Gas Lines: The Crisis of 1973

The world lined up to buy gas in 1973…and it was ugly!

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye

Singin' this'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die

Don McLean wrote and released the song in 1971.  Much of it was biographical, as a reflection of what was happening in America during the 1960s with the assassinations of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Vietnam War. 

For McLean, it started with what he called the end of the happy 50s, the tragic plane crash of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JD “the Big Bopper” Richardson in February of 1959. The day the music died.

And then the gas supply dried up…

There were two separate oil crises in the 1970s:

• 1973 with a war in the middle east  

• 1979 with the Iranian revolution

North Americans from coast to coast faced persistent gas shortages as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, disrupted oil supplies.

Here’s what it looked like in the first one in 1973:

• Drivers would go to stations before dawn or late at night, hoping to avoid the lines.

• Odd-even rationing was introduced — meaning that if the last digit on your license plate was odd, you could get gas only on odd-numbered days. 

• Some gas stations took to posting flags — green if they had gas, yellow if rationing was in effect and red if they were out of gas.

• To conserve gas, the maximum speed limit was cut to 55 miles per hour. 

• To cut energy consumption in the broader economy, daylight saving time was introduced year-round at the beginning of 1974, facing criticism from parents whose kids had to go to school before sunrise in the winter months.

And we were driving big vehicles with big engines and poor fuel economy that were not particularly well made.

We felt the pain in our wallets at the gas pumps.

Not surprisingly Auto sales were hurt by the embargo as the price of gasoline soared. The industry never recovered!

A quick sidebar:  In the early 1970s GM, Ford and Chrysler had nearly 83% of the new car industry.  Yes, you heard that right…The ‘Imports’ sold only 17% of the all the cars sold!  

Fast forward 10 years and the total share was down to 71% as the Japanese automakers saw their smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles soar in popularity.

I stopped driving North American cars when I sold my 1976 Chevrolet Caprice Classic and replaced it with a Mazda.  That Chevrolet had a massively fuel inefficient 350 cubic inch V8 engine, bench seats in the front and an AM/FM radio!  I’ve never gone back!

Musicians responded to the crisis.  This novelty classic from Brent Burns was directly aimed at OPEC, ‘Cheaper food or no more food’:

If they don't lower the gas. We're gonna lower the boom, Quit shipping all that wheat and corn, forget the Golden Rule. 

If they don't lower the price of crude we're gonna cut off the food And in about a week they'll sing a different tune.

Yikes!

And 6 years later before we had the opportunity to fully recover, we did it all over again…

Until next time…

Call the Fashion Police!

I wore a light blue 3 piece velvet suit to my high school graduation in 1976.  

Let me repeat that:  A powder blue, flared leg suit with matching vest all made of velvet!  Stretched over my portly 18 year old frame. Thankfully there are no remaining photos of my take on 1970s fashion.  And I’m even more thankful that social media didn’t exist.

The overarching trend of fashion in the 1970s was individuality. I certainly extolled that!

Early in the decade, Vogue proclaimed 

"There are no rules in the fashion game now"

Due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing, common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularized by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colors, glitter, and satin. 

Accessories in the early '70s riffed on Hippie outfits: Chokers, headbands, scarves, and jewelry made of wood, stones, feathers, and beads.

And for a certain teen in Mississauga, velvet!

Oh…and the music that inspired much of this look?

Ziggy played guitar

Jamming good with Weird and Gilly

And the Spiders from Mars

The opening lyrics from Ziggy Stardust, the 2nd track on the 5th studio album from David Bowie with the title:  ‘The rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars’.

Mississauga is a suburb west of Toronto.  Neither it or Toronto were fashion mecas in the 1970s.  The clothing that we wore could have been a little dated to be sure.  But we wore it proudly.

High school dances were a rite of passage back in the day.  They were held on Friday nights in the cafeteria or gym.  They usually included a live rock band made up of our fellow classmates.  They played loud and hard!  

In between sets a DJ spun rock tunes and this was when the dancing took place.

Dressing up for these dances allowed us full teenage fashion expression.  

Back to the velvet!

My typical look went like this:

• Skintight jeans tucked into knee high platform boots
• Tight floral print shirt
• Topped off with a…wait for it…navy blue velvet jacket!

I never danced much at these high school dances…I wonder why?

Pushing these fashion trends were the superstar celebrities of the 1970s:

• David Bowie of course in his ziggy stardust persona
• Elton John - glam rock extreme!
• Diana Ross - disco queen
• Cher - at the height of her sequins
• Elvis Presley - power blue ‘onsies’ as he prowled the Vegas Stages late in his career

And where best to see and be seen:  Studio 54 in New York City!

Toronto had it’s own version of hot night clubs, one of which was in the basement of the Hilton Hotel on the Airport Strip in…Mississauga!  

It was called Misty’s.  DJ Vicky Watson ran the console.  There was a raised dance floor of plexiglass with lights above and under the floor.  

Sirens, glitter balls, strobe lights and of course dry ice added to the atmosphere of decadence.

Away from the dance floor, booths and tables were tucked into dark corners…’What happened at Misty’s stayed at Misty’s’

People lined up for hours to get in and the place didn’t get rocking until late.

The night was over when Vicky put on ‘Last Dance’ by Donna Summers.

I have fond memories of Misty’s:  I was the bouncer there for one glorious summer before heading off to university.

In the immortal words of Donna Summer:

Last dance

Last chance for love

Yes, it's my last chance

For romance tonight

Until next time…

The Kent State Massacre

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming

We're finally on our own

This summer I hear the drumming

Four dead in Ohio.

Brutal lyrics from the song, ‘Ohio’ by Crosby Stills Nash and Young about the shooting of 4 students at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970. Neil Young wrote the song as a direct reaction to the shootings. It was recorded and released within weeks of the incident. It is regarded as one of the greatest protest songs ever written. I can’t listen to it 53 years later without getting angry. University students protesting a senseless war in Vietnam. Protests over the Vietnam war had been escalating in the US throughout the 1960’s. In 1963 President Kennedy increased US involvement in the war sending in 16,000 advisors. Whatever that means… Once Lyndon Johnson had settled into his presidency following the assignation of Kennedy, he continued the escalation sending 100,000 troops in 1965. That grew to 500,000 combat troops by 1968. At home protests grew as the body count increased with no tangible results.

At Kent State, protests to the US involvement in the Vietnam war had been ongoing and growing since 1966. The core of the protesters were a group known as Students for a Democratic Society, SDS.

And it's 1,2,3 what are we fightin for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam.

…And its 5,6,7 open up the pearly gates.

Well there ain't no time to wonder why...WHOPEE we're all gonna die.

That’s the chorus from the ‘Vietnam Song’ performed by Country Joe and Fish at Woodstock. It sums up the protest culture that was growing. Richard Nixon got elected in 1968. One of his campaign pledges was to end the conflict. But a couple of things transpired in 1969. First was exposure of the Mai Lai massacre where US troops slaughtered nearly 500 Vietnamese Villagers. Second was the re-introduction of the Draft Lottery. This eliminated deferments for college students and teachers. Anger in the US boiled over when Nixon instead of working to end the war, further escalated it by invading Cambodia. That occurred on April 29, 1970…barely 5 days before the campus shootings. SDS protests were turning ugly and University officials were concerned about the increasing aggressiveness and violence. Leading up to the May 4 shootings, demonstrations attracted increasing numbers of students. But more worrisome to University and City officials were the threats to destroy the city and university. Real or not, rumors of students with arms caches, plots to spike the local water supply with LSD and building tunnels to blow up downtown stores were rampant. The city called in the National Guard in response. By all accounts various protesting groups were active on campus May 4th. They resisted calls to disperse and in the immediate run up to the shootings were pelting the Guardsmen with rocks. They responded by opening fire:

• Allison Krause, 19.
• Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20.
• Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20.
• William Schroeder, 19.
  Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
  We're finally on our own
  This summer I hear the drumming
  Four dead in Ohio.
  Why? In the aftermath, Guardsmen said they feared for their lives. Heavily armed and protected militia versus unprotected young students hurling rocks. Incredulous. America changed that day. The nation realized their elected governments could turn on citizens that coldly. Kent State accelerated cynicism over the concept of US Democracy. A lot of the 1970s movements gained momentum: Civil rights, Women's rights at the top. Movements paid in blood. That are being paid for still today. Until next time…

Watergate: A Redemption Story

Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you? 

Tell the truth’

Those lyrics from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd in response to Neil Young’s Southern Man. Ahhh…the battle of the bands!

Watergate broke in 1972 during Richard Nixon’s second term as president.  The break in occurred at the Democratic National Headquarters offices in the Watergate Hotel in Washington. It was and is an example of dirty politics:  an attempt to get information of the election campaign plans of the Democratic party through any means possible…even if illegal.

Watergate captured our attention.  I was 14 years old at the time and it was a topic of discussion in at least one class at high school.  

And it was impossible to escape news coverage.  

I wind you back to the media landscape in 1972:

• 3 US TV networks dominated the market
• Nightly newscasts at 6 pm were ‘must see TV’...Walter Cronkite anyone?
• 2 networks in Canada
• 2 daily newspapers, the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail
• Local radio

Watergate dominated the news in all media, especially TV.  It ushered in new phrases including ‘Deep Throat’ a particularly memorable one in reference to the source that gave the reporters much inside information.

‘Tricky Dick’ was another that was applied to President Richard Nixon…and it stuck for the rest of his life.

Along with probably his most memorable utterance, ‘I am not a crook’.

After the fact, the movie ‘All the President’s Men’ told the incredible story of the lies, duplicity and tactics that the President and ‘all his men’ told to defend themselves.

Watergate was also a two part story.  The first was the break in itself which was illegal.

The second part and the more interesting one was the ‘Coverup’ that escalated right up to the President himself in the process swallowing up everybody in the executive branch of his Presidency.  

A sidebar:  Richard Nixon was a Republican.  I can’t help but note with much interest that US politics since 2016 have taken place at the hands of Republicans.  But I digress…  

But the story that caught my interest concerned one of the Watergate conspirators, John Dean, chief counsel for President Nixon from 1970 until he was fired by in April 1973. 

He was involved in early strategy sessions discussing plans to bug the Democratic headquarters and later to photograph documents.

After the break in occurred and the coverup was in full swing, he was intimately involved in advising the President and team on defensive strategies.

But he smelled a rat!  And he was right.  He was being set up as a scapegoat for the entire affair and despite his deep involvement, decided to look after himself.  

‘United we stand, divided we fall’!

He decided to cooperate with the Senate Watergate Committee who were investigating the Watergate scandal.  He made a deal that resulted in him being found guilty at his criminal trial but with reduced jail time.  His testimony and subsequent trial was covered by all the news outlets, in particular TV.  They enjoyed massive ratings and we enjoyed front row seats to the biggest political drama we had seen.

Dean’s testimony was crucial in linking Richard Nixon to Watergate.  He resigned in disgrace and was forever tainted.  He never got redemption.

Dean on the other hand rose from the ashes and built a new life first as an investment banker (and why not), an author and lecturer.  

And that’s what we like isn’t it.  Redemption comes to the person who is contrite, takes responsibility for their actions and pays the price.  That strategy wipes the slate clean…you get to move on with your life.

But Watergate was just the beginning…

Watergate exposed the darker, corrosive nature of politics.  Today  with social media, politics has become a dismal game that preys on our basest fears.  

James Taylor captured the zeitgeist in this song about Nixon and Watergate:

I just now got the news; He seems to tell us lies

And still we will believe him; Then together he will lead us

Into darkness, my friends

Until next time…