AEOLUS the Chronicle's Weekly Magazine
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AEOLUS The Chronicle's weekly magazine 75th Year, No. 66 Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Wednesday, December 5, 1979 ... And so ends another decade. supplies. Inside we look at the movies, discussion—we just ran out of time and "The Seventies," unlike any other the music, the fads, the issues and the space. So if you, dear reader, are decade in recent memory, were a time events that made this a "wild and crazy" inspired enough, pick up a pen and tell of flux, a time of directionless evolution. decade. us about your favorite topic of the '70s. This last Aeolus of the '70s is an ever- We could not possibly include Certainly a decade is worth more than so-brief review of the decade that saw even/thing, however. Disaster movies, 16 pages. So, we will leave some space the resignation of a president, the rise of conflicts in Ireland, designer jeans and for our readers on Tuesday. the sitcom, and the fall of our gasoline the economy are all topics worthy of • Coming of age By Kevin Sack "Going to college in the '70s was like coming to getting by emerges periodically. It is doubtful, town the day after the circus leaves." however, that it has ever been as institutional —Esquire ized as it is now. e only have one chance every ten years Thus we are a pinch of this and a dash of that, a to reflect on a decade. We place the suffix stew of ingredients borrowed from someone W "-ties" on the end of a number and else's recipe book. declare it an open topic for unemployed writers to Those who claim we are but a reincarnation of generalize upon. Everyone, including myself, the '50s "Silent Generation" are simply deaf. We who writes about the '70s will be wrong. have the noise of the '60s to separate us from As a generation of college students, we are that. That alarm clock still rings occasionally, incomprehensible. We spent the summer before reviving us from the slumber we cherish. When a freshman year preparing ourselves for person is asleep, he doesn't have to worry about J k ! demonstrations and drugs. On arriving we found who he is. mmmpgp***,,-* \ rA sororities and Schlitz Malt Liquor. There was no There are, of course, circumstantial SDS [Students for a Democratic Society], but the similarities between the '50s and the '70s. Both PHOTO COURTESY OK NYT PICTURES IFC could direct you to some "intense," "key," eras followed physically and emotionally "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may even "excellent," dudes. exhausting struggles. We had, in both cases, a be an accountant." What the 70s have lacked (which will cause psychological need to withdraw, to escape, to several historians to become frustratedly remind ourselves that there is more to life than suicidal) is a defined style. The style ofthe '60s war and alienation. So we put on our bobby socks Look" would not sell many pairs of khakis. was what made it identifiable and memorable. or our white Travolta jackets and went dancing. Ah, what to make of it all? Sometimes we're All those flashbacks from the tube — long hair, What separates us from the '50s, though, is caring; sometimes we're bored; most of the time nude swimming at Woodstock, black-gloved fists, that we have lived through the '60s. We have we're nervous as hell. We don't have the buffer of marching, bombing, flowers lovingly placed in collected a tinge of conscienceness, an increase 1950s affluence. When spitting on the angry gun barrels, funerals, and those tattered, faded in awareness, and a whopping dose of cynicism. young men of the '60s, pop singer Billy Joel blue jeans. ewman recognizes this. He realizes that suggests that we live in a time when "just Can you keep from smiling? Emerging the galloping rush to land a good job isn't surviving is a noble fight." through all the naivete, false hopes, and N simply a return to "old values." For We know that the uncertain future may be countercultural sham was an undeniable grace. instance, he writes tliat "one of the major neither easy nor interesting. We respond by Living in Edge City may have been foolish, but reasons today's kids want high-paying jobs is so escaping. We throw toga parties, jungle parties, at least it was life. Its components were decision, they can always afford the best dope on the soul parties, old South parties, and Polynesian commitment and consciousness; they bred self- market. Does that sound like the '50s? (In the parties. In the words of writer Aaron Latham, respect. '50s, the best dope on the market was "The motto of this fantasy generation seems to There has been little self-respect in the '70s Eisenhower.)" be: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you because there is not much with which to identify. There is some hint of a genuine moral strain in may be an accountant." There is little we can call our own. Instead, the today's student. We hear about real concern for The fantasies protect us from the realities. The decade has been a hodgepodge. David Newman, the government, real investigative journalism in realities can be truly brutal. How will I ever a playwright and editor, had written that we the interest of individual freedom and public support a family on a journalist's income? Why "held on to a few '60s things that were too good to welfare, and real concern for interpersonal has school started to seem truly oppressive? Why give up: dope and sex, mostly. It turned out that relations. did I stand on the outskirts, rather than the you could get just as high with a short haircut Newman labels this the New Respectability. middle, of the black student rally a few weeks and just as horny in a button-down shirt." But then Newman is writing a fashion article. If ago, when I truly believe in the cause it espoused? Ah yes, the clothes. Let's see. They came from you want someone to buy the clothes you are No guts. No self-respect. We observe from a fog the '50s. And where did our politics come from? advertising, you had damn well better make him rather than acting. Now that's just too hard. The politics of just feel respectable. Promoting the "Me Generation Goodby '70s. You've been confusing. • PHOTO BY STEVE HUNT GRAPHIC BY LAUREL MacKAY "So we put on our bobby socks or our white Travolta jackets "We know that the uncertain future may be neither easy nor interesting." and went dancing." Wednesday, December 5, 1979 Aeolus Great sporting moments... But now the sport is in the money -By Bart Pachino Sports of the '70s . San Diego Padres are two other owners who are almost threshold of a disastrous fall. Racing all-out, at more onjures up visions of money, courtrooms, equally at fault. For the most part, other sports have than 70 mph, he won the gold. Howard Cosell and bad calls by referees, not been so affected by the free agent situation, —Tom Dempsey's 63-yard field goal. The New C doesn't it? It's kind of a shame, too, because because teams signing them must compensate the Orleans Saints were losing to the Detroit Lions by two the '70s have provided some of the greatest sports teams the players leave. points in a basically meaningless NFL game. With thrills of the 20th century, as well as some of its worst It's come to the point that for the major leagues to three seconds left, Coach Tom Fears called for his moments. survive, "checkbook baseball" has got to go. kicking specialist, Dempsey, to try an unprecedented The '70s were the years in which I discovered that I There are a few other peccadillos. The excessive 63-yard field goal. The ball was spotted on the Saints' would never be a star athlete. Oh, sure I participated in violence of ice hockey and football has turned me off, 37-yard line. Lion defensive end Alex Karras didn't sports and still do, but I also found that watching along with other fans. A New England Patriot wide even bother to rush; he stood up to look at what he, sports — going to the games as well as watching them receiver, Darrell Stingley, was paralyzed from the even today, terms a farce. Dempsey, who was born with on TV — could provide almost as much pleasure as neck down after he was hit legally while going for a a deformed left arm and stump for a right foot, swung playing. pass. Any game that permits a hit such as the one that bis right leg into the ball and connected from 63 yards I became a fan. I became in every sense ofthe word a paralyzed Stingley possible for life is not a "game." away to beat the Lions and the former NFL record by 7 dyed-in-the-wool fanatic — and generally a Baltimore Yet, what about the control referees and umpires yards. sports fan. should be able to exert on their games? If they were as —Because it touched me more personally than the I developed a love-hate relationship with sports, talented as the athletes themselves, the games would others, perhaps the most exciting event ofthe '70s was especially the professional games. On the one hand, improve. the achievement of Duke's basketball team in the 1977- the games themselves are still great.