again in 1979, America suffered from a pretty rough oil crisis. The shortage sent people into a panic which resulted in crazy lines at the gas stations. It got so bad that gas stations across the country even started using color-coded fans to indicate whether or not they had gas (green for yes and red for no.)
Sometimes American families felt that they were moments away from their last car trip ever.
Waiting for the Telephone
The standard was one telephone per house. Maybe some super-rich folks had two lines but for the average family, phone fights were common. People had to exercise the utmost patience for that telephone. It was the brothers and sisters that would battle these things out the most.
Let's not forget about there was also little privacy as these phones were generally in the general family area. Thank heavens for cellphones
Disco Parties on Roller Skates
These things were all the rage for teens and folks in their 20s back then. Rolling across the room listening to the BeeGees or whatever funky disco was happening back then.
Approaching people at parties is hard enough, so, we wonder just how they did it on skates. That must have made for some awkward first impressions.
An abundance of Molten Plastic
We mentioned dangerous toys, but nothing quite compares to this 1960s nightmare, the 'Creepy Crawler'. If this toy taught kids anything, it was how to not burn your hand off.
This game literally involved the melting of plastic and metal. How was this fun?
They Used Mercurochrome
The idea of clear anti-septic liquids and creams like Neosporin or Hydrogen Peroxide was but a glint in some little genius chemist's eye. Back then, if you grazed your knee or cut your finger playing outside, Mercurochrome was used to save the day.
This liquid was a scary dark red color that kind of resembled blood, so it wasn't pretty when you put it on a bloody finger. But this was the standard antiseptic liquid they made back then. They don't even produce it anymore,