Here are some of the fads and trends that I remember from the great '70s decade. Some have lived on, while others appeared for just a short time.

Macramé
Macramé was super popular in the '70s, and just about everywhere a person went, they were sure to see someone wearing a macramé vest, or hat, or purse cover, or even a belt. Macramé plant hangers were the thing, and I even had macramé candle holder in my apartment. The style began to fade from the '70s homefront somewhere around 1975.

Tie Dye
Tie Dye wasn't just a fashion; it was a way of life. In the early '70s, tie dye was the thing! I made my own attempts at it, but realized it was something best left to true artisans who knew how to do it right. True tie dye started in the late '60s, but had come to its own in the early '70s.

8-Track Tapes & Players
8-Track Players and Tapes were super popular. I had one in 1974, but the tapes kept getting hung up in the player, so I switched to cassettes and a good cassette player. I never understood why people liked them so much. Cassettes were so much more dependable.

Pet Rocks
I had a very hard time convincing myself that people actually put out good money to buy something like a "pet rock". But they did, and the Pet Rock was probably one of the more genius gimmicks of the '70s.

Chopsockey
"Chopsockey" was a term defining the great martial arts movies of the '70s. Bruce Lee made the genre extremely popular, and by the time the "Kung Fu" television show appeared in 1972, Kung Fu was the go-to martial art for curious movie-goers. When it came to the movies, Karate was still as popular as ever, and the Chopsockey fad zeroed in on anything martial arts or fighting related.

Rubik's Cube
This...drove...me...crazy. I could never figure out the mystery of Rubik's Cube. "You just gotta twist it this way...do all the same colors in a row..." was the advice I was given mostly by people who were no better at solving this puzzle than I. Still, it was wildly popular, and just about everyone either had, or tried one of these crazy cubes.

Shag Hair Cuts
I, personally, really liked the Shag. I thought it was an amazingly attractive hair style for women, and some men as well. Pictured here are Stevie Nicks and Pat Travers, both becoming big in the later '70s.

Afros
The Afro was another style fad that's still popular today. Special combs called "cake cutters" were, and still are used to comb these. "Afro Sheen" was a popular spray used to give the hair a brilliant sheen. I really loved Afros.

Lava Lamps
I never had a lava lamp, but many of the more far out apartments and homes in the '70s had at least one. They were very hypnotic to just sit and stare at as the oil inside the lamp created cool shapes.

Mood Rings
The only people I ever knew that had mood rings were girls. Mood rings were pretty interesting, and had thermochromic element that caused the ring to change color depending on the temperature of the finger it was on. It was a bit fascinating to me.

Flower Power!
They were everywhere; daisies sprouting up as stickers and vinyl adhesives for cars. You couldn't walk through the '70s without encountering these brilliantly colored flowers. They were on car doors, bumpers, windows of houses and apartments, on notebooks, and just about anything else they could stick to.

Water Beds
Water Beds were the thing throughout the '70s up until '80s. People still have them today, but not to the degree of the '70s. A few horror stories circled about the beds springing leaks, or falling through ceilings because of the weight circulated, but never diminished their popularity. I had some friends who had one, but I personally never cared for them.

Roller Disco & The Bump
Roller Disco and the dance "The Bump" came along in the later '70s after the disco craze came into its own. The Bump is still popular, and danced today, but roller disco sort of faded into obscurity as a flash-in-the-pan fad.