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In 1974, the world was a different place.
There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo. Or Stumbleupon, for that matter.
In 1974, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was The Godfather Part II. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.
Remember, that was before there were DVDs. People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty. And mostly all of that without 3D computer effects.
Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to The Godfather Part II. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Amarcord. The top actor was Art Carney for his role as Harry Coombes in Harry and Tonto. The top actress was Ellen Burstyn for her role as Alice Hyatt in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The best director? Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II.
In the year 1974, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time wasCentennial by James A. Michener. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover!
In 1974... Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France. West Germany beats the Netherlands 2-1 to win the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Stephen King publishes his first novel, Carrie, under his own name. A Japanese World War II soldier, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, surrenders in the Philippines. A coup in Portugal restores democracy. Most OPEC nations end a 5-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan. Ceefax, one of the first public service information systems, is started by the BBC. WIPO becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations. Japanese Red Army members seize the French Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands. The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status. The Arecibo radio telescope sends an interstellar radio message towards the M13 Great Globular Cluster. The message will reach its destination around the year 27,000.
That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.
The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Eyvind Johnson. The Nobel Peace prize went to Seán MacBride and Eisaku Sato. The Nobel prize for physics went to Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish from the United Kingdom for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?
The 1970s were indeed a special decade. Women's liberation continued. The hippie culture faded. There was an opposition to the Vietnam war, and nuclear weapons. The environmentalist movement began. Tom Wolfe coined the decade the "Me decade" due to a new self-awareness. Mao Zedong died and the market began to liberate in China. There was an oil crisis. After the first oil shock, gasoline was rationed in many countries. In Eastern Europe, Soviet-style command economies begin showing signs of stagnation. The Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, witness the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Who, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Bee Gees, Abba and others play their music. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all die at the age of 27. The space mission Apollo 13 nearly ends in disaster. Egypt signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. There was a revolution in Iran. The world sees its first general microprocessor. The C programming language makes its debut. Consumer video games show up on the scene. Microwave ovens become commercially available. Margaret Thatcher was victorious in the UK elections.
Do you remember the movie that was all the rage when you were 15?Dead Poets Society. Do you still remember the songs playing on the radio when you were 15? Maybe it was Two Hearts by Phil Collins. Were you in love? Who were you in love with, do you remember?
In 1974, 15 years earlier, a long time ago, the year when you were born, the song Rock Me Gently by Andy Kim topped the US charts. Do you know the lyrics? Do you know the tune? Sing along.
Ain't it good
Ain't it right
That you are with me
Here tonight
The music playin'
Our bodies swayin' in time
...
Ain't it right
That you are with me
Here tonight
The music playin'
Our bodies swayin' in time
...
There's a kid outside, shouting, playing. It doesn't care about time. It doesn't know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is forever. You were once that kid.
When you were 9, the movie The Man Who Wasn't There was playing. When you were 8, there was The Dark Crystal. When you were 7, there was a Disney movie out called The Fox and the Hound. Does this ring a bell?
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1974. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV isLand of the Lost. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's Rhoda on now. That's the world you were born in.
Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? The technology available today would have blown your mind in 1974. Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? Microfinance. The Rubik's Cube. The Hybrid Vehicle.
Feel it coming on
Bloody as the day I was born
It's 1974
Just like the day I was born
It's 1974
...
That's from the song 1974 by Ryan Adams.
In 1974, a new character entered the world of comic books: Deathlok. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1974,Alanis Morissette was born. And Kate Moss. Leonardo Dicaprio, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It's 2011.
The world is a different place.
What path have you taken?
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I remember some of those things. I remember going to The Fox & The Hound with my Brother and Mom. Never read those books, I don't remember those songs. But a lot has happened since 1974.
