The late 1970s were crazy

Mark Your Calendars: Next Thursday, March 8, 8-8:45 p.m. ET, I'm going to use Facebook Live to read a chapter from my new book, Hickory Trail. If you visit my Facebook Page (click here) and Like the page you will get reminders about the event. The book will be out mid-October.

So, check out the reading next week. You may enjoy the story, but you may also enjoy watching me make a fool out of myself, live, on social media. :)

****

Readers of my book Elm Street have said they especially enjoyed when I detoured from stories to explain what was happening in the world. They also said that using music lyrics helped draw them into the small-town life of the 1960s and early 1970s. I refer to these historical notes and music lyrics as mile-markers.

When my Vicki read through the first draft of Hickory Trail, she said the mile-markers were especially helpful in recalling the late 1970s, when Hickory Trail takes place. Honestly, I had a lot of fun researching and remembering what those times were like on a larger, historical scale.

The cultural revolution of the Vietnam War (1954-1975), washed over every nook and cranny of our country during the late 1970s. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll pushed beyond college campuses and urban centers into small town America, and my small-town America was no different.

Sex. By the late 1970s Playboy magazine had moved into small-town drug stores all across the country. Started as a magazine targeted to single, professional men in big cities, the magazine's circulation reached its zenith in the 1970s when single copy sales reached 7 million copies per issue. Even presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, a Georgia Baptist, was interviewed in Playboy's November 1976 issue.

Drugs. In 1970, laws were passed prohibiting narcotics under the Controlled Substances Act. One year later, President Nixon declared the official "War on Drugs." The federal Drug Administration (DEA) was established in 1973 - the year I was a freshman in high school. By 1975, the illegal drug industry was so profitable people were getting killed because of it.

Rock and Roll. My high school years represented the convergence of popular music. Look at who appeared in the Billboard Top 100 when I was a sophomore-junior in high school: The Four Seasons, Elton John, Bee Gees, Donny Osmond, Diana Ross, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys, Neil Sadaka, Kiss, The Who . . . and freakin Glen Campbell. This list doesn't include anything from Led Zeppelin and Skynyrd's Freebird (which was already three years old). Don't forget Elvis was still performing, too.

The economy was also in the tank. The late 70s came with both high unemployment and high inflation. Even if you had money you couldn't buy anything of value. Politically, things were no better. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned, and Gerald Ford was appointed vice president. Then in 1974, Nixon resigned over the Watergate Scandal. Ford became president and was the first person to serve as president without being on either a vice presidential or a presidential ballot. Ford then pardoned Nixon. Our government was in free-for-all.

In Hickory Trail, it's against all of this backdrop that Frank Wilcox enters high school in August 1973. He learns to drive, he gets a job at the local newspaper, he dates a black-haired beauty whom he loves but who is not the love of his life, and mostly he finds his sweet spot while never drifting too far from the friends of his childhood. I had so much fun writing it, and I hope you join us on Thursday, March 8 for a chapter. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TEN: The blessing of a bed frame

Image
This past Saturday, I decided to clean out behind our little backyard shed. I looked around the back yard, looking for some little project to tackle, and the shed called my name. Behind the shed is the graveyard for things I don't intend to keep. I throw them back there because I'm too lazy to take them to the trash and recycling center. When the living dead of the graveyard starts becoming visible from the back deck, well, it's time for cleanup. There was an old busted sawhorse. There were two pieces of cracking PVC pipe. There was an old dog kennel, with a missing door, from many years ago. There was an old broken mop handle - or it may have been a broom handle. I'm no longer sure. There was a rotten canvas thing the boys once used as a baseball target. There was an old rusty discus from Andrew's high school track days. There were various old, rotten wooden boards. There was also an old garden hose. And, there was a two-piece metal, adjustable bed frame. After pul
Read more

SIX: The tomatoes have been good this year

Image
Dear Daddy: The tomatoes have been good - no great - this season. Thank you for giving me your green thumb. I planted four Better Boy plants on Good Friday, and by the end of June, those spring blooms had turned to ripe tomatoes. Vicki and I have enjoyed four loaves of bread worth of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches, and simple tomato sandwiches. I have made tomato sauce over cheese tortellini twice. I made tomato pie on two occasions - both times as a side dish to thick "ribeye" pork chops. I have given away tomatoes to my neighbors, to my friends, and even gave permission to some just to come by and pick one as needed. Daddy, when I tell you those four tomato plants have yielded an unbelievable harvest it is no understatement. And, about now I can hear you say . . . "Huh, Well, that's great. Did you just pick one off the vine and eat it right there?"  Yes, I did that, too. No, I didn't wash it.  The tomato patch has not been this fruit-bearing since 2
Read more

NINE: Traveling with honey bees

Image
This is a story from April 1983. I was 24 years old, single, living alone in Jesup, GA - about an hour from Jekyll Island and the Georgia coast. Every other weekend, I traveled north - about a five-hour drive - to see Vicki. As I've mentioned in other posts, we either met at her grandparent's house in West Point, GA., in my hometown of Cumming, GA, or in Athens, where she was in school at the University of Georgia. At the time, I drove a 1973, two-door Chevrolet Chevelle, dark green with a black hardtop. It leaked water in the back seat during heavy rainstorms. I once threw down some dirt and Kentucky 31 and actually grew fescue back there. That Chevelle had no air-conditioning. When I bought it in 1976 it only had an AM radio, but I had since put in an AM/FM with Cassette. My friend Steve Taylor made me a mixed tape when I moved to south Georgia. That tape contained everything from Zeppelin to ELP to the Beatles. You need to buy and read my book, The Beauty Queen & The Rep
Read more