We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Here, I continue on my “bender” on taking a look at other nations in our world. In each case, so far, I have shown the reality to be something different from what you would ever read about in the Western (especially the American) press. I have looked at China, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia, the middle East, and now, Vietnam.
Vietnam is a very interesting place full of great beauty, beautiful women, delicious food, and an easy going happy-go-lucky lifestyle.
Enter Donald Trump and his neocon war-mongers
Vietnam continued their easy and laid back lifestyle since the tumultuous 1960’s when America decided to churn up and rape the countryside for freedom™ and democracy™. And it continued that way through the decades, up until Donald Trump took office and started his “War on China”.
He demanded that American companies leave China or face all sorts of consequences. In American “language” this means that “border-line legal” actions might (and probably would) be directed at the company. Such as suspicious hard-line tax audits, and review of OSHA and EPA policies and factory operation shut-downs during the “investigations” as well as mysterious fires in the warehouses, random union uprisings and personal tax audits and random arrests of key corporate executives.
Many, but not all, American companies started to relocate a number of their operations out of China. The vast bulk did not return to America, however. Instead, they went to Mexico and Vietnam.
About Factories
When America switched from manufacturing inside of America to outsourcing to China, they did NOT teach the Chinese how to make factories or build products. Instead, they went to existing factories, handed over the blueprints, and quality specifications, moved their tooling and equipment, and said “make this for us”. And that is pretty much (as harsh as it sounds) what actually happened.
Now, in the thirty to forty years that America has been devoid of solid manufacturing skill, the American companies that manufactured inside of China were in a bind. Just how do you move your factory, when you don’t own it?
Do you start from scratch? Hire new engineers? Try to reverse engineer your systems to fit a Mexican or Vietnamese work force? What do you do?
Well, I can’t say that this is what happened to all of the factories, but I can tell you that a sizable number took this action…
…the Chinese factories that supplied the American companies, set up divisions inside of Vietnam.
Thus, the Donald Trump trade war, as far as bringing manufacturing capability back to the United States failed. Instead, all that happened is the existing Chinese factories continued to supply the American companies. The only difference is that they did so out of Vietnam.
Vietnam Changed.
Of course, all of this movement of Chinese factories into Vietnam, and with it, the Chinese support structures, have made great changes to Vietnam. While it is still a sluggish and rather backward nation, it is growing and expanding. And this has created a rather unique mix of older traditional Vietnam, with modern Chinese industry and support structures. Very few American influences are present. As America is rather a nation of bankers, accountants, lawyers, and diversity experts. Very few have an kind of impact on Vietnamese society.
Here we are going to look at some videos out of Vietnam taken these last two months. It’s a quite interesting mix of color and tradition.
The Videos
Let’s go through these videos.
I suggest you watch them in order to get the full diverse effect. And I hope hope that you enjoy them and get “something out of them”. This group has around 85 (give or take) videos. So to prevent you from getting carpal tunnel syndrome (yikes!) clicking on each individual video, I have clustered the videos into small zip files that you click on, download and then browse through at your leisure.
Group A
Cooking some kind of purple Vietnamese food.
Foreigner in Vietnam trying to pick up a local butterfly girl.
Young love having some fun.
Lunch in a Chinese factory located in Vietnam.
Dressing up to go out on a date.
You ride scooters to get anywhere.
Making supper.
Loved ones going off to do their mandatory military service.
Some girls getting down at a local gathering.
Another foreigner trying to pick up some butterfly girls.
Night life in one of the bigger cities.
Two girls on the way to work (my guess is a massage or restaurant).
Bar Life.
Home made turbo-generators for local village power needs.
As the Biden administration consolidates its foreign policy, it has predictably turned its attention towards Southeast Asia in a bid to “counter China”.
Just last week, Mid-August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore in a bid to increase military ties between Washington and the region.
Means… allow American military bases there, American war ships to sail there, and the placement of American offensive missile systems there.
You know like swallowing bile that rise up in your throat.
The vice president’s aim with this trip is to “call out” China over its maritime claims in the South China Sea.They can’t do it personally face-to-face with China. They will no longer play “that game”. So like cowards, they are trying to undermine all the relationships of all the nations that border on China.
They come with suitcases (no cross that out) pallets, (no cross that out) Shipping containers full of freshly minted US dollars.
Freshly minted.
Hot off the (over worked) printing presses.
For, you know, the leadership to do what ever they want with the nice crisp “green backs”.
This comes amid America’s attempts to militarize the region.
They’ve been really busy, don’t you know.
The anti-China QUAD; those vassal states of the UK and Japan who will be compelled to “die on their swords” at the push of a button from the American Pentagon. To Australia who has only become a vassal state for reasons not so obvious. In my mind, a treasonous Morrison government with many, many skeletons in his closet is willing to sacrifice his people for Washington DC.
As well as continuously sailing aircraft carriers through the sensitive waters in a bid to project American power.
No prizes here for guessing who he was talking about…
The US says that it’s “back” to Southeast Asian countries.
It’s just bullshit.
The reality is this: apart from all the militaristic “sabre rattling” and pushing a non-stop hate China narrative while convincing everyone (with a pulse) to oppose China, the United States actually doesn’t have a strategy for the region.
But Beijing does.
In many ways, the legacy of recent US policies in this area of the world has been self-defeating.
The “political space” (the room to maneuver and work around is) that Biden has to turn it around is really quite limited.
In other words, it’s essentially still Trump’s ‘America First’ sentiment.
And that is quite telling as the biggest gaping hole in America’s strategy towards Southeast Asian countries is failing to offer them anything in return.
There are no, absolutely zero, economic incentives to oppose China. All they have to offer is personal riches for the rulers. As well as promises to offer them “green cards” and citizenship if the whole plan goes “tits up”.
China, need I remind you, which is right next door to these nations.
On this front, America has isolated itself.
In so many ways too.
Most notably by withdrawing from the mega trade deal which Obama fashioned as an anti-China initiative known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Now rebranded CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) amongst local partners.
On the level of US domestic politics, this is toxic because the consensus is that free trade is bad, especially if it detracts from jobs at home.
Therefore, Biden faces protectionist pressure not to re-join it, thus it has not come back on the Biden agenda.
China, on the other hand, has comprehensively doubled down on its economic ties with the surrounding region and entrenched its presence. Most notably through joining the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which it quickly ratified.
This creates an obvious problem for America.
China is increasingly integrating itself with the region on an economic level.
In which local parties (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, etc.) welcome with open arms gleefully.
But, you know, the United States is not happy with in the least.
No longer is trade being conducted in the “almighty” US Dollar. It’s local currency to the e-yuan. And as time moves forward, more and more nations are following this lead.
The US doesn’t have an answer to any of this.
Recently, it was reported that Washington wanted to try and propose a ‘digital trade deal’ among the economies of the Asia-Pacific. This “digital trade deal” is intended to lock China out of trade with any nations that sign that agreement. This is by regulation.
A favorite technique, mind you, well established and mature to crush nations that do not “toe the line” with American Geo-political policy.
This is intended to be done by setting strict rules and regulations on the ‘digital economy’ of the region.
Because it’s absolutely untenable for these countries to lock China out, and it’s not hard to see why.
Yesterday (Mid-August 2021) Huawei announced it would be investing $100 million into over 1,000 software start-ups throughout Southeast Asia. And that’s just one of the many initiatives in bringing manufacturing, development, growth and prosperity to all the nations that surround China.
With a high degree of integration and economic benefits, it is impossible for the US to now shape the region’s initiative while keeping China excluded.
There’s nothing left.
This leaves the military.
And this is where China is increasingly powerful, but the US remains competitive and relevant.
Many countries in the region accept the presence of the United States and its allies militarily, because it gives them strategic space to prevent them from being completely dominated by China.
For a small city state like Singapore, this inclination makes obvious sense, but this is not so much ‘siding’ with America as it is a geopolitical balancing act between both powers.
Walking the “tight rope”; the “fine line” of neutrality.
Here lies the problem: America wants countries to align with it against China in a binary way, but the nations themselves want neutrality.
And ASEAN (The association of South East Asian nations) as an institution officially seeks such.
Some of these states of course are formally allied with America, such as the Philippines. Yet, you know, for all intents and purposes they utilize a strategy of ‘hedging’ between both sides.
And for certain, they do not seek confrontation with Beijing.
If Washington pushes too hard on anti-China initiatives, these countries become uncomfortable, and this may have the ‘opposite’ result.
This aims to ease tensions, and brands the US a ‘troublemaker’.
Duh!
Again, Washington doesn’t have the ability to conduct close diplomacy with these countries as a neighbor, only as a ‘visitor’.
America is an outsider.
China is local.
China is right there.
All in all, geography works against America. China is the neighbor of Southeast Asia, not the US.
Beijing is the largest economy in the region and is irreversibly integrated in terms of trade, technology, and finance.
America is not.
Yet, the US foreign policy strategy seems to pursue the bizarre premise that they can somehow dominate this region…
… push back China…
…and match its growing power…
… despite the fact they physically cannot, simply because they are not based there.
This means that whilst these countries are not necessarily rejecting an American presence, they are never going to adopt any serious anti-China policies or the militarization of the region that Biden hopes for.
Would you start a fight with your much bigger next-door neighbor?
Biden has no economic incentives to offer either.
China is, in many ways, continuing to lead and shape the regional agenda through its own initiatives, and as its own military presence in this area also grows, it has plenty of options to counter US posturing.
And the United States is impotent in the region, no matter what the American media says to the contrary.
Conclusion
Most of the world is still being influenced by the American media in one form or the other. And on subjects that everyone seems to have adjusted to what ever narrative that the American government made, the belief is that what ever Washington DC says is the truth. Nope. It is not.
Vietnam is many things, but an American proxy nation, whether military, commercial or economic, is simply not true.
This article broaches the true and actual state of affairs, and I do hope that it was interesting and meaningful at the same time. I have tried to present a diverse collection of videos showing the great breadth and width of the colorful Vietnamese society, and I hope that I put it in a positive light.
I have many friends how go to Vietnam, as it’s not too far from where I live, and they pretty much confirm what I have listed here. I hope that you all can see that it has a bright future ahead, and some deep and wonderful culture and traditions. I sincerely hope that they hold on to them and not allow them to disappear.
And when the pandemic ends, perhaps a nice visit to Vietnam would be a wonderful trip, and I am sure that you would make some wonderful, maybe even lifelong friends. And isn’t that what we all want out of life?
December 2020 is almost upon us. This entire year has been shit, and I want to gallop away from it as fast as my two legs can carry me. I tire of the SHTF stuff about the United States and all the Trade stuff regarding China and international Geo-political issues. Instead, I just want to munch, chill and cozy up with some wine and a loved one. (Rent-a-loved one, a much beloved pet, or a favorite family members are all acceptable.)
I have been musing about how different things are today than they were when I was a young ‘un. And indeed, it does seem that time has completely rewrote reality. Whether it is my experiences in hopping crazy world-lines, or that the world has indeed moved on, who actually knows? I don’t. Not really, and I really don’t wanna think about it any more. One thing for certain is that it sure is different.
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Here, I want to chat about some of the things that I “miss” from my past. Well, nope “miss” isn’t exactly the right word. Say, “muse about”. You know change is a part of life, and good change is wonderful and bad change isn’t all that great. Truth this. And don’t tell me that you don’t agree.
Here’s one thing everybody who was alive during the 1970s can agree on: The entire decade still feels like it only happened yesterday. Seriously, how can the ’70s be five decades in the past? Really?
It’s just not possible that the era ruled by bell-bottom jeans and 8-track cassettes was half a century ago. For those of us who lived through it—and survived that groovy yet perilous time—it will forever be a part of our souls. That and the roach burns in our jeans, the stain of bong water on our shag carpets, and the earth shoes in our closets. Let go to the max! and realize that not everyone reading this is a space cadet. Some might be out to lunch, but you know, it’s all cool beans!
So take a chill pill, and I’ll give you the skinny on what’s going on. Who knows? Maybe I’ll catch you on the flip side.
Waiting for the phone
Having a phone full of APPs where you can call anyone, at any time, and share Social media did not exist and was unheard of. It was Science Fiction. For us, our telephones were hard-wired to the house. And that was that.
A scene from the televisions show “The Brady Bunch”. Having cords attached to the house when dealing with telephones was a normal event.
Everybody in the ’70s had just one phone in their house. It was a rotary phone that stayed in some central location, with a cord that could only be stretched so far. If someone was on that phone, you just had to sit and wait for them to finish. Family members hogging the phone were the cause of many sibling battles during this era. And I would have to say that the leading culprits were the young high school females in the household.
Telephones have come a long way from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Most homes back then only had one phone for the entire family whether there were three people or twelve people. That’s right… people had to get in line to get on the line! It wasn’t uncommon for the cord to be stretched out of shape since the user could only hope for privacy by getting as far away from the other family members as possible.
Pretending to be “bionic”
No body ever does this today. But, back in the day, it was a “thing”.
The Six Million Dollar Man.
If you truly are a ’70s kid, we don’t need to explain what’s involved in pretending you’re bionic. But for those who aren’t, you simply start running in slow motion, and then you make a sound with your tongue that sounds vaguely robotic. Decades after The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were canceled, trying to imitate Steve Austin or Jaime Sommers still makes us feel powerful.
Today, if they tried to remake this series it would be called “The 6 Trillion Dollar Person”.
Playing Simon
This game came out as I was entering University. At that time I was heavily into beer, and girls. But my younger brothers and sisters were addicted to this little piece of electronic wizardry.
Simon.
So simple, and yet so addictive. When this electronic game came out in 1978, every kid had to have one. The gameplay wasn’t too involved—you just had to tap on the right series of four colored buttons to repeat a sound pattern—but we played it with the intensity and focus that kids play Fortnite today.
Gas station lines
At the time of the “Oil Crisis”, my father was commuting a three hour drive back and forth from our home to his new job. The petrol-political situation just made everything tougher. And I well remember having to ride to the gas station and collect all sorts of plastic containers of gas that I would fill up and then siphon back into my dads car.
Did you know that the thick PE containers would crack if you stored gasoline in them in sub-zero temperatures? Guess how I found out? Yeah. Let me tell youse guys icy below freezing gasoline at -20F is still liquid and freezes the cockles of your mouth.
Terrible national management brought this disaster to the door-steps of America.
The 1973 oil crisis (and the second oil crisis a few years thereafter) caused a nationwide panic resulting in around-the-block gas station lines that never seemed to move. Some stations even started posting color-coded flags: Green indicated they still had gas, while red alerted customers that they were out. Every car trip you took with your family in the ’70s felt like it might be your last.
Boogie life! Roller disco parties
Don’t laugh. Whether you lived in the city or in the country, there were always parties at the local roller rink. They installed flashing strobe lights, a DJ, some neon, and before you knew it, we were all boogieing on down!
Party on! So very groovy!
All the fun of a discothèque with the extra awkwardness of having wheels on your feet. We might all remember these parties fondly, but it’s a miracle we didn’t break any bones trying to dance along to a Bee Gees song while skating at frightening speeds.
Love Train
.
Teenagers at the time, just like now, couldn’t get enough of their favorite artists including Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith just to name a few. All bets were off though at the roller rink. When the lights went down low and the sparkling disco ball shined on the wooden floor, tacky organ music was just fine!
After getting inside the roller rink, the next thing to do was to go stand in another line to get a pair of skates. Of course, to use a pair of skates that belong to the rink, you had to turn your own shoes in as place holders for the borrowed skates. You got your street shoes back only when the skates were returned. I can still see the wooden wheels and smell the disinfectant spray used on the skates between sessions.
We roller-boogied everywhere. And when we did it on the street, we wore appropriate attire, don’t you know. Such as this…
Ready to boogie!
Yikes!
“Free skate” time was awesome. Everyone would go around and around that floor. It was a time to show off your cool moves. The fancy skaters whizzed, by skating backwards, leaving you in their dust. The skaters with extraordinary skills would show off their abilities in the center of the rink. They were the ones that had their own skates and didn’t use the rented ones. Often, they would stroll into the rink with their skates hanging around their necks like a piece of jewelry.
Roller Skate Rentals
Ai! Now this is something you don’t see any more…
Rollerskate Rentals.
.
By the end of the evening, the borrowed roller skates were sweaty and had caused at least one blister on the skater’s feet. That was just part of the deal. A person knew when they got there that they would get that blister. Hopefully, it would heal in time for the following weekend.
After taking off the roller skates and putting your own shoes back on, it took a few minutes to get your legs used to being off of the skates. It was a weird feeling being 2 inches shorter, although that’s how tall you were when you got there. It is something everyone should experience at least once.
The 70’s really were a time like no other.
Coveting an Atari video game console
Atari console
No, you may not have owned an Atari console during the ’70s, but at the very least you knew somebody who did and you made sure to do everything in your power to win their friendship. The very idea of playing video games in the comfort of our own homes without ever worrying if we had enough quarters seemed unfathomably futuristic.
Annoying (or being annoyed by) your sibling on road trips
I don’t know if this happens or not. In the days before electronic media, all that you could do when you were trapped inside an automobile is either listen to the AM radio or pester the heck of your siblings.
A Brady Bunch Living Room.
But that didn’t stop you from going on road trips! When a family piled into the station wagon for a long trek across the country in the ’70s, kids didn’t have the distractions they enjoy today.
There were no iPads or smartphones to keep us occupied. The only way to pass the time was to see how much we could torture our brother or sister sitting in the backseat with us. It was either annoy or be annoyed, the latter of which required constantly demanding justice from your oblivious parents trying to ignore you both in the front seat.
Waiting until Saturday for cartoons
Well, this isn’t exactly true. There were after-school cartoons that we would watch. Namely “The Flintstones”. But for a real marathon of cartoon gluttony, it’s Saturday Morning non-stop comic-thon.
All I can say is “Yabba Dabba Doo!”.
.
If you wanted to watch Bugs Bunny or Fred Flintstone or any of your favorite cartoon characters, you had only one chance to catch them—Saturday morning. If you missed it, you missed it, and those precious few hours of animated bliss were gone forever (or at least until the next Saturday). It taught us important lessons about delayed gratification. It just wasn’t possible back then to see every cartoon ever made with the press of a button.
The Watergate hearings
It was a simpler time. President Nixon was impeached for erasing 18.5 minutes of personal tapes. Today, the government vacuums up every item of your life in 3D, indexes it, and sells it off to the highest bidder, and then bills you for it in the form of higher taxes.
President Nixon, remember him?
.
Even if you didn’t give a hoot about politics, everyone was at least vaguely aware that something bad was happening in Washington. It was the topic of every dinner party conversation, and the evening news reported each new detail like the Watergate scandal might very well be the downfall of democracy.
Seeing the disgraced Richard Nixon leave the White House forever (with his iconic two handed peace symbol hand wave) and get into a helicopter was one of the most unforgettably surreal moments of TV viewing for just about everybody in the country in the ’70s.
Living in a world without Darth Vader
Darth Vader.
.
The ’70s was the last decade when a person could wake up one day having no idea who Darth Vader was—and by dinner that night their head would be spinning with thoughts of the Dark Side and black helmets and lightsabers. The world was suddenly divided between “before Star Wars” and “after Star Wars,” and nothing would be the same for us again.
Suddenly true and real “evil” stopped being Hitler and his evil Nazi horde, and it became a large Empire. One with tentacles in everyone’s business, in every corner of the known world, and one led by indescribably evil people.
Being oblivious to “stranger danger”
In the 1970’s we were innocents. We lived life, and while there were bad people about, we didn’t have them thrown into our faces 24-7. We didn’t see missing kids on milk cartons, Amber alerts, screeching television shows and exposes of predators. We were insulated from all that.
Kids were allowed to be kids.
The world was no less dangerous for kids in the 1970s than it is today—our parents just weren’t as freaked out about it. Many of us weren’t warned that every unfamiliar face might mean us harm. So we made friends with just about everyone, even random adults that we didn’t recognize.
For me, it was cranking “The immigrant song” by Led Zeppelin at 100, and playing games with my buds. While “Pee Eck” or “Joe Piney” had an record album open and was using it to separate the stems and seeds out of a five dollar bag that we had bought. Heh heh.
Memorizing the lyrics to “Rubber Ducky”
LOL. How true is this?
Rubber Ducky…
.
There was a limited amount of quality TV for kids in the ’70s, so when something came along that resonated with us, it burned into our subconscious. Sesame Street provided many of those pivotal memories.
Rubber Ducky
Rubber Ducky, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you;
(woh woh, bee doh!)
Rubber Ducky, joy of joys,
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Ducky, you're my very best friend, it's true!
(doo doo doo doooo, doo doo)
Every day when I
Make my to the tubby
I find a little fella who's
Cute and yellow and chubby
(rub-a-dub-a-dubby!)
Rubber Ducky, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber ducky, I'm awfully fond of you.
(repeat chorus)
Rubber Ducky, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber ducky, I'm awfully fond of -
Rubber ducky, I'd like a whole pond of -
Rubber ducky I'm of -
Rubber ducky I'm awfully fond of you!
(doo doo, be doo.)
Even today, long past the age when we’re regularly taking baths with toys, we can recall Ernie’s ode to his rubber duckie in its entirety.
Bell bottoms
Bell Bottom Jeans. (“Elephant bells” shown.)
.
You cannot say “the 70’s” without mentioning the iconic “bell bottom jeans”. They were everywhere. And they were awesome! Most especially when worn with Rock-star platform boots, or earth-shoes.
A lot of completely groovy adults thought bell bottoms looked stylish in the ’70s, and they were right-on! And you know, it’ the cool kids have historically always been eager to imitate the best of adults’ instincts. So obviously, we all had these fantasticly stylish attire.
Short shorts and tube socks
Yes. And it does seem… obscene, now doesn’t it?
Tube socks, bikes and skateboards.
.
Rarely in the history of fashion has a clothing style been universally accepted by both men and women. But that was the case in the ’70s with short shorts and tube socks, even though nobody looked especially good in the getup. In hindsight, tube socks that stretched up to your knees and shorts that were way too tight wasn’t the most flattering combo. But at the time, we all thought we looked cool.
The girls looked better in Tube Socks than the guys.
Do you feel like we do?
Perhaps nothing says 1970’s as the Peter Frampton (live) ode to that period in time. It’s… well, what if all felt like. And if you don’t understand… well… you needed to be there and live that lifestyle.
The 1970’s for us was like this kind of soft fog. Like walking in a fluffy pillow everywhere, and it was really, really surreal.
Do you feel like we do?
.
The 1970’s for us was like this kind of soft fog. Like walking in a fluffy pillow everywhere, and it was really, really surreal.
Oh, did I say that? Oh.
Well. I mean that. You know. Like I REALLY mean that. Yeah.
Oh. What was I saying?
Oh yeah…
I’d give you the original song for free here, but apparently it’s all monetized right now. So I’ll just give you the link…
Hitchhiking
True hitchhiking is just as dangerous as it ever was, but we did it anyways. Back then, we were not a fearful as people are today. We are not blasted with stories of the gruesome things that can happen to young folk on the road. And even if that were to happen, many of us would probably try to fight back with our pocket knives or fists.
Cute girls hitchhiking.
No car? No problem! Just stick out your thumb and wait for a kind stranger to pull over and offer you a ride. It seems unthinkable today, but for a ’70s free spirit who didn’t have the bread to buy their own car (or was too young for a license), hitchhiking seemed like the best option when your own two feet couldn’t get you there.
You could hitchhike anywhere, and the police wouldn’t bother you. You could even hitchhike down town!
Having a favorite Charlie’s Angel
We all did. Don’t be silly.
Which brings up a song from the 1970’s. I don’t know why I have this connection of the song to the TV show. I attribute it to me coming home from a long day of partying and listening to Manfred Mann, and then settling down and watching Charlie’s Angels on the tube. I guess that; that is as good as an explanation as anything else.
Manfred Mann’s earth band – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band Blinded By The Light..mp3
Oh, and here’s the gals…
Charlie’s Angels.
.
Some kids were always rooting for Jaclyn Smith, and some only had eyes for Kate Jackson. The vast majority of us, however, were smitten with Farrah Fawcett, and not just because she had the most iconic poster of the ’70s (and, arguably, of all time). Whatever your preference, they were the coolest crime-fighting trio on TV, and proof that ladies could kick as much criminal butt as the boys.
Woo Woo!
Farrah Fawcett was everywhere.
Going outside without sunscreen
Oh. Of course we knew about sunscreen. We could go ahead and use it. “Tans don’t burn with a Coppertone tan”. It’s just that we didn’t care…
California, 1977
.
These days, most health-conscious people won’t even leave the house on a winter day without slathering their exposed skin in sun protection. But in the ’70s, you could walk around shirtless on a blazing hot summer day and nobody would think to ask if you’d applied any sunscreen.
Wait, sorry, we mean suntan lotion.
There was limited sun protection in the ’70s, just lotion to help you get some color. And when you didn’t get a tan, you got a sunburn—which nobody took all that seriously. There’s a lot we didn’t know about the long-term consequences.
We used suntan lotion to give our burns a bronze hue. Not to protect the skin.
Chase-lounges
This was just about the only way to hang out outside. You get a flimsy aluminum frame with the cheap nylon ribbing and plop down and pop a beer. That is what the 1970’s was all about.
Relaxing outside with the family.
.
Do you want to hear a story about a date where I was tripping balls, it was a hot and humid evening, I sat in a chase lounge chair that fit like a glove. My icy cold PBR was next to me, and Traffic, Robin Trower, and Led Zeppelin played all night. After the beer was quaffed, my date and I rode on the foggy river at 3am in a small speedboat. Oh, and her brother couldn’t speak. He was deaf and dumb. So the entire event was in slow motion, sign language.
The 70’s. Youse kids have no idea.
It’s how we rolled
No helmets, knee or elbow protection, and no one recording it to post on Social Media. It’s how we rolled.
It’s how we rolled.
It’s how we rolled.
Then, when we were old enough to get our driver’s license, we started to terrorize the neighborhood righteously…
Scene from Dazed and Confused. Driven by Ben Affleck’s character Fred O’Bannion, this commanding Plymouth Duster was nicknamed the “Grey Ghost.” This beautiful car was driven by an unsavory character in the film, and thus the body paint was something resembling very opaque primer.
Wood Paneling
There isn’t anything that says 1970’s than a house with interior wood paneling. My own parents installed it in our television room around 1973. You simply cut it to size and then glue it to the walls.
Paneled den.
The metric system
Learn the metric system.
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Thanks to the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, we were all prepared to start measuring things in meters, liters, and grams rather than feet, pounds, and quarts. It’s hard to overstate how big a deal this was in the late ’70s, especially if you were a kid. In school, we were inundated with pro-metric system films, which tried to win us over with the adventures of the Metric Marvels. You couldn’t find a kid today stressed out about metric conversion, but in the ’70s, we all lived with the fear that we’d have to be metric-ready at a moment’s notice.
Drinking beer
It’s true that there were laws about drinking alcohol. But they weren’t really enforced. The min-age to drink was 18, and even 16 in some states. And in states where you could work (with parent’s permission) at 14, and drive as well, no one gave a rat’s ass about whether your were drinking alcohol or not. It wasn’t a big thing.
Not like today.
Drinking was no big thing.
If the police caught you drinking underage, they would probably pour it out and tell you to drive home safely and go to bed.
Which happened on more than a few occasions.
Today… well, let’s be real. You’d spend the night in Jail and probably need to fork out a few thousand to a bail bondsman to get out so that you can go to work.
Some things never change
Ah. When going through some of these photos, I see things that could have very well been taken today…
Drive-by “mooning”.
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Some things never change.
Though, you might get arrested for sexual indecency and become a “Sex Offender” for the rest of your life.
Brutal playground equipment
Playgrounds in the ’70s were about as user-friendly as modern-day adult obstacle endurance races. Sure, there wasn’t as much barbed wire, but the equipment was just as unforgiving and brutal.
Two story slide was the norm in the 1970s.
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Monkey bars were made of cold steel that could break bones without mercy. Everything—from the slides to the seesaws, the swings to the merry-go-round—was built to withstand military strikes, and no ’70s kid would use them without anticipating at least the occasional bloody injury.
Modern safe playground. No taller than one yard high.
Being terrified to go in the water
Not everyone was, but enough of my friends were that I thought that they were really too-caught-up. I strongly believed that they needed to “loosen up” a bit.
Jaws
When Steven Spielberg’sJaws first hit the theaters in 1975, it’s hard to quantify exactly how big an impact it had on our collective psyche. We weren’t just scared of getting into the ocean—even lakes and ponds and wading pools seemed to disguise shark fins. We looked for sharks virtually everywhere, certain that their ferocious fangs were just waiting to bite down hard on our toes and pull us underwater.
Smallpox vaccine scars
It’s a sign of being a “Baby Boomer”.
Smallpox vaccine
Before most doctors stopped routinely giving smallpox vaccines in the early ’70s, every kid had the same familiar scar on their upper arm, caused by the two-pronged needle that punctured our skin with all the delicateness of a staple gun. Yeah, it was scary, but smallpox was eradicated. And the fact that we all had the same scars almost felt like a badge of honor.
Being tricked into learning by Schoolhouse Rock!
Schoolhouse Rock!
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Saturday morning is supposed to be about eating sugary cereals and vegging out in front of the TV, watching animated shows with no educational content whatsoever. But the Schoolhouse Rock! shorts tricked us, teaching us about multiplication, history, and the differences between conjunctions and interjections without our even realizing it.
Thanks to their catchy songs, we knew all about the different branches of government and what carbon footprints are without ever cracking open a book.
Having the Oscar Mayer commercial stuck in your head
That Oscar Mayer commercial with the cute kid fishing while eating bologna played so often—and was so catchy—we could hear the familiar melody reverberating around our brains over and over and over.
Oh, I’d love to be an Oscar Meyer weiner
That is what I’d truly like to be
‘Cause if i were an Oscar Meyer weiner
Everyone would be in love with meOh, I’m glad I’m not an Oscar meyer weiner.
That is what I’d never wanna be
‘Cause if i were an Oscar Meyer weiner
there would soon be nothing left of meAnother variation is:I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner
That is what I’d truly like to be
‘Cause if i were an Oscar Meyer weiner
Everyone would be in love with meOh, I’m glad I’m not an Oscar meyer weiner.
That is what I’d never wanna be
‘Cause if i were an oscar meyer weiner
Everyone would take a bite of me.
The only thing worse was when it got replaced by that “I’d like to teach the world to sing” Coca-Cola commercial! (We’re sorry.)
School assignments printed on ditto machines
And oh they smelled so good!
In 1960s and '70s-era classrooms, it was an olfactory treat whenever the teacher passed out fresh-off-the-machine purple print “ditto” sheets to the class. Virtually every student immediately held the page to his face and inhaled deeply.
-11 Smells That Are Slowly Disappearing | Mental Floss
Personal anecdotes from family members tell of the time when teachers would ask a student to head down the hall. That student would walk on over to the room housing the mimeograph. From there, he or she could get the many copies of that day’s worksheet, printed in that unique, pretty purple ink.
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When I was in elementary school in the 1960s and into the early 1970s, teachers gave homework and classroom assignments, quizzes and tests on Ditto worksheets. We wrote on them so often that my classmates and I became intimately familiar with the aniline purple color of the Ditto—as well as the mesmerizing smell that emanated from the freshly printed sheets.
Making Dittos was a two-step process. The first step was to prepare the master, a two-ply form that had an easy-to-write-on paper sheet on top and a wax-coated sheet on the bottom. Our teachers would either hand write or typewrite the schoolwork onto one of these typically letter-size Ditto master forms. The pressure of the pen or the typewriter would transfer wax from the bottom sheet onto the back of the top sheet.
The second step—after discarding what was left of the bottom sheet—was to mount the master, bottom side up, onto the Ditto duplicating drum. The wrong-reading wax image contained the “ink” that was progressively broken down by the chemical spread across the drum as it was rotated—often by cranking the cylinder manually—and came into contact with the paper. Several dozen Ditto sheets could be easily produced within minutes.
Any worksheet or homework assignment passed out to students in a ’70s classroom was likely created using either a ditto or mimeograph machine. Who could forget the way they left purple ink on your fingers, or that unmistakable odor?
Using Silly Putty to preserve newspaper comics
Sillyputty
We felt like geniuses for discovering that Silly Putty could be rolled over the comic section in a newspaper and perfectly reproduce our favorite Garfield strip. Today, most newspapers use non-transferable ink, so any kids wanting to try this experiment are out of luck. Sigh.
Slide Rules
Call me a nerd, but I loved my slide-rule. Unlike my fellow classmates, who embraced their new fangled calculators that were just coming out, I used mine for all sorts of engineering and science subjects.
Slide Rule
There is even an application for a slide rule for your Windows Computer. You can go ahead and get it HERE. Or better yet, check out these links…
Not at all useful, but a joy to behold and quite beautiful in it’s own way.
Pencil cases with attached slide rulers and sharpeners
Pencil box. We all had one.
It was an essential school supply back in the ’70s, the epitome of high-tech pencil gadgetry. Pulling one of these out of your backpack meant you were serious about learning—or at least looking like the coolest student in your class. Pencil cases have become as extinct as… well, pencils. But the plastic pencil case in 1975 was the iPhone of its era.
Never consuming Pop Rocks and soda at the same time
Pop Rocks Candy
Every ’70s kid had heard that terrible rumor about Mikey, the picky eater in the Life cereal commercial. Apparently, despite the warnings of his friends, he had consumed the deadly combo of Coca-Cola and Pop Rocks, and the carbon dioxide had caused his stomach to inflate to a lethal degree. What happened next? Well, his stomach exploded, of course, and poor Mikey died on the spot! The rumors were, of course, completely false. But that didn’t stop us from believing them. In a world without Internet, we had no choice but to trust what the smartest kid on the playground was telling us.
Moving the TV antenna for better reception
We called them “rabbit ears”.
And we used them is “complete” systems like this…
1970s Audio-visual entertainment.
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TV reception in the ’70s was unreliable at best. If the picture was distorted with zig-zag lines—or, worse, the dreaded “snow,” where everything was fuzzy—the only way to fix the problem was to adjust the antenna, otherwise known as “rabbit ears.”
This involved twisting and turning until slowly, so slowly, you captured a better signal and the picture started to come into focus. But even then, just removing your hands might cause the picture to disappear yet again. It was a long and arduous process to get the kind of visual consistency that TV audiences today take for granted.
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But, on the other hand, television was FREE.
You didn’t need to subscribe to cable, to a television satellite service, or some kind of streaming internet service. And it is still free, too. It’s just one of those way-under-reported elements of life that exists today in a world full of gigantic multimillionaires ruling over a land where everything has a price tag.
...don't knock tv antennas. use them and you'll still get plenty of channels and save lots of money and not be a slave to the cable company. shame on saying it's something you're glad to get rid of
-x60hz11RonaldFelder
Typewriters
Before Microsoft Word were Word Processors, and before them were typewriters.
Electric Typewriter.
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Decades before email or texting existed, if you were writing to a friend or family member, you either did it by hand—a long and excruciating process, especially if you had a lot to say—or you used a typewriter. The unmistakable metallic clang of typewriter keys pounding on paper is something that few of us who lived through the ’70s will ever forget.
Secondhand smoke everywhere
And the freedom was glorious.
Smoking on an airplane.
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Smoking wasn’t just acceptable in the ’70s—it was ubiquitous. In offices, restaurants, airplanes, homes, and most public buildings, everybody was puffing away on their cigarettes without a care in the world. No busybody is going to tell you to go outside in the rain to smoke near the gutter or trashcan. No one even cared.
People smoked everywhere. Restaurants, parks, in taxi’s, on the train,at work and on airplanes.
Secretary smoking at her desk in the office.
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People smoked. It was as natural as drinking Pepsi and eating a hamburger. The prices for cigarettes were very cheap, and no one had the nerve to tell you what to do with your own body. It was unheard of. And if you did, the response probably would be “Hey Man! What’s your fucking problem?”
Smoking in the kitchen of a tiny apartment at 7:35 PM. Notice the brown refrigerator, the rabbit ears for the television, the tumbler of beverage on a table on top of a napkin, and the enormous salt and pepper shakers.
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And those wooded crate that her books were in, those are crates for eggs. I used them for my record album collection. In those days they were real wood. Flimsy things, but they did the job all rightly.
Headsets for the Stereo
Well, we have headsets today, but they are used differently. Back in the 1970’s if you had a stereo, you also probably had a pair of headsets. And while your parents might have bought them for you so that they could have some peace and quiet, the chances are that you probably used them while the stereo was blasting through the speakers. You know, for the “full effect”.
Wearing headsets on your bed.
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This is what we pretty much did. Here’s a scene from the iconic movie “Dazed and Confused”.
Dazed and Confused.
Debating what “American Pie” was all about
Don McLean’s American Pie.
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What was going on in Don McLean’s 1971 hit? Nobody knew for sure, but plenty of kids had a lot of theories about who the jester was and why he was stealing the king’s thorny crown, and if “Jack” was supposed to be Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan or somebody else entirely. Was the whole song really about Buddy Holly dying in a plane crash and McLean feeling sad about it? In those pre-internet days, your guess was as good as anybody else’s.
Macramé home décor
Macramé home décor was especially popular in the ‘70s. A lot of different home decorations were macramé including curtains and plant hangers, but nothing was more popular than the macramé owl.
An ideal 1970’s home.
The groovy pop-culture era is a phenomenon that stands out among many others. Sometimes it seems like it was a million years ago and sometimes it seems like just yesterday. Check out this “far out”, very cool kitchen…
1970’s kitchen.
Shaking “instant” Polaroid photos to help them develop faster
Polaroid.
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As Outkast reminded the world with their 2003 hit “Hey Ya!,” the ’70s taught us how to “shake it like a Polaroid picture.” Or at least, that’s what we all believed. The moment a new picture slid out of a Polaroid instant camera, we pinched it between two fingers and shook it vigorously, as if air drying was the only way to get the clearest image. It wasn’t until 2004 when we finally learned it was all bogus. As Polaroid helpfully explained, “shaking or waving has no effect.”
Bicycle helmets not being required
It’s pretty silly that a government that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the people, would require them to do all sorts of things “for their safety”. But that’s America for you.
Freedom is not having to wear a motorcycle helmet.
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If you wore a helmet while riding a bike during the ’70s, it meant either that you were recovering from a serious cranial injury or you were terrified of even the most minor of accidents. We just weren’t as safety-conscious back then.
In those days, freedom actually meant something. it wasn’t confused with “safety” or “cleanness”, like it is today.
Clackers
Everyone had these.
Clackers.
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So simple and yet so entertaining. Consisting of two heavy acrylic balls attached to a string, you basically knocked the two balls together as fast as you could… and that was it. Somehow it kept us entertained for hours, or at least until some kids started overdoing it with the clacker enthusiasm and the balls shattered and caused shrapnel-related injuries. Clackers were deemed weapons of mass destruction and officially pulled from stores.
Me. Well, I put them in an oven and baked them. LOL.
Aluminum can tabs
The 1960’s was known as the time where you needed a triangular “can opener” to open up your favorite can of beer. You would do so with the heavy gauge steel can, and make two triangular indentations. One large one to drink from, and one small one for the air to get in.
Then, in the 1970’s the pull-tab was invented, and life was forever changed.
Pull tab history.
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Opening a soda in the ’70s required pulling a ring that tore open a small wedge shape on the top of an aluminum can. Then the ring would be thrown away, usually on the ground where somebody would invariably step on it and hurt themselves. Injuries from those metallic tabs became a nationwide epidemic.
One 1976 New York Times report remarked that a large percentage of beach injuries “were due to cuts inflicted by discarded pop tabs,” Slate noted. Getting a tetanus shot was the only way to survive in a world littered with soda can tabs.
Fixing mistakes with Wite-Out
Correcting mistakes.
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The “delete” button of the ’70s came in a little jar full of white liquid, which could be painted across anything in a letter or school assignment that we wanted to make disappear. It wasn’t quite as magical as it sounds, since you had to wait for what felt like forever for Wite-Out to dry, and sometimes you had to blow on the paper, which just made you feel ridiculous. By the time it was ready to put back in the typewriter, you’d have completely lost your train of thought.
Sea-Monkeys
Sea Monkeys
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Those ads in the back of comic books were too irresistible for most kids. Why would we not want to have our own anthropomorphic sea creatures, living in a tank and looking reverently out at our bedrooms like we were gods?
But when the Sea Monkeys arrived, we learned the hard lesson that you shouldn’t always believe advertising.
The creatures didn’t look anything like tiny humans at all, because they were actually a type of brine shrimp, the most boring aquarium pet a kid could ever ask for.
Station wagons with wood trim
Ohhhh baby!
So very groovy.
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Why so many people were drawn to cars that looked as if they were made at least partly out of wood is anybody’s guess. Maybe they were responding to some residual hippie influence, and they couldn’t resist a car that was seemingly constructed from biodegradable materials harvested in pesticide-free gardens. It was all bunk, of course—the wood texture, more often than not, was just vinyl siding—but especially in the ’70s, appearance was more important than reality.
Parents thought it was perfectly safe to let kids make their own artsy crafts by putting plastic in the oven. Totally cool. We were able to mix chemicals, and bake them in ovens and crate all sorts of wondrous dangers. Thingmaker came with it’s own oven. It was glorious!
It introduced me to molds, plastic injection molding and hardware design.
The concept of the Thingmaker was first introduced in 1963, as an extension of Mattel’s “Vac-U-Maker” line. Thingmaker Creepy Crawlers by Mattel was by far my absolute favorite toy as a kid and I got my first one in 1968.
I spent hours in my room playing with this and spilling plastic goop on my carpet. I loved overfilling the metal molds just slightly so I could peel off the excess. I burned myself more than a few times and have the scars to show. I also had Creeple People and Incredible Edibles, but neither of these was as cool as the original Thingmaker. I cannot believe I played with this toy totally unsupervised starting at the age of 10!
There have been several revivals of the Thingmaker – the first in 1978 was called the Thingmaker II and employed safer technology. This toy used a totally different type of goop and plastic molds, into which the heated Plastigoop was poured.
The reformulated Plastigoop did not work well, the bugs and insects were shoddy, and the process was painfully slow, so it went kaput fairly quickly. In 1992, ToyMax reintroduced the Thingmaker with much stricter safety regulations. This new version of the Creepy Crawlers set once again used metal molds and a goop similar to the original.
ToyMax went out of business around 2002, and yet another company, Jakks Pacific started producing a similar toy starting in 2006.
The Vac-u-Form, also called Vac-u-Former, was a toy manufactured by Mattel in the 1960s. Using an industrial process called vacuum forming, a rectangular piece of plastic was clamped in a holder and heated over a metal plate. After the plastic softened, the holder was moved to the other side, over a mold of the object to be formed. Pressing a handle on the side of the unit created a vacuum, which caused the plastic to be sucked down over the mold and form a shape. When the plastic cooled it solidified, creating a little model of the item, such as a car, boat, or tiny log cabin
-Consumer Grouch
The Pacer
My first car after I wrecked my GTO. Sigh! I loved that car.
But the Pacer, or the Pacer-rooo as we liked to call it was perfect for the era. It was like riding in this big quiet glass bubble, and we would listen to tunes and watch the world go by…
…slowly. Very slowly.
My grandmother loved my Pacer. She thought it was a robust, well built car.
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Pink Floyd – Sheep
Drinking tons of Tang
My personal formula was 50% of the glass filled with Tang powder, and the remaining part water.
Tang advertisement.
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The makers of Tang drove home the idea that their instant beverage, which tasted vaguely of oranges, was the nutrition of choice for astronauts everywhere. And that was enough for us to believe that just drinking Tang for breakfast put you in the same intellectual company as the brave astronauts of NASA. Even though Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, once famously said he was not a fan of Tang, that wasn’t the popular opinion in the ’70s.
Relating to one of the Brady Bunch kids
The Brady Bunch.
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Whether it was ambitious ladykiller Greg or awkward middle child Jan or young dreamer Bobby, there was somebody among The Brady Bunch that resonated with just about every ’70s kid. The oversized family that was too perfect to exist in the real world somehow still managed to reflect our individual quirks and idiosyncrasies.
Metal lunch boxes
1970s Lunch Boxes
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A plastic lunch box? That would’ve seemed inconceivable to a ’70s kid, who proudly carried around a lunch box sturdy enough to protect bologna sandwiches from an air strike. The characters featured on the front of these lunch boxes, whether Evel Knievel or Strawberry Shortcake, said a lot about our personalities.
48 Hassocks
Round ottoman seats.
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These round ottoman seats became weirdly popular during the ’70s, and always in the most outrageous colors—like avocado green or neon orange. They were meant as foot stools but kids knew they were perfect for stretching out, or curling up on for cat naps, or even spreading out on stomach-first and pretending we were flying like Superman. Ah, those were the days.
Taping songs off the radio
Not every bedroom was so well equipped, but indeed, once we figured out that we could tape the music that we heard on the radio, it was only a matter of time before the high priced sales of record albums would crash.
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The music piracy of its day! When you had a new favorite song but there wasn’t enough in your piggy bank to buy the album or 45 rpm single, you would sit next to the radio with your portable cassette recorder and wait… and wait… and wait… until finally that song you loved so much started playing, and you immediately pressed down on the record button, capturing those beautiful sounds for free.
A chopper bike with a banana seat
Oh baby, I had a burnt orange bike. Tall handle-bars. White banana seat. Red reflectors, and drag-strip rear tire.
A chopper bike with a banana seat.
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You didn’t even have to pop a wheelie when you owned a chopper bike. All you had to do was sit there, tapping your fingers on the handlebars like you were revving a throttle, and you looked like Evel Knievel getting ready to jump over a canyon.
Stretch Armstrong
I didn’t have this, but my brother did, and the tortures that he put this poor toy through were the stuff of legends.
Stretch Armstrong
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This elastic hero was like a stress ball for prepubescents. Just how much torture could Armstrong endure at your hands? Plenty of kids were willing to find out, pulling his limbs like they were trying to get a confession. The secret to Stretch’s durability—the goo inside his body that made him so elastic—was nothing but plain ol’ corn syrup.
Frisbee
Yeah. You can go on all the retro 1970s websites on the internet, and not one single one will mention the iconic Frisbee. This was the most prolific and versatile tools in used during the 1970’s.
Not only could you toss it about, but you could clean out your bag of weed with it. It was portable, convenient, light weight, and came in a wide selection of colors and designs. I well remember my glow in the dark scooby-doo Frisbee. What fun was that!
A fun game of Frisbee on the QUAD.
Shag Carpeting Throughout Your House
This was so 70’s.
I used the left over pieces to carpet my GTO, and then later, my Pacer, and even later than that, my Dodge Tradesman 400.
Shag carpeted home.
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Covering your floors wasn’t as simple as popping into Pottery Barn and picking up a rug in the 1970s. Your house—apart from the patterned linoleum in your kitchen—was covered in shag carpeting in a variety of earthy tones, from moss to pumpkin to, of course, leopard.
Not all homes had carpet during the groovy era. Some still preferred their hardwood floors, but you can be sure that any respectable modern and hip household that did have carpet had shag carpet. Some shag carpet was so shaggy that you could lose the family hamster in it for days.
Having Every Dish Served Out of Patterned Pyrex
Pyrex. An awesome invention and completely under appreciated.
Modern kitchen 1975.
Fancy china has its place, but as a ’70s kid, you know that the true height of sophistication is enjoying your mom’s tuna noodle casserole straight from the Pilgrim-patterned Pyrex it was baked in.
A tuna noodle casserole
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But truthfully, you haven’t lived until you made a “swamp” pizza (Chicago style deep dish pizza) from a Pyrex dish.
Basement Den
Up until the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, basements were a place for the hot water heater, furnace/boiler, and washing machine. Basements were also a great storage area. Basements were stacked with boxes full of things that wouldn’t ever be used again but the owner couldn’t live without!
During the groovy era, “finishing” basements for living space became a popular craze. It wasn’t called a finished basement… it was called a club room; complete with the old TV set and fake wood paneling. It was a classic look.
Many a night would be spent quaffing beers, playing cards, darts, and chess while listening to Neil Young. I’ll tell you what.
Basement Den.
Water bed
This type of bed is pretty cool, and not at all what one would think. If you go on the internet, you might find someone who has never slept on one of these beds writing derogatory statements about them. (It’s a very common thing on the internet these days… you write about what you know nothing about for a hand full of change.)
These beds are really super comfortable. They are heated, and it is like sleeping inside the soft bosom of a giant woman. The sides envelope around you and you feel completely embraced.
Water Bed.
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All jokes aside, this is a super comfortable way to sleep. When I slept on my water bed, I was usually out within two minutes.
Now, for some important notes. Firstly, if the power goes off, in the dead of winter, you can rest assured that you will be sleeping on top of an icy pile of slush. And secondly, you need to constantly add anti-bacteria chemicals. Otherwise algae will grow and your water bed would spring about a zillion super tiny, impossible to locate, leaks.
Lava Lamps
Technically the oddly hypnotic lava lamp was made popular in the 60s, but it continued on strong through almost the end of the 1970s. I actually had two of them, and they really added a nice effect in my bed room.
Lava Lamp.
TV Dinners
We had these little metal folding tables, and a place where we wold put them behind the door. When we were too busy to eat a “real” meal, out came the TV dinners, and we would eat in front of the television learning about the world on the “news”.
TV Dinners.
Do you want more?
I have more posts that are similar to this in my Life and Happiness Index here…
I miss my Orange GTO. In the movie “Dazed and confused”, This car was driven by Kevin Pickford, played by Shawn Andrews. Two vehicles were used for this film, and they were acquired from GTO collectors through the local classified ads. One of the GTOs in Dazed and Confused was powered by a 455 High Output (H.O.) V8, and the entire film crew and cast members were delighted at the car’s ease in burning rubber. Cinematographers love tire smoke, and the GTO in this film delivered plenty of it.
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Can you believe that this is only part one?
Articles & Links
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Here are just some pretty decent websites, bookmarks, URL’s and sites that I would like to share. I think that there is something here for everyone. These, in my mind, are the “cream of the crop” of underappreciated websites, and some places that you all might want to visit.
My first up is a major personal favorite. I could spend hours flipping though the photos here…
Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring hundreds of thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s.
What is really cool about this site is that you can see what things were like “back in the day”. The visions of everyday life, the buildings, the cars, and the people are just wonderful to browse and explore.
It often carries me back to a simpler time…
Fall 1911. “The village street — Lee, Massachusetts.”
All the photos are in glorious clarity.
Most are black and white, but some are in color. Additionally, super high resolution photos are available for you to obtain, and put on your wall if you want. It’s a fantastic resource, and super fun. Not to mention, a great way to reconnect with our past.
Here’s another photo…
A tough-looking group and their Essex sedan somewhere in Northern California in 1929. From a box of negatives found in a thrift store.
And the photographs of the buildings are absolutely astounding. Seriously. Why in good-Gods name would these structures be demolished back in the 1960’s and 1970’s? What were people thinking?
New York circa 1910. “Bird’s eye view of new Pennsylvania Station.” Demolished in 1963.
Update 28APR21. Ol' Remus passed on. The website is still up but it hasn't been update in months. FYI.
From the beautiful photos to some thought-provoking articles. We go to the Woodpile Report. It’s glorious.
Here’s what it’s all about, from o’ Remus himself…
Woodpilereport.com is an entirely private information service that is my sole property made available to others as a form of free personal expression under my de jure Preamble Citizen’s right as later guaranteed in the First Article in Amendment to the Constitution.
Woodpilereport.com is not a “public accommodation” and it is preemptively exempt from any forced or coerced accommodation, via legislation or bureaucratic interpretation thereof or any dictate, directive, or decree by any agency of government or by any NGO or by any individual under any future “Fairness Doctrine” or similar charade.
I reserve the right to refuse service - to wit: to refuse posting, linking, or mention of anyone or anything, at my sole discretion - to any person, agency, corporation, or other entity.
Woodpile Report is from the Hermetic School of websites. There is no advertising, no partnerships, log-ins, popups, subscriptions, print version, Disqus, feedback section, tip jar or shop. There are no trackers, cookies, LSOs, analytics or widgets. Posted links are cleansed of superfluous identifiers.
The woodpile report is a wonderful weekly report by ol’ Remus.
He collects and reads the news and articles from all over the internet. Ones that he finds interesting, he places a paragraph or two and his opinions plus a link. These articles are what are of interest to him, and most lie outside the mainstream media.
As such, each week is a great cross section of alternative (non-mainstream) thought on the internet. There are great links to such diverse topics from canning, to history of old radios, to prepping, and opinions on modern American politics.
It’s all worth a visit. Don’t you know.
Like this here blog, it’s not a well-known and heavily trafficked site, and I think that part of what adds to it’s charms. Go ahead and take a visit, you will not be disappointed.
Here’s an example, as this screen capture can plainly show…
But, you know, I do like to look at art and enjoy the beauty and the meaning that lies with in. As such I often go to the…
The Art Renewal Center was founded by an Art Lover who was perplexed why museums and the “art industry” rejected the works of the old masters.
He wondered why, instead, they embraced the “new, progressive” art without form and meaning. (Such things like turd in a jar of olive oil, and a painting of dog foot prints on a white background.)
So, he built this website, and to his surprise, discovered that others, much like himself, were appalled at the treatment of the old artists, and the embrace of new “junk art”. He discovered that there is a world full of people, much like himself, that loved art for the sake of beauty and poetry. They, like himself, felt deprived as modern “progressive” thought was eradicating real beautiful art from society…
The Art Renewal Center was founded by an Art Lover who was perplexed why museums and the “art industry” rejected the works of the old masters, and embraced the “new, progressive” art without form and meaning.
He created a website that collected all the known beautiful works of art in the world, and offers them up for free to view and appreciate.
This is what he has to say about the Art Renewal Center…
Leading the revival of realism in the visual arts, the Art Renewal Center (ARC), a 501(c)(3), non-profit, educational foundation, hosts the largest online museum dedicated to representational art and includes works by the old masters, 19th century, and 21st Century Artists as well as articles, letters and other online resources.
The ARC is the foremost and only vetting service for representational art schools ensuring that the teaching curricula and quality of teacher and student work meet our strict standards to become ARC Approved™.
The ARC also runs the ARC Salon Competition, which is the largest and most prestigious competition in the world for realist artists painting, sculpting and drawing today with eleven categories and thousands of works competing, culminating in a traveling live exhibition of many of the winning works.
The ARC works with other ARC Allied Organizations™, artist groups, museums, and publications to become a central news hub for the 21st Century Representational Art Movement.
Read the ARC Philosophy written by ARC Chairman, Frederick C. Ross, to learn why ARC is so passionately dedicated to representational art.
Well, we know now, that the “new, modern, progressive art” is just a mechanism for transferring enormous sums of money. It does this back and forth between the global oligarchy so as to avoid the tracking and banking (read taxation) issues that the rest of us have to deal with.
Never the less, those of us that appreciate art, want to be exposed to it, and share our love of art with others. Thus this site.
Here, you can find many, many beautiful works of art done in the classical sense. This is the stop for beauty and art.
It’s got everything from the old masters…
Napoleon I and the King of Rome at Saint-Cloud by Francois Flameng , a member of the Academic Classical artist technique.
To new up and coming artists…
The International Figure Painting Competition is one of a series of competitions held by NTD Television. It is a platform for artists all around the world, to showcase their talents and jointly revive the traditional art of realistic oil painting.
I cannot stress how profoundly important this website is. As such, I am including ” The Philosophy of ARC”. If you agree with this philosophy, perhaps you might want to browse the collections and make a donation and become a member. They are doing great work. I’ll tell you what.
Fine art at its best has the power to move one to tears, or grab your sensibilities and rivet you in the moment with an overwhelming sense of beauty and excitement.
People often report the sensation of cold chills going up and down their spine. It may be the rare work that accomplishes this, but for those who have had this experience, many have credited it as the stimulus that set them on a personal lifetime quest; whether as an artist, collector or art historian.
Other human activities can create a similar experience, whether in poetry, literature, dance, theatre, or music, but it is the experience of beauty in fine art and beauty and its relationship to fine art that is the focus of this essay.
If you are reading this, in all probability you are one of the millions of art lovers who in the 21st Century are disillusioned with the Modernist paradigm which for more than a century has been the dominant way the concept of art has been taught and presented in nearly all institutions of higher learning throughout the world.
If you are like us, it seems more than a little self-evident to you that works of art have infinitely more to say and communicate if they portray the real world, or use figures and objects from the real world even when portraying fantasies and dreams.
You experience such "realist" works as infinitely more successful than any Modernist works.
The success of Modernism seems like a form of mass insanity, a nightmarish anomaly from which we pray the art world will finally soon awake.
For most of the 20th century, people who felt as we do, found themselves attracted to fine art in most if not all cases from having been to museums and fallen in love with a number of works of art created in the 15th through 19th centuries.
You may have wanted to become an artist yourself and were channeled by advisors into fine art courses taught in the art departments of colleges and Universities where you were promptly told that your instincts were all wrong.
That such works had a place in their time, but that modernist works were far superior.
What followed was an attempt to change your attitudes and beliefs and to convince you that works, which commemorated the destructions of some aspect of what used to be traditional Realism were the only worthwhile artworks and concepts.
You were never told that these "educators" had never themselves learned any of those skills needed by all artists during prior centuries, and so were completely bereft of any of the experience, skills and knowledge for which you had assumed your tuition bills would be paying.
They made you believe that they all could draw and paint but had chosen to abandon those skills due to some great epiphany.
If you were true to yourself and your feelings and beliefs, you probably left that "art" department and considered doing something else with your life.
Many of you went into commercial art.
Others became art historians, but most found other fields entirely. A rare few of you searched out and found one of a handful of ateliers who actually still taught the methods of the old masters. To the best of our knowledge there were 7 such ateliers in 1980 and all of them were taught by students of Pietro Annigoni or Ives Gammell1. Both atelier masters could trace their training seamlessly to the 19th century and beyond.
By 2002 when the Art Renewal Center decided to add to their website a section of ARC Approved® Ateliers schools the number of such schools had grown to 14 with each having between 5 and 15 students.
We added a map of the world where it became very easy to identify all the schools and to find the nearest one to any local. Within a few months the numbers of students able to find these schools started to grow geometrically, and today, just 14 years later, there are over 100 schools teaching the atelier style training and thousands of students.2
So, what do all these students and educators see that Modernists do not? And why is it that most educated people who are not part of the art world seem to also prefer traditional realism?3
It is the purpose of this essay to answer that question in the clearest most direct way possible, and to thereby help establish for artists and the consumers of art, a set of criteria by which they can judge works of art, understand their own preferences, and if needed, to arm them with the facts, concepts and information to deal with the modernists, educators and apologists who are constantly attacking and denigrating the skills and subjects which enable fine art.
The skills like with literature, poetry and theatre that enable us to communicate our shared humanity.
We will accomplish this by delineating a simple way to understand and define what fine art is. We will also look in particular at the aesthetic foundation of fine art as it evolved during the 19th Century and the Modernist juggernaut which almost lead to its complete suppression during most of the 20th Century.
The following information also advances criteria by which to view artists and movements, and help to determine why some works of art are experienced as beautiful and successful and why others seems to fall flat or are even boring.
It will hopefully also satisfy the needs of practicing artists to determine what type of art and subjects they wish to explore and which skills and techniques they will need to learn and practice in order to accomplish this.
As in all education, individuals should ultimately decide for themselves what makes sense and what is nonsense or babble.
CONTINUED HERE
The visual fine arts of drawing, painting and sculpture are best understood as a language … a visual language. Very much like spoken and written languages, it was developed and preserved as a means of communication. And very much like language it is successful if communication takes place and unsuccessful if it does not.
Fark is what Free Republic should of evolved into, instead of being bought-out by progressive liberal interests. People post links and a sort introductory paragraph, and others comment on it. It’s clean and just getting started. It has a lot of potential, and a healthy dose of sarcasm.
On Fark, people post links and a sort introductory paragraph, and others comment on it.
Boys like being mischievous and playing tricks. It’s a boy thing I suppose. (I just don’t remember any girls doing these types of things. Though, I am quite sure that they were involved in more cerebral activities playing “head games” with other girls.) Boys like to see the physical results of their torment. They want to see girls react in horror to a toad. They want to light firecrackers outside people’s bedrooms, and set bags of dog poo on fire on people’s porches.
When I was growing up, we would find these types and kinds of advertisements inside of our comic books and magazines. They would be full of all kinds of fun things to amuse a young child.
I remember as a boy how we had somehow come across a gadget catalog that was advertised in the back of one of the comic books that we would often read. You know the kind. Pages and pages of things like magic tricks, pranks, books on Black Magic, fake (pellet shooting) fingers, trick buzzers, masks and ”pea shooters”. As a kid, we loved it and wanted everything. We must have circled over a hundred items in that catalog.
I think that it is an interest of growing children to expand and explore these tricks and devices of prankster humor. Too bad that the days of yodeling pickles are long gone. Indeed, you need to leave the ultra-sanitized United States to find some politically incorrect playthings for your child to enjoy.
…Or, do you?
Let me introduce the reader to the Archie McPhee store.
This is the kind of place that is a young boy’s wet dream. Inside the store (physical as well as the Internet version) are absolutely enormous assortments of useless pursuits. They’ve got boxing nuns and bacon scarves. They’ve got yodeling pickles and finger hands. Don’t know what a finger hand is, well then go HERE to find out. They have stuff that only a madman could think of.
“Less talk. More monkey.”
How about rotisserie chicken flavored candy canes, emergency inflatable toast (why?), rubber chickens (big and small), and propeller beanies. Ah we all wanted one of these as a kid. They have trick gum, Holy toast, and bags of busted businessmen. They carry x-ray glasses (yes, you wanted these didn’t you?) and hypno-glasses, wind-up lederhosen, and strange action figures to include horrified movie victims. They’ve got everything from plastic arks, to singing fish. It’s a childhood delight. This store brings out the little kid in all of us. It’s many things, but above all, it’s the go-to place for plastic poop.
I just can’t stop! It’s such an amazing place.
“If there’s a heaven for the deranged, Archie McPhee is probably it.”
-Josh B in Seattle
There is a store in Seattle. The rest of us are limited to visiting their (most comprehensive) website.
Do yourself a favor. Let your child buy something from this store. Give them ten dollars to spend, and wait while they go back and forth, back and forth deciding what to buy. It’s all in good fun.
Here are some great articles that are out of the mainstream, yet do not fall under “doom porn”, ‘Global Warming” or “Reptilian Government secrecy”. LOL. Maybe some of the articles are out there, but they do make you think. And at that, it’s a good thing.
Leenks is another website where links are posted. These links tend to be entertainment links, and includes porn, memes, and articles worth a passing glance. If you are bored, this site will give you a ting or two to look at.
This is a reasonably decent conservative site with great links and organization. I tend to visit it from time to time to get my American-insanity political fix.
Ace of spades screen capture.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
