The 1970s

Somehow they missed the flight to the suburbs that emptied Cleveland’s downtown in the Sixties. They stayed even when everyone left. Even when the shopping malls were going up and the interstates were taking city dwellers to the exurbs, they hung around downtown. ... The only problem was they were dirty, sometimes disease-ridden, a public nuisance.
—An October 1973 story remarking how legions of pigeons were downtown’s most visible residents

Your Smart-Alecky Message Here

Daffy Dan believes novelty T-Shirts are here to stay. “It’s not a fad,” he says. “Blue jeans and T-shirts have become an American way of life.” And what could be more American than telling the world where to get off? It seems the most consistently popular of Daffy Dan’s designs are those that incorporate just such a sentiment — be it smart-alecky (“I am a virgin ... this shirt is very old”), hostile (“Go to hell” in flowery calligraphy) ... or downright obscene (sorry, this is a family magazine).
— A July 1978 story declaring Daffy Dan (aka Daniel Roger Gray) the “Cardin of ‘T’ Couture.” Hehad sold 40,000 T-shirts in the previous 12 months