Showing posts with label Growing up in the 1970s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Growing up in the 1970s. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Wednesday, May 7, 1975. End of the Vietnam War Era.

The US government declared the Vietnam War era at an end for purposes of veterans benefits.

9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam Era, but of course not all of them went to Vietnam.   3.4 million U.S. servicemen were deployed to Southeast Asia.  Approximately 2.7 million served in the Republic of Vietnam.  Most US servicemen in Vietnam were not combat troops, although because of the nature of the war, any of them could be exposed to combat.

There has never been a U.S. President who served in Vietnam, although one Vice President, Al Gore, did.  George W. Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard as a fighter pilot during the war.  Bill Clinton had a student deferment.  Joe Biden had a deferment for asthma.  Trump had one for shin splints.

None of my immediate family (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins) served in Vietnam or would qualify as a Vietnam Era veteran, even though a lot of them had been in the service.  The husband of one of my cousins had served in Vietnam as an officer in the Navy, and a Canadian cousin of my mother's who was living in Florida was drafted and served in Vietnam, so there is some family connection.  In the neighborhood, the son of the man who lived across the street was a paratrooper in the war.

In junior high, one of the more colorful social studies teachers had been in the Marine Recon, a unit much like the Rangers, during the war, and occasionally wore a green beret, which was never officially adopted by the Marines, to school.   In high school, a legendary swimming teacher from the South Pacific had been a Navy SEAL and bore the scars of having been shot in the war and also from having been straffed as a child by a Japanese airplane. The ROTC teacher also had been, but I didn't take ROTC.

In university, a geology professor who also held a job with the State of Wyoming had served in Vietnam, and according to those who knew him well, suffered pretty markedly from PTSD.  I never noticed that myself, and he was a good professor.

When I joined the National Guard right after high school I found it packed with Vietnam Veterans.  One of my good friends in the Guard was the mechanics section chief but had the Combat Infantryman's Badge awarded for two tours in the country.  Another friend of mine also had the CIB from the 1st Cavalry Division, with his uniquely being stitched in dark blue for the subdued  patch.  A fellow I was friendly with had been a Ranger in Vietnam and when he first joined and was still relying on service period uniforms he'd wear a black beret, another unofficial item. A good friend of mine who was his brother in law was in the Wyoming Air National Guard and had flown medical missions to the country, a deployment you rarely hear about.  One of our members had been a Navy pilot.  What with the CIBs, combat patches, pilot's wings, etc., we must have been an odd looking bunch to the young soldiers in the Regular Army.

There were a lot of them.

Cartoonist George Baker, the creator of the World War Two era Sad Sack cartoon, died at age 59.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 6, 1975. Authoritarian victims.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 83d Edition. The law and refusal to depart, departing in the worst way, echoes of service.

The old lawyers.


I was on a phone hearing recently and one of the lawyers, whom I used to run into a fair amount but have not for years, sounded really rough.  In a subsequent phone call he sounded the same way, and I looked up his firm photo and realized he is now 76 years old.

76.

What the crap?

In his photo, he looked haggard and ancient.

I was at something else not too long ago and saw another lawyer I used to run into a fair amount, who always had a youthful appearance even though I knew he was at least  decade.  I was shocked by his appearance.  

He's now 83.  He might just be practicing part time, I'd note.

I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine who is now up over 70, I think.  He doesn't appear worn or drawn down, but he told me that he's afraid of retiring as he enjoys the social interaction of the lawyers.  We discussed another lawyer who is a friend of his whom I figure is now in his mid 70s.

 There's something deeply wrong with all of this.

This reflects, I'll note, in our society at large, of course.  Our last qualified President, Joe Biden was in his 80s, and clearly suffering from mental decline, when he left office in defeat.  A recent book regarding the 2024 election reports, in hte opinion of hte authors, that Biden believes he's smarkter than everyone else which formed the basis of his disaterous decision.  Our current chief executive is also, in my view, suffering from dementia at an increasing rate that can't be ignored, but which is largely being ignored, even as he destroys the economy, foreign relations, and American democracy.  He also seems to suffer from "only I can do it" delusion, and on at least one occasion in the 2024 campaign said as much.

Biden was a lawyer, eons ago.  Trump is a real estate developer, so that's a bit off point. But there's something really pathetic about lawyers who practice past their 60s.  I'm in my early 60s, I'd note.  They've lost something of their soul, if not their souls in general, and have nothing left but their work.*

There's also something societally wrong with a society that allows this to occur.  I'll avoid the political discussion, but mental decline is inevitable in almost everyone who lives past their 50s.  People don't want to believe it, but it's absolutely true.

And beyond that, society should not encourage the elderly to occupy positions such as this past their mid 60s.  It takes up space that should be filled by younger people.  By that point a peson should be ready to retire, and if they're not, they're never going to be ready, economically.  Talent wise, they should apply their talents and time to something else.

Read a book, train a dog, go fishing.  Discovery the person you were when you started out, and the one you apparently lost.

Mehr Mensch sein.

Service.

Vietnam service ribbon.

This will be an odd one, and it'll sound difficult not to make it should like I'm being unduly critical.

We've been running a lot of posts recently about the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975.  Nearly daily, as we're in the cycle in which things were becoming a disaster for the Republic of Vietnam, and a war which we entered in the early 1960s, and left in 1973, was about to be lost by the country we supported.

I note this as it's struck me for a long time how many professionals I know, including lawyers, who are of the Vietnam War generation and have no military service.

Not all, I'll note.  One former Federal District Court judge here was an artillery observer in Vietnam, and a lawyer in our capital city was an artilleryman.  Two state district court judges I know served in Vietnam.  And a few other lawyers I know did.

But by and large, most didn't.

It's interesting in a number of ways, one being that it's likely their father's all had served in World War Two.

Now, the Second World War was a huge war, to be sure.  But as a member of Generation Jones, when I was growing up, it was the case that if our fathers hadn't served in World War Two, they had in the Korean War, or on either side of it.  Growing up, this was so routine you simply assumed it.  I recall always being surprised if a kid I knew had a father who had never served in the Armed Forces, and this included professionals.  All the doctors and dentists that my father was friends with had served in World War Two or in the Armed Forces after that.  I didn't know but one lawyer then, but he'd served in the Post War Army and later on the older lawyers I knew who were of World War Two vintage had served, often quite heroically, in the war.

Baby Boom generation male lawyers?  Not so much.

I don't think that's a good thing, frankly.  War is awful but most American servicemen who served in the 60s nad early 70s didn't see a day of fighting.  The Service is full of men who aren't like you, who didn't grow up like you, and don't have any of your per service shared experiences.  That's valuable.

Lots of those guys would have been better men had they served.**  Donald Trump would have been.

And American society would be.  We really started dividing the country back into the haves, and have nots, but allowing so many who could afford an education to avoid serving.  It helped split hte country into the mess it is now.***

"Biased, Misguided WY Judges and Lawyers."

So claimed Wyoming's Congressional delegation about a letter signed by over 100 Wyoming lawyers.

I'm not a signatory to it as, frankly, I was too busy to notice its circulation when it was going around.  The letter is 100% correct, however.  I know a lot of the lawyers who did sign it, and more of a few of them are actual conservatives, and a few of them were once very significant figures in the Wyoming Republican Party, including those who were elected to office.  

Moreover, at least two of the three of the Congressional delegation itself are not anywhere near as populist as they now assert they are.  All three of these figures would have supported this letter under different circumstances, and two out of the three undoubtedly still hold the view that the lawyers are right, but are taking their positions as they do not wish to anger Trump supporters.  If the wind turns, they'll turn with it so rapidly that it will toss MAGA right off the decks.

All of which is profoundly sad.  That people hold one view and then express another one publicly is no doubt common, but it's not admirable, and is far from admirable in a situation like this.   It’s one of the things that’s really wrong with American politics today.

It is interesting t have even with the taking of extreme positions like this, at least one refused to publicly adopt the extreme Executive Power doctrine that’s being exercised now, while at the same time, not disavowing it.  John Barrasso, when asked if the President really had the power to levy tariffs the way he is (he doesn’t) just twice said that Congress had delegated a lot of power to the President.  It has.  It’s not a good thing, and he wouldn’t say that it is.

It does make sitting back and letting things happen easier.  The entire country is going to suffer massively due to Trump, and Wyoming is going to take a bruising.  It’d be far better to stand up and say so now, and take the lumps if they come, then to excuse your conduct later.

Footnotes

*Coincidentally, I saw this in our local newspaper in an advice column.

Dear Eric: I was an attorney when I started having memory problems at age 65. I retired and subsequently learned that I had a devastating rare dementia with a very short lifespan. Instead of providing me support, my friends disappeared from my life, at the time I needed them most. Friends may rally around you when you have cancer, driving you to chemo treatments, dropping off food and other things to support you; when you have dementia, everyone just disappears.

I’ve always been a sociable person and I’m missing that so much, but I have no idea how or where to start. Any ideas?

Students navigate campus atmosphere, social changes to find connection

– Left By Friends

Dear Friends: People sometimes don’t know what to do or say when confronted with illness, but that’s no excuse for your friends’ behavior and I’m sorry. The Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) has a wealth of resources for people with dementia, including support groups, both online and in-person. Being able to talk with others about what you’re experiencing and feeling will help with isolation.

This also might be a time for you to explore new volunteer opportunities or social groups that have nothing to do with dementia, depending on your care plan and abilities. You are a person who is worthy of connection, with a wealth of experiences and knowledge from which others can benefit. Your company would be welcomed at a senior center, a local outing group or an organization that aligns with your interests and values. If you have anxiety about navigating these spaces with dementia, or need accommodation in order to feel safe, please don’t hesitate to reach out in advance and talk to a group leader about how you can participate most comfortably.

Eric is surprised that his fellow lawyers quit associating with him.

He likely ought not to be.

I don't think it's that people don't know what to say or do.  I think that people fail to appreciate that workplace social contacts are, to a very high degree, extremely casual or even business contacts, and that once the professional is not employed, at least in teh law, the value of that person to others in the law is gone.

In other words, this doesn't surprise me a bit. 

**I'd note that I feel the same way about men who weren't in the service, but who worked a blue collar or agricultural job.  Those employments are levelling in a way, and I've noticed that men of the same generation who were never in the Armed Forces, but worked as roughnecks or came from ranches and farms, are much more accepting generally of other people.

***And, ironically, it also started the country off on the hyper glorification of those who have been in the service.

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 82nd Edition. The This Is Your Economy On Dementia Edition.

Thứ Năm, ngày 1 tháng 5 năm 1975. Chiến tranh Việt Nam kết thúc.* Thursday, May 1, 1975. The conclusion of the Vietnam War. Jeudi 1er mai 1975. Fin de la guerre du Vietnam.

ARVN troops in Cần Thơ  surrendered to the VC following the suicide of Gen. Nguyễn Khoa Nam, age 48, Major General of IV Corps in Cần Thơ.  This effectively brought organized resistance to the VC and NVA almost to an end after twenty years of combat.  The country remains, of course, under the regime that won the war.

Quân VNCH ở Cần Thơ đầu hàng VC sau cái chết của Tướng Nguyễn Khoa Nam, 48 tuổi, Thiếu tướng Quân đoàn IV ở Cần Thơ.  Điều này đã khiến cho sự kháng cự có tổ chức chống lại VC và Bắc Việt gần như chấm dứt một cách hiệu quả sau hai mươi năm chiến đấu.  Tất nhiên, đất nước vẫn nằm dưới chế độ đã thắng trong chiến tranh.

Les troupes de l'ARVN à Cần Thơ se sont rendues au VC suite au suicide du général Nguyễn Khoa Nam, 48 ans, major général du IVe Corps à Cần Thơ.  Cela a effectivement mis fin à la résistance organisée au VC et à la NVA après vingt ans de combat.  Le pays reste bien entendu sous le régime qui a gagné la guerre.


By this point, I'd quit tracking the war on my National Geographic map of Vietnam.  There came to be no point.

Khmer Rouge forces landed on Phú Quốc which was claimed by Cambodia but controlled by South Vietnam.  It was also the location of a large South Vietnamese POW camp.

Hank Aaron broke the career record for RBIs.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

The New York Stock Exchange dropped the requirement of a fixed commission for stock transactions following pressure to do so from the SEC. 

Footnotes:

*Google Translate text.  I don't speak Vietnamese.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 30, 1975. The Fall of Saigon.

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Saturday, April 26, 1975. The attack on Saigon begins.

The NVA commenced its attack on Saigon with a bombardment of the Bien Hoa Air Base.

TV Guide had an article on Sex and Violence in television, which is interesting given the context of the times.


It also featured McCloud, which was a popular police drama in the era of police dramas.  The show featured Gunsmoke veteran Dennis Weaver as a New Mexico police detective somehow assigned to Brooklyn.  I recall my father used to watch it.  That entire plot line sounds a lot like the plot of 1968 film Coogan's Bluff, which featured Clint Eastwood as a sheriff's deputy from Arizona on assignment in New York.

TV Guide was a weekly magazine my father subscribed to.  I don't know if it exists anymore.  It ran all of the television schedules for the week.  I always thought it was an odd thing to subscribe to really, but it came to the house.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Movies In History: 5-25-77 and Licorice Pizza.

Okay, these are unusual entries for this website, and he second one is downright weird for this site.  In fact I only watched the second one because of the first one, and I'm not entirely sure that I don't regret watching it, frankly.

5-25-77

5-25-77 is a coming of age film released in 2022 that I think I've actually watched twice.  Indeed, I started a review a long time ago, and like some other lingering posts, I thought I'd already posted it.  Set in 1977 its a movie about and by somebody actually in the movie industry about his youth in the Midwest and his early obsession with movies, most specifically the movie Star Wars.  The title of the movie is taken from the release date for the film.  The conclusion of the film actually depicts the actual people the film portrays, at the time in which the film is set.

Apparently the director and producer of the film was simply obsessed with Star Wars when it was released.  Much of the movie revolves around his efforts to see the film upon its initial release, but it also deals with a trip to California brought about through the efforts of his mother to try to introduce him to industry figures, and through persistence he does get to meet Steven Spielberg.  The movie also involves a frustrating romance with a girl in his high school and (spoiler alert) her pushing him away as she wants him to pursue  his dream of being a movie maker, while she wishes to stay in their small town in Illinois.

The film is well done, funny, and bittersweet.  It does a really good job with material details and depicting the look and feel of the late 1970s, as well as the hype regarding Star Wars when it first came out, and before it was spoiled, in a way, by the numerous sequels.  A small film, its still worth watching, and not just because May 25 is my birthday (and I saw Star Wars in the theater during its initial run).  It catches the obsessiveness about films that had theater runs when they could be watched in no other fashion really well.  It also catches the fascination that existed with space films of the time pretty well, with 2001 A Space Odyssey showing up as a reference.

It also does a pretty good job of showing teenage culture, at least in the middle of the country, at the time.  A female character gets mixed in as one of the guys, basically, in a way that's really realistic in that she's a pal, and not overly a love interest focus, although the major female character is the main male protagonist's love interest and of course, there's the obligatory sex reference in the film.  It's material details are well done.

This one isn't bad and is worth viewing.

Licorice Pizza

This one isn't.  It varies from weird, to boring, to creepy.

Probably because I watched 5-25-77, this film came up on my feed recommendations and as it vaguely looked remotely similar, I watched it.  The film is really hard to describe in more ways than one.  It seems to have drawn critical favoritism and I'm not sure why.

This film deals with a high school student who may or may not be going to a school for young actors (it's hard to tell).  On the first day of school when he's 15 (maybe his freshman year?) he meets a young woman whose working at the school who is an adult.  Later in the film she gives her age as 25, at which time the male protagonist might still be 15, or maybe 16.  It's hard to tell.

It's hard to tell what the plot of the story even is.  On day one he asks the older girl, Alana, to dinner that night and he inexplicably is able to leave his house, where he seems to be in charge of his younger brother, to go to the restaurant to find that the 20 something girl is in fact there.  From there, there's an endless serious of highly improbable developments that center around the teenage boy's business talents (he seem to have access to money at a rate that few teenagers so).  He goes into the waterbed business (seriously) and later in the movie opens an arcade (seriously?).  He introduces the girl to his acting agent (his acting career seems to have died with commercials as a child) at her requests, which leads later on to an argument (she feels she should have said she'd appear in films topless) which leads to her exposing herself (we only see her back) to her 15 year old male friend.

After a tour through vandalism, which makes no sense in the film whatsoever, a scene involving Sean Penn as an older actor, and lots of running, she declares her love for the male protagonist and they kiss.

If it had a male older actor and a teenage girl, it would be something like Lolita except in Lolita, I think, the creepy male predator comes across as a creepy male predator.  Here, Alana is never condemned for what really is predatory behavior.

I'm not sure why people like this movie, but it's really creepy.

The film is set in the very early 1970s.  1973 is mentioned at one point.  The clothing and hair styles are basically correct, although with the actresses the director or design person clearly took a braless trend that existed at the time and grossly over emphasized it, unless it had more of a following in Encino where this movie is set.  As noted, the movie is creepy.

In watching it, I thought the film probably riffed off of 5-25-77 in that it has all young actors and is mostly retrospective in a weird sort of way.  But this film is actually from 2021.

If the film has one virtue, which is doubtful, it's the seen with Sean Penn.  The movie casts Penn as an older actor and there are sufficient references such that its clear he's supposed to be a combination Jack Holden and Steve McQueen.  The movie The Bridges at Toko Ri are referenced with a barely disguised title. McQueen's ability with a motorcycle is used.   A bar scene features a director who is fairly clearly supposed to be John Ford, who in fact died in 1973.  The short portion of the film with both of them in it is the only part watching, if anything is worth watching, which it really isn't.

Don't bother.

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Casper of the 1970s.

 

Casper mayor's son remembers him as an industrious leader and an unsettled father.

I don't remember this Mayor at all, but then in 1974, the year this is sort of tied to, I was eleven years old.

Still, this gives a really good glimpse at the Casper that was, even when it tries to portray the city as sort of a typical midwestern slow city, and its not a pretty picture at all.

“Casper in the ‘70s was pretty much an idyllic, all-American, apple pie, pickup truck, horse-riding, cowboy-hat-wearing type of community,” Cody said almost two months after his father died.

Charles came to Wyoming from Michigan. He shot guns and rode his motorcycle and took his kids up Casper Mountain. Under the all-Americanness, though, was the tender underbelly of a family fraying at the seams.

“He was the Hunter S. Thompson in the Casper world of mayoral politics,” Cody said of Charles. “He really was like the party mayor,” he added.

Charles spent his free time drinking, doing hard drugs and chasing women. Everything he did, he did to the fullest extent. He told Cody once that he never lost a case as a litigator. He had a “narcissistic” drive, Cody said, to be the best at what he did, even if it was at the expense of others.

On June 28, 1974, the Casper Star-Tribune reported that Charles had declared a bid for a state Senate seat as a Democrat. The mayor believed that “city and county officials are best equipped to solve impact growth problems.”

I think the "drinking, doing hard drugs and chasing women" was a lot more common amongst Casper's elite in the days than we might want to admit.  Not the slow little town some what to claim they remembers.

The author apparently went on to be a lawyer in the Southwest.

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975.

It was Easter.

In 1975 I'm not sure if we would have gone to Mass the prior night, or on Easter Sunday itself.  Probably the prior night.  My father would have bought some Easter chocolates, but we wouldn't have done the Easter Egg thing.  One thing about being an only child is that you grow up quickly in a lot of ways.

Our small family would have had ham for dinner and probably potatoes au gratin, out of the box of course.

Thousands of Vietnamese Catholics were on the road, hoping to escape the advancing communists.

Da Nang was completely in the hands of the NVA.  The defeat there had become a rout, with only South Vietnamese Marines retaining discipline.

It was begging to dawn in the South Vietnamese government that the United States was not going to come to its aid, resulting in real anger in the South.  The withdrawal that had been going on had in mind something like the Pusan Perimeter operation in the Korean War in 1950, in which the United States reversed the course of the Korean War.  Geographically there were real similarities and the strategy made some sense, but only if the US was willing to reenter the war.

Last edition: 

Saturday, March 29, 1975. NVA takes Da Nang.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Saturday, March 15, 1975. Abandoning Buôn Ma Thuột and Huế.

Gen. Phu gave up on trying to retake Buôn Ma Thuột and ordered his forces to retreat to the coast.

President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered the ARVN to abandon the defense of Huế, and to retreat southward to defend Saigon. The decision led to a mass civilian exodus.

The war was, effectively, over.  The tragedy was not.

It's about this point that eleven year old me really began to take notice of the unfolding drama, although it might have been before that.  A National Geographic map of Vietnam was up on my wall, with my color pencil notations of how things were progressing.

Last edition:

Friday, March 14, 1975. Desperate measures.

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Blog Mirror: Drinking Wyoming: Frosty’s, A True Casper Dive Bar Proudly Serving Horrible Liquor

A Casper institution:

Drinking Wyoming: Frosty’s, A True Casper Dive Bar Proudly Serving Horrible Liquor

I used to occasionally order food through the drive through window when I was a sophomore in high school.  The cafeteria was being rebuilt at the time.

One of my aunts loved the place.  A cousin and I used to take her there for lunch. She's passed, but sometimes we still will eat there.

Monday, February 24, 2025

Lex Anteinternet: What's Wrong with the United States? Cultural and linguistic ignorance.

Lex Anteinternet: What's Wrong with the United States? We're really...: Can you imagine this scene today?  The older man (who in context is probably in his 50s) would be staring blankly into space, while the youn...

Let's revisit this topic just a bit.

I went to university in the 1980s.  Prior to entering university it was emphasized to me that I'd need to learn a foreign language.  I checked it out, and that was in fact quite correct. The courses of study I was looking at, which were scientific in nature, all required foreign languages in order to graduate.

In junior high I took French.  The options were French, Latin, or Spanish.  French was my choice as my mother spoke French and I had a cultural connection to it.  In high school I took German, as my father knew it and I had a cultural connection to it.  In university, as a science major, I took German.  Two semesters of basic German and one of German literature, in German.  I.e., the whole class was taught in German.

It's not too much to ask.

I've never regretted a moment I've dedicated to languages outside of the mother tongue.

My father took German in university and already spoke it and Latin.  My mother majored in French, which she already knew how to speak, but she knew Latin as well.

A century ago a university student wouldn't have made it out of university without a command of Latin and Greek.

For that matter, a university student, no matter what they would have taken, would have had a familiarity with the Middle English classics.

These things are not unimportant.  Part of the reason we are in the fix we are today is that the occupant of the Oval Office speaks gibberish, like an uneducated moron.  Many Americans who are ostensibly well educated cannot get by, even in a rudimentary fashion, in a foreign tongue.  In this regard, the average illegal immigrant from south of the border is much better educated linguistically and culturally than the average American.

Exposure to a foreign language, even if you forget it, is illuminating as the culture of the language will come to you to some degree.  This presents a strong argument for Latin returning as a requirement for university, as we're all latent residents of the Roman Empire and don't know it, through its culture.  Electing a Presiden twho speaks GibberyDoo is good evidence of how far we've fallen. Like the Vandals smashing the mosaics to see if the animals were trapped in the floor, we're smashing the country and the culture as we're equally ignorant.

That can be stopped, and should be.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

What's Wrong with the United States? We're really ignorant, and its getting worse.

Can you imagine this scene today?  The older man (who in context is probably in his 50s) would be staring blankly into space, while the young woman looked at TikTok videos.

21% of adults in the US are illiterate. 54% of American adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level. 

And we wonder how Trump got elected?

The illiterate are ignorant, and blisteringly ignorant people vote for stupid stuff.

I had a very strange experience the other day, which I need to be indistinct about.

It had to do with homeschooling.

Twice in recent weeks I've run across a topic that's in the legislature, that being the legal requirement, which the Wyoming 2025 Legislative assembly is about to wipe out, that home schooling parents submit their educational plans to their local school districts.  The requirement is there to prevent parents from basically not educating their children.

Not educating children is what homeschooling is all about.

This wasn't always the case, but it's become the case.  

Some background.

My father was the first male in his family to graduate from high school.  He might have been the third member of the family, as I don't know that much about my paternal grandmother's early life in that fashion.  She probably graduated high school in Denver however, likely from a Catholic high school.  His older sister graduated from a high school in Scottsbluff.

My father went on to a doctorate.

My paternal grandfather, who left school to work at age 13, had such an advance knowledge of mathematics that he helped his children with their high school calculus homework, which is revealing for two reasons, one that is amazing on his part, and secondly all of my father's siblings took calculus in high school.

I didn't take calculus in high school

My father could speak two languages, English and German, and had a knowledge of Latin.  My paternal grandfather also could speak two languages, English and German, and had a knowledge of Latin.

My mother did not graduate from high school She was not given the opportunity to.  She earned an Associates as a an adult.  Her mother was university educated, as was her father.  They all spoke two languages, English and French, and had a command of Latin.

Growing up in my family household was like getting a post doctorate in some things, history and science in particular.  I read so early that I was on to adult books before I left grade school and had the odd experience of a junior high librarian not wishing to check a history book as she feared it was too advance.  I read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire before I left junior high.

I was in fact educated on a lot of stuff at home. . . but I was sent to school.

There's an interesting pattern here.  Some of my friends of my age had college educated parents, but not all of them did.  But all of my friends attended college or university.  Not all graduated, but they did receive some post high school education.  One of my closest friends had a father who did not graduate from high school.  He joined the Army in his senior year to fight in World War Two, following in the footsteps of a father who had fought in World War One.  My friend has two bachelors degrees.

And there's another thing here.  Even those people I knew from my generation, and the prior one, who had parents that didn't graduate high school, had quite literate parents.  If I ever went into a house that didn't have a lot of books somewhere, it was shocking.  I can only really recall one.  The home of my friend noted above was like a library.  My parents house  and that of all of my aunts and uncles were packed with books.  In my parents house you could find a few books that were in German or French.  A friend of mine who did not graduate from high school, but none the less went off to university, recalled his grandparents house being packed with books in . . . Gaelic.

My paternal grandmother absolutely insisted that my father go on to get an advanced degree, something he briefly though about not doing.  His unmarried sister near in age to him was sent to university as well.  I was given no real choice but to go on to higher education myself.  

And this was common for people my generation, and the preceding one.  Farm and ranch family in particular often had a manic dedication to higher education.

Home schooling has been around since time immemorial, I suppose, but when I was a kid, what it probably meant, where I live, is that the kid in question was living on a really remote ranch.  Even then, most ranching parents made a dedicated effort to avoid that.  More than a few had a teacher who lived at the ranch, paid for by the school district.  The county I live in had four rural remote public schools, of which only one is still in operation.  The neighboring one had some so remote that if you run across them on really rural roads its a shock.  The teachers at these institutions were admired in a way that's hard to describe.  Anything going on in the area always included them.

I didn't know a single homeschooled kid growing up.

Next to home schooling, of course, is private schooling.  When I was young the only private school I ever heard of was the Catholic school.  It was a big downtown school.  It's moved from downtown, but it still exists.  Catholic education had long been a thing in the US and apparently Catholics are supposed to send their kids to Catholic schools if they can, but I didn't go to it (it was full), nor did our kids.  

When in high school I learned that there was a Lutheran grade school, to my enormous surprise, as I walked by it every day.  After high school I learned that there was a "Christian" school, by which I mean a school attached to one of the sort of due it yourself evangelical Protestant groups.  It started in 1978, so I would have been in high school when it commenced operating.  The ministers for that church, at the time, were drawn from the congregation, and I later met one who was ironically adverse with its tenants as he was a geologist who accepted the truth of evolution, which the church did not.

A church that thinks evolution is a fib, probably doesn't have it taught in its schools.

Which is the point, really.  The goal of a large amount of modern homeschooling is to keep students as ignorant as possible, which is conceived of as limiting tehir "exposure" to corrupting elements.

I've been exposed to a few homeschooled kids over the years and frankly a lot of them were rather weird and very socially awkward.  Having said that, I've met one kid, and know of another, from a homeschooling family who were not that way, and one of which went on to a really high dollar career.

Now, with that comment, let me note that education isn't about getting rich, or shouldn't be.  It's about the Allegory of the Cave.  The problem here is that those exposed to  the sunlight are seeking to drag the ir offspring back into it, deeper in the cave, and into chains.


The simple fact of the matter is that Americans were much more literate prior to the 1990s than they are now.  They read.  They read even if they hadn't graduated high school.

And they read a lot, and a lot of it is much more advanced than what people claim to read now.  Even people who mostly read novels often read things much more advanced than people do now.  I recall one parent of a family friend being a fanatic fan of C. S. Forester, whose novels were just that, but noen the less dealt often with the Napoleonic Wars, something a lot of current Americans probably don't know occured.  One fellow I knew in the National Guard loved Louis Lamour, so much so that he read The Walking Drum, which is set in the Middle Ages, about which he was able to speak intelligently.  Another fellow, who had been a career Marine, was reading War and Peace.

Everyone read the newspaper.  You'd frequently see periodicals in people's houses, including unfortunately Playboy on occasion, but the latter had sufficiently good interviews that my high school newspaper teacher used those as examples and adopted them for the pattern of a series in that high school journal.  Less unfortunately, you'd see Time, Newsweek and Life in people's houses routinely.  And everyone read the local newspaper, by which I mean everyone.

The National Geographic seemed to be in the home of every household that had children, including ours.  Our collection went back into the 1940s, from my father's parents home.

Cartoons didn't make much of an appearance in our house, and I"ve never developed a taste for most of the cartoon journal type of cartoons, like Superman, but what I do recall is when they showed up, it was often Mad Magazine, which actually is really adult oriented, and not in the juvenile way "adult" is often used.

The point is, when people claim people were "more educated" in the past, including populists who are not today, they tended to be, but in ways that people now just don't really quite grasp.  They often had lower levels of educational achievement, but because they lived in a literate world, they were societally educated.

You can go into a lot of homes today and find that the occupants read. . . nothing.  

Instead, people consume only what suits them.  

In almost all of the 20th Century, it wasn't really possible to hear only the news you wanted to.  Even if you limited yourself to radio, prior to the introduction of television, you were going to get a wide range of news.  Newspapers were, as noted, almost a requirement for most households.  When television came in, at first, it was highly local but the news was national and there was no avoiding it.  You weren't going to get right or left wing propaganda from anyone.

That's all passed.

Americans aren't reading.  What media they consume is self reaffirming, like Protestant sermons from the 1600s.  People are listening only to like minds, and the nation is becoming more and more ignorant.

Which is why we have Donald Trump in office.  No literate nation would elect him to anything.\

Note that this doesn't mean the population is dumb.  Ignorant and dumb are not the same thing.  But we suffer from the Jo Jo Rabbit Effect in a major way.  We're listening, basically, to ourselves, and making excuses for our failures, and justifying our appetites.

And it puts the entire globe in danger.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Francis Anna Camuglia and Cynthia Blanton.

I ran into this item in a really roundabout way, that being a random link to a 1967 newspaper article.  That isn't mentioned in either of the two sources noted here, that being Ms. Blanton's blog (which is quite good, I might add) or Reddit.  I unfortunately can't find the link to the article.

Anyhow, let's start with an upload of the photograph on Ms. Blanton's blog:

Blanton with the top part of the "Miss March" centerfold. This is directly linked to her blog.  I'm using the fair use and commentary exception to copyright, but I don't own the rights to post this and will immediately take it down if asked.

Miss March holding her own centerfold?

No, Miss Blanton, then a high school student, holding the centerfold of "Fran" "Gerard", who was actually one Francis Anna Camuglia, who is apparently a legendary centerfold.

The story is related on the Blanton blog, and it is really amusing.  Her resemblance was immediately noted in March 1967 by the boys in her high school, which I don't doubt.  She's almost a dead ringer for Gerard, save that, if anything, she was actually prettier in this photograph.  Their nose structure and generally their facial features are amazingly similar.  Blanton relates that she used this to play a joke on her mother, holding the centerfold like depicted and briefly fooling her mother into thinking that she'd posed for Playboy.  Apparently Ms. Gerard was extremely top heavy, and when folded out it becomes apparent that Gerard and Blanton are not the same person.

So why am I posting this here?  Cute story?

I suppose it is a cute story, and Blanton really had a sense of humor and still does.  But we're posting this for other reasons.

Gerard is apparently a famous Playboy centerfold, for the very reason noted.  The 1960s was before silicone and she was very top heavy, in an era when Playboy centerfolds were all pretty top heavy.  That she still has a following is remarkable, particularly since she died in 1985.

And that's the reason we're noting her.

She was born, as noted, Francis Camuglia, and as her find a grave entry shows, she was from a large, almost certainly Italian, and almost certainly Catholic, family.  By the time she was photographed in 1966 or 1967, she'd already been married and maybe divorced, and was off to a rocky start in life.  If she wasn't yet divorced, she soon would be.  She'd marry one more time, and go on to a life in California, working for an astrologer.

In 1985 she killed herself at age 37.

Blanton, in contrast, when on to high education, a successful life, and retired to Mexico.  She's travelled all over the world, as her blog demonstrates.

At the time of the photo, Blanton and Gerard really weren't very far apart in age.  Camuglia was born in March 1948, in which case she was a mere 19 years old when she appeared in Playboy, and only barely 19 years old at that.  Blanton was younger, but not by much, probably only one or two years at the very most.

Blanton went on to success.  Gerard was reduced in the public mind to her naked visage, a cute girl with (apparently) large assets.

The 1960s, while there was still open, and sometime legal, opposition to it, was right at the height of public acceptance of Playboy.  In the 1970s you'd still go into grocery stores and it was available the way other magazines are now, on your way to the checker.  It retained an image of "dirty" and glamourous all at the same time.

What the public didn't know was the long lasting effects pornography would have on the American public and psyche and how damaging it would be.  Nor did it know about the horrific abuse so many of these young women went through.  Not only did it basically brand them, to a degree, for life, making them something like harem slaves in a way of prior eras, valued for their physical assets and little else, they were often subject to horrific physical abuse.

I don't know about Gerard and I'm not going to look it up either.  Entering her name would no doubt provide piles of pornographic links.  That she was somebody who killed herself I already knew.  There's a really good documentary, Secrets of Playboy, that really dives into what happened to so many of these people.  Playboy left a pool of drugs and blood on the floor that we're still trying to mop up.

Her headstone is marked "Our Bubbie - Beloved Daughter and Sister".

Related threads:

Secrets of Playboy

Monday, December 16, 2024

Monday, December 16, 1974. Safe Drinking Water.

The Republic of Mali invaded the Republic of Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) in a border conflict over water rights.

The United States Senate unanimously (93 to 0) ratified the Geneva Protocol, the "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare", almost 50 years after it had first been signed signed in Switzerland on June 17, 1925, and became effective on February 28, 1928.

Hmmm. . . . 

The Safe Drinking Water Act was signed into law.

Probably wouldn't happen today.

ANZUK, a military unit created in 1971 by agreement of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, was disbanded after slightly more than two years of having been in existence.

No surprise, given the Vietnam War and the "winds of change".

The Towering Inferno premiered.  I recall seeing it in the theaters with a friend on a Saturday afternoon, even though I was 11 years old.  It was awful.

Frankly, they shouldn't have let us in the movie at all.  I'm sure we walked down and watched it, but it features a totally stupid 1970s example of full frontal that serves no purpose other than to be a toss out to the Playboy ethos of the era, which no 11 year old, or 21 year old, or 61 year old, should have to put up with.

It also, fwiw, runs down the National Guard, in the 1970s post Vietnam War style.

And the plot is moronic.  One of the 1970s scare movies.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 17, 1974. Greek democracy restored.

Labels: 

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Saturday, September 26, 1964. Gilligan's Island

Gilligan's Island premiered on CBS.


Bob Denver, who had previously been portrayed as a beatnik, played the title role.  He'd been previously known for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.  All of the actors in the short run series ended up typecast, in cluding the talented Alan Hale, Jr.

UPI critic Rick Dubrow commented:  "It is impossible that a more inept, moronic or humorless show has ever appeared on the home tube."

As a kid, I'd often watch the show, already in syndication, when I got home from school.

Rebels in the Congo rounded up of all foreigners trapped in Stanleyville and Paulis.

The "High National Council" was installed to function as the legislature for South Vietnam.

Last edition:

Friday, September 25, 1964. Gomer Pyle, USMC.