Fifty years ago, being a kid in the early-to-mid 1970s felt like living in a different universe. In this episode, I take you back to banana seat bikes, skateboards, and disappearing for hours with nothing but a “be home when the street lights come on” rule. We’ll talk about three-channel TV with no remotes, heavy wooden console sets, TV trays and TV dinners, one wall phone for the whole house, and how long-distance calls actually mattered. You’ll hear what it was like when smoking was everywhere, airports had no security lines, convenience stores sold penny candy, and news came on a few times a day instead of 24/7. Plus, the fads, the posters, the dangerous playgrounds, the mixtapes recorded off the radio, cruising the strip, and the collections we obsessed over—baseball cards, comic books, marbles, Hot Wheels, and more. It’s nostalgia with details you can almost smell—and a reminder of just how much has changed.

Support the show