The picture above is of me at my 8th grade graduation. A board I frequent (Romance Divas) recently had a topic about taking a trip down memory lane and see how many things we remembered from the 70's to 80's. Well, my memories of the 70's were of graduating high school and college, going to grad school, meeting my husband and marrying him, getting pregnant, and through it all working full time (yes even in high school). I don't remember what was on TV because I seldom had time to watch it. I vaguely remember the songs but not always the lyrics. I remember being dumped 3 different times by 3 different guys and I remember talking to God under a tree on campus after a night of drowning my sorrow in a bottle of Chianti (wasn't really God but I thought it was and confessed all my sins to my fellow frat brothers). I also remember streaking in college which was a big thing. I have few memories then of the 70's except those except for some funny hospital stories and emergency room stories, and of course meeting and falling heads over heels in love with my husband.
So here are things I do remember (mostly from the 50's and 60's):
TV shows: We didn't get a TV until we moved to IL in the 60's so these are what I remember: The Andy Griffith Show, Candid Camera, The Price is Right, Dennis the Menace, The Danny Thomas Show, My Three Sons, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Flintstones, Romper Room, Hazel, Lassie, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Patty Duke Show, Bewitched, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Green Acres, The Lucy Show, and Captain Kangaroo.
Toys: Betsy Wetsy (I still have her), Barbie, the Lie Detector Game, paddle balls (those paddles with a ball attached by an elastic string which usually ended up broken and used on us kids - well usually me), Pick Up Sticks, Duncan Yo-Yo, Easy Bake Oven, Clue, Twister, Etch a Sketch, Slinky, Magic Eight Ball, and the Ouija Board. I also remember the day I got my first bicycle - 1962. It was actually the first thing I got that I didn't have to share with my younger brothers and sisters (there were 9 of us by then). I also remember escaping into books all the time (Nancy Drew series, etc).
Bands/singers: Bob Dylan; Beach Boys; Blood,Sweat,and Tears; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; Three Dog Night, The Moody Blues, The Doors, The Turtles, The Who, Roy Orbison, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Drifters, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Mama's and the Papa's, Three Dog Night, Chuck Berry, The Big Bopper, Chubby Checker, Bobby Darin, Neil Diamond, Chicago, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, anything but the Beatles (I think I was the only one who didn't like their music). But as you can see - I liked a wide range of music.
Other than that, I remember going from school uniforms with bobby socks and saddle shoes to **gasp** being able to wear slacks or pedal pushers in high school. It wasn't until college that I owned my first pair of jeans and I learned guys liked women in dresses, especially short ones (the style was hippie beatnik with long angel dresses or long skirts). I remember living in OK with no running water, no electricity, and no toilets in the house (we had a pump and carted water to the house in pails, used candles, and had an outhouse). I remember getting to have chickens on Sunday after we chopped off the head of one then dunking it in a pot of boiling waters and plucked the feathers off. I remember party phone lines. I remember only knowing how to ride a horse without a saddle. I remember being responsible for feeding the chickens and learning how not to be pecked when gathering eggs. I remember knowing how to drive a stick shift by the time I was 8. I remember cooking for over 20 while watching my younger brothers and sisters by the time I was 8 so mom and dad could do the harvest. I also remember moving every 6 months while my father was in the Air Force. So bittersweet memories for the most part mixed with some bad, especially losing quite a few friends from the Vietnam War.
Ahhh....the memories.......
