Days Gone By

                                                             

                                                                     Days Gone By


Where has the time gone? Somewhere in my past, I remember a song with the lyrics, I turn around and now they’re gone. Time has begun slipping by and life has taken on a new look. Some may say the past is behind and you need to look forward to the future. Words well spoken, but our past is our memory and our memory is our life and we need to constantly reflect on that.

If I was questioned today about a time in my past that I would want to revisit, the answer would be very clear, the mid 60’s to mid 70’s. As Frankie Valli said in his song, Oh what a night! Late December back in sixty-three. What a very special time for me. I'll remember what a night.

The time period I mention held a lot of different emotions for a lot of people.

The Vietnam war was in full swing and that generation watched a lot of its young men grow up on the battlefields in a foreign country. I had friends that were drafted or joined, some returned others did not.

I saw young men fight back tears as they received their draft cards, afraid to open the envelope to see what code was listed. I sat in the dorm room during a lottery drawing and watched one young man break down in tears as his birthdate was chosen as #1 in the draft lottery.

I have heard stories from returning soldiers as to the horrors of the fight and watched the nightly news as it portrayed the brave young men as killers and murders. I have also heard the tales of camaraderie as each soldier watched the backs of their friends as they struggled to survive another day. It was the best of time and the worst of times as Charles Dickens would say.

This era was much easier than today. The music was phenomenal, whether it was the drugs or the alcohol that aided in the music, I don’t know, but the music was great. The music of the day was happy and joyful, melodic and peaceful. The words had a story and a meaning that even older adults from the previous generation could relate to if they listened.

I have always loved music videos and used to watch Don Kirshner's Midnight Special on Friday nights. The groups were made up of a couple of guitars, drums, sometimes an organ and maybe a tambourine, but the sound was good.

Groups like, Spanky and our Gang, The Young Rascals, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and The Association played music that most everyone could relate too. Some described the music as sexy, romantic, and magical.

I played in a couple of bands in my teenage years, The Good Guys and the Electric Ourglass. We played schools dances, parties, youth group dances and anywhere we could play and make little money.

In those days, the band usually all dressed the same and some of us got really flamboyant while others were more conservative. I loved the clothing of that era, bell bottom pants, Neru shirts, Beatle boots and if you had a long hair you were a hippie.

If you played in a band you thought you were something and you always had a few girls that followed you wherever you played. Our own little band of groupies. We never got the fainting and screaming, but they always smiled and encouraged us as we played and sang.

Yes, the time was much different then. You could actually work on your own car in the 60’ and 70’s. The computer chips was not available in most cars and you could pull in the driveway, change the brakes, do a tune-up, replace the alternator, and change the oil without having to reset everything so you could crank it up.

Gas ranged from $.31-$.57 per gallon, postage stamp, $.04-$.10, new homes were between, $16,500.00-$51,865.00 and income in the range of mid 60’s to mid 70’s was less than $10,000.00 per year. Most people did not use charge cards and if you had a computer, it was huge and required special conditions to house it.

I loved this time period, people cared about other people. We had our issues, but no one worried about schools being shot up, children being abducted, the focus wasn’t on abortions because that was not national news, and most people trusted their government and government officials.

Tuning in on Sunday evening to watch The Ed Sullivan Show was a treat and Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore did not share the same bed on the TV screen and I Love Lucy was a favorite comedy. Things were a lot more wholesum. We didn’t have to cover our children ears or eyes while the were watching TV, because the F-bomb and other vulgar words were not used in a public setting.

The Smothers Brothers, Sonny and Cher, and Laugh-In was the favorite evening entertainment. American Bandstand, Where the Action Is, The Monkeys, and The Partridge Family was after school viewing for us kids.

I miss the easier times of the 60’s and 70’s and I spend a lot of time reminiscing and yes listening to the songs of that era thinking about that first date, first car, and the feeling of being free to do as I wished.

I now watch as my grandchildren are subjected to the violence and harsh music of today which makes me sad to know they will never experience the good times this country once provided.

The sexy, romantic, and magical sounds of the small bands that played because they love their sound. The sock hops and skating rinks that were once a popular place for teens to hang out and the feeling that you had a place in the environment in which you dwelled.  Bob Dylan sang a song in 1964 titled Times They are A-Changin-

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

I going to check out youtube for some old TV shows and reminisce.

“Life Happens”