The culture. The arts. The news. The time. Bay Area and national. Pure, solid radio. Very interesting times. Saturday, like all-time, was a cool day. Almost like today. Every now and then, like today, a gray day and cold and wet outsie, a good day to sip some coffee and listen to KGO. Early afternoon from 4-7 PM, I used to look forward to hearing JOHN L WASSERMAN, the CHRONICLE senior film critic and arts and theatre writer.
*The 70's was a cool time. Sure, there was conflicts and bad stuff but not the bad stuff we experience today. The culture was more pronounced and interesting, more invigorating. For one thing, we talked. Conversation and talking was simple and extraordinary without the fuss it's become in 2021 world. I don't know, but the coffee tasted better back then. Simple times creates much more ease and transition. Just sit back now and relish the past. I do.
I'll go ahead and make a giant pot of spaghetti tonight and listen to some jazz. It sounds good.
1977...Jimmy Carter had just started to run the country into the ground before being ousted. No "woke" news broadcasts. Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware (really? that long ago?). People who committed crimes were actually arrested. California wasn't broke and mismanaged for decades by Democrat one-party leadership. Maxine Waters was in the California State Assembly (really? that long ago?). A house was actually affordable. You didn't see homeless on every corner. You actually earned interest on your bank deposits. Dianne Feinstein was a politician (really? that long ago?). Men were men and women were women, no pronouns needed. People actually knew their neighbors. Good times!
ReplyDeleteHey, "Willie Brown"... Reagan set this country on the course to total destruction with his phony "trickle-down economics." And Baby Bush and the Tangerine Toddler sent us right into the dumper with their abject incompetence. Stop blaming the democrats. They are the ones who have to clean up the mess left behind by your boys in the GOP.
Delete> Jimmy Carter had just started to run the
Delete> country into the ground before being ousted.
Yeah, because under Richard "Watergate" Nixon and Gerald "Whip Inflation Now" Ford it was soooooooo great.
Reagan had a great solution. Ignore problems or blame them on "the previous administration." It worked. It's like the way people kid themselves. "Oh, I just gain weight like crazy. It's not the chocolate mousse pies I eat." Or, "I'm just naturally heavy." Reagan did that for the whole country. It worked. Jimmy Carter's "run into the ground" America was in a lot better shape than subsequent Americas. Starting with Reagan they just started counting unemployment, inflation and other stats differently. ("Weighted" measurements they now call them, weighted being fancy talk for fake.)
Difi was on the Board and soon to be mayor after elegantly handling the hideous assassination of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. She was the epitome of grace under pressure. There have been trans people since the dawn of human history. Maxine, as now, was a force to be reckoned with in the state legislature. California currently has a budget surplus.
DeleteA current year budget surplus while they have 1.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The state is broke. The Mercury News even called out Newsom for "playing Santa Claus". And what does he do with this surplus? Pay down some debt for future generations? Nope. Kick the can down the road and pander for recall votes.
DeleteI "think" I saw Star Wars that day.
ReplyDeleteI dug a good Wasserman column as much as anyone - his take on the Osmonds was a classic, also Wayne Newton - but "unfortunately" when he was driving drunk he took out someone else, as well as himself. Old-time SF nostalgia isn't enough to revere him. I'm sure the survivors of the victim he plowed into and killed would agree.
ReplyDeleteI liked Rich's post but DTWB's memory must be fading. Home prices skyrocketed during the 70s -- that is why Prop 13 passed in 78, and the Board of Stupes passed "Emergency" rent control in 1979, affecting hundreds of mom and pop two- and three-flat owners.
ReplyDeleteAnd high interest rates kept many people from qualifying for a home loan, as well as stressing S&Ls who had to attract depositors with high rates, despite an inventory of old mortgages paying low rates.