A Small Thought: The 1970’s

I happened to see the old expression sex drugs and rock and roll on someone’s Facebook post this week and it got me thinking about how those concepts seem to have become emblematic of the 70s.  All three existed before the decade began, obviously, but in the 70s they seem to take on more meaning and purpose than ever before.

And we look at the generation today, heads down in their ipads, their every waking moment on how to feed their materialistic lifestyle, and then shake our heads at how effed up their lives have become.

Boy, do we have nerve!  

Sex has been around for quite a while; otherwise, none of us would be here now.   

Drugs also predate my existence.

Rock and roll? Well, we could probably place the birth of that music genre around 1955, but it has its roots in, shall we say, baser human desires.  See sex above.

In any event, I got thinking about my place in the generational scheme of things.  I’m at the age where most things I remember doing or having are obsolete, or at least no longer usable. 

Manual typewriters?  Electric typewriters?  Hell, typewriters period!  Imagine that, millennials: word processors that didn’t require a screen.

Somehow, vinyl LPs (long playing) albums have come back in style.  Yet society has no use for the listening technology that succeeded them. 8 track tapes?  They date back to the Paleolithic age, don’t they? Cassette tapes?  I’m embarrassed to say how many of those I still own. 

Telephone booths?  Sorry, they only exist in old Superman comic books. Oh, and while we are on the subject, phones could only be held as long you didn’t walk further than five feet from the wall where the phone was mounted, or the table it sat on.  Otherwise, you would be disconnected, or in the language to which you can relate: no bars!  (Cue Shakespearean peel of thunder here.)

Are you trembling yet, Millennials?

Yet I don’t believe I’m at the age yet where someone 30 years younger than myself can address me as “old timer”, and ask me about those bygone days way back when.  Give me another ten years and I’ll gladly submit to the old timer label.  Until then, I’m still middle-aged, and don’t you young whippersnappers forget it!

So what if a Millennial asks me today about the 70s and the triumvirate concepts of sex drugs and rock and roll?  What can I tell them?

I can only speak of my own experiences in that decade. I cannot speak for my entire generation and claim that my achievements equaled theirs.  I can only surmise, nay hope and pray, that everyone else in my generation had a helluva lot more fun than I did.

Take sex. In the 70s sex for me was, oh what is the term I’m searching for…hot? Steamy? No, hypothetical! That’s the term I’m looking to describe my sex life in the 70s. Sex for me in the 70s was an endless series of “What if’s?”  Yet I encounter people everyday that were born in that decade. Their existence is proof that somebody somewhere in the 70s had sex, but it certainly wasn’t me!

Drugs? I think the Constitution covers my butt when referencing drug use in the 70s. Let’s see, First Amendment, Second Amendment, Third Amendment…yes, here it is, the Fifth Amendment. I shall claim that if any Millennials prod me about my drug use.  (Hush, Janey.)

Rock and roll? Ah, yes!  I can look back upon my experiences and comment truthfully on this concept. I listened to this genre on the radio, collected the vinyl, listened to the stereo, and went to a few concerts. 

Country and western?  Polkas?  Ewww!

So, in regard to the tunes I heard in the 70s, I can answer them honestly. If they ever ask me about sex drugs and rock and roll in the 70s, then I can look them confidently in the eye and say: “Well, the music was good.”

(Thank you for reading. Seriously, we actually printed words on a piece of paper without a television screen in the 70s. Don’t shake your heads at me, you effed up Millennials!)