Coffee & Tidbits - The 70s. Ep. 3

Randy brings us back to the 1970s..us being the Baby Boomer Generation, after taking us on a trip through the 50's and 60's on episode 1 and 2. Here we look at the music, vets coming home, a change in how women thought about themselves and now going to work, TV of the times and the simplicity of growing up. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning everybody, and with a cup of coffee in hand, it's time for coffee and tidbits.

SPEAKER_04 0:08

Pour a cup and pull up a chair. We got stories we can share. From the lakeside to the pot, sitting over there. My grandpa never left me. His love is everywhere. Coffee and tidbits. Where old friends still belong.

SPEAKER_15 0:35

Celebrating all the good things in life. One story, one sip, one song. From a lakeside cabin his grandpa built decades ago. Where the coffee's always hot and every story has a lesson. Welcome to Coffee and Tidbits with Randy Wickerly.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Well, good morning, everybody, and pull up a good fresh cup of coffee because that's what I'm holding right in my hand. Distillery channel coffee. To give a, you know, a terrible cheek plug. But yes, you can get um very expensive coffee from the distillery channel. Um right there and get one or two or exceptional flavors that you can buy in that all of this, but it is really good.

SPEAKER_18 3:05

From Mickey Metal to the moon, from radios to satellites.

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We were there to see it happen.

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What a time to be like I was born when the war was over, and America was on the rise. Black and white television and wondering our eyes. The phone hung on the kitchen wall, we knew every neighbor's name, and every kid on every block played the same backyard games. We drank from garden poses, built forest and summer trees, rode our bikes from miles and miles with food.

SPEAKER_06 4:21

Straight up and called the flight.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

Listen to the game, you'll be wide, Roger Mickey. Every kid knew all their names. We caught the mumps and beatles lined up for the shot. Then here's the day when polio was finally stopped. We watched the rockets lifting, and two of us do sky, and gathered round the table of fish.

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With the golden baby boomers still standing proud today.

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We've seen a thousand changes and somehow found our way from the first TV in the living room to her that's online. We're grateful for the memories and the blessings of our time baby blue, a generation's wrong, and we do it all again.

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We glad it's off when the street lights started blowing, we knew the day was done, and we raced our bike back home again.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Before the setting's time golden baby boomer.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

A lot of it is a board, a lot of different factors that we enjoy the story right now.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Coffee and tidbits.

SPEAKER_05 10:46

Go back to simpler mornings life for a different smile, long hair blowing in the summer, bell bottoms dragging through the grass. Nobody knew we were making the memories that always last. Drinking water from the garden hose, nobody thought twice at all. Riding bikes until the street lights told us it was time to call. Kick the can and ghost in the graveyard, hide and seek till after dark. Five thousand baseball diamonds every neighborhood at a park. Can you hear them once again? Oh familiar friends.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Still waiting in our memories just beyond that next cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_05 12:34

Boomers walked across the stage, college dreams beneath their caps. Looking for their first real paycheck. Trying hard to fill the gaps. Watergate was on the television. Nixon said goodbye one day. History filled the evening headlines. Life just carried on its way. Bringing songs back home once more. Some found hugs, some found silence, walking through the airport door. America turned to hundreds red, white, blue from shore to shore. By centennial celebrations like we'd never seen before. And stories full of truth. Some days fast, some days slow.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Funny how the best of life was living without ever knowing.

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Interest rates kept climbing high, a gas line stretched around the block. Far a hair mood rings pet rocks, and everybody checked their clocks. CB radios were talking.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Breaker one nine. Watch your handle, good buddy. Life sounded pretty fine.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Just went to college and you know, you try to find your way, but how do you know when you're in your twenties? Because I've always said to a lot of people when you're 20s, you're only 10 years from being ten years old. You're going for being a kid in the seventies or nobody told me what was coming.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Nobody told me it was coming.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

Nobody rang a bell.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

There wasn't any warning sign that I could really tell.

SPEAKER_05 16:57

One day I was chasing baseballs, running barefoot through the yard. The next day people started saying life was going to get hard. The summers fell forever. The winters moved so slow. Back when all the answers were things I didn't need to know. It was the last day, childhood, though I didn't know. Getting ready to begin. The road ahead was waiting. The road behind was gone. School bill rang for one last time. The yearbook page is closed. Friends talk about the future. All the different roads. Some are heading off to college. Some are heading off to work. Some are trying hard to figure out exactly what they were worth. The world suddenly looked bigger than it ever had before. A different open door. And the first time facing questions that kept you up at night. The innocence was fading, but something else was born. The courage to keep walking into every new dawn. Years have passed since then. More than I can count. Yet sometimes I still visit that place of moving out. The day before responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

The day before the climb.

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Still trying to do its best. The years may keep on rolling, but one truth still remains.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Saturday morning, smell like coffee. Berging on the stove before daylight came.

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Four little boys came racing down the hallway. Every weekend somehow looked the same. A box of donuts on the kitchen table. Chocolate maple powder white. Life was never rich with money. But somehow every day felt right.

SPEAKER_07 23:42

We built a house with laughter and donuts.

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Sticky little fingers reaching for one more.

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Soccer shoes beside the back door, waiting. Tiny muddy footprints on the floor. It wasn't made of brick or loan.

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Or lumber bought from any store. It was built with hugs.

SPEAKER_07 24:03

Soccer games and pizza nuggets, pancakes, dreams, and love worth living for. The house, the laughter and donuts built.

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The refrigerator held our schedule.

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A soak games and crooked rows. And new flags and schoolwork hanging. How fast the father's garden grows.

SPEAKER_07 24:29

The tan dodge caravan kept rolling, packed with uniforms and hole. Every mile, another memory. Teaching little boys how life should go. We build a house with laughter and donuts. Sticky little fingers reaching for one more. Soccer shoes beside the back door, waiting, tiny muddy footprints on the floor.

SPEAKER_05 24:52

It wasn't made of brick alone. Little league. Looking back through all these years, the trophies don't mean much. I'd trade them all. For one more Saturday. One more little hand of touch.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

We build a house with laughter and donuts. Now the little boys are families of their own.

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They're teaching little dreamers everything they learn back home. The coffee's still perking every morning, though the kitchen's quiet now. Every cup reminds me of the greatest year somehow. Because a father's richest fortune isn't measured by his wealth.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Who still comes home? The house, the laughter and donuts still. This old coffee pot still sings every Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_05 27:14

And every now and then if I close my eyes, I can still hear four little boys laughing their way into the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Well, I did end up with four things and I had two and seven eighty and two and eighty. It was a lot of fun. But on Saturdays, we listened to baseball and became a big part of our lives.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Mom was having fun.

SPEAKER_18 29:17

The television flickered, black and white and small. And if you wanted baseball, you had to catch the signal first of all. Move it to the left.

SPEAKER_06 29:29

No, back the other way. Standing there with the rabbit ears.

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Try to save the day. Rabbit ears, baseball game, summer sunshine.

SPEAKER_05 29:51

Bringing baseball and rips back for life seeds. Rabbit ears and baseball games for me. Yogi crouch behind the plate. Why did Ford was feeling heat? Roger man is one for history. Every game felt bitter sweet. The Yankees sing invincible heroes larger than alive. Every kid go on to that baseball line. The screen out rolls, the picture faded. Somehow we still watch that. Sweet, just full and free. Baseball games for me.

SPEAKER_13 31:06

Just one game. One family. Have a cold drink in your hand.

SPEAKER_05 31:11

Neighbor stop by Nobody can plants fell through. Because baseball was enough. Bring us all together. Today the picture's crystal clear. Every game is on your phone. But sometimes I miss those Saturdays when home felt more like home. I still hear busy laughing, still see little swing, still remember how a baseball game could make a young boy dream.

SPEAKER_13 31:47

Rabbit and baseball games. Memories that still remember. Mickey Roger Yogi to the heroes that we always do. The years roll by, but I still see that little boy inside of me.

SPEAKER_05 32:08

Living every baseball dream.

SPEAKER_13 32:12

The pictures gone. The pictures gone. The years have fallen. The years have fall.

SPEAKER_05 32:17

The old TV has lost gone. Somewhere in my memories. The game is still playing on rabbites and baseball games.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

It went from uh maybe one channel per city to maybe two to three channels. We got to see the benefit of uh the water gate. First in American history of the president. President X, 1974. I'm sorry. And you were your old four became President Jimmy Carter was in the White House wearing a sweater, trying to fix things in the factory. Inflation kept climbing. But destination television was hitting us. We all sat down.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Thursday night at our house.

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There were only three channels on the television.

SPEAKER_05 34:53

Rabbit ears wrapped up in tin foil. Dad got us to fix the picture. Like it was on its family toil. No remote to lose in the cushions. You change the channel by hand. TV guide beside the refiner. That a little book was our master plan. It's all stretched across the carpet. Mom was knitting by the light. Everybody knew exactly what we'd all be watchin' tonight. It was destination television. America gathered every week.

SPEAKER_13 35:28

We laughed together, cried together, then talked about it down the street. Before a thousand stream charts, before the world moved quite so fast. Those little blowing family moments, somehow it's in the last.

SPEAKER_05 35:45

Charlie's angels called the bad guys.

SPEAKER_04 35:48

Kelly Jill and Saboon 2. Steve Austin kept on bionic running. Doing things no man could do. Match mixed laughter up with heartbreak.

SPEAKER_05 35:58

Happy days took us back in time. Then the farms just snapped his fingers. Hey, everything worked out just fine. It was down to make the television. Everyone had to sing the show.

SPEAKER_13 36:11

Monday morning school halls chatter. Everybody seemed to know. You didn't have to die for us. Because we don't just know what to say.

SPEAKER_05 36:22

One little box, one whole concert, sharing stories just the same. Then one winner came a story. Let change the living rooms forever.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Television wasn't just entertainment. Sometimes it taught us who we were.

SPEAKER_05 37:06

The kids would finally drift the dream, and dad would clip the TV off. The national anthem filled the screen, then colored the bars and static stalls. Tomorrow we'd all have to work in the school with one more story to recall. Funny how just three little stations could somehow bring together a stall. Mr. Joe, you missed the story until the summary runs down. Now we've got a million channels. Yet sometimes feel more alone. Back then, with three stations, one TV guy. Maybe it was who was sitting beside us. I would even consider ending with the sound of an old TV signing off.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

This concludes our broadcast day.

SPEAKER_05 38:17

Followed by a faint television hiss.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

We did it through our TV guide and we shared the stories afterwards. Well the seventies were changing. The rules began to change. What do we do?

SPEAKER_06 40:25

When the rules began to change our time.

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But the world outside kept hiding. College dreams were taken flight. Women found new doors were open. Nothing looked the same by night.

SPEAKER_13 41:33

The boys kept growing like the cornfields.

SPEAKER_06 41:38

It's great up new. While America kept rewriting everything we come to believe. Some families found new freedom. Some hearts finally broke apart. It's complete changed the human heart. We were learning while we were living. Trying hard to bridge the gap. Don't scroll. Can still be true. The hardest roads two people travel are the ones. They never knew. Just two parents making promises to always put our boys first. One by one. Oh spread across the floor. Every afternoon another bite to go.

SPEAKER_13 43:26

We wouldn't. Well we wouldn't live in. Sometimes both can still be true.

SPEAKER_06 43:40

The hardest roads two people travel other ones. They never knew.

SPEAKER_10 43:55

People ask who lost the marriage. Looking back. Nobody wants it. Two good people four young boys. 120. Just living in 2000. If I learn 120, we remember.

SPEAKER_09 44:53

But father never did looking back now. I don't remember the courtroom. I remember the bicycles in the driveway. And a house so full of boys that I sometimes forgot which ones were mine.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

It was great selling clothing and women. And the owner said, you know, you like it. I'm gonna make you a women's clothing. Early in the 70s, I was gonna go in New York. I refined my skills actually really good. I loved it. We created a lot of stores and a lot of wealth. A lot of things that happened that were just remarkable and then later in my mid-seventies things changed in happening. The Eagles of Chicago, Fleetwood Man, VJs, Ravens, Earth Wind, and Fire Elder John. And their music could explain it. Why they came on quietly.

SPEAKER_17 48:26

In the 60s, they clad in uniforms, barely old enough to shave.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Goodbye, Mom, goodbye, Dad. Goodbye, sis and brother.

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Goodbye to his high school. One more hometown son was leaving. Called upon the fight so brave. Sweethearts held on one last time. No one knew the road before them.

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Letters travel over oceans.

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Simply asked, they'd all come back.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

Some came home with metal shining.

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Some with scars no one could see. More than any kid should be. No marching bed. No victory for me. Just a football. In silent memory. Sacrifices they had. While they searched for yesterday, heroes don't stop being heroes just because the music never plays.

SPEAKER_05 51:27

Some grew their hair a little longer. Some tried hard to start again.

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Found a job, raised little families, became our neighbors and our friends. Looking at them what they'd carried through those years. Sometimes courage wears a smile. Sometimes courage hides its tears. Looking back, we finally understand the price they paid for everyone. They came home quietly. Still The names engrave the empty chairs. The dreams beyond the hill. We could welcome them again.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Knowing now what time has shown every highway, every hometown would finally bring our veterans.

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To every Vietnam veteran.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Thank you. We may not have welcomed you the way you deserve then.

SPEAKER_17 53:41

But we honor you now.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Yeah, it was uh it was quite the time. If you remember our last show we talked about, some of us got a high draft number and they have to go. I don't think we'll give it away. I don't get any friends of mine. Living furniture plate in China. We all had an interest.

SPEAKER_08 57:36

Like a game show coming to you live. We have interest appearing in center stage. And now let's welcome today's new high rate and bankers accepting your money. Now appearing live on stage. Our interest in interest 1978.

SPEAKER_05 58:01

The evening news was full of numbers that never seemed to settle down. Every paycheck bought a little less. Inflation rolled from town to town. We'd gather round the kitchen table, coffee cups and bills in hand. Trying hard to make tomorrow with yesterday's family plan.

SPEAKER_17 58:39

Twelve percent just bought a mortgage. Twenty made the savers speak. Young folks wonder. Should we wait? Older folks just shook their heads. Nobody ever dreamed we live. Numbers dancing in our heads. We all talking, twisting, twist. When interest, looking at twisting us, every dollar, every purpose turn.

SPEAKER_05 59:22

Life was measured.

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One more percentage point at a time. Every bank was making offers.

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Bring your savings, stay a while.

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One gave lamp, some patio furniture.

SPEAKER_08 59:40

Another wore a bigger smile. Blenders.

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Coffee makers.

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Dinner wear stacked, shiny bright.

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Some folks laughed and taste the freebie. Some takes one more quarter point.

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We drive across to another bank.

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Open one more brand new account.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:14

President Carter came on television.

SPEAKER_17 1:00:17

Speaking of the night. No Christmas. No grand design. Just ordinary phones. As it's mountain to climb. In percentages.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

We don't remember every interest rate anymore. But we sure remember the toaster, the patio set, and the coffee maker we brought home.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

Yeah, it was quite the time. It was uh interest rates were crazy. If you tell people that today, they wouldn't believe it. But we did have some fun. We did find time, and my kids might not remember this. But we did have a movie theater in town in the early 70s, and one of the things that we always like to do is go to the movies. You don't see many of them around anymore. There's only about three or four in Northern Illinois now. But popcorn was in the air, and I guess we tried to find some fun. Through the kids in the backseat, and we went out to the movies in the heart of town. Can you really do that? Right in the middle of town, we had a movie theater. Popcorn was in the air. We did have some fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:31

Saturday night. Every Saturday night at the drive-in.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:39

Saturday finally rolled around. Dad got off at five. Mom was packing sandwiches. Everybody felt alive. The station wagons loaded. Blankets in the back. A cooler full of sodas. And enough snacks for the pack. The sun was slowly setting. The movie screen stood tall. And for a couple dollars, you could entertain a stall. Saturday night driving. Kids are running to the playground without a single care. Big cars under miles. Underneath the stars. Saturday night. Driving was the best thing about us. The little kids wore pajamas. Curled up in the back seat. Watching cartoons before the features. The speaker hung beside the window. Crackling now and then. But somehow ever movie sounded better way back when. Smell of buttered popcorn, the glow of neon lights. The whole town gathering together on warm summer night. Saturday night driving. Understars. Saturday night. Driving was the best thing about us. And somewhere near the back road, a young couple sat alone, sharing stolen kisses, pretending they were grown. Bench seats wide sofas. A chevrolet or ford, holding hands through scary movies was a teenager's reward. The movie might be playing, but nobody really cared because first love was blooming in summer evening air. The years keep rolling forward. The driving's mostly gone. But the memories still flicker like an old familiar song. I can still hear children laughing, still smell popcorn stance, still see the stars above us, and a sweetheart waiting at Saturday night driving a simpler place and time. Family, friends, and first romances all standing in line. The movies may have ended, but the memories never will.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Saturday night. Lives inside us still. The screen fades to black, the credits roll. The speaker crackles. One last time. Somewhere in the darkness. A young couple shares one final kiss before heading home. Saturday night driving.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

Yeah, it was actually we had a lot of fun doing that. It only cost a couple bucks to get in, maybe. But the kids got to run around, didn't worry about safety, got to play in the swing sense if they wanted. Um, but you put that speaker in the window, and I'd go up and get some big popcorn, some big Coke, candy, whatever it is was. We ended up going to movies almost every Friday night through the late 70s. It was a ritual that we just really, really enjoyed, and it was something that uh was a lot of fun. My my time at the end of the 70s, being a single dad raising my two boys, we had a formal called Joint Custody, and yeah, it was just you know, just a day up to it. It was uh one of those things where I ended up with my office and rock and back home. What a joy it was all my son and my what we call my honorable son, one, two, and three, when he had uh Jason and all three end up wine every Saturday green donuts. I love that they're always around the evening we had green fun. We always had donuts. Saturday mornings we get up and we get a dozen donuts. And we would always have a dozen donuts every Saturday or every Sunday, and um maybe all time, all day. Through now, even today, I make sure that I have time with my kids and my grandkids and donuts. Did we get through? We're about there to the end of it. We thought we were something special. We were paying 35 cents a loaf, as I said, an hour for a gallon of milk, a movie ticket was two bucks, an hour for the kids, ten bucks, you could go to the movies on a Friday night. Popcorn diet coke for everybody, get in, get your tickets, and have an enjoyable time. But hair became our way, and the 70s became sort of silly in this last song. I sort of want to pick on ourselves just for a minute, because the 70s were good for a laugh looking back on it. Give me that, gimme that.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:41

The seventies were good for a laugh. There you go.

SPEAKER_16 1:09:53

Every guy, every guy, every guy, every guy grew side burns longer, thinking we look pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:15

Polyester shirts in every color. Looking back, we look like fools. Platform shoes two inches tall. Funny how we thought we'd started. The greatest fashion trend of all. Matching flat on flat together. Now that's fashion or so we're told The Neighborhood has got carpeting Bright enough to hurt y'all, and nobody's on the wall neighbor. Whatever go out of dreams. Big white collars, big room teams. Everybody had this go move. Nobody knew they couldn't groove.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:25

T B ready. Breaker, breaker. What's your 20? Good buddy. You are somebody.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:32

If your handle had some flair.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:38

The kids all roll in station wagons, facing backwards, making faces. Nobody buckled every seatbelt. Nobody needed GPSS.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:55

Dad kept laps inside the glove box. Mom said, We'll get there somehow. And somehow, we always did. Fair hair and fell bottom dreams.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:12

Ape, track, tapes, and answering machines. Life wasn't perfect. Neither were we. Maybe that's what made it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:24

Such a beautiful memory.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:29

Looking back, we thought we were the coolest generation on earth. Looking at those pictures now.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:37

We're just glad nobody had social media.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:47

Yeah, I was one of those, that's for sure. I social media today would have cooked me. I had the big bushy hair, the big bushy, oh my goodness, a horn room glasses, a sideburns, checkered suits, you know, green and plaid and big lapels, and big white. Look like an idiot. Not that I'm that good looking now, but incredible time. I did have a little round pan leisure suit. We did wear those things. But the 70s were just, you know, you could feel through the music, it was just sort of up and down and sideways over the top decade. Other than I had my beautiful sons. You know, everybody, you know, now is getting close to being as I said. When you're 10 you go to 20, and now 20, you're going to thirties now in 1979, like into the eighties. 79 the interest rates were amazingly high. And oh yeah, what was going on? It looked like Reagan was gonna get elected, and the passages were being held, and Jimmy Carter was a great guy that he was, humanitarian. Just too kind for the office, but as my grandfather always said, I tried to do that in the 70s, and I tried to do my kids. Always try to leave it better than we left the seventies and really, really interesting. Computers are coming. Or some days I'm just gonna get up on a Saturday and read the newspaper and share my thoughts and go over a cup of coffee. Might even get up and just talk about coffee for a half hour, 45 minutes, or an hour where it comes from, how much how much wrote it. I got into all that. Reflect back on my grandfather. He always said a natural that he was a big part of my life. Always leave a better one. Always love those around you. As you're going through life, always know you take out no more than you can with in this life. So Uncle Randy for Coffee and Tidbits. Check back again. It's been a production of the still regeneral media LLC. And remember, leave a better footprint. You never know as much.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:52

Ask with a good heart. That's where it starts. It ain't about pushing a shot of the soft spoken question.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:07

Open up hearts.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:09

Pick me up every Saturday. I'll make these great lists.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:33

Leave a better footprint. Leave a bed of footprint. It's the love of your words that'll let us do it.

unknown 1:17:45

My great kids.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:46

Y'all have a great week and better weekend of those around you.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:51

Shoot the north night sets from P to the sea. I've seen a smile, turn strangers to family, and a gentleman. Set a soul free.