Flashback Monday: Homes for 70s Hep Cats in Their 20s

Set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to 1972, when this fancy advertisement told hip young people, presumably wearing Wavy Gravy-style tie-die shirts, that they could own a "home" in a place called "Reston." The image is tiny, but you can see Bearded Dad sitting on a sofa that we can thank our lucky stars was photographed in black-and-white, to spare us its mauve and orange horrors. He's watching as his wife and their child luxuriate in the thick pile of the earth-toned shag carpeting, contemplating a tiny tree and a disturbing bust of a human head on top of what is either a large microwave or small tevee. Behold the horror:

The breathless marketing copy reads:

Sanibel Townhouses: Reston's newest addition priced from $28,000. A value within reach even for a young couple in their twenties. And a Sanibel townhouse means an investment for the future, bringing you all the tax savings and equity accumulation advantages of full home ownership.

Way to talk to the Laugh-In crowd. Sock it to me... with more marketing copy!

And Sanibel owners will also own a part of Reston's leisure life.

To go with their leisure suits.

Close to your home are open green spaces, wooded pathways, swimming pools, tennis courts and playing fields. For convenience, a full range of shops and services is offered nearby in the Hunters Woods Village Center and Reston's new International Center. And Reston's Express Commuter Bus System brings the office and home closer together than ever before.

Sweet, Daddy-O! We'll spare everyone the mental math and share the depressing thought that the pioneering young folk who bought into the Reston dream in their 20s back then are now in their 60s, having aged just like the rest of us. And that cute kid? He's now a middle-aged man. Happy holidays!