i remember the 1970s

the dossier for the lit journal court green #7 is the 1970s. a round-table section of poems and remembrances from a decade that now from this distance looks pretty rad. contributors include, alex gildzen and kevin opstedal who both remember a former president known then and know as tricky dick. i was born in the late 1960s so i was, obviously, a child during the polyester years and remember it well. what was not to love? the decade gave us john travolta, punk rock, some of the coolest horror and exploitation movies ever committed to celluloid, and, might i remind you, lee majors as the six million dollar man. oh, raised in the public consciousness were the mysteries of bigfoot, the loch ness monster, noah's ark [there was a film that i think is available on youtube.com that i forget the name of that was a pseudo-documentary on an expedition to mt ararat to find the ark. i saw it at, where else, the drive-in] and the bermuda triangle. i tried ouija boards, heard ghost stories, even saw what i think might be a ghost in the 1970s. but the icon i remember best is the stunt motorcyclist evel knievel. knievel was more famous for his spectacular crashes and the speeches he gave as he was gurneyed from the fields. most of these speeches consisted of i'm gonna give this act up. usually these renunciations lasted long enough for knievel to heal and get back on his harley-davidson. his hog had no suspension so it is without wonder that he crashed as often and as well as he did. i carried a lunch-box with knievel's visage and attempt to soar over the snake river canyon in what was billed as a sky cycle. i had his action figures and his wind-up cycle that was a pretty damn cool toy. knievel even starred in his own motion picture that presented to the world a contraption called a stratocycle. yep, i even had that as a toy. knievel was a bad-ass and a pleasure to watch. the 1970s would've been a shade less cool without him.