Peace and Music

[Stichill_imp]

I was six years old when Woodstock happened and was learning how to ride a bike and pull a loose tooth. I was born in a lost cohort (1962-64). Technically we are [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers]Baby Boomers but we have essentially nothing in common culturally with elder Baby Boomers who relate to 1950s childhood prosperity and coming-of-age in a culture of rejecting your parents and their norms & values, civil rights, riots, protests, sexual revolution, feminism, drugs, Woodstock, cheap Middle East gas, stable currency, muscle cars, the draft/Vietnam, etc.

Our cultural touchstones were: success in space, failure in Vietnam, Richard Nixon opening China, Watergate, the Arab oil embargo, gas lines, the election of Jimmy Carter, setting back thermostats, kerosene heaters & wood stoves, shag carpet, ugly clothes, bad haircuts, particle board paneling, imposition of the 55 mph national speed limit, expensive gas, federally-mandated smog-equipped ugly cars with bad quality / poor fuel economy / no power, cheap Japanese imports wrecking complacent American manufacturing, stagflation, the Bicentennial, Star Wars, Carter's [url=https://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/108/111235/ch29_a5_d2.pdf]malaise speech, Ted Koppel's Iranian hostage crisis & hostage candles in the window, the ignominy of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw]Operation Eagle Claw, boycotted 1980 Olympics, mind-numbingly repetitive playing of "album rock" hits on FM radio (same as today), tasteless disco, the Soviet Union, and the election of Ronald Reagan.

I was 13 in 1974 when [url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070992/]Happy Days first aired on TV. It was my first exposure to a world that seemed like a better, happier place. The music was simpler and more carefree. When the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha_Na_Na_(TV_series)]Sha Na Na TV show came on the air in 1979, I was 17 and knew it was intentionally goofy tongue-in-cheek nostalgia but man, it was such a breath of fresh air and a light-hearted escape from the bad disco, hedonistic / nihilistic rock, the depressing socio-political-economic situation and the generally depressing cultural environment of the era. Thank the Maker that Punk Rock, New Wave, and MTV arrived to inject new energy and excitement into youth at the dawn of the new decade. After a brief recession to end stagflation, the economy rebounded and the woes of the past 15 years were finally put behind us. The party lasted until September 11, 2001 and it's been all downhill ever since!