 |
| |||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||
|
BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
|
|
October, 2006: They say that memories of our childhood are sweeter than the present because we tend to forget the mundane and ugly stuff. Maybe. I offer some of both then and now this week. A good case can be made that it really was a lot sweeter back then. The fall season was so special when I was a kid. Oh sure, it meant another year of school; but that was inevitable. There was school on the horizon as far as the eye could see.
Inflation, recession, gas prices, budget deficits....? Heck, they were all abstract concepts when I was a kid. Remember, President Nixon freaked out in 1971 and imposed wage and price controls, when inflation was running wild... at a whopping 4%. Kids' stuff, compared to today's financial challenges. OK, I admit; it was not all a bed of roses. In the fall of '62 there was this little thing about Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba -- the closest we have ever come to a nuclear war. That did get us more than a little shaken up. But the crisis was short-lived. According to Secretary of State Dean Rusk: "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked." (Besides, four years later, Hollywood made a joke out of it with "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming," a comedy starring Alan Arkin and Carl Reiner.) Football season went on as normal. Today, the fall football season offers for me only an 0-4 start for the Tampa Bay Bucs. What's to like about that? Monday night football on ABC is gone, and if you buy the DirectTV NFL football package, you'll go bug-eyed and lose your sanity. Beer will lose its taste, and you'll wake up on Christmas morning with only a blurred memory of the entire season. That's not football; it's a bad dream!
Politics Gone Sour Politics was so much simpler and civil back then. A decade after the McCarthyism idiocy, we had a grip on politics in the 60s. All was well. The Kennedy clan gave us Camelot, and we ate it up. Another movie -- come to life. The Democrats ran the Great Society and that was that. Oh sure, the Republicans complained a lot. But there was nothing they could do about it. Goldwater may have been right ("In your heart, you know he's right"), but he could not get elected. The Republicans knew their place in life: second place. After losing the presidential election in 1960 and then the race for governor in 1962, a dejected politician walked away from it all and told the press, "Look at all you're gonna' be missing; you don't have Nixon to kick around any more." Then, a fading movie star in Hollywood had this crazy notion that he could run the state better than the professional politicians... and proceeded to do just that. In the 90s, the Republicans learned how to win elections -- but they have not the slightest idea how to govern. In the 80s, a Democratic congressman was caught having sex with a male page; the Democratic-controlled House slapped him on the wrist, and then gave him a standing ovation when he won re-election. He served in Congress for another decade. An openly gay Democratic congressman shared his residence with a man who ran a gay prostitution ring -- and this man is still one of the most respected congressmen on that side of the aisle. Today, a Republican congressman talks dirty to a male page, and the Republican-controlled House throws him to the wolves, and then proceeds to allow the opposition to sink the entire party. Nope; it ain't what it used to be. See, the difference is that in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, the Republicans were so vastly outnumbered in Congress that it did not make any difference what they said or did; they were going to remain out of power. They were second-class legislators and everybody knew it. They sat in the back of the bus; they knew their place... and learned to like it. In 2006 the positions of power are reversed, but the Democrats are so close to the front of the bus -- where they believe they are destined to reside. They are so close... they can smell, taste, and feel victory... so close that they are willing to do whatever it takes to get back up front. They cannot win in the arena of ideas; so they do everything they can to destroy the opposition -- a true sign of desperation:
The Democrats have everything it takes to win -- except any notion of a winning plan, or an admission of what they will actually do if they do win. Though, this November, it may not take a winning plan to win.
Nope; life was a lot sweeter back then. I said sweeter -- not better, but sweeter. I don't want to go back -- could not, even if I wanted to. But this week I want to remind you of what it was like back then, before we went nuts. Perhaps the past is a prelude to the future. It's never too late to learn.
|
Exploring My Roots: A Chicowitz History
Membership details here.
Terrific boomer memorabilia!!
Remember this?
|
|
|
|
|
If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
 |
|
The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
|
 | ||
 
|
|   |
Copyright © 2006-2008, Baby Boomer HeadQuarters - WWW.BBHQ.COM - All rights reserved.
