4th of July in the 1970's

This 70's home movie shows clips from a 1975 4th of July parade. Watch as the 70's bicycles and tricycles roll down the street, each decorated with flags and red, white, and blue crepe paper. This gave me a longing to see both 70's bikes AND crepe paper again. Bicycles have changed over time, of course. And crepe paper isn't as popular as it was in the 70's. Looking back, I feel like every parade I ever saw as a child in the 70's was a crepe paper parade. Every party was decorated in crepe paper too. At some point in the 80's, mylar ballons became popular and people started to want to decorate in metallics. Crepe paper had competition. 

I couldn't help but notice the gigantic white knee patches on one boy's dark blue jeans. Oh, how I miss seeing giant patches! Every kid in the 70's had knee patches on at least one pair of jeans or pants. Sometimes they were already on the pants or jeans when they were sold in stores. Sometimes a mom had to sew them on or iron them on if her child tore his pants at the knee. And sometimes a mom would put patches on her child's knees simply because those were the "in" thing to wear. I remember having patches with Winnie the Pooh on them. 

As a 70's child, I also remember frequently seeing men who wore patches on the elbows of their suits. I was fascinated with this. I wondered what kind of rough activity they would engage in that would require their elbows to need patches. Were they daring each other to bang their elbows on the edges of tables to try to strike their funny bones? Were they sliding down sliding boards elbows-first? It was a big elbow patch mystery to me. 

The most popular song in the summer of 1975 when this home video was recorded was "The Hustle" by Van McCoy. May it get stuck in your head the rest of the day, and may you find yourself doing the hustle.

Thank you to SofiaScullin for posting this sweet 70's 4th of July parade video on YouTube!