Talkin' 'Bout MY Generation

Welcome to the sister blog to my NYC History site.

This blog covers some of our mutual experiences during the 1970s. NYC was on the verge of bankrupcy - remember the famous DAILY NEWS headline? "Ford to City: Drop dead!" It was the tail end of the hippie generation and the begining of what Tom Wolfe called the "Me Generation." The subways were filthy and covered with graffiti. Crime was at an all-time high. But...

We had REAL rock and roll at places like the Academy of Music and Upstairs at Max's. You could still afford a decent apartment. People were starting to realize that the suburbs weren't for them, and were begining to buy and renovate houses in areas like Park Slope. Parents weren't going broke buying clothes for their teenagers - because we weren't so obsessed with such stuff. Ed Koch talked the feds into doing something to help the South Bronx that really WORKED. Concert tickets weren't outside your budget.

I grew up in that era. My pals and I thought of ourselves as keeping the spirit of rock and roll alive during the era of tunes like "Disco Duck." We refused to wear designer stuff. College was an absolute farce. I went to St. John's University - the Staten Island campus, which resembed an episode of the 70's classic sitcom "Welcome Back Kotter" - complete with a slew of Travolta wannabes. Many of our profs were ex-hippie types (a couple still had long hair) while the kids mostly wanted to become accountants because they thought it was the fastest way to make money. What a perfect example of the era!