10 of the worst things to come out of the 70's

We live in wonderful times.  We have availability of technology at our fingertips for an affordable price, we have so much entertainment we literally don't have time to watch or do all of the things that divert us from our work.  All that we are now has come from what once was.  Both the good and the bad.  Well, the 70's were a piece of the past.  I'm not sure what we gained from the 70's but I can sure remember what we left behind!

10.  Disco - We should get this one out of the way right off the bat.  Disco was one of the hallmarks of the 70's  Movies were made about it,  Clothing was designed around it.  It was a whole other way of life.  The problem is that Disco sucked.  It says so on multiple t-shirts and I believe most things I read on t-shirts.

9.    Pet Rocks - In the early west there was such a thing as Snake Oil.  Snake oil was supposed to cure you of myriad ailments.  Later there were other devices created that claimed all kinds of spectacular results from hair growth to muscle physique.  The pet rock on the other hand had no pretense (except that it was a 'pet')  It was the first success of the 70's that proved that the American populous is willing to buy nearly anything and you don't even need a claim!  Ugh.  Now of course there are countless worthless things that we are probably better off without.  Thank goodness most of those things are on the Internet.

8.  Video Games - The Magnavox Oddessy was born in the 70's If you have never heard of it or seen it, it was the first. It was not anywhere like the games we enjoy today, think of the cave paintings being the pre-cursor to Davinci.   The first game system consisted of white blocks on a screen.  How many colors?  1.  Was it fun?  Like disneyland in a box.  Then came PONG also of the 70's.  Sounds too?!?  sweet!  Space invaders?  OOOOHh yeah.  The march goes on and on.  So were I guess they aren't bad at all really, but they are a productivity killer.

7.  Groovy - This term really only meant anything in the 70's.  It was the hip word for COOL.  It was groovy.  If things are good, they are groovy.  Now groovy means something that is kind of retro-cool, or something with a lot of grooves in it.  There was a time when people tried to revive Groovy into popularity.  It really only came back as goofy.  Optimally it's a dumb word only useful for friends with words.

6.  Astrology - No, this really wasn't born in the 70's, but it feels like it was.  The idea that the position of the Sun, the moon and the stars when you are born will determine not only what kind of person you are, but every event of your life was really attractive around this time.  Ever heard the hippy song 'Age of Aquarius'?  Well, it was huge back then.  The obvious question is of course does everyone born on the planet at the same time have the same future?  Pish posh, of COURSE not!  Everyone is born at a different location on the earth so they would have different destinies than other people born at exactly the same time.   Astrology has been around so long it has to be valid right?  So it wasn't born in the 70's, but it was the 70's that spawned the now timeless pickup line 'What's your sign?'

5. Johnny Knoxville - If you don't know who this is, he is the star of a show that was aired on MTV that used fame aspiring men to do stupid stunts designed to at least humiliate the participants if not harm them.  Young Mr. Knoxville was born in 1971 and while I don't bear any personal animus towards the individual, I feel like showing people glamorizing goofy self destructive behavior is just the perfect thing to come out of the 70's

4. Movies - Naturally movies did not originate from the 70's, but the BLOCKBUSTER did.  JAWS was the first movie in my recollection that had such a huge following and hype that followed it all summer.  Hollywood decided what bit of celluloid would be sufficient for the public at large and they would push it in every way possible.  Originally the blockbuster happened during the summer but now we have blockbusters any time of year (pretty much).

3. Keep on Truckin - Another term that lived and died in the 70's.  Usually accompanied by a person shown from the perspective of the ground with a ridiculously large foot stepping out as though they are really happy to get where they are going.  When I was a kid in the 70's I thought it meant keep on driving trucks.  I had no idea that truckin meant...It took till this blog for me to find out.  Keep on truckin was a cartoon strip that was very popular at the time but has since fallen into obscurity.  Robert Crumb was the creator.  It was a visual take on the song 'Truckin my blues away'.  Which I've never heard.

2. CB Radio -  Breaker Breaker 19.  What's yer handle c'mon? Citizens band had been around longer than the 70's BUT it was immortalized in the 70's with C.W. McAll's Hit song CONVOY.  My whole school bus would go quiet when that song would come on.  Those that knew the lyrics would put on their best non-descript trucker drawl and start talking along.  In my mind, this was the first RAP music I had ever heard.  There was no singing.  It was just CW telling his story about how he and Pig-Pen (the driver of another truck carrying pigs) evaded Smokey (the police) and went coast to coast delivering their payloads.  Trucker fever was alive and well in the 70's.  I don't know wether they were truckin when they did this or not.

1. Peace baby - The peace sign.  I always thought it looked like a birds foot in a circle, sometimes not.  It was made popular by Picasso.  Make love not war.  That was the idea.  The hippys were the long lost fore-fathers of the kids in the occupy movement and the peace sign with the accompanied index and middle finger sticking up in the air was their sign.  I remember seeing the peace symbol everywhere.  it was in graffiti, it was on stickers, it was in cartoons, it was everywhere.  Most kids now figure the peace sign to be something that an anime character will flash so everyone can see how cute they are.

Live in the now man!  See ya in another 15!  Thanks for reading...tell your friends!