8 Signs You Grew Up in North Carolina in the 1970s

Where you spent your weekends as a kid can say a lot about when you grew up.

North Carolinians who came of age in the 1970s may remember ballgames, theme parks and some things that are long gone now.

Here are some signs you grew up in North Carolina in the ’70s.

1. Land of Oz

A Wizard of Oz theme park opened on Beech Mountain in Avery County on June 15, 1970.

It was the brainchild of Grover Robbins, the entrepreneur who also opened Tweetsie Railroad.

If you visited, you could walk a yellow brick road through a recreation of the city of Oz.

The park featured costumed characters reminiscent of the movie.

Then came the fire.

In December 1975, a fire caused major damage to many of the park’s structures.

The park began to experience financial troubles and attendance declined, and it closed in 1980.

The property sat abandoned for several years, until the landowner restored the park in the late 1990s.

2. Carowinds

Drenching rain fell on Carowinds when it opened near Charlotte on March 31, 1973.

If you were there on opening day, you were one of more than 6,000 people who came through the main gates.

They came anyway.

A young Charlotte resident waving a giant ticket led about 3,000 visitors into the park in a parade.

The state’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources describes a golden concrete state line running through the park, which sits on the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

Developer E. Pat Hall’s park cost more than $30 million and took about three years to build.

At its opening, the 73-acre park was larger than Disneyland, Astroworld in Houston and Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta.

3. N.C. State’s 1974 Title

North Carolina got a national basketball champion in the 1970s when N.C. State won the 1974 national championship in Greensboro.

In the semifinal, N.C. State beat the seven-time defending champion Bruins of the University of California, Los Angeles, 80-77 in double overtime.

Double overtime.

Sports Illustrated noted that was the first time in eight years the Bruins hadn’t gone on to win the title.

In the final, the Wolfpack beat Marquette 76-64 on the night of March 25, 1974.

Coach Norm Sloan’s Wolfpack was led by Boiling Springs native David Thompson.

If you picked up N.C. State’s student paper, the Technician, in its March 27, 1974 issue, you read the headline “Marquette falls; Wolfpack reigns over all the land.”

4. SouthPark Mall

SouthPark Mall’s first manager, Jack Ralph, described the gleaming shopping mecca as a high-fashion mall for discriminating shoppers, Charlotte Magazine says.

That was the pitch.

It opened in Charlotte on February 12, 1970, with 77 stores.

If you shopped there, you could pick between two local department stores, Belk and Ivey’s, plus Sears.

An outparcel held twin movie theaters, a supermarket and several convenience stores.

The mall provided 4,900 parking spaces.

5. Carolina Cougars

North Carolina's first major professional basketball team, the Carolina Cougars, played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1969 through 1974.

If you went to a Cougars home game, you could be in Charlotte, Greensboro or Raleigh.

If you cheered for the Cougars, you watched many players who had starred at colleges in the area.

The team enjoyed good attendance and fair success on the court.

Ownership changed in 1974.

In 1974, brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna bought the Cougars for about $1 million and promptly moved the team to St. Louis, Fox News reported.

Ozzie Silna made his money in his family's textile business.

6. North Carolina Zoo

The North Carolina Zoo in Randolph County went from a dedicated site in 1972 to an interim zoo in 1974 and its first permanent habitat in 1979.

Gov. Robert W. Scott dedicated the site in the spring of 1972.

The General Assembly appropriated $11.8 million to build the first exhibit area, devoted to Africa.

If you visited in 1974, you saw the interim zoo.

Its first animals were a pair of Galapagos tortoises, Our State says.

Tort and Retort.

If you visited in 1979, you could see zebras, ostriches and giraffes in Forest Edge, which the zoo calls its first permanent habitat.

Habitats for elephants, rhinoceros, lions, chimpanzees and baboons followed that opening.

The master plan used invisible barriers so you would forget you were in a zoo.

The state legislature provided a $2 million bond, county bonds added another $2 million, and local fundraising raised $435,000 in five weeks.

7. Richard Petty's Titles

If you followed stock car racing in the 1970s, you saw Richard Petty win five Winston Cup season titles, in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1979.

He won seven in all.

The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame says he was born in Level Cross, North Carolina, in 1937.

He also won a record 200 races, 95 more than runner-up David Pearson.

If you followed him in 1973, that was the year the hall of fame inducted him, between his 1972 and 1974 titles.

His seven Daytona 500 wins are also a record.

8. Textile Mill Jobs

Textile mill work reached its peak in North Carolina in the 1970s.

If you held a textile mill job in North Carolina in 1973, you were one of 293,600 workers, an all-time high for the state.

Then the numbers turned.

More than 800 mills closed nationwide between 1975 and 1985.

By 1986, North Carolina's textile mills employed 211,300 people.

That was 82,300 fewer workers than the 1973 peak.

Mergers and takeovers followed in the 1980s, with Fieldcrest buying Cannon Mills and West Point-Pepperell buying J. P. Stevens.

Population Growth

North Carolina's population rose roughly 16% during the 1970s, according to NCpedia's census table.