1979, one of my favorite years, immortalized in the video below. Billy Corgan grew up in suburban Chicago, and must of had a similar experience as I. The end of a crazy decade, the end of disco, the approaching end of innocence.
I grew up in Denver, and video’s just like I remember: We just got our driver’s licenses, driving around, going to parties, swimming in rich people’s pools (then throwing their deck furniture into the pool), T-P’ing houses of “dorks”, trying to get people to buy us beer outside the convenience store, generally raising hell as much as possible.
It was a simpler time. Fake ID’s used to work. You could have parties underage, and the police would just tell you to go home (and not send in the SWAT team). People seemed much more relaxed. It seemed like such a free and fun time. No cell phones or internet, cable was just getting started. Kids still used to play outside; parents let their kids go out at night and have fun (and get into trouble). People seemed cooler, and they were; less uptight and angry. Maybe our brains just filter out all the bad stuff, and we only remember to good. Well, so be it. Happy 1979!
Factoids from 1979:
February 1: Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
February 2: Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is found dead aged 21 of a heroin overdose in New York City, the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail.
February 18 – The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes.
March 8 – Philips demonstrates Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
March 25 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.
April 1- Iran’s government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA.
May 9- A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
May 25-American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O’Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U. S. history.
July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
July 11 – NASA’s first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months
August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
September 7 – The first cable sports channel, ESPN, known as the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, is launched.
October 17 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series. Willie Stargell is named the Series MVP.
November 3 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a “Death to the Klan” rally.
November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
December 3- Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
December 6 – The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
December 24- The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin which begins the war.
Occurred in 1979 (dates unknown):
The One Child Policy is introduced in China – it has since prevented about 400 million births.
VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.
The first usenet experiments are conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.
Worldwide per capita oil production reaches a historic peak.
McDonald’s introduces the Happy Meal in June.
Lego’s golden age begins.
Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.
Share your experiences…
Chicago999444 says:
I guess 1979 was the end of “innocence” if you were a teen in the 70s.
The end of my “innocence” came much earlier, like in 1959, at the age of 7, when the Clutter killing in Kansas broke on the news, and I learned that there were people out there who killed just because they liked to kill.
There never was any age of “innocence”, sappy 1950s TV shows notwithstanding.
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20th February 2013 at 2:56 pm
Cynical30 says:
Ah what a good year. I was 2
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20th February 2013 at 3:15 pm
Zarathustra says:
I came down with acute appendicitis during finals week and spent three days in the hospital. I had to take incompletes in all my courses, which resulted in me having to take a term off to catch up. Major bummer.
In the hospital I had this hot nurse, and this was when they still wore the tight fitting white dresses. Since I had painkillers upon request, I had her shoot me up (well actually she shot it into the IV line) with demerol to watch Johnny Carson and afterwards, Tom Snyder (the tomorrow show).
PS, I absolutely hated Disco and the disco culture.
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20th February 2013 at 3:25 pm
Eddie says:
After having been a college drop-out and having worked in a foundry for two years, I met the lady who became the mother of my children. She talked me into going back to college. We lived on campus in married student housing in 1979 and had a really great year. We took a number of classes together that year, including comparative anatomy, human physiology and qualitative analysis.
This song doesn’t really have any great personal significance for me, but it’s a fantastic tune anyway, and it made me into a Smashing Pumpkins fan.
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20th February 2013 at 3:31 pm
Olga says:
The 70’s were a trip – (graduated HS in ’78) – but I also think we were “neglected” as much as “allowed”.
Having a bunch of checked out adults – exhausted or bitter at having experienced the 60’s – and a generation of new teens aware enough to run under the radar and confusion ensues. It was simpler and more relaxed but perhaps because people were too tired and drained – or too jaded and cynical.
There was a quote from The 4th Turning that sticks in my mind – and I’m paraphrasing – coming just behind the boomers was like going to an amusement park only to find it destroyed by the previous group. After the sixties I suspect we had to really work at making waves – people just didn’t seem to give a fuck.
My HS teachers and the parents – in a small Midwestern town of 4K – seemed even at the time to be confused and distracted, bitter or resigned, it was as if the 60’s existed between us – they were too old to have participated and we had been too young – but there it was, the elephant in the room.
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20th February 2013 at 3:36 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
1979 was the best year of my life. Truly. I grew up in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis. My Dad was a successful stamp dealer and I had no real worries. I was going off to college and my parents surprised me with a 1979 white Trans Am with a blue eagle and blue interior. Yep, they literally surprised me.
I had graduated that spring from Missouri Military Academy and was attending Tulane University in New Orleans as an undergraduate. My parents sent me to the military school because I had been expelled from one private school up here and suspended twice from the junior high. By today’s standards my conduct was pretty tame(drinking, firecrackers and hooky) but back then I was branded a major war criminal. Off to military school.
Anyway I started Tulane the fall of 1979. I remember driving down to New Orleans, taking back roads instead of the interstate. I had a cb radio(remember those)and was pulling a uhaul trailer with general college bullshit including I remember a Motobecane bike which at the time was some tricked out French bicycle. I didn’t have a care in the world. I literally just drove south. I didn’t have a map, figuring I would hit the Gulf of Mexico and then head either east or west. That’s how a eighteen year old thinks. If the road sign said south I took it. I remember driving through the Ozarks and ending up in Texarkana, Arkansas. I eventually ended up in Opelusas, La. which is west of Baton Rouge and THEN took the interstate into New Orleans.
God was it fucking hot and humid in New Orleans in August. My roommate was Howie Milgram from “Longgiland” New York. He had a suitcase filled with bootleg Grateful Dead cassettes. I had never heard “The Dead” before but boy did I learn about them that year. I didn’t realize the song “Morning Dew” was the most cosmic creation yet but Howie set me straight.
Because I had gone to a military school my study habits were really good. I was really squared away academically. I was serious but learned to enjoy myself(like I needed to learn)
Before Tulane I never even thought of taking drugs. Within ten days of hitting the dorm I was smoking pot, thai stick, qualudes, hash, even some LSD. It was like giving whiskey to indians. I remember my first LSD trip in the dorm listening to Frank Zappa’s Dynamo Hum. That’s not a good song for an eighteen year old Minnesota boy to hear with a head full of acid.
I remember what an adventure New Orleans was, the sights, the smells. Think what it was like going from a ROTC environment to a place like “Nawlins”. I remember getting really stoned at about 10AM in the dorm and then driving down St. Charles ave. with its mansions to the French Quarter and walking around and taking in all the ambiance. I didn’t realize how good I had it, but maybe I did. God Damn was I happy that freshman year; good academics, partying, and meeting friends I still have.
I’ve always said Louisiana is the closest thing to going to a foreign country without leaving the United States. 1979 and the next three years were my happiest days. Then came graduation and adulthood. Not nearly as fun.
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20th February 2013 at 3:56 pm
matt says:
I remember being at a party and seeing the plane crash in Chicago on tv. I was with a little hottie named Carla, we were both 15. I think Budweiser was $2.10 a six-pack, $3.00 for tall-boys.
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20th February 2013 at 4:18 pm
Administrator says:
I was 16 years old in 1979 driving a crappy Ford Capri.
Some awesome rock albums that year:
The Wall – Pink Floyd
London Calling – The Clash
Rust Never Sleeps – Neil Young
Highway to Hell – AC/DC
Breakfast in America – Supertramp
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20th February 2013 at 4:23 pm
ncognito1959 says:
1979 was the most important year in my life. It was the year I bought my first house . I was 20 yrs old and paid 62k for it here in Southern California. I only had one option for my loan and it was an FHA 30 yr fixed. Rates had just climbed to 10% for this mortgage. My payment, including PMI and property insurance was 600 per month.
In fact I had a great job back then and was still initially denied the loan. My parents had to co-sign with me. Yeh, they actually cared at the bank if I was going to pay it back.
After this time, we had a recession and then good old Ronald Reagan came in, who I voted for. Things changed quickly. I was told by everyone that I needed a credit card and to use it. This would help my credit rating apparently. Debt and leverage all of a sudden become good.
As 1979 lead into the 1980s, me and my cronies put down our bongs and picked up our suitcases because the new goal in life was to make as much money as possible. Between the company training and packed junior colleges, we retrained ourselves for the new world. It was all about leverage in terms of investments.
1979, yes, that was the year when I feel like we began to sell our souls.
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20th February 2013 at 4:25 pm
Stucky says:
I got married in Dec 1979. I didn’t know it at the time, but 1979 was one of the worst years of my life.
Jimmeh — I saved my money while in the Air Force. When I got out I purchased a 1975 Ford Capri. LOL I believe it was about $3,800. Paid cash. Lasted me for 4 years of college and 2 years after that. Had about 115k miles on it when I totaled it. Never had a single problem with it …. except when I drove from CA to NJ it barely made it up and through the Rockies and Pokonos. Fuckin’ way underpowered.
I was going to post a picture. But, I’m too embarrassed.
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20th February 2013 at 4:36 pm
AWD says:
I was driving a Volkswagen beatle P.O.S.
Supertramp was great. But Van Halen ruled.
PMOY Monique St. Pierre
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20th February 2013 at 4:36 pm
AWD says:
August 1979 Playmate Dorothy Stratten:
Was later murdered by her psycho ex-boyfriend. Movie was made “Star 80″
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20th February 2013 at 4:39 pm
JIMSKI says:
Freshman year of high school. Discovered beer. Good friend had his parents leave him with a fully paid for house and told him he would have to keep the lights and the gas on. We held monthly gas and electric parties that people still talked about into the nineties.
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20th February 2013 at 4:41 pm
Eddie says:
I had hair.
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20th February 2013 at 4:44 pm
Persnickety says:
I was in preschool. I had it pretty good. Except then my parents got divorced, and life was unstable for a couple of years (not awful, just unstable). I have the vaguest memory of red white and blue being popular colors, the awful colors for home furnishings, and McDonalds actually tasting good.
1979 was the last year that the US really could have made a choice to stay self-contained, walk softly and carry a big stick, and be prosperous internally. Instead it would be followed by Ray-gun, feel good military, demolition of the middle class and US industry and the necrotizing empire we have today.
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20th February 2013 at 4:56 pm
IndenturedServant says:
I was in elementary school in Great Falls, MT. For some strange reason they let me into a TAG class where they taught us to make pinhole cameras with cardboard, foil, a piece of film and some tape. We used the cameras to photograph a total eclipse of the Sun.
I fell in love with the two most beautiful airplanes ever built…….an EB-57 Canberra in orange, black and polished aluminum and an SR-71 Blackbird in radar absorbing black. A visiting Blackbird broke all the windows in a south wall of our school one day that year when it exceeded the sound barrier causing a sonic boom.
That was also the year I broke my damn ankle! Thirty four years later it is causing more trouble than I ever imagined possible. It has introduced me to humility in an intimate way. I suppose that’s a good thing.
My brothers and I all got Chickenpox that Christmas and spent an hour outside playing in our underwear. We believed that it helped alleviate the itch. Mom was pissed because the snow was deep but we had a blast. Dad though we were nuts. I think we got punished with cookies and hot chocolate.
Montana was a kick ass place to spend 4 years as a kid. Hunting, fishing, camping, shootin’ guns, digging fossils, collecting rocks, Boy Scouts, being told another Ice Age would occur before we died of old age…………. Life was good!
I_S
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20th February 2013 at 5:18 pm
matt says:
Eddie,
I had hair then too, I looked like Ted Frickin’ Nugent back then. Now, more like George Carlin (RIP).
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20th February 2013 at 5:19 pm
IndenturedServant says:
cahuitabeachbound says:
“Before Tulane I never even thought of taking drugs. Within ten days of hitting the dorm I was smoking pot, thai stick, qualudes, hash, even some LSD. It was like giving whiskey to indians. I remember my first LSD trip in the dorm listening to Frank Zappa’s Dynamo Hum. That’s not a good song for an eighteen year old Minnesota boy to hear with a head full of acid.”
ROFLMAO! Man! I can totally relate! It was about 5 years later and the song was different but almost everything else was the same!
Thanks for the laugh!
I_S
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20th February 2013 at 5:29 pm
TPC says:
My mom and dad were 15.
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20th February 2013 at 5:31 pm
Administrator says:
The movies from 1979 were great. One of my top 5 all-time – Apocalypse Now
Others:
Manhattan
Kramer versus Kramer
Alien
Breaking Away
Being There
Life of Brian
Mad Max
China Syndrome
The Jerk
Norma Rae
10
The Warriors
Rock and Roll High School
North Dallas Forty
Meatballs
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20th February 2013 at 5:48 pm
Administrator says:
Top Television Shows of 1979
60 Minutes
Three’s Company
That’s Incredible
M*A*S*H
Alice
Dallas
Flo
The Jeffersons
The Dukes of Hazzard
One Day at a Time
WKRP in Cincinnati
Goodtime Girls
Archie Bunker’s Place
Taxi
Eight Is Enough
Little House on the Prairie
House Calls
Real People
CHiPs
Happy Days
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20th February 2013 at 5:54 pm
Muck About says:
1979 was a good year.. I had just finished a seven year contract out in the Marshall Islands (that I would see again in 1994) and took a job up in the wild and wooly Scottish country around Holy Loch – cross the Clyde from Greenoch…
I was servicing a super-secret communication project for John Hopkins Univ. who was working for the Navy at the time. I had equipment on every boomer that called at Holy Loch for replenishment.
I’d written my own contract to include a review every 6 months of dollar/pound inflation (which was roaring along at a great rate at the time, if you’ll remember), so I got a raise every 6 months wither on not I deserved it.
At the end of 1979, I quit a 20 year career with RCA, came back to the USA, went through a lovely DIY school called “Shelter Institute” in Bath, Maine. Thence to the back woods of Northern Idaho (where we happened to have a ten acre tracts bought years before) and I took three years off — One year to build a simple log cabin (HA!) (turned out to be a 2400 ft. square passive solar home with a 32 foot greenhouse on the South side of it) and took the 2nd and 3rd year to go back to school to get my first degree at the tender age of 45.
Money? No sweat when your fixed expenses were $60 a month for power and telephone, I shot the meat and my sweetie grew the veggies. I think we ate muley meat in ever possible way from broiled chops to barbecue to sausage to stir fry to gosh only knows what. My sweetie was creative!
Yep, 1979 was a good year – the early 80′s even better – I remember getting 16 percent interest on a $50K CD, which more than covered our humble living expenses and college tuition for yours truly.
MA
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20th February 2013 at 6:00 pm
Eddie says:
North Dallas Forty. Hadn’t thought of that one in a while.Great movie.
Manhattan is the ONLY Woody Allen movie I really like.
Life of Brian…probably one of my top ten.
TV sucked then already. I was losing interest.
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20th February 2013 at 6:03 pm
AWD says:
One of my not so close friends had a Ford Capri. We were all jealous, the Capri was styled and built in Europe. Very hoy paloy.
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20th February 2013 at 6:14 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
Administrator:
Manhatten is the BEST. My favorite line is where Yale tells Woody Allen “You think you’re god”.
Woody Allen replies “I have to model myself after SOMEONE!”.
I haven’t thought of “North Dallas 40″ in a while. “Hello Assholes!”
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20th February 2013 at 6:36 pm
Nomad says:
I was a 10 year old X-Kid at the time, growing up in a suburb right outside of the Bronx.
My bike was my main mode of transportation and I rode without a helmet and didn’t know I was in danger.
I had long shaggy hair, ripped jeans with baseball cards in the back pocket and a pocket knife in the front and a hole in my one and only pair of sneakers.
I got to hang out with my 17 year old cousin Tony, a high school dropout with a 1969 Nova SS with a 472 and a bad attitude. He would drive me around cranking AC/DC Highway to Hell and let me smoke his Marlboros. One night his girlfriend pulled off her shirt and showed me her tits in the back seat of that car.
I got into a fist fight in school, got a black eye and served a one day after school detention; my parents weren’t notified of the incident. I told my father and he laughed and patted me on the head.
I got my front tooth knocked out playing a game of tackle football with no equipment.
My friends and I blow up the post office street corner mail box with an M80 on the Fourth of July.
My dog wondered the streets on his own with no leash.
My father would drive my friends and me around in the back of his pickup truck.
I had a paper route to earn some cash.
My father worked construction and my Mom was a secretary we didn’t have much but my sisters and I didn’t know it.
My childhood could not be more different from my kid’s childhood.
Today my kids have 10 times more than I ever had but I wouldn’t trade my childhood for theirs for anything in the world.
1979, I will always remember that year as true freedom. It seems I did what I wanted when I wanted and I didn’t have a care in the world.
Thanks for letting me walk down memory lane.
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20th February 2013 at 6:54 pm
AWD says:
“1979, I will always remember that year as true freedom. It seems I did what I wanted when I wanted and I didn’t have a care in the world.”
Great story Nomad. That was how I felt also.
We “borrowed” the neighbors new yellow 6.6 liter trans am and took it for a spin before I got my drivers license. We took about a 1/2 of rubber off the back tires by flooring it an popping the clutch. The neighbor kid about shit his pants, but no wreck, so no foul.
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20th February 2013 at 7:01 pm
Administrator says:
Didn’t they go cow hunting in North Dallas Forty?
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20th February 2013 at 7:04 pm
matt says:
I kinda feel bad for my kids, they will never experience times like the 70′s. I must have hitch-hiked a million miles between my house, the bowling alley, the lake, keg parties, etc….I didn’t have a car until I had my first job when I was 18, a lemon yellow Dodge Charger that I quickly totaled. Then the Chevelle, then the Challeneger and so on. I was more into Rainbow, Judas Priest, Pat Travers but AC/DC Highway to Hell was like my theme song, the whole album is sick and I still crank it today.
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20th February 2013 at 7:36 pm
Didius Julianus says:
I graduated HS in 1978. Was a freshman/sophomore at Ga Tech. Learned fortran on punchcards at Tech (don’t think about dropping one). Most terminals to the tech mainframe were 300 baud teletype terminals (no crt, get your response on paper). The luxurious 1200 baud crt terminals were highly sought to use. No characters, no graphics. Played trek on the time share against other tech nerds in the middle of the night keeping the midnight oil burning the the computer lab.
Drove a 1967 Mustang 289. A neat car but a POS too, seemed like it always had to have work. Learned to do a lot of it myself (brakes, tune up, littleish stuff).
Worked in a coin/stamp collectibles shop in a mall. Had a room mate I still keep in touch with today. We lived in a S*** box apartment. My parents lived elsewhere, paid my school and $125 towards rent. I paid the rest (another $100 or so), food, utilities, gas and everything else. Was a little tough at the time (me being a sheltered middle class nerd) but not bad at all, especially in hindsight.
Saw Van Halen and Mother’s Finest live!!!
Saw Richard Bone (google him or youtube) and his then group “Bone” live. He is now in NY I think and more avantgarde/atmospheric in his music. (Might have been 1980 when I saw him, can’t remember).
Used to jog around Stone Mountain with my best friend (who died in 1996, alas).
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20th February 2013 at 7:40 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
I don’t remember cow hunting. “Heellooo Assholes. We’re all assholes. I’m an asshole. You’re an asshole”. Later on in seminar..”I just want everyone to know I just went to the bathroom in my pants and I feel great!”.
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20th February 2013 at 7:55 pm
Eddie says:
It’s scene where the quarterback (Mack Davis) takes the psycho guy (linebacker?) and a couple of others out on someones large ranch and they go bananas shooting off guns at anything that moves.
Actually this is not that unusual a form of recreation in Texas.
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20th February 2013 at 8:00 pm
Nomad says:
AWD,
“Borrowed” the neighbors Trans Am, that was great, I got a good laugh.
Loved reading all these stories, inspired me to call my old buddy and make planes to go out for a few beers this weekend and reminisce.
Long live 1979!!!
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20th February 2013 at 9:18 pm
Scott says:
AWD
I was a senior in high school in 1979. My favorite sitcom was Three’s Company. I grew up in Cincinnati and remember the “Who” rock concert tragedy at Riverfront Coliseum very well. That’s about all you would see on the local news channels for weeks. Just two years earlier that winter the Ohio River would freeze completely over at -30. We went down to walk across it and a guy drove his VW Bug on to the ice. I finally got to see the “Who” in concert at their 1982 “Farewell tour of the US” Some friends of mine managed to get tickets to the Nov 29th concert at Rupp Arena in Lexington. What a great concert! I still have the ticket stub.
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20th February 2013 at 9:33 pm
Cahuitabeachbound says:
I just realized I was confusing North Dallas Forty with Semi Tough.
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20th February 2013 at 11:27 pm
printmemoney says:
Can’t fuck with Apocalypse Now and Mad Max
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20th February 2013 at 11:32 pm
howard in nyc says:
senior year, UC Santa Barbara. so many girls. at the time, it seemed i was hardly ever getting laid. looking back, i was drowning in white girls compared to the rest of my life.
i was headed to grad school in physical therapy. three important advisors/mentors told me i should try to go to medical school. i lacked confidence; they talked me into trying it. worked out.
my best friend was promoting concerts. every weekend it seems, it was working a show, going to a show. popular music on commercial radio was excellent. disco was dead. the hipster college music was fantastic too. talking heads; tom petty; graham parker; nick lowe; dave edmunds; joy division; buzzcocks; joe jackson; robert fripp; ry cooder; the damned. lowell george was still alive (until the summer). so much great music i got to see live.
and i have damn near all those vinyl records still. including about six or seven copies (counting all formats–cassette, CD, special edition colored vinyl, special promotional versions) of Squeezing Out Sparks by Graham Parker and the Rumour–the best thing about that year (except maybe that blonde cheerleader).
yeah, that was a good one, 1979.
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20th February 2013 at 12:00 am
SSS says:
1979 eats shit. It was just a slice of the long, slow, drug-induced slide into hell. With James Earl Carter leading the way at the head of the long gas lines.
Jeez, what a bunch of maroons with selective memories.
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20th February 2013 at 12:02 am
Didius Julianus says:
Well SSS, 1979 was a pre-awareness year for most of us, why shouldn’t it look good!
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20th February 2013 at 12:05 am
anotherjuan says:
Stucky – “except when I drove from CA to NJ it barely made it up and through the Rockies and Pokonos. Fuckin’ way underpowered.”
one of the guys tried that trip from edwards straight thru, next time i saw him, he was wearing a cast on his arm. i asked what happened to him, he said he fell asleep, perhaps in philly, wrecked his gorgeous black camaro.
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20th February 2013 at 12:25 am
eugend66 says:
I was 13 in 1979. I also started to skip hours at school and smoking. Life was good back then even in a socialist country. Food shortages and black-outs only started after 1987.
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20th February 2013 at 1:42 am
Gubmint cheese says:
1979….A year of contrasts.
I lived 12 miles from TMI.
We could see the cooling towers from our HS football field. We prepared for permanent evacuation.
Not so much fun.
Drag racing our muscle cars, 4 wheeling, partying, taking our shotguns to school and hunting afterwards….
Lots ‘o fun.
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20th February 2013 at 8:53 am
AWD says:
“April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA.”
Great stories all. SSS was starting to have prostate problems in 1979, and they hadn’t invented Viagra for him yet.
Jimmy Carter was an imbecile, but at least he wasn’t evil and dangerous like Obama.
A swamp rabbit:
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20th February 2013 at 10:58 am
Stucky says:
” …. one of the guys tried that trip from edwards straight thru …” anotherjuan
I left George AFB, Victorville, CA at noon on a Friday. I was in the classroom at 11AM Monday morning in Piscataway, NJ (Rutgers). I fell asleep in class. Really.
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20th February 2013 at 12:20 pm
anotherjuan says:
nice base, certainly better than edwards. tdy there it before it closed, turned into a logistics landing site.
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20th February 2013 at 8:36 pm
Punk in Drublic says:
I was born that year.
Also, Skylab fell. Another step in the road to space.
I read an article the other day about a company that is looking into mining asteroids in the not too distant future! Looking for fuel, gasses. They want to launch some “probes” to sample some know asteroids and run some tests. Super cool. We’re getting pretty good at throwing shit up there.
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20th February 2013 at 10:22 pm
anotherjuan says:
“We’re getting pretty good at throwing shit up there.” inner space is littered with satellites. doesn’t look encouraging with the limited height achieved by manned space flight. asteroid would have to come within 300 to 400 miles of us. little green men is not far from what we would have to do, find some vertically challenged astronaut(s) we could launch in a modified prius atop a retrofitted atlas rocket
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20th February 2013 at 10:59 pm
TeresaE says:
@SSS, seems many of the posters were either teens, or young adults in ’79, how on earth could it be a bad time for us?
Just like the kids NOW, whom are living on mom & dad’s paychecks, disability or retirement and living the life of Riley.
They are going to think TODAY are the “good ole days” someday.
We, if still around while they are reminiscing, will think they have gone and lost their minds.
Perspective.
And my gawd you have such a hard on for a human behavior that predates Christianity. Stunning really.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your trips down memory lane y’all. Fabulous to remember just how different our world was then.
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20th February 2013 at 7:45 pm