Surviving the Seventies

Surviving the seventies as a kid may not be as hard as you think. Yes, it’s true we didn’t have cell phones or computers, but we had this thing called friends. No, we actually knew who they were and spent time in person with them. Traveled to their houses and played outside. Phones were attached to the wall in the house and usually everyone wanted to use it at the same time. Yeah, one family, one line for the entire family. I came from a large family, five brothers and a sister along with mom and dad. The phone usually wasn’t the best way to communicate with your friends privately because someone was always nearby hearing your conversation.

In the early seventies we lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Being a whole six years old and being in the first grade I remember the snowbanks that first year there being twice the size of me. Snow forts and tunneling occurred on both side of the driveway and snowball fights were a must. Sledding was another activity that was a lot of fun. The elementary school was a half a block away and sat at the top of a hill. Directly across from the hill on the other side of the street was one of our friends houses. Gaining enough speed and trying to jump over the street into their front yard was always a goal. Usually the bank was too steep and stopped us from going into the road.

If we weren’t sledding in the winter, then we were playing hockey. All but one of my older brothers played and we found ourselves at the rink either skating for pleasure, practice or an actual game. For a couple seasons I played goalie. For the longest time I thought I was the greatest goalie ever, until we played in a game and then I was about average. I found out later that my brothers enjoyed when I played goalie. It was permission to send a puck as hard as they could at me without getting into trouble. I stopped everything they sent at me thinking they can’t score on me, of course not, they were trying to hit me! I also played defense and wing.

During one of the hockey tournaments that our team played in we had had three sets of brothers playing. All of the older brothers had scored goals before while the younger brothers had not. That set the theme for that game. One set had one of the best scorers on the team and he had a breakaway. He had been unable to score the entire game so far and skating as fast as he could was his younger brother right behind him. He faked a shot and then left the puck for his younger brother who shot and scored. That was a pretty cool moment. Our next goal came when my brother passed me the puck from the blue line. I was in front of the goal and tapped the puck over the goalie stick and through his legs. The second younger brother to score and was the only goal I ever scored in a game. I don’t remember how the third set scored, but I do remember the younger brother was the one that got it in the net.

Winter as you might have guessed was the theme for the Upper Peninsula as a kid. With all that snow you would think that the schools would have snow days. Never happened, I don’t ever remember not going to school because of bad weather. I do recall on one occasion being sent home early because of a bad storm. I believe it was the same storm that the Edmond Fitzgerald sank in. The snow was coming down so hard you could barely see in front of you.

You see, there was things we could do without a computer or cell phone. We knew our friends and knew how to have fun. Parents had no trouble getting us to go and do something. My folks had a school bell that would ring when they wanted us home, yes it worked. We also had to be home when the streetlights came on. Kids today don’t know what they are missing. We knew how to make friends, play, disagree and still be friends. Some of my best memories come from a little town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and a ton more from the town I graduated High School from. We survived the seventies as kids, even with that little outbreak known as disco music. Thank goodness that didn't survive.