What did we need in Spring of 1974 to have a natural childbirth at home with no one there but my wife and I?

First of all, I wouldn't recommend doing this simply because something can go wrong. For example, my cousins daughter after having a caesarian tried to have natural childbirth and the child died. My wife was 21 years old and very healthy and I had just turned 26 myself during this birth. But, only because God smiled upon us did all this come out okay.

What did we physically need to do this?

We needed Shoelaces to tie off the umbilical cord. We needed denatured Alcohol to sterilize everything to prevent infection in the mother or child. We needed scissors to cut the umbilical cord when the baby is born. So, what you need at a minimum is scissors, shoelaces to tie off the umbilical cord and denatured alcohol to make sure the mother doesn't get a blood infection which used to kill most women in centuries past during childbirth. Also, I would recommend rubber gloves soaked (at least the exteriors in denatured alcohol. However, you might want to put the gloves on BEFORE you sterilize the gloves or you will never be able to get them on with liquid stopping you otherwise. Also, it likely wouldn't be healthy for the wearer of the glove to have denatured alcohol inside the glove either. Just put the gloves on and then pour alcohol over the gloves to sterilize them into a big bowl or something. Could whiskey or Scotch be used instead. I'm not sure but I think likely vodka or higher proof alcohol that can be consumed might be used safely. However, I cannot say for sure but it seems logical. But not wine or lower proof things like Beer. Wine or Beer wouldn't be a good idea.

What happened to us because we both were relatively young and ignorant even with our Lamaze class instructions was that I held my wife standing or squatting under the arms pits with her arms down to more easily allow gravity to allow the child to come out. She and I got exhausted doing this. I suggested we move to the bathroom (which was an incredibly good idea in retrospect) because I had no idea what comes out when a birth occurs at the time because when she crowned sitting on the toilet we slipped her off the toilet to the bathroom floor and "Whoosh!" then 3 inches of amniotic Fluid covered the entire bathroom floor. This would have destroyed our bedroom carpet if this had come out there and we would have had financial liability for this rented apartment then in San Marcos, California then. So, by having this happen in the Bathroom instead of the bedroom was "By God's Grace" that we were shown to do it this way.

Also, when my son came out he was blue or purple from being squeezed through the birth canal. One of the dangers is spending too much time in the birth canal and the baby being squeezed too much for too long by the way. It could cause brain damage. However, my son was okay because he now has an IQ of around 150 and his mother's IQ was 170 or a genius level. He has a bachelor of Science from a California State University in Southern California in Nursing by the way with honors because he was a straight A student in this program.