While you are busy preparing your unroasted coffee beans for a great cup of coffee and getting ready for work, you might be wishing you lived in a time when life moved at a much slower pace. At the very least, you wish you had the day off so you can sit down, relax, enjoy your cup of coffee and watch a bit if daytime television.

You are probably aware that there was a time, not all that long ago, when a percentage of women didn’t hold full-time jobs. That is, they spent their days tending the children, keeping the house clean and ensuring everybody in the household had plenty to eat. Just ask an older relative, like your aunt or grandmother, we are sure they remember these times very well. In fact, they may tell you stories about these golden days.

Now, stay-at-home moms in the 1970s didn’t spend every waking moment laboring for others, they had their share of free time. When stay-at-home moms weren’t slaving over a hot stove, ironing dad’s work shirts or scrubbing the tiles in the bathroom, they were in all likelihood perched in front of the television with a cup of coffee watching their favorite daytime game shows. And here are a few of the game shows they watched.

$10,000 Pyramid

What began as the $10,000 Pyramid soon changed to the $20,000 Pyramid, which was quickly updated to the $25,000 Pyramid and finally peaked as the $100,000 Pyramid. It wasn’t greed that drove the increasing monetary prize of this game show, it had more to do with inflation to be sure. Remember, Carter was president in the 1970s.

But we digress, the game consisted of two celebrity guests who were each paired with a contestant to form a team. These teams took turns playing a round in which clues were given to the teammate in hopes they can guess the words. Each team had 30 seconds in which to guess as many words as possible.

The team with the most points moved on to the final round and the opportunity to win $10,000, or $25,000 or $100,000 as the case may be.

Card Sharks

In this game show, contestants simply had to guess if the next card in a series of cards would be higher or lower than the previous card. It was a whole lot simpler playing the game than having to explain how it’s played.

The Joker’s Wild

This is a game show that opened with the phrase “Here’s the game where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen.” The game consists of two contestants who take turns spinning an oversized slot machine Each of the three wheels contained trivia categories and a joker. If the contestant’s spin would produce a joker, it was used to represent any category in the game.

High Rollers

High Rollers was a game show in the 1970s featuring a very young, pre-Jeopardy Alex Trebek. Basically, the game involved contestants rolling large dice in hopes of getting high numbers and winning big money.

Of course, not all stay-at-home moms sat around drinking coffee and watching game shows, many of them watched soap operas as well. But that is a subject we will focus on in the near future.