31 Vintage Photos That Prove the '70s and '80s Were the Coolest Decades to Grow Up In

We tend to look back at our childhood and refer to it as "simpler times"—and yeah, they probably were simpler. But they weren't exactly simple. As someone who was born in the '70s and spent his childhood in the '80s, I can tell you firsthand: we were living in a time of rapid, mind-blowing technological change.

Every few months, some new contraption came along and completely changed the way we lived. I remember when my grandparents got their first air conditioning unit. That thing was a miracle. It took five minutes to boot up and sounded like a tractor chewing on gravel, but it could cool the whole living room, and we were in awe.

And who could forget the day someone in the neighborhood got a microwave? The entire block came over to see it in action, like it was a portal from the future. My mom bragged about her new cordless phone like it was a NASA device. The advancements were huge, the excitement was real, and even though everything was getting more high-tech, life still felt slower, more grounded.

These 31 vintage snapshots from the '70s and '80s capture all of that magic—the fashion, the vibes, the tech, and the childhood memories that still make us smile.