why were people so skinny in the 70s?

1394042444549

Replies

  • hroderick
    hroderick Posts: 756 Member
    diet pills that kept you going were easy to get as b12 cocktail injections from most any doctor. today's prozac and pain killers make folks too mellow
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
    Kelkat405 wrote: »
    ilfaith wrote: »
    I have two middle schoolers now. At that age there is such a wide range of heights and levels of physical maturity. There are boys who are shaving and girls far more "endowed" than I am...and then there are students who look like little kids. My eighth grader is tallish, and broad shouldered...his feet are the same size as my husband's, and his voice has gotten deep seemingly overnight. My sixth grader is small for his age...but considering that he's been eating me out of house and home the past few months, I am anticipating a growth spurt coming soon.

    I reached my maximum height (a hair short of 5'3") in the seventh grade (back in the early 80s). My best friend Staci was 5'7"...taller than my dad.

    I guess that’s true. That is an age where a lot of changes happen. Maybe there were just a lot of tall kids in the hall that day. Lol

    I was born in 76 and was always the tallest girl and sometimes the tallest out of everyone until high school. I stopped growing in gr 7 at 5'8

    I was also born in '76. I was about 5'4" and 130 lb at the end of grade 3...the tallest kid until halfway through 5th grade when half the boys and girls all started catching up with me. I stopped growing around the same time (7th grade) and at 5'8" too.

    My dad was 6'5" when he was younger and my mom's about 5'6", so everyone thought I'd be much taller than I am (still somewhat tall).

  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    hroderick wrote: »
    diet pills that kept you going were easy to get as b12 cocktail injections from most any doctor. today's prozac and pain killers make folks too mellow

    Diet pills are still easy to get (there are plenty of "weight loss clinics" that are happy to prescribe phentermine to any and all patients), and as far as street drugs go, white crosses are no harder to get today than in the 70's.

    Prozac - check out the lyrics to the Stones "Mother's Little Helpers" from 1966 - while Prozac hasn't been around that long, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds in general pre-date the 70's. My mother was taking Elavil (an antidepressant) in 1971.

    Typically, pain meds tend to suppress appetite.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    They became mainstream after the '70's but these *kitten* battery powered kids cars sure don't help. ytegdw1qw4h2.png

    I don't know any families whose kids have one of those.

    On the other hand, I remember seeing them in the Sears Christmas catalogue every year, desperately wanting one, and never getting it.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    They became mainstream after the '70's but these *kitten* battery powered kids cars sure don't help. ytegdw1qw4h2.png

    I don't know any families whose kids have one of those.

    On the other hand, I remember seeing them in the Sears Christmas catalogue every year, desperately wanting one, and never getting it.

    May be dependent on where you live. I've lived in single family suburban style neighborhoods since they came out and they are everywhere.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    More active and less constant eating out.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    edited March 2018
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    ccsernica wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    They became mainstream after the '70's but these *kitten* battery powered kids cars sure don't help. ytegdw1qw4h2.png

    I don't know any families whose kids have one of those.

    On the other hand, I remember seeing them in the Sears Christmas catalogue every year, desperately wanting one, and never getting it.

    May be dependent on where you live. I've lived in single family suburban style neighborhoods since they came out and they are everywhere.

    They've been available for a very long time: http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1969_Sears_Wish_Book/#563/z
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    They became mainstream after the '70's but these *kitten* battery powered kids cars sure don't help. ytegdw1qw4h2.png

    I don't know any families whose kids have one of those.

    On the other hand, I remember seeing them in the Sears Christmas catalogue every year, desperately wanting one, and never getting it.

    I know very few children who don't have one of these (or similar). But then again where I most kids get their first motorcycle or ATV before they are out of 2nd grade.
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 16,632 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    They became mainstream after the '70's but these *kitten* battery powered kids cars sure don't help. ytegdw1qw4h2.png

    Do you have kids? Just curious.

    I sure do, they are grown now, but those things were out there when they were the appropriate age. We could have afforded them with no issue, but refused to buy them. They had various pedal cars, trikes, etc and excellent quality kids bikes.

    Our neighbors had one. Our kids rode it a few times. To be honest though, the kids had more fun when the motor broke and the kids pushed each other around in the thing.

    My kids didn’t get those kind of things either. They liked the box that the fridge came in though. I really wanted a Big Wheel when I was little but money was tight. Oh well.

    My husband would have broken the motor on purpose when he was a little bugger!

    I remember making a playhouse out of the fridge box.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited March 2018
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Well I grew up in the 70's and ate Mcdonald's once a week, ate school lunch every day (tater tots, pizza, sloppy joe's, lasagne etc.) drank soda, and ate lots of candy (went to the candy store everyday after school). So why was I so skinny? I never sat still and played till dinner time. So physical activity was the main reason.

    We didn't even have Mcdonalds here (Australia) when i was growing up in the 70's. We had Hungry jacks (Burger King) which was a 30 minute drive away.
    Take away was a once a month treat, as were school bought lunches. I brought a homemade lunch to school everyday. Dinner was cooked from scratch every night, and I don't remember ever having boxed/ready meals as a kid/teenager.

    ETA; Sitting at home on weekends watching tv was unheard of, and we had some sort of sport practice most nights of the week. We were allowed to ride our bikes all over the country side from sun up to sun down.