Fifty years ago was a rocky time for America. While then-President Gerald Ford dealt with fuel’s dwindling supplies and increasing prices (drivers waited hours at gas stations), he survived two assassination attempts, extended tax cuts and hailed the metric system. The latter fared as well as the Vietnam War. Former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and the U.S. rushed to escape Vietnam as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese.
The U.S. government failed in its years-long effort to deport Beatles star John Lennon over his anti-Vietnam stance and his influence on like-minded young voters. Bill Gates geeked out developing software for an early personal computer and helped form Microsoft to do it.
In his national column in the Dec. 25, 1975, State Journal-Register, humorist Art Buchwald described his gift list for readers. Mood rings topped it. The popular jewelry showed your mood by changing colors to reflect it – dark colors meant things were bad. Buchwald nixed the idea because the emotion detector would show readers “how depressed (they) really were.” For women, Buchwald wanted to gift the Equal Rights Amendment, but said experts told him it wouldn’t pass that year. Or the next. (Or the next, or the next…)
Popular culture took our minds off the news but made us afraid to go back in the water. The movie Jaws hit theaters, making cinematic history with a mechanical shark whose greatest threat was its inability to work. Unlike the shark, the Boss ran well. A young Bruce Springsteen careened to the top of rock ‘n’ roll with his album Born to Run. (Ear worm? Enjoy it, it’s a classic.)
Springsteen’s album – or 8-track tape – made a great holiday gift that year for teens or adults, but kids weren’t interested. Boys’ top gift wish was an Evel Knievel action figure and stunt cycle. Accident insurance was extra. Knievel was an oft-injured daredevil performer best known for jumping his motorcycle over 14 buses. Girls wanted dolls “that walk or talk” and pizza ovens, while most kids asked for 10-speed bikes and Star Trek kits, according to the Dec. 21, 1975, State Journal-Register. ‘Tweens and teens wanted striped toe socks (knee highs with individual pockets for each toe – like gloves for your feet, except gloves were comfortable). While popular culture had some lasting hits that year, popular fashion did not, thankfully.
At $470, microwave ovens were out of reach for some gift-givers but touted for their ability to cook “by temperature, not time, thus eliminating overcooking or undercooking!” Dawsons on North Dirksen Parkway advertised the relatively new cooking appliance – and free demos.
If you needed to buy gifts on the cheap, Springfield’s SuperX drug stores were promoting fruit cakes for 88 cents apiece or mixed nuts for 69 cents. For higher budgets, the Jewel Box downtown had enameled cigarette boxes for $8 to $9, or Tobin Jewelers nearby had 10K, gold-filled Omega wristwatches for $200.
For hipsters, nothing could surpass the “luxurious acrylic fur” bean bags on sale at Wolfson’s downtown for just under $50. (The real fun was when the lounging chairs exploded and spewed hundreds of foam microbeads that clung to your clothes.) Buyers could add a pair of polyester bellbottom pants for their hipster, too. Those microbeads needed fabric to stick to. There were plenty of bellbottoms in that popular Christmas wish list tome – the JCPenney catalog. (View it online at: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalog/1975-JCPenney-Christmas-Book) For more conservative types, a sherbert-colored, polyester leisure suit was sure to please.
Illinois Times, which began publishing in 1975, had an article in its Dec. 25 issue about ideas for the “person who has everything.” They included psychedelic glasses or the “Whistle Switch,” a “Clap On, Clap Off Clapper” contraption that started and stopped your TV, radio, coffeepot and lights. Lindley’s flower and plant store on South Sixth Street had poinsettias ready for cash-and-carry or delivery. Customers paid by the bloom with a whopping 15- or 16-bloom plant topping out at $20.
IT’s holiday calendar encouraged Springfieldians to attend the Washington Park Carillon’s Christmas Eve concert. On Dec. 21, ragtime fans could listen to Scott Joplin-style music on Springfield’s new public radio station, WSSR-FM (now NPR-Illinois), or the Boston Pops Christmas show on WILL-FM.
For a glimpse into how Springfield’s elite would celebrate, the SJ-R’s social columnist, Pauline L. Telford, wrote an in-depth piece about the Illinois governor’s plans. Then-Gov. Dan Walker was celebrating by having his seven children and their guests, plus one grandchild and other family members, stay at the heavily decorated Executive Mansion. (Remember when governors lived there?)
Bet none of them got bean bag chairs.
Tara McClellan McAndrew is a freelance writer in Springfield who has written extensively about local history.
This article appears in November 27-December 3, 2025.
