Title:
Very Seventies
Author:
Peter Knobler and Greg Mitchell, eds.
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster, 1995
ISBN
0-02-022005-7

I arrived in the USA in 1972, at the age of 14. I spoke a little English, whatever small amount my English teachers in Germany had succeeded in pounding into my skull. My first major USAn cultural influence was Star Trek. Nixon was a minor character in my personal world, brought to my attention only when acquaintances from Germany told me they thought he was scum.

In an important sense, I'm an alien to my own generation, the Boomers. Events that marked Boomers most deeply barely touched me. Hippies and the drug culture were a joke to me (and my friends). By the time I arrived in the States the Civil Rights Act had been signed. I watched the Moon landing on TV in Germany. My English wasn't good enough to appreciate events like Patty Hearst's kidnapping.

By the time I had learned enough English, and absorbed enough USAn culture to become aware of the big picture, the decade was half over. So is it a wonder that my wife accuses me of being a "disco child"? And that I have no clue what she means?

Crawdaddy was a publication that seemed to have its finger on America's pulse, and Very Seventies contains what appears to be a representative cross-section of articles that chronicle the ups and downs of that pulse's beat during that decade. To me reading the articles was a heady experience, part dejà-vu, part discovery. I imagine that reading about Nixon, Ted Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter in the context of their actual time would be very enlightening to those even younger than I am, to whom references to these years must be a mysterious confusion of "Good" and "Bad" Old Days.

The collection includes political snapshots of people who shaped the country, personality pieces that put popular culture of the time into sharp perspective, and bits that draw a whimsical picture of ten years characterized by unabashed self discovery.

Even if you think you remember, I recommend the book. And if you have no idea what these fogies are talking about, see what you can learn. What's great is that the article lengths are ideal for reading during a fifteen minute break.