Probably never again will young Americans have so much freedom in the fashion they wore. Girls wore everything from granny dresses to hot pants, mini’s to maxi’s, high waist pants with halter tops that started more than halted. Boys wore flared pants with large cuffs and brightly colored collared shirts and everybody seem to have at least one burgundy sweater vest and both sexes wore their hair long.

I guess the fashion reflected the crazy times, Nixon-Agnew, Watergate, gas shortage, energy crisis and streaking had become the national pastime. To this day I still don’t know what image is scarier, Linda Blair’s portrayal of the devil in the movie “The Exorcist” or poor little rich girl Patty Hearst armed with an assault rifle robbing the Hibernia bank in San Francisco, you decide.

Society didn’t adhere to the norms that came with structure any longer. We were optimistic and a little frighten about the possibilities of experiencing actual freedom for the first time. Freedom to buy a foreign car or go to a different college than your old man did. New -age religions, enlightenment and the sexual revolution. We also had a sound track that co-conspired along with us. The top three Pop-Rock acts of the 1970’s were “Elton John” “Paul McCartney and Wings” and “The Carpenters” not to mention great Soul acts like “Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes” and the “Dramatics”. It was all happening in the freedom-fest of the early 1970’s.

Before I go I would like to quote a line from one of my favorite songs from that precious time. It’s the 1973 classic “Free Ride” by “The Edgar Winter Group”. It goes like this:

“The mountain is high, the valley is low,and your confused on which way to go, so I flew in to lend you a hand and lead you into the promised land,so go on and take a free ride”.

Until next time,
Peace and Love,

Joe