The Way It Was 1973 and 1974

1.Jan 23, ‘73 – Pres. Nixon announced that an accord had been reached at the Paris Peace talks to end the Vietnam War

2.  Feb 12, ‘73 – 1^st US POW’s in North Vietnam were released

3.Mar 22, ’73 – Vietnam War Ended – Our Class was one of the last groups to have selective service numbers drawn.

4.April 1, 73 – Twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC were dedicated and were the tallest buildings in the world at the time.  They would stand just 28 years, 5 months and 10 days.

5.Top Albums Summer of 73 – Beatles 1967-1970, Diamond Girl – Seals & Crofts, Best of Bread

6.May 14, 1973 – Skylab – first American Space Station was launched.  Apollo 17 the final US lunar landing was launched the previous Dec. 7, 1972.

7.June 9, ’73 – Secretariat became 1^st horse since 1948 to win the Triple Crown.

8.Aug 11, ’73 – The Movie American Graffiti opened – Best Picture of 73 = The Sting

9.   Lake Meredith water depth was 102 feet.

10.Baseball great Willie Mays announced his retirement from baseball.

11.Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Angels set an American League one-season strikeout record, with his 355th strikeout by the end of a game ironically pitching against the Texas Rangers.

12.Sept ’73 – a new small and insignificant high school located in a wheat field at Fulton and Bell opened for classes – some Tascosa Seniors defect to the Dark Side and attended the new Amarillo High School

13.Sept  ’73 – A streaking epidemic hit the US apparently starting at Stephen F Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX

14.Getting in on the act and closer to home - Texas Tech University students set the record for the longest continuous streak – 5 hours –This is just one of the reasons I am proud to be a Texas Tech Red Raider.

15.Oct 10, ’73 – Spiro T Agnew resigned the office of Vice President after being charged with bribery, conspiracy and tax fraud committed while he was Governor of Maryland.

16.Oct 12,’73 – Nixon nominated Gerald R Ford to serve as the 40^th Vice President of the United States.  VP Ford was sworn in on Dec 1, 73.

17.Oct 17, ’73 – The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) implemented “Oil Diplomacy” and embargoed oil to Israel and it’s allies including the US.

18.Gas shortages, long lines at gas stations and rationing (usually 10 gal limit at fill up) were found throughout the US.  Gas prices went from $0.35 to the ridiculous price of $0.55 per gallon.

19.AM radio station owners were concerned with the growing popularity of FM radio stations.  Some of us listened to the sultry voice of Ruby “Lady Cool Breeze” Lewis who still lives in Amarillo and turned 93 last July 4.

Tascosa Varsity Football team had an 8 Win - 2 Loss record – Only losses were to Midland High 21-22 and District Champion Caprock.  Tascosa beats Amarillo High 15-14.

20.Varsity cheerleaders – Robert Baker, Cindy McGuire, James Massie, Connie McBroom, Bill Thornton and Julie Hayhurst boosted spirit of the Tascosa Students.

21.The week prior to the Nov 2^nd game against Caprock High School – a large Hereford bull mysteriously appeared between the 2 south wings of Tascosa and stared at students through the 2^nd floor hallway windows.   One of the alleged perps of this caper, Jim Burgess, went on to a stellar law enforcement career with the Amarillo Police Department.

22.The following week – a sandman was hung in effigy from the flagpole at the small high school at Bell and Fulton – I had to drive down alleys to go to my home on Puckett Drive in order to avoid flying eggs.

23.Nov 15, ’73 – Nixon declared “I am not a crook”

24.Rebel Varsity Basketball got an A for effort – they may have come in 5^th in District 3 AAAA – but most importantly – THS beat AHS all 3 of the games they played in pre season and regular district play.

25.Dec 15, 73 – Year round daylight savings was enacted as well as 55 mph speed limits to limit use of imported oil.  Year round daylight savings time was repealed in Oct 74 but the 55 mph highway limit lasted until 1987.

26.On the Technology front– Texas Instruments marketed their SR-20 calculator with advanced functions including pi and square root for $239.95 the equivalent of $1,400 in today’s dollars.

27.Dec 1973 – Tascosa drama department directed by Neil Hess performed its 3^rd annual production of the Nutcracker Ballet.  Tascosa Orchestra did a truly outstanding job performing the difficult Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite.

28.Jan. 74 – Miami Dolphins defeat Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII.

29.Jan 22, ’74 – The AISD School Board advised Tascosa principle J.E. Fergason that due to numerous complaints about the use of the Confederate flag and the name Rebels and the song Dixie that the School’s spirit symbols must be changed.  If the student body did not make the changes voluntarily, the school board would be forced to replace the symbols without student consent.

OPEN Time Capsule put on HAT and Waive Flag – “We thought we might be headed into a Battle”

30.Feb 11, ’74 – Student council elections were held on a new spirit package – choosing between the Texans, Saints, Patriots or Rebels (Other than Confederate).  A western themed Rebel Kid was chosen – so the Rebel name remained.

31.David Jones became the last Tascosa student to officially wear the Confederate Uniform of General Reb.  (Tears)

32.Feb 19 – 23^rd ’74 – Tascosa drama department presented the musical “Finian’s Rainbow” under the direction of Neil Hess

33.Best Picture 1974 – The Godfather Part II

34.Another Blockbuster and groundbreaking movie in 1974 – Blazing Saddles

35.1.7 Million visitors to Lake Meredith in 1974

36.April 8, 1974 – Hank Aaron Hits homer #715 breaking Babe Ruth’s record for all-time home runs

37. It was Spring time at Tascosa and wanting to get in on the college streaking action prior to graduation – a group of males (mostly Tascosa football players) –streak Tascosa  -- Raise your hand if you were in the commons that day – I am not going to mention names but Raise your hand if you were streaking with Buddy Arterburn

38.July –QB Johnny Unitas retired

39.August 8, 1974 – Richard Nixon announced his resignation.

40.August 9 - Gerald Ford took the oath of office as the 38^th President.

41.In Zaier, Muhammad Ali knocked out George foreman in the 8^th round.

42.The US Postal Service was loosing money (a trend that has continued to this day) so Stamp price increased from $0.06 to $0.08

43.The Minimum wage was $2.00

44.Amarillo Concerts 1973 and 1974:

The Guess Who – March 1, 73

Blue Oyster Cult and Alice Cooper– May 15, 73

Grand Funk Railroad – Aug 24, 73

REO Speedwagon – Nov 22, 73

Doobie Brothers – Mar 28, 74

Deep Purple – Mar 31, 74

Seals & Croft – April 22, 74

Elvis Presley – June 19, 74

Things that are part of our life that we did not have back then:

Automotive for example:  Most of our cars had hand crank windows.

There were more cars with Standard Transmissions.

 And Go to Time Capsule

 This was our cup holder

Best selling car in 1974 was the Ford Pinto (a real flaming success)

Communications:

Kids today ask how we communicated with our friends since we had no cell phones, texting, Face Book, Instagram, Snap Chat or whatever else everyone is doing.

Go to Time Capsule – Hold up telephone – this is how we did it – we used a princess phone and a landline.

Closest thing we had to a cell phone was a CB Radio

Technology:

Slide Rules were being slowly replaced by electronic calculators but only for those students who could afford them.

We had no Personal computers and

The Internet as we know it had not yet been invented by Al Gore

Go to Time Capsule

The World Book Encyclopedia was our Google and Wikipedia.

Go to Time Capsule

Record Albums were still the most common form of delivery of Hi Fidelity Stereo music in the home.

8 Track Tape decks were the most common form of listening to prerecorded music in cars.

Go to Time Capsule – a little later in 1975 in a display of détente, the US and former Soviet Union launched the Apollo – Soyuz Test Project  --  - Paul Lockhart – NASA was just a little edgier back then – there is nothing like commemorating a mission of international space cooperation than with a souvenir pack of Cigarettes.

Random observations:

Most kitchen appliances in new homes were Avocado Green or Harvest Gold

Tuition for State Universities in Texas was $4 per semester hour.

Star Bucks started in 1971 but until after 1976 only sold roasted coffee beans wholesale

You could find a Latte and Cappuccino but for most that meant going to France or Italy

Disney World in Orlando would not open until 1982

AND – Members of the Tascosa Class of 74 still knew what Drake and Fleetwood referred to:  Do you know this number DR2-2611?  Amarillo National Bank Time and Temp – the number still works today.

And the #1 pop song of 1974 – Bachman Turner Overdrive “ Takin Care of Business”

By Wes Knapp 10/4/2014