Coco
Seasoned Expediter
Sometimes on those long runs we tend to forget about the current issues and get off on rambling conversations. You know the drill, one is driving and the other can’t sleep.
There is no traffic and it’s just dark. Then you suddenly remember something in your past and there it goes…..the when I was young stories.
Well, when I as young (the 70’s) we started with hippies and ended with Yuppies. Our fashions ranged from mini to midi to maxi, bell bottoms, (they’re back!) tie dyed tee shirts, (back too!) platform shoes, pantsuits for women and leisure suits and perms for men. Us gals probably had a Mood Ring and men began wearing necklaces.
Three men, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter served as President. We learned who Patty Hearst, Gary Gillmore and Karen Ann Quinlan were, and we learned Haldeman, Erlichman and Dean were not a triple play trio for the Yankees.
Most garage doors openers and dishwashers still had two legs, but we were introduced to new convenience items like the Propiel Pocket Fisherman, the Smokeless Ashtray, Hamburger Helper, Whip n Chill and the ever famous Veg-o-Matic. We had kitchens of avocado green and harvest gold, bread was white, mustard was yellow and coffee had only one flavor.
Our vocabulary expanded with oil embargo, Watergate, the Alaskan Pipeline, Have a Nice Day, black light, lava lamp, and Dynomite! We let 18 year olds drink, stopped the draft and DDT, started Amtrak and had our first Earth Day. We said goodbye to Life magazine and thought the flood of 73 couldn’t be topped. There was only one Phone Company and we really dialed the phone. A family sized car really held a family and we never pumped our own gas. In school we typed on a typewriter and always smelled our test papers before we looked at the questions. Everyone knew how many wheels a semi had, CB’s were all the rage, and do you remember your handle?
We shopped downtown, went to the drive-in, learned to love fast food, play soccer and we watched Wolfman Jack on Saturday Night Special. Maggie Mae had had a special meaning for all of us and we all knew what we were doing when we heard the King had died.
We sat down to watch Little House on the Prairie, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy and the Brady Bunch. We became acquainted with the crew of 60 Minutes and laughed at some not so ready for prime time players. No matter how we spent the evening we ended it with Johnny Carson and the television went off the air at 1am.
Entertainment on the big screen varied with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Godfather and Rocky with and without the roman numerals. We really thought Superman could fly and hoped Alien could not. Amityville scared us just as the Exorcist. We feared going into the water with Jaws but the China Syndrome taught us real horror that became almost too real with the incident at Three Mile Island.
Our most exciting and memorable event took 200 years of fighting, working, hoping and praying when we gave ourselves a birthday party on July 4, 1976.
But we can’t forget the music. Even though the Beatles decided to let it be, we had 33’s, 45’s and 8 tracks to keep us in the beat. We listened to Billy Joel and Jackson Browne. Bruce Springstein, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Ronnie Milsap, Elvis Costello and Elton John. Hall & Oates, Willie and Waylon, Queen, a varying number of Jackson’s and Osmond’s, Yes, War, ABBA, Poco and Toto. Grace Slick, Carly Simon, Olivia Newton John, Dolly Parton, Donna Sumner, The Pointer Sisters, Heart, Tanya Tucker, and Tammy Wynette assured us a variety of female voices.
Bear with me while we take a musical magical mystery tour. We didn’t have to be in Exile to take a Journey with a Foreigner or be in Bad Company. Since we were not in Dire Straights we did not have to Rush to get anywhere. We could go to Kansas, Chicago, Boston or to the Mountain, paid for by Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Eddy Money or a Cheap Trick. Travel was accommodated by Wings, the Cars, REO Speedwagon, or on the Grand Funk Railroad and if we were in a real hurry, the Jefferson Starship.
It was a span of ten years that ended the innocence and began a brave new world of getting there faster, healthier, without wrinkles, with less fuel and less time to spare. Oh, progress! But I really enjoyed the journey along the way.
There is no traffic and it’s just dark. Then you suddenly remember something in your past and there it goes…..the when I was young stories.
Well, when I as young (the 70’s) we started with hippies and ended with Yuppies. Our fashions ranged from mini to midi to maxi, bell bottoms, (they’re back!) tie dyed tee shirts, (back too!) platform shoes, pantsuits for women and leisure suits and perms for men. Us gals probably had a Mood Ring and men began wearing necklaces.
Three men, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter served as President. We learned who Patty Hearst, Gary Gillmore and Karen Ann Quinlan were, and we learned Haldeman, Erlichman and Dean were not a triple play trio for the Yankees.
Most garage doors openers and dishwashers still had two legs, but we were introduced to new convenience items like the Propiel Pocket Fisherman, the Smokeless Ashtray, Hamburger Helper, Whip n Chill and the ever famous Veg-o-Matic. We had kitchens of avocado green and harvest gold, bread was white, mustard was yellow and coffee had only one flavor.
Our vocabulary expanded with oil embargo, Watergate, the Alaskan Pipeline, Have a Nice Day, black light, lava lamp, and Dynomite! We let 18 year olds drink, stopped the draft and DDT, started Amtrak and had our first Earth Day. We said goodbye to Life magazine and thought the flood of 73 couldn’t be topped. There was only one Phone Company and we really dialed the phone. A family sized car really held a family and we never pumped our own gas. In school we typed on a typewriter and always smelled our test papers before we looked at the questions. Everyone knew how many wheels a semi had, CB’s were all the rage, and do you remember your handle?
We shopped downtown, went to the drive-in, learned to love fast food, play soccer and we watched Wolfman Jack on Saturday Night Special. Maggie Mae had had a special meaning for all of us and we all knew what we were doing when we heard the King had died.
We sat down to watch Little House on the Prairie, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy and the Brady Bunch. We became acquainted with the crew of 60 Minutes and laughed at some not so ready for prime time players. No matter how we spent the evening we ended it with Johnny Carson and the television went off the air at 1am.
Entertainment on the big screen varied with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Godfather and Rocky with and without the roman numerals. We really thought Superman could fly and hoped Alien could not. Amityville scared us just as the Exorcist. We feared going into the water with Jaws but the China Syndrome taught us real horror that became almost too real with the incident at Three Mile Island.
Our most exciting and memorable event took 200 years of fighting, working, hoping and praying when we gave ourselves a birthday party on July 4, 1976.
But we can’t forget the music. Even though the Beatles decided to let it be, we had 33’s, 45’s and 8 tracks to keep us in the beat. We listened to Billy Joel and Jackson Browne. Bruce Springstein, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Ronnie Milsap, Elvis Costello and Elton John. Hall & Oates, Willie and Waylon, Queen, a varying number of Jackson’s and Osmond’s, Yes, War, ABBA, Poco and Toto. Grace Slick, Carly Simon, Olivia Newton John, Dolly Parton, Donna Sumner, The Pointer Sisters, Heart, Tanya Tucker, and Tammy Wynette assured us a variety of female voices.
Bear with me while we take a musical magical mystery tour. We didn’t have to be in Exile to take a Journey with a Foreigner or be in Bad Company. Since we were not in Dire Straights we did not have to Rush to get anywhere. We could go to Kansas, Chicago, Boston or to the Mountain, paid for by Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Eddy Money or a Cheap Trick. Travel was accommodated by Wings, the Cars, REO Speedwagon, or on the Grand Funk Railroad and if we were in a real hurry, the Jefferson Starship.
It was a span of ten years that ended the innocence and began a brave new world of getting there faster, healthier, without wrinkles, with less fuel and less time to spare. Oh, progress! But I really enjoyed the journey along the way.
