Flashbackfriday - - 1972
Flashback Friday 1972
Hello and welcome to my third installment of Flashback Friday where I present a few things from history that caught my eye and tweaked my memory on my search.
News Headlines and History
- Since China is so much in the news today and this week, flashback to: February 21–28 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
This was the trip that has made famous in popular culture "Only Nixon could go to China", Made popular in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). I do not know if that is where it started as an old Vulcan saying or if it was being used in general before the movie, but there you have my take on it.
- June 23 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the C.I.A. to obstruct the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
The beginning of the downfall of an American President. When the Media used to be the fourth branch of the american peoples politics, it is unfortunate that the Media has lost its direction in helping to maintain freedom, law and order, and protection to the American people from what could be an abusive government.
- July – U.S. actress Jane Fonda tours North Vietnam, during which she is photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.
What can I say about this. I have always found this to be in poor taste and...well I won't go into to it further. It is a piece of history from the hollywood elite that should not be forgotten or white washed, nor taken out of context as to why this occurred.
- September 1 – Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match at Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American chess champion (see Match of the Century).
This really was big news back in the day, I know a lot of people do not care now, the American Media and the Hollywood elite would rather have Americans be dumbed down and talked down to than to have any one look toward an intelligent American capable of thinking and having a brain.
- November 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time.
That was a long time ago. Are we as Americans better off financially today than we were in 1972? hard to say.
Music
the number one song for the year was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", by Roberta Flack
Flack's slow and sensual version was used by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 directorial film debut: Play Misty for Me to score a love scene featuring Eastwood and actress Donna Mills. source: wikipage
For me personally not my style, but enough people liked it to make it the number one song in 1972. 1972 was a fantastic year for the top 100 singles here is the List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1972 as presented by wiki.
- Brand New Key- anyone have a roller skate key, I loved this song, so upbeat and happy.
- American Pie - anyone up for driving their chevy to the levee?
- A Horse with No Name - Anyone on a journey today?
- Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Do we remember when we leave someone behind, do we see the people that are left behind.
The year ended on a rather soulful note:
The Cars
The fastest four-door production ever built was the Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase 4, at 175mph. Due to a public outcry at the time, the scheduled production run of 200 was stopped after 4 were built.
Source: http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question53649.html
That was the fastest, what about cheap? What could the average person afford to buy, what was the cheapest car to buy brand new in 1972? Well I found the answer, and yes it was mentioned last week for the newly released cars of 71. It is the car many remember:
According to the consumer reports in 1972 the sticker price was an astounding $2161.00 for a 2 door sedan with an automatic transmission and a - - - - Get this - - - - are you ready - - - an AM radio! No doubt a top of the line Am radio, but a radio and it only added $60.00 to the price tag. A fully stripped Pinto sold for $1931.00. Today you can buy a bashed up tricked out 1972 pinto for anywhere from $5000.00-$8,000. It is so fun sometimes to search stuff. That's what anywhere from 250% to 400% increase in value
Conclusion
Let's start with: A lot of government overreach and intervention in lives everywhere for the government. Political oversteps, restriction of products (only 4 built because of whiney asshats). The politicalization of Hollywood and true colors showing through. Revenge on McCarthyism, I don't know, but it was not good. On the good note, a heck of a lot of good music. One thing I did not mention in the music section, was Pink Floyd, it would take a year for an album, but the music was from Jan. Enjoy the search.
Problems every generation. Some just more extreme then others. My standard of living was better in the 70's... my fiat dollar bought more.
We left the gold standard, and no one want to really talk about what that has done to the economy, and the buying power of the dollar. I read somewhere a long time ago that an ounce of gold would buy you a pistol, bullets and a pair of blue jeans. plus a dinner and a bottle of whiskey. I don't know what it buys today. Maybe one of the SSG people knows.
The spot price for gold is about $1200. If you budget $50 each for blue jeans, dinner, ammunition, and whiskey that leaves $1000 for your pistol.
It looks like the value of gold has held up pretty good over the time period we are looking at.
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So it seems that gold is still tracking along the dollar, or the dollar still tracking the value of gold. Now if we could just get wages to track the value of gold things might look better.
It means that the value of gold has remained relatively constant in real terms, but the value of the dollar has changed. The value of the dollar has dropped a lot since 1972.
Getting rising wages in real terms is hard. Most of the time it is just inflation that makes wages look like they are going up. The only option to get rising real wages is higher productivity.
A tree that might take 10 lumberjacks with axes a full day to cut and haul might be done by one man in the same time if he has a chainsaw and a truck. The guy with the chainsaw earns a much higher wage than the guys with axes because he is more productive.
What happens to the other 9 lumberjacks, though?
In summary, 1972 had some rotten politics, rotten cars, and some decent music. It didn't make your list, but I was born in 1972. I don't remember it, but I'm sure it was awesome.
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I'm sure your mother and father think that 1972 was one of the best years of their life.
It is a shame you do not get higher rewards for such a high quality post, steemit does really suck in this regard.
I appreciate that, I don't know about it being high quality, I did take my time to look somethings up, and memory jog myself. There is a lot we forget as people, we no longer take the time to look back at where we were. We still think of History as being something that was before we were born, anything after we were born is just there to be forgotten until it becomes a part of history for the next generation. We tend to rewrite our lives to hide the bad, and highlight the good. I would like to say that the internet and age of computers has changed that, and made it more difficult to re-write history but it has not. How many workable computers are there with 8 and a half inch floppy drives? How much information was put on those, only to be lost and no longer usable. Information is always disappearing, so with a few little flashback memory joggers I can remember a little bit for a little while, and watch people idolize those that hide from their history.
I would like to do longer and more complete flashbacks, but the reality is people do not like being reminded of what the perceived truth was of the past. They do not even, as you know, like to look at the reality of the truth that happened yesterday. We are to quick to forgive and forget. Society has the forget part wong,
Never a truer word said.