In Review

The 1970's

What Was It Like In The 1970's You Ask?

For me, Well!!!

Our upright piano she covered with plants, as well as every south window. The air was full of herbal essence shampoo, incense, and 20 dollar pot. Cigarette smoke of course. The sounds of music and laughter from people that didn't need a zoo. Lots of dogs, girls had cats of course, some had birds. Often rental houses had big rooms. People sat on huge old Persian carpets for hours listening to music and just rappin and laughin.

I finally acquired (now I have some bucks) that Zeppelin II album I've been savin for. Got Clapton, Santana, Dark Side Of The Moon, and the new Fleetwood Mac album. We wondered what songs meant. Got to be some mystery to just about every song. We had vans, muscle cars for some, VWs of course, some just got dad's old junker or a mom car, for now.

First of the 8 band outdoor concerts. Thousands of people crammed together, before those later on years when people got crushed at them.

And before children arrived for us, we were all each other's kids, just kids with money now.

Great tunes, cool movies, and new ideas about just about everything. Mexican food replaced pizza as No. 1 food trend and health foods were new as well. After Woodstock's granola epiphany and other surprises, we thought we were reinventing the world, at least the world we were in. Some things really did all of that. Calculators were hundreds of dollars and why not, right? Cutting edge stuff, right? Free from dress code crap, or church on Sunday. Older adults hated us though. Jealous, they missed out. Breaking all their outdated rules about damn near everything.

There were so many of our age group, a huge young adult population ruled. Outnumbering all others, everything went our way except Vietnam. We continued to shine a big light on black oppression, the lack of free speech in universities, and women's rights, we weren't done yet though. Hopefully, we will right all the wrongs. Some we did, some will have to wait.

Sitting and waiting for 3 guys with guitars to fill out the scene on a Saturday evening. We'll have Neil Young and Dylan sing-a-longs tonight before Hendrix music takes over. Late night lay abouts, stoned and wine buzzed, some slip away to that beaded doorway they had instead of a door. Passed out or just content, who cares, all is well now. Cigarette smoke, heavy incense, a faint pot or hash presence, and that new girl's body oil fill the room. For days it stays in all of our fabrics and carpets.

Ah yes, the 70's, both Diane and I were class of '69. Now we could spend our free time without reporting in. Our different schools and different home towns was rather a new thing for most. Travel now was much more common for 18 year old people. Now college for young women almost expected. They being more serious minded of the 2 genders. Men were in charge of having a f___ing blast as often as possible. To make it short let's say college was a big recess time for some guys.

Longer hair prevailed, even in the some workplaces, big sideburns (ugly really), leather anything you could think of. And for the fairer sex, long long hair of course, no bra (note that I mention that very early in this description). Where was I? Ahem! Oh yeah! Long dresses, peasant blouses, jeans with a flower embroidered on them, big earrings, beads, rings, bare feet with toe rings sometimes, some wore scandals or moccasins, no make up was ok, nothing like hosiery or that unnatural type stuff. Just as back to nature as they could get by with.

Girls made weird stuff sometimes. Like a sofa covered with back pockets of denim jeans. They were forever losing and finding things in those damn pockets. Style of our own making for everything we could personalize. Lava lamps, lots of posters, some blacklight stuff. Wall covering of about anything you could think of that was 1 of a kind.