Okay, every one out there who played bass in bands in the late 70s AND did not find out what a “rubber” was until their FRESHMAN year in college, raise your hands… Okay, just me, but it’s the truth. In short, my Mom was an ER nurse and she called things by their proper terms… including condems. When I got the story of the “birds and the bees” I got medical diagrams and the works. Totally grossed me out at age 13. Yet, this same Mother brought me home the used Playboys from her hospital in 1967 so I could see what they were all about. Of course I didn’t know the term beat-off except for in muciscal terms…
Today’s comic title is from Seasame Street and Ernie’s SMASH number ONE hit by the same name. Imagine hearing “Mississippi Queen” followed by “Rubber Ducky” on the same AM radio station. Yes, it was the 70s for sure. But it was cookie monster who was the Street’s resident stoner or else why was he always hungry for those cookies.
🙂
Clear instructions with diagrams and pictures?
Man, what a nice lady your mom was! You are lucky!
Tell me: was AM radio broadcasted in stereo back in the seventies, or was it monaural?
Here in Brazil AM is still mono, and the sound quality is shit. It’s used mostly for news. Music in good stereo sound quality is broadcasted in FM only…
In the US, AM stereo was an attempt to revitalize the AM broadcast band in the early 80s prior to the rise of talk radio. Before that (and mostly now) AM was mono but you didn’t notice the sound quality until FM stereo became popular. Some AM stations are now broadcasting an HD signal (co-channel digital) but I haven’t heard an AM station on HD so I don’t know what it sounds like.
I was raised Catholic, so condoms and other forms of active birth control weren’t openly discussed – I didn’t learn about them until ‘health class’ in 5th or 6th grade. ‘Rubbers’ were the Tingley-brand slip-on overshoes my Grandfather wore on the farm, so I get the prom date reference.
In the early 70s, I discoverd FM radio. My parents had a “console” TV (TV, radio & record player all-in-one). Not only was it our first COLOR television, it was my first introduction to FM stereo. I was only 13 when I found what use to be called Album Oriented Rock FM station. They played tracks from popular albums, but not the “hits” so to speak. It was this station that introduced me to rock and roll AND GOO SOUND QUALITY. I spent most of the 70s buying/building/upgrading my “hi-fi” until I was a true audiophile (I had two turntables, a reel-to-reel, cassette deck, FM tuner, Amp & HUGE speakers). So, AM radio was quickly replaced in my car with FM/cassette units.
Yes, rubbers were worn on your feet, not Mr. Happy in my family too. I never got use to calling condoms rubbers and always have used the “proper” term.
Oh, and Mr. Ferabreu, those diagrams were actually “cutaway” drawings of the human body so she could describe the entire reproductive systems to me. Ever seen these medical drawings? Well, it makes me want to lose my breakfast just thinking about them… which is why I’m not a doctor or in the medical field at all. I’d faint every time at the site of blood.
I never liked the word “rubbers.” I still say condoms.
I love Cookie Monster. Ernie was always such a dick to Bert, but Cookie Monster was this karmic force of awesomeness that would annoy Ernie in the same way and steal his cookies and just generally redress the balance. Plus he hosted Monsterpiece Theater. Hail to thee, Cookie Monster! That’s good enough for me!
I never knew anyone that used the term “rubber” outside of a movie context. Then again most the people I know where 80’s kids and 90’s kids. But the few I know who were teens in the 70’s always used the term condoms, so it always struck me as odd when I would hear the term “rubber” in some movies from back then.
I have heard so many different slang for condoms that I just use condom. My mother is a nurse and she found this cool book that had diagrams that weren’t all medical.
Of course by that point, the birds and the bees talk was a little late. I had spent too many nights watching movies with my dad that had an “R” rating to not know what was going on.
Cookie Monster was the man. He would munch on anything. I mean I think he even ate his pipe once in “Monsterpiece Theater”.
I still can’t decide if I’d have wanted my mom to give me old Playboys or not. I mean, on one hand, you’re being given pictures of hot, naked ladies. On the other hand, it’s your mother…handing you to them. Probably knowing full well what you’re going to do with them. *cough* You know what I’m talking about! …I’m talking about reading the articles!!
RE: John – I was in like 5th grade when she gave me a copy to “read”. I had seen them as I had two uncles who subscribed to Playboy and they were stashed in their bathrooms. Now I know why…
Anyway, NONE of my friends at the time believed me. And by the time I finally got the nerve to bring it out and show all my friends, my Mom had thrown the damn thing away. Yeah, that really helped…
My Mom was the coolest person none-the-less. She even flipped off one of my Dad’s bosses once WHILE I was in the car. Class.
🙂
With the crowd I hung with in the 70s, both early and later, rubber seemed to be the word of choice. I never got use to the word myself. Condom it is by a wide margin…
But it is Woody Allen who came up with the best description for an oral contraceptive… the word “No”.
🙂
And NO ONE has mentioned Bud’s stylish 70s prom suit? Nor how accurately I’ve drawn his date’s 1975 prom dress with lovely lavender flowers? Come on people!! 🙂
I never attended any proms, I was not into that kind of crap. Seemed like a TON of money just to get lucky, and I figured I’d rather have a cool stereo then spend it all on a “chance” I might get lucky at prom. Also, I can’t dance for crap.
Rubbers? I thought they were called balloons?
RE: Nate Fakes – That there would be some pretty expensive water balloons!
😀
40? Someone got a problem with 40?
re John- “… was raised Catholic, so condoms and other forms of active birth control weren’t openly discussed ,,,”
Yeah I lived it, and of course none of the Catholic girls I dated used birth control pills as a contraceptive, no, no a thousand times no, but strangely enough they all had the prescriptions to control “irregular periods”. I guess it worked because it kept their periods regular as clock work. 😉
Oh the days when the worst STDs were all curable with antibiotics!
Al (Veteran of the Sexual Revolution)
re John- “… was raised Catholic, so condoms and other forms of active birth control weren’t openly discussed ,,,”
Yeah I lived it, and of course none of the Catholic girls I dated used birth control pills as a contraceptive, no, no a thousand times no, but strangely enough they all had the prescriptions to control “irregular periods”. I guess it worked because it kept their periods regular as clock work.
Oh the days when the worst STDs were all curable with antibiotics!
Al (Veteran of the Sexual Revolution)
condoms… those are for those nasty sailors.