1972

The year was 1972 and music was the language we shared, the voice of a generation, the words that spoke from our hearts, the beat that came from our souls.  Music was the invisible dividing line between us and our parents.  It was 1972, and Carly Simon won a Grammy for Best New Artist of the Year, while Led Zeppelin released an eight  minute song called “Stairway to Heaven”, which would go on to become the most requested song of all time on radio stations from coast to coast.  Columbia Records signed a young, new artist from NJ, named Bruce Springsteen, and Chuck Berry’s one and only number one hit, “My Ding-A-Ling” hit the airwaves.

The number one song of the year was Don McLean’s “American Pie” and we sang along, knowing each and every word and discerning their meaning.  John Lennon’s immigration visa expired in 1972 and he began his long and well publicized battle to remain a permanent US resident.

On the big screen, the landmark film Deliverance told a shocking story about backwoods America, but The Godfather took home the Academy Award for Best Picture.  On the small screen, All in the Family was the number one show that year.  Along with the Meathead, Michael Stivic, we sneered at Archie Bunker’s bigotry while we celebrated Norman Lear’s groundbreaking ability to bring controversial issues into America’s living rooms for discussion.

Politics in 1972 were monumental.  Our President, Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon was reviled by a rebellious generation, but his legacy would include being the first U.S. President to visit China and the U.S.S.R.  1972 was also the start of his downfall as five burglars were charged with breaking into the Washington D.C. offices of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate Complex.

1972 also brought us to tears as we mourned with the world when the Palestinian terrorist group, the Black September Organization, kidnapped and massacred 11 Israeli athletes during the Summer Olympics in West Germany. 

Back home, fashion continued to evolve in 1972, and men and women began to dress similarly, combining mod style with the hippie look of the 60’s.  The result was big shoes paired with bell bottom jeans, work shirts, bandanas, tie dyed shirts and caftans.  Ethnic prints were big, but hair was not.  Long, natural hair was the style for both men and women and the Shag haircut fit both sexes equally well.  African American men and women sported large, round Afro cuts.  Miniskirts gave way to Maxi dresses and men’s dress shirts had big floppy collars.  Capes were popular, and velvet, a fabric previously reserved for special occasion dresses, was widely seen in both coats and capes.

In sports news, the Dallas Cowboys won Super Bowl VI in January of 1972, and the Bruins took the Stanley Cup, while the Oakland A’s beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in the World Series.

Minimum wage was only $1.60 per hour, but one hour’s wage could buy you almost three gallons of gasoline.  Cigarettes were 55 cents a pack.  The average U.S. Salary was only $11, 859.00, which today would be very near to the 2012 Poverty Guideline for a single person.  You could buy a house for less than $28,000, and a new car would have set you back by about $3,853.00.

We brought up the rear of the Baby Boomer Generation, and as such we helped push a large rock up a steep hill.  Our generation was part of the tectonic shift in the world that ripped a hole in all that had gone before and changed every aspect of the known world:   music, culture, society, the workplace, fashion, family values, marriage, love, sex and even war.  What do we want?  Peace!  When do we want it?  Now!

It was 1972 and more than 700 of us stumbled out of the halls of Alfred G Berner H.S., blinking into the sunlight.  We waved goodbye to Zappaland and launched ourselves in a thousand ships that carried us through the seas of adulthood:  college, work, relationships, families and responsibility.  Although we traveled to the far corners of the globe, we eventually washed up on the beaches of Facebook, where we are together again in cyberspace.

I have always felt lucky to have been born in 1954 and to have witnessed so many exciting and interesting changes in the world.  I hold my high school graduating class in my heart with a special fondness and affection and I am happy to have a forum to keep in touch and to recall some of our fond memories and to get updates on what everyone is doing now.

I hope you will join me here by subscribing to this blog, and also by contributing to it regularly.  I will be sending out email messages asking for your recollections, updates and opinions, so that your fellow classmates will learn more about where your ship has docked along the way. 

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Please feel free to post a comment or email me articles or updates that you think might interest your fellow classmates.  My email is: Carolyn@hammerandhammer.com

written by Carolyn Hammer