On the New York Times Best Sellers Lists that year were: Deliverance, Papillon, Rich Man, Poor Man, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, Chariot of the Gods, Islands in the Stream, Love Story, and The Crystal Cave.
A first class letter cost 6¢to mail. The average house cost $32,000. CIGARETTES WERE 37¢ A PACK.
On TV we watched the Newlywed Game, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dating Game, Here’s Lucy, Lassie, Ironside, Hogan’s Heroes, Gunsmoke, and The Flip Wilson Show among many others.
In “counter culture” news the problems of Biafra begin to be addressed when civil war ended in Nigeria. Led Zeppelin II is the #1 album as the year begins. The #1 song is Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. The Chicago 8 becomes the Chicago 7 and they are acquitted of some charges, but 5 are found guilty and sentenced. Cassius Clay becomes Muhammed Ali. The #1 R&B song is Call Me by Aretha Franklin.
On May 4th four students are killed at Kent State University in Ohio, an event that shocks the nation. SENATE APPROVES THE BILL TO OUTLAW CIGARETTE ADS ON TV AND RADIO, EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1971. The #1 single is Let It Be by the Beatles. The #1 album is Bridge Over Troubled Water. Student unrest forces closure of 400 universities and colleges in May. Paul McCartney says he wants to spend more time with his family and that he will no longer record with John Lennon. The first Earth Day is held. University demonstrations continue despite closures. Chubby Checker is arrested in Niagara Falls for possession of hashish, marijuana and drug capsules. The Manson trial opens in June. The #1 album is Woodstock. New York rules that abortion is legal in that state if the doctor and his female patient agree. Caesar Chavez’s grape boycott ends, the lettuce boycott begins. The #1 album is Blood, Sweat and Tears 3. The ERA Amendment passes a vote in the House. Tarot cards are very popular. It is announced that draft evasion has increased by a factor of ten over the last five years.
In the fall birth control pills enclose the first warnings of possible side effects. Timothy Leary escapes from prison to live in Algeria. In September Jimi Hendrix dies of barbiturate intoxication. In October Janis Joplin dies of an apparent heroin overdose after completing the album Pearl. The cartoon Doonesbury first appears. The #1 album in early November is Led Zeppelin 3, in late November, Abraxes by Santana. The #1 R&B album is Super Bad by James Brown. The New York Times predicts communal living as a trend. As the year ends Paul McCartney files suit for legal dissolution of the Beatles.
In “mainstream” news Diana Ross leaves the Supremes. The #1 song is I Want You Back by the Jackson 5. The Supreme Court orders complete integration in the South by February 1st. Vietnamese leaders say that POW’s are criminals and that their names will not be released. The first Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet flight takes place. Twenty school districts defy the February 1st integration order. Unemployment rises throughout the year. The Nerf ball is introduced. Integration battles heat up in March. We are still in Vietnam and the fighting escalates. A Gallup poll reveals that 86% of Americans are against busing to achieve racial balance. An emergency occurs on Apollo 13 concerning oxygen supplies and power. Astronauts are able to finish the mission, but it is a very tense situation. The US invades Cambodia temporarily in a very unpopular move. We leave before year’s end. The SALT talks (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) reopen. Racial violence in Augusta, Georgia forces the government to call out the National Guard.
Police kill two black students during violence at Jackson State University. The IOC bans South African athletes from future Olympic games until apartheid ends. Eighteen to twenty-one year olds win the right to vote. A picture phone is developed by Bell. High pollution levels are announced on the East Coast. The #1 single is (They Long to Be) Close to you by the Carpenters. Platform shoes are in style for both men and women. The midi length is introduced. The U S provides weapons and troops to Cambodia. The first no-fault insurance law passes in Massachusetts. An extreme Arab commando group hijacks three America-bound aircraft over Europe.
In the fall the South complies with integration laws. NASA cuts the space program. Vietnam vets demonstrate against the war. The Partridge Family, The Odd Couple, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiere on TV. The Phil Donohue Show goes national. 40,000 more troops withdraw from Vietnam. A cyclone strikes the coastal island of Bangladesh killing 20,000. Fondue is in. One million cans of tuna are recalled due to high mercury levels.
Chapter 23
The Taylors
I still see my Taylor clan although not every Sunday. Mom may
cry over this abortion but she doesn’t share it with me. I cry over the
abortion but I don’t want to share it with anyone. In 1970 New York State makes
abortion legal. Maybe it was better to go to London. It’s not a place I see
every day, but it cost so much money, money my family doesn’t have. I feel
guilty about the money but I can’t pay it back right now. Mom and Dad did not
tell my sisters and brothers about the abortion. Even so I know I am a constant
topic of conversation, outrage and worry.
Obviously I did not feel very welcome at home right now. I
would go home for weddings. It seemed as if everyone was getting married. I put
on dresses to go to weddings and tried to look normal. I had a shag hair cut at
the time so my hair was not all freaked out. There are pictures of all those
weddings in the family albums. In every picture I have a cigarette in my hand.
My outfits were nothing like everyone else’s I definitely stood out, not
necessarily in a good way.
My language has disintegrated a lot. My conversation consists
of “far out, “out a’sight”, far fucking out,” groovy,” “can you dig it”, “what
a hassle,” and “fan-fucking-tastic.” For this I went to college. I could not
talk about my life to these wedding guests. They wouldn’t understand. I could
not talk about the war in Vietnam, Black Power, integration, White guilt
(Afro-American and Native American), the military-industrial complex, or the
environment. I could talk about women’s liberation because the guys loved to
make fun of that. I couldn’t talk about “the revolution”, which I saw as
peaceful but profound. I did not think America would ever be the same. No one
wanted to talk about these things at weddings. They wanted to be light-hearted
and gossip and play. I didn’t want to talk about anything else. I was a bummer.
Of course, I couldn’t talk about these things “at home” either because no one
wanted to, but we had music and marijuana. I didn’t need to talk about their
lives, I thought. They were living lives we were brought up to live,
predictable, boring and hopelessly middle class. At least I had a job to talk
about when everyone asked, “What are you doing these days?” I certainly couldn’t
say sleeping with two guys and staying stoned as often as possible.
Robert got engaged to Ellen that summer. She is Catholic; he
is not. He doesn’t switch for her but he agrees to raise the children as
Catholics. They will have a wedding at St. Bridget’s in Smithvale. His friends
tease him unmercifully but he pays them no mind. He’s shy about being the
center of attention but his sense of humor is intact. She will definitely be
the leader in the marriage, drinking will always be a problem, but he will
always hold a good job and will be a surprisingly responsible dad, considering
how he tortured everyone in his younger years.
Felicity is pregnant with her second child. She is a great
mom. Abby is happy and always dressed to the nines. Dean is all cleaned up, all
‘hoodiness’ gone and very presentable. She keeps her house like she keeps her
family. She was right. She is good at this and she’s happy. Abby is learning to
talk, one of the most delightful stages toddlers go through, and we are all
endlessly entertained by her.
Tyler has a job repossessing cars. It’s dangerous and Sara,
although supportive, is not overjoyed about it. He is offered a job with a
local corporation, a safer managerial job. He will stay with this job until he
retires. They will be moved around all over the eastern United States. Their
twins, Brendan and Sean, are never ‘toddler talkers’. They go right to full
sentences, although for a while they invent their own language, which only Sara
can understand. Tyler, Sara and the boys have been living in a small village
forty minutes north of Smithvale. They bought an old house, gutted it, and are
now rebuilding it. With two toddlers and one very nervous mom, I’m not sure how
Sara keeps her sanity. They will have to leave the house unfinished to go off
to Chicago and someone else will inherit all their hard work. Tyler and Sara
are a team with a vision for the future.
Gertie is also pregnant again. Timmy is smiley and chubby as
ever. He is also a dream child. Sunny and social and smart, I have never seen
him in a temper. Jason brags that Timmy reads Playboy. What kind of father shows a toddler Playboy? His smarmy tastes don’t take hold, though I’m beginning to
have my doubts about Jason as a husband and father. But Gertie is happy. She’s
a social girl and they have lots of friends.
Rebecca, Emily, and Morgan are all in high school. They enjoy
their expanded family. Rebecca is a drum majorette and her friends have a band.
Emily is quieter. Her best friends are her sisters. Morgan is the baby. She’s
cute and drastically overprotected, but she’s feisty too. She has developed an
unhealthy passion for Jason’s troubled younger brother. With all the supervision
she gets she’s not in any real danger of derailing.
I am the ‘problem child’ in my family, which I never thought
I would be. Everyone was very protective of my parents and my treatment of them
was the main topic of conversation. I did not feel like I was deliberately
rebelling or that it was my intent to hurt my parents on purpose. But I was
arrogant. “Come the revolution” I would have the inside track on the new
American lifestyle.
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