No cable TV. Everyone had an antenna on the roof.
Some cars still had starter buttons on the floorboard.
People knew what a dimmer switch was, how to use it, and it was also on the floorboard.
Steering wheels didn't lock.
Power brakes and power steering were for women. Automatics were too, to some extent.
If you didn't serve in the military, it was because something was wrong with you medically.
High school graduates could read.
You could drink tap water. Or well water.
There wasn't a question of if the Soviets would drop the 'Big One', the only question was when they would do it.
Duck and Cover.
Kids cartoons were actually funny.
Men dressed in women's clothing were comedians.
Everybody knew how to change their own oil and did it.
Everybody knew how to fix a hole in a bicycle innertube.
Some guys put salt in their beer.
All bars had peanuts, and the TV, if there was one, was tuned to football or boxing.
Everybody smoked, and pretty much everywhere except grocery stores and churches.
Beer cans were steel and rusted. You opened them with a can opener (church key).
Men belonged to lodges of various sorts.
Parents participated in their children's education by showing up to parent-teacher nights and insisting that the kids did their homework and got decent grades; or at least bothered to show up.
Jeans were called dungarees and you wore them after school, not to school. You wore a pair of slacks, a dress shirt, and dress shoes to school.
You could drink from a stream.
Bowling was a once-a-week activity.
Everyone had an old oil lamp or candles for when the power went out, which it did, often.
Lap belts on cars, no shoulder belts, and no laws requiring people to wear them anyway.
Spare tires were actual inflated tires and jacks were actually capable of jacking up the car.
"Whip Inflation Now" buttons.
JFK's assassination. Cuban Missile Crisis. Bay of Pigs. Marilyn Monroe.
Count Dante offering to teach the Deadly Martial Arts along with Charles Atlas offering to pump you up in the backs of comic books. X-ray specs. Surplus jeeps.
Boy's Life magazine. Grit. Field and Stream. Barber shops that were not hair salons. Straight razors on the back of your neck after a haircut.
Barbasol. Safety razors. Em-nue. Brasso. Spit-shining boots. Starching camouflage utility uniforms. Hai Karate aftershave. Old Spice (only one scent, the only kind they made).
Lucky Strikes, L&M, Belair, Chesterfields, Phillip Morris, Bensen and Hedges and Doral all ran TV commercials. I'd rather fight than switch. Come to Marlboro Country. I'd walk a mile for a Camel. Paging Phillip MORRIS!
No such thing as a PC, no internet, no VCR, no recorded video of any kind. Only rich kids had color television. No remote control; unless you had kids, then they were your remote control.
Wall-to-wall carpet was a new thing. Aluminum siding was seen as a miracle.
Cameras used film; video was 8mm or Super-8. Drugstores sold drugs, supermarkets sold food. Western Auto and Ben Franklin were around. No such thing as a 'convenience store'.
Gas stations gave premiums and sold toys for the kids, so dads who traveled for a living could 'bring something home for them' by stopping for gas on the way.
You could take a train most places. Buses were not considered a low-rent way to travel, just how it was done. Many planes still had propellers and you walked all the way out to the jetway with your departing family member; no security, no ID, nothing.
You could take a pocket knife on a plane with you. In fact, a man without a pocket knife on him at all times was probably a commie.
