Class of 1975 Junior Year 1973 to 1974

With the start of our Junior summer, we began our own Seasons in the Sun. This was the summer to roll down the window, turn up the volume and enjoy our own special mixture of music.

The Beatles may have gone but they left us Paul and he had Wings. Elton John had magical connections to our hips and feet. Grand Funk got us rocking while Gordon Lightfoot and John Denver mellowed us out – Faarrr Outtt.

Jim Croce pulled our heart-strings out and put them in a bottle and Olivia Honestly Loved Us.

I am willing to bet that ALL of my classmates can still do two things – Sing the first couple lines of “Wild Thing” (involuntarily) and repair an 8 track tape (while driving is optional).

Our summer started with Secretariat shattering records at Belmont to win the Triple Crown. In Italy, J. P. Getty’s grandson was kidnapped – his kidnappers cutting off his ear to reinforce their intent.

Nixon opens talks with Brezhnev. The ‘Total Eclipse of the Sun’ lasts for over seven minutes.

In July we learned of ‘The Tapes’. Film legend Bruce Lee dies. Watkins Glen is attended by over 600,000 spectators.

August marked the end of the bombing in Cambodia – twelve years of combat involvement in South East Asia by American forces comes to an end.

Our junior year started just in time to witness ‘The Battle of the Sexes’ between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King beat Riggs in three sets while 90 million viewers watched worldwide. Many more people than that were saddened to hear that Jim Croce had died in an airplane crash in Louisiana.

After Homecoming that year, the Middle East was thrown into the Yom Kippur War between Israel and the forces of Syria and Egypt.

This war captured our attention for 20 days as it was the basis for an oil embargo by OPEC countries against the United States.

It was also a time when the United States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of war. To make this October even more exciting, Spiro T. Agnew resigned as Vice-President of the United States amid allegations of tax evasion.

Nixon had his ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ and a meteorite crashed in Colorado.

A Peace Accord is signed by Israel, Syria and Egypt, cooling things down a bit in the Middle East but things heated up in Washington as President Nixon authorized the Alaska Pipeline.   The following day he explains to reporters that ‘He is not a  crook’ (effectively making Rich Little famous for life).

Eighteen and one-half minutes.  Need I say more?

Gerald Ford is approved by the Senate overwhelmingly as Vice-President. O.J. celebrated by rushing for over 2000 yards – setting a new record. The Endangered Species Act was passed by Congress.

January 1974 brought the F-16 to the Air Force – yes, the same plane in combat today in many parts of the world.    Should have bought General Dynamics stock with our lunch money.

The Skylab crew sets a new space endurance record of 84 days    (just hope they had lunch money).

We said hello to People Magazine and goodbye to Here’s Lucy!

Earth’s population reaches 4 billion people. Hank Aaron reaches 715!!

Carrie was hot that year.

The World’s Fair opened in Spokane, Washington in May – did you go or did you go to Lagoon?