21 Truly Upsetting Vintage Recipes

[LiberalEsto]

29. Would you believe gas stations handed out free amber colored glassware in the early 70s?

When in college I remember buying gas for 25 cents a gallon at the (long gone) PathMark gas station on Route 27 in Somerset NJ, and getting a free glass beverage tumbler with each purchase.

Usually their glasses were avocado green, and I amassed quite a set of glassware this way. Sometimes the glassware was amber-colored, or what we called harvest gold at the time. I consider both colors hideous and no longer own any of those glasses. I've seen plenty of them in thrift shops if you feel you must have some.

The Jello molds were more of a 50s-60s thing than a 70s trend as far as I know. After WW2 the many women who had worked in factories to support the war effort lost their jobs, which were given to returning soldiers. To keep the women busy at home and out of the work force , they were encouraged to have lots of babies and spend all their spare time preparing elaborate meals, sewing, doing cute little crafts, having coffee-klatches and cocktail parties, etc.

It's no wonder to me that suburban women in my mother's age group went crazy from boredom.