In California, where I grew up, we were the generation who watched the phases of life on television. TV gave us a twisted, idealized version of dating from "The Dating Game" and how to treat your siblings or be a parent from "The Brady Bunch". Whether it be Saturday morning cartoons or after-school specials, many parents didn’t feel that they needed to be as involved in their children’s lives as their own parents were in theirs. This freed them up to “find themselves”, leading to the “Me Generation” for the adults of that time. When our parents came of age in the ‘40s and ‘50s, they felt torn between setting limits and setting us free, so we weren’t really sure what the rules were. We were given many opportunities to explore the world on our own. We walked to our friends’ houses or to the store by ourselves, and no one thought much about it.
The 1970s were the height of feminism. I remember sitting at countless kitchen tables while my friends’ mothers lectured us. “You girls need to have your own careers,” they'd tell us. “Don't ever be dependent on a man for money.” And although I took all of this to heart, I was divorced and had five kids by the time I was 31.
Sometimes I would have a job babysitting a kid down the street for 75 cents an hour. One of my mother's boyfriends got me a ten-speed bicycle for my fourteenth birthday, which was a pretty big deal in those days. To have more than one gear! I had a paper route for The Evening Outlook at the time.
I would try to save up money to get cool clothes. All my mom could afford were Salvation Army clothes, even though she worked two jobs. I thought that the clothing of that time had such great colors and patterns. Platform shoes were all the rage. I liked the way they looked so I got a pair. The next day, I twisted my ankle and almost broke my neck. For those who wanted a sophisticated look, it was all about pants suits and scarves, big earrings, and “Farrah Fawcett" hair, which involved creating winged side bangs. Since I kept burning myself on that new-fangled curling iron, I settled for the parted-down-the-middle-and-just-hanging-down look. Primarily, what I remember as fashion in those days were hip-hugger jeans and popcorn leotards that snapped at the crotch. I hated those.
We were just on the verge of technical advances. I distinctly remember when microwave ovens came out. They seemed so “space-age”. I could feel my world getting closer to the Jetsons. Flying cars would be next, I thought. That sounds silly now, of course. But I look back and smile, because I was a person who was ready and open to changes and new ideas.
We thought we were pretty cool for calling "time" on the phone. The recorded woman's voice would say, "At the tone, General Telephone time will be, four thirty-two, and ten seconds -- beep." Also, there were other questionable phone practices such as my mother having the operator break into my calls just to remind me to go to the store to get bread. Remember long distance calls? It always felt like a big deal. Do we accept or reject collect calls? Such power! It usually ended up being from one of my mom's annoying friends.
As far as music goes, I have too many memories to lay them all out in this little slice of nostalgia. However, I remember hearing David Bowie for the first time when I was fifteen, and I was never the same after that. I also listened to the likes of Alice Cooper, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and so many more. Who can forget the song, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”? Mom loved music too. Some days, she would stop what she was doing and invite me to dance with her in the living room.
Socially, kids my age would hang out at somebody's house, listening to music and drinking Tab and Hawaiian Punch, eating chips (usually Pringles) and dip (usually
sour cream and Lipton’s Onion Soup), and playing Monopoly, Trouble, Sorry, or if we were feeling really wild...Twister!
As far as outside fun, it was just the beginning of the hanging-out-in-the-mall thing. But mostly we spent time at the bowling alley playing pinball and prehistoric video games. In fact, when Pong came out, I thought it was stupid and would never catch on. Has anyone seen a pinball machine lately? Also, the roller rink and the ice rink were good places to meet up. One thing that seems to have lasted through generations is just going to the movie theater with a friend.
In the early ‘70s, there were seat belts, but no airbags. And most cars had bench seats, which we would fill with our friends, without worrying about the seat belts. We would cruise the city of Westwood here in Southern California during the summer to look at people and to be looked at. We wanted fun, and this was fun. It was surprisingly safe too, since we drove slowly, as did everyone else -- the better to see and to be seen.
For some, the 1970s were the peak of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll among high schoolers. "Just say no" was definitely not yet a thing yet. The most common drugs were marijuana, LSD, and cocaine. I was too paranoid to engage in anything but some pot smoking. Some kids took a bad turn with drugs and alcohol, but overall, I can fairly say that most of us eventually realized that lifestyle was self-destructive and we grew into reasonably responsible adults.
These days, we often hear about the hippies, Woodstock, and the Vietnam War protests. We might even have some fumes of memories from when we were young children of that vibe around us and the horrors of Vietnam on the TV news. But by our teenage years in the ‘70s, the drugs were more intense: carefully cultivated pot strains and coke instead of weak, skunky weed. The war ended in the mid-‘70s. Where was our rage? How would we change the world? What did we worry about? Nuclear war? Disco? Becoming our parents?
The generation before us had found their purpose. Their impact was musical, political and initiating change. Our purpose would be more individual. Lonelier and more vague. We would get there, but not as teenagers. Our purpose would manifest itself to those experienced minds who know how to pick up the pieces when life is shattered. That would come later, but first we had to do the business of living.
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