Sunday, March 30, 2008

A Little About Me

I was born in 1957 and lived through the later part of the 1970s in a small village called Rosendale in Upstate NY. I turned 12 years old in 1969 and instantly became hooked on that time frame in my life. I have 9 brothers and sisters 8 of which who are older than I am. I am the second youngest out of ten kids.

The closest in age to me is my brother John who is 3 years older than me. He was 15 and already living the life of peace and love and introduced me to many wonderful people. I used to listen to his records and found I loved this stuff. I started listening to everything I could and before I knew it I had a guitar and started to learn.

It was the biggest thing to go out camping with all your friends, grab a few guitars; a couple of cases of bud, a quarter pound or two and your favorite girl friend and you have the makings of a memory. I don’t know if it was the smoke but sometimes the music we created was awesome. I don’t know if that word is even used anymore but that is the only way to describe it.

I live in the city of Philadelphia, PA, and life now is so different from when I was a teen back in the 70s. The value on life is not what it used to be. Violence is everywhere and it is dangerous to travel alone anywhere you go.

I am saddened by how the world has changed. The people growing up in the late 60s and early 70s realized that peace, love and happiness was much more enjoyable and productive than war and violence. Although we did have our moments, the price of peace cost us dearly.

What was growing up in the 70s like? For me it was about the music. Music in the 70s shaped the decade into the most historical time frame of the modern age. People found a way to get their point across to the world and opened the eyes to many different things that we were blind to. We managed to stop a war that we had no business being a part of. We proved we could gather into a crowd of over 500,000 people for 3 days and not kill each other, try that now.

If you are a 70s teenager or even have parents and heard stories from them, comment here I would like very much to hear from you.

3 comments:

intrepidideas said...

Looks like you're just getting started with this blog. I'm looking forward to coming back and checking out your 70's posts.

Take Care.

liz said...

Your accounting of life back then was so similar to mine. Beer, music and lots of kids were all it took..(oh yeah, pot too) for a great time. Growing up in Queens in that decade was incredible. 'peace', 'love', and 'flower power' was where it was at. One of the favorite choices of music in my neck of the woods was The Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels.
...sigh...What great times indeed!...Thanks for the walk down memory lane...

Carol said...

Though not quite a year older than you my growing up years were a bit different and a whole lot faster! The most fun for me was between 1967 & 1975. I was married in 75 and the kids came in 76 and 77.Had to grow up in a hurry ! I would love it if you were to take it musically year by year from 67 to 75! That would be like reliving the Good Times all over again! Great Blog! Thanks for the memories!