1978 The Year Our Chamber Was Founded

In 1978 our Chamber was founded as the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce. This is the same year that Home Depot was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. It was also when Ben and Jerry opened their first ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont.

Believe it or not, 1978 was also the year that the first ever cellular mobile phone system was introduced by Illinois Bell Company . . . and when the first Navstar GPS was launched for military use only. We witnessed the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first test tube baby, in 1978 in the UK. We also saw the start of the Afghan war that year.

In 1978 when our Chamber was born, the world population was 4,223,000,000. Minimum wage was $2.65 per hour, and the price of a postage stamp was 15 cents. In 1978 a gallon of milk cost 91 cents, and the average price of gasoline ranged from 65 to 71 cents per gallon.

The same year our Chamber was founded, the Dallas Cowboys were Superbowl XII Champions, and the New York Yankees were the World Series Champions. The top song in 1978 was Night Fever by The Bee Gees. Some of the biggest movies were Grease, National Lampoon’s Animal House, Jaws 2, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Halloween, Superman: The Movie, Heaven Can Wait, Every Which Way But Loose, and Up in Smoke.

The Top 10 TV shows in 1978 were Laverne & Shirley, Three’s Company, Mork & Mindy, Happy Days, Angie, 60 Minutes, M*A*S*H, The Ropers, All in the Family and Taxi. Popular toys were Hungry Hungry Hippos and Simon. 1978 is when the first Star Wars action figures were released, and the Space Invaders arcade game was launched.

It is certainly a different world now than it was when the Chamber began. The population is over 8 billion, technology trends include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality and Augmented Realty. Minimum wage varies by state and ranges from $7.25 to $15.20 per hour. Gasoline prices seem to change on a daily basis. It’s almost impossible to determine the top song with so many different genres and countdowns. The same holds true with TV shows/series/mini-series etc. Movies are not the “biggest” anymore, but they are “top grossing” with Maverick being the number one so far in 2022.

The Chamber has evolved a great deal as well. The South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce changed its’ name in 2012 to The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce. It has since become the largest business organization in the Houston region and continues to grow.  You can learn more about the Chamber at this link: https://www.woodlandschamber.org/aboutthechamber/  Here’s to another successful 44 years!