Simultaneously, the shortages of the 1970s that pushed electricity prices up also produced a new relationship between Americans and their patterns of consumption. “Conservation” and “efficiency” became the watchwords of the 1970s. I remember being trained at school, in the middle of this decade, how to conserve electricity: the last kid out of the room always turned off the lights, the hallways were never lit, the heat was down in sweater territory, and the girls were encouraged to wear pants rather than tights under their dresses.
