Did you used to feel like hot stuff wearing your best leisure suit and partying hard at Uncle Sam’s in Levittown? Or maybe you’d put on your boogie shoes and head to Cherry’s in Glen Cove?

Sure, in the 1970s the bigger and harder-to-get-into clubs were in Manhattan. But those looking for a more relaxed (but still funky) time found ample places to catch night fever right here on Long Island. Haunts like Decameron in Levittown, 2001 in East Islip and LGBTQ refuges like Club Swamp in Wainscott offered spaces with rhythmic sounds and a respite from the real world. Disco began as an escapist subculture born out of Black and Latino music, but had become full-blown suburban mainstream by the late 1970s.

Nowadays, it’s hard to find a decent dance hall to blow off steam on the weekend. But, as Donna Summer said in a 1978 interview published in Newsday, “In a disco, people are free to be whatever they want to be after being cooped up in an office all week.” Scroll to see our archival images from a time when you didn’t have to travel far to shake your groove thing.

 — Vera Chinese, LI Life/Act 2 editor

Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles

1976 A well-dressed crowd takes to the dance floor at Decameron in Levittown, which was one of the first discos on Long Island, known for its over-the-top lighting

Credit: Newsday/Don Norkett

1978 The Trammps (think “Disco Inferno”) perform to a packed crowd at Cherry’s in Glen Cove.

Credit: Newsday/Gerald S. Williams

1978 Clubgoers at Bubbles in Huntington. A Newsday story from the time said clubs’ drink prices ranged from $1.50 to $2.50.

Credit: Newsday/Ozier Muhammad

1980 At Fearn’s in Roslyn, some of the clubgoers sport surgical scrubs, a fashion trend of the time. From left, Steve and Linda Ruden and Debbie and Elliott Siegel.

Credit: Meryl Meisler

1979 The restroom lounge at Uncle Sam’s in Levittown, a giant disco with seven bars. A Newsday story called it “a place to see and be seen.”

Credit: Newsday/Gerald S. Williams

1979 Roller skaters glide to disco music at the Commack Roller Rink on Veterans Highway.

John Colaneri, left, and Tim Doyle dance to disco music at Club Swamp in Wainscott on July 5, 1979. Credit: Newsday/David Pokress

1979 Roller skaters glide to disco music at the Commack Roller Rink on Veterans Highway.

Credit: Meryl Meisler

1977 Two clubgoers are head and shoulders above the competition in a dance contest at Wilson’s Garage in Westhampton

Credit: Newsday/Paul Bereswill

1983 A couple shakes it at Zachary’s Dance Club in East Meadow