1976

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday tidings on Tuesday.  It's great to know that I have such great friends all over the place.

From time to time, I like to look at different sites that help me fire up those dormant neurons in my brain.  I did a search for "1976" on eBay and and YouTube found some cool stuff that totally brought me back to my childhood.

The Gas Crisis Was On, But Everyone Still Wanted a Cadillac.

I think this would hold my current car in the trunk.  If you want to let your inner pimp out, I would suggest this ride.

There were some people who were worried about the crisis

Yep, this baby has no engine, but what's stopping you?  Every time I see a Gremlin, I think about that strange Vampire pizza delivery kid in the X-files episode "Bad Blood."

Celebrities of 1976

Thanks to several strange people that sell every episode of TV guide on eBay, I got a great look at who was popular in the days of my birth.  Is it just me or was TV better back then?  I probably think that becuase I didn't have the internet to keep me occupied.

Wow, celebs were really stylin' back then.  Ah Burt, I miss the stash.  Look at the young John Travolta under the "new superstars".  Make sure not to miss hit recording starts "Captain and Tennille" as well.  

Maybe some things are best forgotten.

TV

Everything was a commercial to me when I was a kid.  TV always amazed me (even from an early age).  The sad thing is that I remember most of these commercials.  

Olympics

Who could forget the single best moment in the Olympics happened in '76 as well.

Politics--bicentenial and election

I was born 18 days after the bicentenial, so I will feel that I was ripped off the rest of my life.  No big fireworks or celebarations for me.  At the same time I missed out on "Billy Beer". Oh and wasn't there something about a peanut farmer/nuclear engineer/diplomat guy becoming President?

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

In looking at all this stuff, I think we are repeating elements of 1976 again.  

1. From the hair to the clothes, we are staring to look like we are from the '70's again.  
   
2. Variety shows are coming back in the form of "Reality TV" 
   
3. Cars are starting to become smaller again in response to a gas crisis.
   
4. The most important political election of our generation is going on right now.
   
5. The Olympics will be held in the fall.
   
6. Commercials still suck, but are later looked back on with fondness.  
   

This exercise was intended to bring up old memories, but I think it did something even more. It reminded me that all the things that I have been exposed to in my 32 years on this Earth has made me the person I am today.  

Remembering all of this has been the best birthday present I could have ever had.  

Go and check out some of your memories on Youtube or via Google.  Who knows what you will find?