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Coffee & Tidbits - The 70s. Ep. 3
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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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Good morning everybody, and with a cup of coffee in hand, it's time for coffee and tidbits.
SPEAKER_04Pour 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_15Celebrating 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_00Well, 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_18From Mickey Metal to the moon, from radios to satellites.
SPEAKER_04We were there to see it happen.
SPEAKER_18What 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_06Straight up and called the flight.
SPEAKER_05Listen 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.
SPEAKER_06With the golden baby boomers still standing proud today.
SPEAKER_05We'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.
SPEAKER_13We 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_05Before the setting's time golden baby boomer.
SPEAKER_00A lot of it is a board, a lot of different factors that we enjoy the story right now.
SPEAKER_02Coffee and tidbits.
SPEAKER_05Go 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_02Still waiting in our memories just beyond that next cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_05Boomers 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_02Funny how the best of life was living without ever knowing.
SPEAKER_05Interest 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_01Breaker one nine. Watch your handle, good buddy. Life sounded pretty fine.
SPEAKER_00Just 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_04Nobody told me it was coming.
SPEAKER_05Nobody rang a bell.
SPEAKER_04There wasn't any warning sign that I could really tell.
SPEAKER_05One 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_02The day before the climb.
SPEAKER_05Still trying to do its best. The years may keep on rolling, but one truth still remains.
SPEAKER_03Saturday morning, smell like coffee. Berging on the stove before daylight came.
SPEAKER_05Four 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_07We built a house with laughter and donuts.
SPEAKER_05Sticky little fingers reaching for one more.
SPEAKER_18Soccer shoes beside the back door, waiting. Tiny muddy footprints on the floor. It wasn't made of brick or loan.
SPEAKER_05Or lumber bought from any store. It was built with hugs.
SPEAKER_07Soccer games and pizza nuggets, pancakes, dreams, and love worth living for. The house, the laughter and donuts built.
SPEAKER_18The refrigerator held our schedule.
SPEAKER_05A soak games and crooked rows. And new flags and schoolwork hanging. How fast the father's garden grows.
SPEAKER_07The 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_05It 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_03We build a house with laughter and donuts. Now the little boys are families of their own.
SPEAKER_05They'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_03Who still comes home? The house, the laughter and donuts still. This old coffee pot still sings every Saturday morning.
SPEAKER_05And every now and then if I close my eyes, I can still hear four little boys laughing their way into the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00Well, 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_04Mom was having fun.
SPEAKER_18The 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_06No, back the other way. Standing there with the rabbit ears.
SPEAKER_13Try to save the day. Rabbit ears, baseball game, summer sunshine.
SPEAKER_05Bringing 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_13Just one game. One family. Have a cold drink in your hand.
SPEAKER_05Neighbor 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_13Rabbit 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_05Living every baseball dream.
SPEAKER_13The pictures gone. The pictures gone. The years have fallen. The years have fall.
SPEAKER_05The old TV has lost gone. Somewhere in my memories. The game is still playing on rabbites and baseball games.
SPEAKER_00It 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_03Thursday night at our house.
SPEAKER_18There were only three channels on the television.
SPEAKER_05Rabbit 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_13We 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_05Charlie's angels called the bad guys.
SPEAKER_04Kelly Jill and Saboon 2. Steve Austin kept on bionic running. Doing things no man could do. Match mixed laughter up with heartbreak.
SPEAKER_05Happy 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_13Monday 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_05One little box, one whole concert, sharing stories just the same. Then one winner came a story. Let change the living rooms forever.
SPEAKER_03Television wasn't just entertainment. Sometimes it taught us who we were.
SPEAKER_05The 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_03This concludes our broadcast day.
SPEAKER_05Followed by a faint television hiss.
SPEAKER_00We 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_06When the rules began to change our time.
SPEAKER_14But the world outside kept hiding. College dreams were taken flight. Women found new doors were open. Nothing looked the same by night.
SPEAKER_13The boys kept growing like the cornfields.
SPEAKER_06It'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_13We wouldn't. Well we wouldn't live in. Sometimes both can still be true.
SPEAKER_06The hardest roads two people travel other ones. They never knew.
SPEAKER_10People 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_09But 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_00It 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_17In the 60s, they clad in uniforms, barely old enough to shave.
SPEAKER_02Goodbye, Mom, goodbye, Dad. Goodbye, sis and brother.
SPEAKER_17Goodbye 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.
SPEAKER_05Letters travel over oceans.
SPEAKER_17Simply asked, they'd all come back.
SPEAKER_05Some came home with metal shining.
SPEAKER_17Some 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_05Some grew their hair a little longer. Some tried hard to start again.
SPEAKER_17Found 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_02Knowing now what time has shown every highway, every hometown would finally bring our veterans.
SPEAKER_05To every Vietnam veteran.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. We may not have welcomed you the way you deserve then.
SPEAKER_17But we honor you now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 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_08Like 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_05The 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_17Twelve 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_05Life was measured.
SPEAKER_17One more percentage point at a time. Every bank was making offers.
SPEAKER_08Bring your savings, stay a while.
SPEAKER_17One gave lamp, some patio furniture.
SPEAKER_08Another wore a bigger smile. Blenders.
SPEAKER_17Coffee makers.
SPEAKER_05Dinner wear stacked, shiny bright.
SPEAKER_17Some folks laughed and taste the freebie. Some takes one more quarter point.
SPEAKER_05We drive across to another bank.
SPEAKER_17Open one more brand new account.
SPEAKER_05President Carter came on television.
SPEAKER_17Speaking of the night. No Christmas. No grand design. Just ordinary phones. As it's mountain to climb. In percentages.
SPEAKER_02We don't remember every interest rate anymore. But we sure remember the toaster, the patio set, and the coffee maker we brought home.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 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_04Saturday night. Every Saturday night at the drive-in.
SPEAKER_05Saturday 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_02Saturday 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_00Yeah, 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_04The seventies were good for a laugh. There you go.
SPEAKER_16Every guy, every guy, every guy, every guy grew side burns longer, thinking we look pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05Polyester 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_08T B ready. Breaker, breaker. What's your 20? Good buddy. You are somebody.
SPEAKER_02If your handle had some flair.
SPEAKER_05The kids all roll in station wagons, facing backwards, making faces. Nobody buckled every seatbelt. Nobody needed GPSS.
SPEAKER_02Dad 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_05Ape, track, tapes, and answering machines. Life wasn't perfect. Neither were we. Maybe that's what made it.
SPEAKER_02Such a beautiful memory.
SPEAKER_08Looking back, we thought we were the coolest generation on earth. Looking at those pictures now.
SPEAKER_01We're just glad nobody had social media.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 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_04Ask with a good heart. That's where it starts. It ain't about pushing a shot of the soft spoken question.
SPEAKER_07Open up hearts.
SPEAKER_00Pick me up every Saturday. I'll make these great lists.
SPEAKER_07Leave a better footprint. Leave a bed of footprint. It's the love of your words that'll let us do it.
unknownMy great kids.
SPEAKER_00Y'all have a great week and better weekend of those around you.
SPEAKER_07Shoot 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.
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