Surviving 1973

Sunday POODLE DOODLES



Mouse Trap
Lassie

To some, the second cartoon may appeared to have been drawn in primitive times. The younger readers will wonder about the small TV set with a single wire running from the back and the extended rabbit ears antenna.

Those of us who have been around a little longer will recognize that the panels represent a time before cable television. It was drawn in 1973. During those "primitive" times my wife and I were entertained by a 13" TV, a state-of-the-art color set - for which we had to cross the room to change channels.

Overheard - a conversation between a parent, his teenage son and his 6-year-old son:

A parent: (to teen) "When I was your age, we had to go to the library for research."

Teen son: (to 6-year old) "When I was your age, we had to use dial-up."

Yes, there was Monday Night Football way back then and "Lassie" was still being aired on network stations. (For the record, MNF featured Frank Gifford, "Dandy" Don Meredith, and the verbose Howard Cosell behind the microphones.)

Yeah, 1973 was a simpler time. Not much happened that year either:

• CBS sells the NY Yankees for $10 million to a syndicate led by George Steinbrenner
• Elvis Presley concert in Hawaii is viewed by a world-wide audience of over a billion people
• Miami Dolphins defeat Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl to become first and to date only NFL pefect season
• Talks begin to end war in Vietnam
• 
  
• Richard M. Nixon re-elected to second term
• 
  
• Roe v. Wade overturns state bans on abortion
  
• First general election in Republic of Ireland
• Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" released
• Last U.S. soldier leaves Vietnam
• Fourth of July - World Trade Center in NYC officially opened
• Secretariat wins Belmont Stakes to claim Triple Crown of horse racing
• 
  
• 
• Battle of the Sexes: Billy Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in televised match at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas
• 
  
• Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns
• Construction of Alaska Pipeline begins
• Watergate*
  
• Nixon: "I am not a crook!"
• Gerald Ford becomes Vice President replacing Agnew
• Jim Croce, who had hits with "Time in a Bottle" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" dies in plane crash
• Famous landmark, the Sydney Opera House opens in Sydney, Australia
• O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills becomes first NFL running back to rush for 2000 yards in a season
• Endangered Species Act passed

Good Grief ! I remember all of that!

I saw a few good movies that year:

• American Graffiti
• The Exorcist
• The Sting
• Last Tango in Paris

Many of our television sets in 1973 were tuned in to:

• All in the Family
• M*A*S*H
• Sanford and Son
• Gunsmoke
• Hawaii Five-O
• Maude
• Ironside
• Flip Wilson
• Marcus Welby
• The Partridge Family
• The Waltons

It is a miracle, isn't it that we survived 1973 ? With no TV remotes, no Internet, and no cell phones, or cordless phones for that matter, we were able to eke out an existence and survive.

In 1973 I had Poodle Doodles to occupy my time when I wasn't watching TV on our five or six available channels. After thirty-five years of sitting in the bottom of a drawer and nearly forgotten, the strip managed to save a few "snapshots" of the early 70s.

*Fred, noted in his comment to the Saturday Poodle Doodles posting the Watergate headline on the newspaper.

No.1392