Jenny L. looked pretty good in the trailers. I was 5 1/2 when the ‘70s ended. Technically, the ABSCAM stuff was in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately, what could’ve been a premier opportunity to take out Sen. Pete Williams in NJ turned into another fiasco (as Lautencorpse took his place).
Personally, the era (late ‘70s) was a better time for me, for reasons some of you already know (even though as a kid, I was obviously insulated from the worst of it). I guess I have a warm, fuzzy feeling for it, the disco era, even though I wasn’t really old enough to partake of it (though I well remember the teens and adults did and my wanting to be older so I could, too... though by the time I was old enough, it was all gone). In other ways, though, it was an awful time for the country, as we had been in freefall for a decade (since about 1965), and leadership was almost as bad as now.
I can’t quite imagine a nostalgia for the current period (except perhaps in 3-4 decades things may well be far worse, so looking at it as better only in that regard) because now we have such a divided culture, and an undefined sense of fashion (which has been the case for over a decade now, which is highly unusual as almost every decade has had it).
Until the ‘90s, we still had a somewhat basic unity of culture and shared experiences to a degree (even if there were subcultures within), but that has come apart so dramatically in my lifetime. Cultural touchstones, values, etc. have been changed, and not for the better. Degradation is de rigeur.
I mean, what will we have warm and fuzzy feelings for ? The dangerous boy emperor fascist ? Neverending wars ? Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball ? Kandy-Ass West ? Even sports isn’t what it was anymore. Pampered multimillionaires who bring their thug hip hop culture with them ? Shock and outrage by the purveyors of degradation and filth over a bearded man who expresses what was, for most of my life, a mainstream Christian viewpoint ?
A sick, degraded and shameful era with no sense of class or style, let alone direction (except down).
Just imagine. “Hey do you guys remember Trayvon, Miley Cyrus before she got fat and ODed, stupid “celebrity” baby names and the destruction of the American health care system? Fun times!!” That sentence will never be spoken. Will the youngest generation die without ever experiencing nostalgia?
OTOH I recently saw a picture of all my uncles with 70’s hair. Yikes! ;p