Back to the 70's

I'm going back in time as I am preparing for a class reunion next year. I graduated in 1978, which means my formative teen years was during the 70's decade. Let's remember together... Mood rings, lava lamps, Rubik's cube, Sea Monkeys, smiley face stickers, string art, and pet rocks all captured the imagination of my classmates during the 70's. The wildest fad surely was streaking nude through very public places! Families vacationed in station wagons and everyone wanted an RV. Guys sported shoulder length hair and non-traditional "establishment" clothing became the rage, including bellbottom pants, hip huggers, colorful patches, hot pants, platform shoes, earth shoes, clogs, T-shirts, and gypsy dresses. Leisure suits for men became commonplace, and women were fashionable in everything from ankle-length grandmother dresses to hot pants and micro-miniskirts. The movie Annie Hall (1977) even inspired a fashion trend with women sporting traditional men's clothing such as derby hats, tweed jackets, and neckties worn with baggy pants or skirts. During the 1970's the United States underwent some profound changes. First a Vice President and then a President resigned under threat of impeachment. The Vietnam War continued to divide the country even after the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 put an end to U.S. military participation in the war. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. Crime increased despite Nixon's pledge to make law and order a top priority of his presidency. Increased immigration followed passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which reformed an earlier policy that favored western Europeans. People from Third World countries came to this country in search of economic betterment or to escape political repression. Women, minorities, and gays increasingly demanded full legal equality and privileges in society. Women expanded their involvement in politics. The proportion of women in state legislatures tripled. Women surpassed men in college enrollment in 1979. However, the rising divorce rate left an increasing number of women as sole breadwinners and forced more and more of them into poverty. I'm also listening to 70's on my Sirius radio, and there's nothing like music to take you back to a time and place! By the 1970's, the term "rock & roll" had become nearly meaningless. This decade saw the breakup of the Beatles and the death of Elvis Presley (I was going in to work at Karmelkorn when I heard the news and everyone was stunned!, robbing rock of two major influences. Pop music splintered into a multitude of styles: soft rock, hard rock, country rock, folk rock, punk rock, shock rock -­ and the dance craze of the decade, disco! But whatever sub-genre(s) you preferred, rock music was big business. It was a crazy and great time to be alive, wasn't it? :) [read more here kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade70.html]