‘70s Trivial Pursuits—Those Seemingly Trivial Things We Did That Defined the Decade

When we say ‘70s trivial pursuits, we’re referring to those things we did in the 1970s that may have seemed unimportant at the time —yet shine through our memories now as bright as a disco ball. In our pop culture trivia game Boom Again, we revisit the music, the movies and the fads that baby boomers grew up with—including during the fun and funky ‘70s.

So pull out your platform shoes and join us as we stroll down memory lane to remember a time that wasn’t merely cool… it was Dy-no-mite!

In the ‘70s, we all got Disco Fever.

Disco dancing and music had been a staple in the urban bar scene for years. Yet it wasn’t until John Travolta donned that white polyester suit and whipped out what would become the famous “disco point” dance move in Saturday Night Fever that we all knew we should be dancin’ (yeaaah).

Whether you loved disco or hated it, there’s no denying that it ruled the ‘70s.

Remember long gas lines?

Another ‘70s trivial pursuit that actually wasn’t so trivial was killing time at the gas station waiting in long lines to fill up your gas tank. It was thanks to the 1973 oil crisis (and a second oil crisis a few years later) that we had around-the-block gas station lines. Even worse, you could sit there for hours—only to get to the pumps to discover they’d run out of gas.

Those gas lines were also the death of full-service stations where someone pumped for you. As shortages caused prices to skyrocket, gas stations cut back on the perks to keep prices lower.

The video game was born.

Long before there was Minecraft, or Fortnite, or Grand Theft Auto… there was Pong. One of the earliest video games, it was a simulated ping-pong game—if ping pong was played at a snail’s pace with a green digital dot on a black screen.

As primitive as it may have been by today’s video game standards, it shot to popularity and made Atari—the console you need to play it—the must-have item of the decade.

You spent time trying to figure out the lyrics to American Pie.

If there was ever a 1970s trivial pursuit, this was one—unless, that is, you thought American Pie might be very, very deep. Who was the jester? Why did he steal the king’s thorny crown? Was it really about Buddy Holly dying in a plane crash? Wait, what’s a levee? And who broke the church bells?

To this day, Don McLean hasn’t revealed the song’s meaning—but a whole lot of Baby Boomers can sing along word for perplexing word.

Most likely, your walls were plastered with posters.

To paraphrase George Carlin, “A wall that is bare, is really nowhere.’ (Okay, he said that in a comedy poem about hair, but it still applies.)

Posters expressed your individuality, but there were some posters we all had in the 1970s. The kitty hanging from the tree with, “Hang in There, Baby.” Farrah Fawcett in her famously flimsy red one-piece swimsuit.  Mark Spitz in a red, white and blue Speedo. The latest heartthrob pulled from the pages of Tiger Beat magazine. That one about footprints in the sand.

Chances are you still remember what posters you had on your walls.

We made mixed tapes off the radio.

Cassette tapes became latest in music technology—fast replacing 8-tracks, which had that annoying habit of changing tracks in the middle of a song. If you were too broke to buy a 45-record, you pulled out your cassette deck, set it close to the radio, and hit “record” when your favorite songs came on.

The sound quality wasn’t the greatest but, hey, it was cheap.

Many of us knew how to “wheely” have a good time.

Roller skating made a comeback in the 1970s, but with a twist—a disco twist. Roller Discos let you get your groove on… on wheels.

And perhaps the most trivial of ‘70s trivial pursuits—taking care of our Pet Rocks.

Yes, for $4, you could “adopt” a rock of your own and care for it as if it was an was an actual pet. Pet Rocks—which came nestled in straw in in a little box—also included a 32-page manual with instructions on how to feed, bathe and teach your Pet Rock tricks.

Wishing you could reminisce more about the 1970s? Check out Boom Again, a game that celebrates the Baby Boom era of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Find it at BoomAgain.com.

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