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 Breaking all their outdated rules about damn near everything.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.

Huge rental houses, very common then, beads hung full in bedroom doorways. Didn't miss anything in whichever room you were in. Front door usually unlocked, music always real loud, friends would just come in. There wasn't anything new or surprising they would see. Everyone was a little closer then. Friends were more commonly an extended family. They brought "something", we always would be glad to share, happy they came over. A gurgling sound of a water pipe, everything getting louder, talking over someone's laughing, talking over a Deep Purple album, we all got used to it without any complaint. We wished the night would last forever. Some would do this until morning light, sleep till noon on weekends. Then clean up everything and start over sometimes.

Work on Monday to pay for everything we would use. It was cool though, we would tell each other about our cool weekend, talk about the new music we heard at someone's place, or crazy shit someone did.

Those days we could make friends of people we would meet that came along with our friends. Cool! New friends, how innocent it all sounds, right. No one wanted to be uncool about that stuff. Then, someone would say "let's hit the 7-11 for midnight munchies". 7 people would pile into a musty jasmine smelling van to get smokes and snacks. We discovered, while high, a new popcorn snack called "Screaming Yellow Zonkers"!! Outrageously good! Don't know why they didn't last long?

In the 1960's we were always broke. Cigs, beer, gas money a constant problem to get. There's no pot in our small Kansas town. K-pot, found along railroad tracks, grown for rope originally, gone wild, not for smoking we found. Just college towns and cities had marijuana. I would soon learn all about college towns.

In the 1970's, much better, we had jobs finally. We now could travel. California hadn't changed Colorado yet. The EAGLES and AMERICA music was new. We slept in the Colorado forests. Some swam, too cold for us. We kept our clothes on. Being newly married kept us separate from singles gatherings sometimes. Traveling and meeting complete strangers. "Peace man! Cool place, right! Where ya from?" "Cool! We're from Kansas for some damn reason! Ha! Ha!" They'd share some info then ask "Want to burn one?". "Sure! Try some of our stuff it's from Columbia or Panama, I forget which. Ha! Ha!" "That a good sign. Ha! Ha! Ha!" This could last a while. Until, "Got to head home. Work on Monday ya know". "Right. Maybe see ya next August we always come here." "Us too. Peace man!" Wow, I want that again. At least we got to do it before it was choked out of existence.

That was our 70's.

I left disco out of this. You'll have to ask some older overdressed yuppy type about that. We only heard that some liked it.

More vans were used than just for plumbers or deliveries. A party on wheels. Not many bicycles, only holds one. Never just one of us alone very often.

Along with the youth, the taste and smells of a 19 or 20 something woman made for a perfect life. Not much to not like about the 1970's.

A few of us were already married at 21, not many thought. Didn't really matter by now as much. Free from preconceived notions of what others should or shouldn't do. Of course, birth control pills changed everything. A woman was free to invent her life, for the 1st time. Hard to imagine now how very limited that part of their world really was before. Usually not much freedom from ultimate motherhood. That ancient goal set for them. Sounds so unfair now. And they really were enjoying youth like the guys always could. They contributed to things in a big way, really for the first time. We see the results today in those strong older women. As movers and shakers, "Move over guys. We are sharing this road with you now, get used to it!". Works for me, strong women are much more interesting in all ways! Couldn't leave out this part about the women. Half of the 70's were women after all, right? We all shared social viewpoints on change. Were happy to know we may be able to right all the wrongs, that the past generation couldn't.

We'll make the world better we thought.

By kicking Nixon out by diligently using our massive numbers. Parents no longer rode rough-shod over what we did. That's over now! Genie's out of the bottle! Make your wishes!

They found a way to punish us though. Probably for tryin to make things better for everyone. An oil shortage occurred (or not really) early in the decade. America's big shots were now sleeping with creepy countries that were still in the middle ages. Very regressive, very scary, that this proud bunch had to resort to an obvious danger to supply line of something this place was built with. Gas meant mobility, can't do without that, so every other day depending on the last number on your car tag you could get gas. Gas rationing they called it. Really? What about all that Texas oil they're so proud of? Conspiracy was rampant.

Oh well, enough of the not so fun part.

Most down time was spent preparing for some fun thing we were all going to do on weekends. And most nights were just for fun.

These things I tell of, happened until new things started to happen.

Like starting a family or getting drafted. Now older, some played softball for workplace comradery. Some went back for their masters, some got religion, some inherited predestined family business positions, some destroyed themselves not stopping their life long party. Women joined men in leadership roles in anything their degree qualified them for. Diplomas were everything now. Still a glass ceiling, but a good start anyway. Men and women were educated equally. Maybe the best change our decade could offer the world. Much better than that 55 mph speed limit we all hated.

Party's over now. We survived it. Learned a lot. Had too much fun, if that's possible. Now, damn, my wife's pregnant. I guess it's time to grow up (just a little) and actually enjoy this beginning of the rest of my life.

Good bye 1970's you, were ours for sure! Who will the next decade's owners be?

As we turn our eyes away from Led Zeppelin II, smoking pot, college days, roommates we'll probably never see again, some drafted some lost to us forever. And leaving those starter jobs for living wages, mortgages, college savings for the kids, in-laws, and other adult shit we didn't want to think about 2 years ago. We are now the adults we were warned about. I guess it's possible now to change that image. To be better stewards of an unknown future. Be aware of new needs and fears of this next generation. And NOT GET IN THE WAY of them learning how to form their "own" decade and their "own" future.

That's what we all wanted at that age, so...........