My 70s Photo Gallery

Of course you know by now that I absolutely love the 70s! Unfortunately for those of us that have the fondest memories of the greatest decade known to man, we don’t have many photos! I still haven’t found a photograph of my ten-year-old self wearing that stiff, plastic superhero mask with the elastic string tied onto it at Halloween. The one with the two tiny eye holes that allowed for viewing anything straight in front of you but nothing else. So many memories, adventures and events, but so little proof they ever happened.

We grew up in a time when there were no handheld devices with a camera attached. The best we had were our sleek 110 cameras that took the best blurred photos any kid ever captured. We’d run the roll of film down to the drug store so they could send it off for processing. Two weeks later, here came your shots! Some were dark, some out of focus, some showed a random part of the room because you clicked the button when you weren’t paying attention.

It didn’t matter how bad the photos were. If there were 12 pics on the roll, you were paying for 12 photos, good, bad or ugly. The best part was going out onto the sidewalk just so you could look through the small stack of prints. Bingo! Every now and then there was a single classic gem! Sometimes, you’d take a roll in with no idea what was on the negatives. That was always pure gold if the pics were from a forgotten memory.

Or, if you were lucky, you had a Polaroid camera that popped out the picture right after you took it. You’d fan the photo back and forth knowing that was going to help it develop faster. Slowly an image would begin to appear and after a minute or two you’d have a photo on a thick, weird piece of development paper. Those pics had more saturated color than most and they faded almost as quick as the flavor in your Double Bubble bubble gum.

All of the great pics were worthy of sticking in the photo album you got from Woolco that had the clear acetate covering you’d slide the photos under. Once arranged in some disorganized fashion you’d get to rub the acetate down to the sticky page so the photographs wouldn’t slide out. Forget putting those Polaroids in there, they were always a little thicker and caused the other photos to drop out.

Fortunately my mom and a few friends had a camera in hand at just the right time during memorable moments in the 70s. I don’t have stacks of photos from the 70s but the few that I do have are golden. I’ll be filling this page with the best of the best. These iconic 70s photos are from my collection and bring back so many memories. I hope you enjoy a little stroll down memory lane…

My most iconic photo! Luckily my mom decided to snap this pic as I unrolled my Farrah Fawcett posted for the first time at Christmas 1976. I have an entire blog post and podcast episode on how popular this photo has become. It’s been around the Internet a million times and is now a meme on most all nostalgia social media apps.

This is a great photo of my best friend Stayton with our dogs around 1975. My dog was Mister and his was Deanie. Stayton’s mom took the photo and put a black and white version of it on a plate that sits in my office today. Check out the hair and those shoes!

I’m still trying to figure out who took this photo but at this point I have no idea. Might have been my mom. This is Bruce and I on a sidewalk in our neighborhood. Every block had a sidewalk that allowed us to ride bikes and skateboards everywhere we went. I’m in my Fast Track sneakers with my knee high double ring socks! That’s a Grentech Coyote skateboard purchased from OTASCO. Bruce is on his super cool Raleigh 10-Speed with his triple ring knee high socks! Loving our cut-off jean shorts with my pocket sticking out. Also digging Bruce’s ringer t-shirt.

So here I am enjoying some Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on a console stereo/8-track player in 1978. Gotta love the bean bag chair, 45’s and I Dream Of Jeanie lamp. I’m decked out in my bell bottoms, fuzzy, yarn slippers and very cool headphones.

My buddy Stayton and I started our own magic act. This pic was taken by my mom around 1975 during one of our performances in my garage. We charged the neighborhood kids 25 cents to watch the show. We eventually added a puppet show to the act where Stayton sang and played guitar while I worked the puppets. The designs on my shirt were ironed on by my mom. My top hat was collapsible and I believe came from my great grandfather. I love the old gas stove, refrigerator and Magnavox record player in the background.

First let me say I am not in this photo, I took the photo. This is Jackie playing my Ventura Les Paul copy. This is late 70s possibly 1979 in my bedroom on S. Grant in Enid, Oklahoma. You can see part of my pinup poster collection including my iconic Farrah poster. Did you spot my rotary phone on my turntable/8-track console? Check out those dangling yarn balls in the middle of the posters. I hand made those and hung them from the ceiling. Love those curtains!

Christmas 1977: The ultimate 70s holiday meal photo! Here’s my great-grandma Valentine Erwin and my grandma Liz Scaling. Both in dresses, scarves and heels. On the table: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cream peas, corn, a tub of margarine, tea, pickles, Speedy Gonzalez glass and the marshamllow/fruit salad. Not in the photo: dressing, olives, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, hot rolls and the kids card table.