It was Benjimen Franklin's blog and Thomas Paine's blog which made the real difference in the War of Independence.
The Pirates were world champions in 1971.
I enjoyed doing things on my own during the 70’s.
By 1971, I was about 14 y/o, already in the 7th grade.
I was already used to getting up on time and getting a bus to school. doing lots of walking around downtown Detroit.
I was always organized enough to get home before it was late.
I started my first job outside the home at age 14.
My first real girlfriend also at 14 years. Not much privacy though.
I was in my infant years, but have a sister who was a decade older. My impression is that that there is not, and never was a ‘golden’ era. There are good and bad things from every time. That said, I strongly feel that the freedom / liberty of the USA is under an assault never experience before.
1971 was pretty much the last year for the big Hemi-powered cars from factories of Dodge & Plymouth. It was the peak of the muscle-car era.
Franklin and Paine would have given much for a platform on which to post and disseminate their full “blog,” not an excerpt.
How ironic...I just pulled a Brittanica Book of the Year 1971 out of a box (2 minutes ago) to give my son...he was born that year. Interesting walk down memory lane, as I looked at a few pages. It WAS a “nicer” time for kids than now...innocence has been taken away...but...the 1950s were even better for kids...IMHO.
Thanks for posting. I grew up about an hour east of Pittsburgh in the 70s and 80s. Total trip down memory lane...
Thanks for posting. I have book marked the blog. The guy is about the same age as I my wife and I. I really enjoyed the article. There were a whole lot of similarities in the article. There was nothing in the “70s Show” that was similar to my experience because I was not a pot head.
I had to go to work in my family’s struggling lumber mill when I was 18. I did manage to take some classes at a community college. I got a job working as a firefighter which was much more lucrative than working in our lumber mill.
“It’s almost as if it was scrubbed from existence.”
They have scrubbed it. Especially female fashion.
1971
For a good chunk of the year nuns ruled my weekdays until 3pm.
Late afternoons were for ‘smear the queer’ and other ball games. Sometimes we played with ropes.
When at home I had to listen to my parents.
My parents were married and lived together (and did until they died).
Saturdays were for fishing with my father. We used a 2 cycle motor which used an oil/gas mixture. It had 5hp and I could drive it. It made lots of smoke but we thought carbon was good for plants.
Children from the local large city would ride into my neighborhood on bicycles. In the group one bike would contain 2 children - the rear one would have bolt cutters in his hands for severing locks from the bikes of my friends.
Gilligans Island was a popular TV show. Danger Will Robinson was a phrase you heard on TV. Speed Racer was still watched.
A war was going on but we didn’t know much about it until my friend’s much older brother died in it.
Disco sucked.
Did I mention the original Cotton Bowl Jams?
KZEW...The Zoo.
Other than the Army in ‘69/71, the 60’s and 70’s was the best time of my life.
Bicycling down steep freaking slopes without a helmet.
I graduated in 65 but still remember the 70s. It was not that different from the 60s and the 60s in rural Florida was not like the 60s in California.
There is a TV show titled “That 70s Show”. I sort of liked it then realized every one of them were doing drugs, drinking while underage, and having sex.
That is not remotely like when I was in high school. The more I watched it the less I liked it.
Seems we were more social and did more activities with friends back in the early 70’s. The 9v battery operated transistor radio was the portable device if one used them at all or just on occasion. The 8 track player was short lived and soon gave way to cassette players. Politics? Who gave a rip about that stuff as a teenager. Families overall were much more intact back then too.
I’ve read this and other of his before, usually worth the time to read aside from his weird stuff.