Saturday, December 7, 2013

When We Were Ten

My friends and I all turned 10 in 1973. 

That year the video game "Pong" was released. Completely primitive by today's standards, but in 1973… cool as shit. My cousin had one, but my mom and dad said they would be sorry, because it would surely mess up their television. Needless to say, we did not have "Pong". 

Like most middle-class families, we spent a lot of time watching television. Popular shows that year included "All In The Family", "Sanford and Son", "The Waltons", "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", and "Kojak". 

"The Sting", "American Graffiti", and "The Exorcist" were popular at the box office, although I never saw any of those films until I was grown.

Music was a very big part of my life. I spent almost every day hanging out with my three friends from the neighborhood. We all had very cool transistor radios, which we would synchronize to the same radio station. We had tons of 45s. My friend Brenda had all the Jackson 5 LPs. We listened to them continuously in her living room. Popular songs that year included Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine of My Life", Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings, and Cher's "Halfbreed". I could go on and on and on about songs that were popular during that time. Music was everything to us. 

My friends and I played outside most every day. We rode bikes,we set up Barbie cities, we played everything. I had a white poodle named Pierre. Life seemed very simple in 1973.  I was a sheltered, happy-go-lucky 10-year-old girl, living in white, middle-class America. I had everything I needed, and most of what I wanted. 

Life was good.


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