Telling History

The 1977 bestseller “The Complete Book of Running” begins with author Jim Fixx’s solemn purpose: “first, to introduce you to the extraordinary world of running, and second, to change your life.”

“If you need to stop an asteroid, you call Superman,” comic book writer Gail Simone observed. “If you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But if you need to end a war, you call Wonder Woman.”

Midway through a frenetic third period, American Mark Pavelich passed the hockey puck to teammate Mike Eruzione, who buried a shot into the Soviet net.

The sound of young America, Motown. With a vast galaxy of stars orbiting Detroit, visionary Berry Gordy, Jr. put the soul into the 1960s.

“If possible, I believe we should ‘coin a phrase’ for the Championship Game,” Kansas City Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt observed on the eve of the first title matchup in 1967 between his AFL champion Chiefs and the NFL champion Green Bay Packers.

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Now, as a Kansan born and raised, like most, I’m ambivalent about that classic cinematic observation.

‘Twas a time before Amazon and all through fall, American children feverishly devoured every page of newly arrived Sears, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogs.

Once President Lyndon Johnson brought U.S. power to bear in Vietnam, America’s military build-up required substantial increases in draft calls.

Besides the moon, there was another parallel race against the Russians in the Cold War.

“No man who owns his own house and lot can be a Communist… he has too much to do” quipped builder Bill Levitt, whose massive Levittown subdivision in Long Island, New York, was the largest housing project in American history at the time.

“This Government... has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet Military buildup on the island of Cuba,” John F. Kennedy informed his fellow citizens during an October 22, 1962, primetime address.

The CBS network’s Saturday night lineup during the 1973 season featured a veritable Mount Rushmore of American television: All in the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and The Carol Burnett Show. Perhaps the greatest single evening ever assembled in TV history.

“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land.” With this greeting Walt Disney opened America’s first theme park on July 17, 1955.

By 1964, when the US population stood at nearly 192 million, four out of every 10 Americans were under 20 years old. More people were 17 than any other age. And there were more children under 14 than the nation’s entire population in 1881. Our country had gotten literally younger because of a mammoth post-World War II surge in procreation: a baby boom that dramatically transformed our demographic landscape.

“Even those people who were against the Vietnam War could identify with us being held captive,” former Prisoner of War Jack Ensch once observed. “The torture and the mistreatment – nobody could argue that wasn’t wrong.” Vietnam indeed divided our country as it had not been divided since the Civil War, but whether you supported the war or opposed it, the POW-MIA bracelet phenomenon allowed Americans a means of separating feelings toward the conflict, from feelings toward soldiers.

“Respect children because they’re human beings and they deserve respect, and they’ll grow up to be better people,” Dr. Benjamin Spock advised Americans in his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. “Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.”

July 26 is National Disability Independence Day, the culmination of a month-long annual commemoration celebrating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This milestone was a watershed toward equality and accessibility, transforming both lives and attitudes.

“You’re condemning this whole planet to a war that may never end,” Dr. Leonard McCoy chastised Captain James T. Kirk, in the 1968 Star Trek episode “A Private Little War.” “It could go on for year after year, massacre after massacre.” Broadcast twice in the science-fiction series’ second season, “A Private Little War” is one of Star Trek’s four explicit allegories on the Cold War logic driving American involvement in the Vietnam War.

“If anyone asks you what kind of music you play, tell him ‘pop.’ Buddy Holly warned a fellow musician. “Don’t tell him ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ or they won’t even let you in the hotel."

Whether shake, shake, shaking your booty in satin hot pants or physically spelling out YMCA in a double-knit polyester leisure suit, Americans in the 1970s feverishly danced away countless Saturday nights under a dazzling mirrored ball. A veritable disco inferno.