You forgot the guacamole, Tupperware, Corning ware, etc., very 70s! And those curtains! Especially in California for the guac, if my husband wasn’t originally from Mexico, I would’ve never known about guacamole in 1973 in NYC!

The Corningware in tterrace's picture is in the 'Cornflower Blue' pattern is still very much available. According to the Wikipedia article here, production was stopped in 2000, but restarted again in 2009. I know it's readily available in the US either in the parent company World Kitchen stores in outlet malls, or in department stores, or Amazon.

And the very popular 70s Corningware!! Do they even make that anymore or is it just a garage sale treasure or a "find" on E-bay!

We moved to La Selva Beach just after my sister was born. My mother was always so lovely - I'm happy to be told I look just like her. I wish she would grow her hair out again like she used to have. This is me standing behind her in Santa Cruz.

Boy does that picture bring back the memories. I graduated high school in 1973 so that looks like countless parties i went to then. I know it's fashionable now to dump on the decade "me decade" and all that but I had a blast then. Cruising in my Trans Am, chasing girls, hanging with my buddies, what a time.

I'm with Goober Pea. I love 70's photos. These could've been my older siblings. I was only a kid and what the mind remembers is vague, so seeing a moment like this brings a lot back. Besides, what's the ratio we're talking anyway? 50-1?

Anyone have a shot of the movie theater lines going around the block when Jaws opened the summer of 1975?

70's Child

The corner of Seabright & Murray had no residences on it, only shops. Yet that's where we all seemed to say we lived. When the buses stopped running (remember crazed Ed the bus driver?) that's where we'd tell someone picking us up hitchhiking where we were headed. I lived three houses in from the corner, behind the laundromat. Oh, I'll never forget the night Nixon resigned -- people were dancing in the streets of Santa Cruz!

Ha! I was a student at UCSC when this picture was made. I lived on Barson Street, I think.

Thanks

Good for you Gooberpea. Hope this is the end of the discussion about what should or should not appear on this site. How many times we have wondered what a particular picture was all about or when or where. Future generations won't be left quite as puzzled.

Dear Wet Blanket (anonymous tipster),

The fact that the 70's are within the living memory of most Shorpy devotees (Shorparians? Shorpiites?) is precisely why they should be included and interspersed with images from throughout the brief 160-year photographic record. Imagine the knowledge about many of the photos here that was lost because there was no reliable method of capturing personal accounts of the scenes and persons depicted. Often, hastily scribbled photographer’s notes or captions produced by a bureaucrat are all Dave and Team Shorpy have to go on…along with intuition and their own impressive historical knowledge.

Someday, our historian grandchildren will study Shorpy as an excellent example of viral history and assimilate the witty anecdotes found here into their telling of our times. I say let the 70’s groove on…

It is very easy to bypass images that don’t interest you on this web site…just keep scrolling until you find a clingy wet wool bathing suit or street urchin or choo choo train to ogle.

Goober Pea

do 1973-1974 all over again. Inspite of all the world affairs garbage, it was a wonderful year for this (in 1974, that is.. ) 14 yr old kid...

Thanks for posting this... I personally dig the 60s and 70s stuff.... Peace out...

That looks like an outtake from "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice."

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but the 70's appear to be within the living memory of almost everyone here (myself included). As much as I like Tterrace's slides, do we really need to have such recent stuff as this (the 70's) on Shorpy?

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

In 1973 I was serving as one of America's Last Draftees. Inducted in August 1972, the draft ended a few months later. For the remainder of my service they loudly proclaimed having an "all-volunteer" Army. I would have gladly been discharged to make it true, but viewed from today if I hadn't have been drafted I would have just worked another 2 years in the corporate world.

I really like the tupperware serving dishes, had some of those a couple of years later when I returned to college.

I have similar pix and lived in similar places, albeit in Ohio in the late 60's and early 70's. Someone commented on that everyone smoked in those days, and that was true. But we smoked more than tobacco, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Looks just like similar gatherings at my home!

As W. C. Fields might have said if he was younger, "Aaaaah, yes, I remember well those days of Charles Krug wine." It was quite cheap in those days of Billy Jack movies, Indians taking over Alcatraz and my marriage in Santa Cruz. We were so "into it", the hippie wannabees we portrayed, the gypsy lifestyle, that when my kids look at our old pictures, especially those taken in and around the Grand Canyon, dressed in Indian headbands, turquoise beads and homespun Indian shirts, they comment "that is when Mom and Dad were Indians". It cracks me up every time, because we are now really very dull, very straight, sober as judges and hating old age, but we LOVE remembering, thanks to your fabulous photos. You are doing us old fogies a huge favor. That Mexican dinner looks delicioso.

I have two of those punch bowls. It is a Anchor Hocking "Star of David" design. It came with a stand and matching cups.

I find it interesting to see the four Corningware bowls with their matching lids on the table. We have had the exact same bowls for years and still find them great for food storage and reheating food.

Here's the place, on Seabright Ave., in a 2011 Google street view:

Seems like a long time ago – or just yesterday. On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt launched a military attack on Israel starting the Yom Kippur War. On October 16, 1973, OPEC cut production of oil and placed an embargo on shipments of crude oil to the West, with the United States and the Netherlands specifically targeted. As a result, oil prices rose to $3.65 per barrel – a year later it peaked over $12 per barrel. President Richard Nixon would sign the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act authorizing price, production, allocation and marketing controls on November 27, 1973. In the United States, the retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose from a national average of 38.5 cents in May 1973 to 55.1 cents in June 1974.

I remember my grandfather hoarding gasoline – against all warnings and advice – at our small farm in East Texas. He had a couple 55-gallon drums in the barn, which he filled 5 gallons at a time from Earl’s Truck Stop on I-30. My mom was scared to death that the barn would explode and we were forbidden to go there.

Other October, 1973 events, no doubt provoking dinner conversation at tterrace's table:

October 5, 1973 - Oregon becomes the first state to decriminalize marijuana.
October 9, 1973 - Elvis and Priscilla Presley divorce.
October 10, 1973 - Spiro Agnew resigns as vice president of the United States after pleading nolo contendere to a count of tax-evasion.
October 12, 1973 - President Nixon announces Gerald R. Ford as vice president.
October 19, 1973 - At Watergate hearings, John Dean pleads guilty to his role in cover-up.

Maybe on the radio in the kitchen - Billboard Top 10:

1. Killing Me Softly With His Song - Roberta Flack
2. You're So Vain - Carly Simon
3. Touch Me In The Morning - Diana Ross
4. Sing – Carpenters
5. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder
6. Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips
7. Daniel - Elton John
8. Papa Was A Rolling Stone - Temptations
9. My Love - Paul McCartney & Wings
10. Yesterday Once More – Carpenters

I think it's missing a giant overflowing ashtray. Back then it seemed like EVERYONE smoked.

It's hard to believe all the changes we've been through since then -- but it still looks like a fun way to spend the evening.

Love the headband! I think the only thing missing in this picture is a bong.

Was this house located on Pine Street in east Santa Cruz? It looks like the kitchen in the house we moved into in 1978. The door would lead to the back porch/stoop area. Great photo!

Oh my. Do your parents know about this?