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Empty Shopping Malls, 1985

Published August 16, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Shopping Malls 10 Comments

Mall 1985

Mall 1985-2

Mall 1985-8

Mall 1985-3

Mall 1985-6

Mall 1985-7

Mall 1985-9

Mall 1985-10

Mall 1985-4

Mall 1985-5

I’ve said before that I’m comforted by images of malls as they used to be. But these shots are haunting too. I hear the echo of my footsteps on the tiles, and it sounds like the end of the world.

Nostalgia is just a longing for the cozier home and less troubled life and times we thought we had when we were younger. But when we were younger, we desperately wanted the perfect freedom we thought came with adulthood. The expression “You Can’t Go Home Again” is not quite true. You never were home.

So, if an old mall is an emulation of an ideal home (or ideal neighborhood), my wanting to wander and linger inside of it is just a longing for the idealization of a home (or neighborhood) that never really existed. Does that make me a ghost?

All of the photos above come from Jeremy Jae’s unmissable Retro Vintage Architecture and Interior Design Sets.

Kid Wearing Chewbacca T-Shirt at Disneyland, 1979

Published August 12, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Disneyland , Star Wars (Original Trilogy) 6 Comments

Chewie Shirt 1979

Is he on Snow White’s Scary Adventures? Here’s a better look at the graphic on the shirt.

Chewie Shirt 1977

(First photo via The Kozy Shack/Flickr)

Dungeons & Dragons Club, 1980

Published July 8, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , D&D , D&D Clubs , D&D Portraits 1 Comment

D&D Club 1980

I found this one at the Judges Guild Game Company’s Facebook page. The note reads:

In the 70’s and 80’s, JG founded and supplied Dungeons and Dragons clubs in Decatur, Illinois high schools. This is the 1980 MacArthur D&D Club, as pictured in the yearbook.

I would pay real money for an autographed 8×10, especially if Van Halen guy signs with a silver metallic Sharpie. My crush on Kathy Kirby is immediate and all-consuming. As soon as I get my hands on a functioning flux capacitor, I’m going back in time to ask her to the prom.

Judges Guild, by the way, is a fantasy game publisher founded in 1975 by Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen. In 1976, Bledsaw and Owen got approval from Dave Arneson to create game supplements for D&D, which were successfully introduced at Gen Con IX in August of the same year.

Over the next several years, Judges Guild released some 250 products—for use with D&D as well as RuneQuest, Traveller, and other notable games—and played an influential role in the formative years of tabletop RPGs. The Judges Guild website is here.

***

On a separate but related note, I want to thank Al at Beyond the Black Gate for saying some nice things about 2 Warps to Neptune. Al is an old school gamer and game developer who has written extensively about the genre, Judges Guild included.

Anyone interested in the hobby and its history—hell, anyone who digs fantasy art and literature—should check out his blog. Start with his two-part cliffhanger, “Evolution of an Old-School Gamer.”

The 4th of July, 1980

Published July 4, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Suburban Living 2 Comments

4th of July 1980

Bill Clearlake says of his photo of the neighbor’s kid:

This is one of those situations that came together in a couple of seconds. I had my camera around my neck, the kid ran by with an American Flag and a Popsicle. I raised the camera and took the shot.

What seemed like a second later, he was inside his house with the screen door slamming behind him.

As the neighbor’s kid goes, so goes life.

Leisure Home Designs, 1980

Published July 1, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Suburban Living 6 Comments

Home-1

Home-2

Home-3

Home-4

Home-5

Home-6

Home-7

There are thousands of books filled with leisure home designs, but very few actual leisure homes. Utopia is a design concept, not a reality. The artists and publishers are selling a dream. I want one of these houses like I want a window table in Ten Forward of the USS Enterprise.

The images above are from Voices of East Anglia. They’re originally from Popular Science Leisure Homes by Alfred W. Lees with Ernest V. Heyn (1980).

I posted some 1960 designs here.

Couple Posing with Mounted Swordfish, 1975

Published June 28, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , What Our Rooms Looked Like 1 Comment

Swordfish 1975

Apologies if you thought the title of this post was metaphorical.

Kids Playing on Psychedelic Shag Carpet, 1972

Published June 25, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion 4 Comments

70s Decor

I’m thinking of starting a separate category called “When Carpet Was King,” or something like that. There was a distinctive interior design aesthetic in the ’70s because people of ordinary means could afford houses.

The 21st century has no style because everybody’s renting or living in housing developments.

(Photo via eBay)

Battlestar Galactica Sheet Set (1978)

Published June 14, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Battlestar Galactica 1 Comment

BSG Sheet-1

BSG Sheet-3

BSG Sheet-2

BSG Sheet-4

BSG Sheet-5

BSG Sheet-6

(Via eBay and Etsy)

Birthday Party, 1979: ‘Pin the Tail on the Daggit’

Published June 14, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Battlestar Galactica , Birthdays/Birthday Parties 2 Comments

Birthday Daggit 1979

I envy Devlin Thompson, who writes of his 11th birthday:

My father… made the game out of white and mustard-yellow poster board (do they even make that color anymore?), and did a bang-up job of it, if I do say so myself. There was also a cake with a Colonial Viper airbrushed on top, and I seem to remember loaning the baker one of the toys as a reference, though it may have just been a comic book or an issue of Starlog.

It was a hell of a thing when the Cylons attacked Caprica and Boxey’s daggit Muffie got killed. I guess all those people dying was sad too, but seeing Muffie’s little paw sticking out of the rubble was the worst.

It was pretty awesome when Boxey got a robot daggit for a replacement, though. I wish my cat made rad robotic daggit noises.

Grocery Shopping in the ’70s: What the Fuck is Tofu?

Published May 31, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Grocery Stores/Supermarkets 6 Comments

Schnucks 1980

Schnucks 1980-2

Grocery Store 1981

Above all else, the paper bags in their built-to-fit paper bag compartments!

There’s a Wildlife Encyclopedia display (knowledge at your fingertips, only 49¢/month) behind the lady who’s, wait for it, writing a check. (My mom used to get so pissed at the idiots who wouldn’t take out their checkbooks until they got to the front of the line.)

And don’t forget to grab some sunglasses on your way back from the Cosmetics department—they’re 15% off.

(Photos via Gregg Koenig/Flickr)

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