The History Book on the Shelf Is Always Repeating Itself

1974 started with a whimper. The OPEC countries were still being stingy with their oil and gasoline prices were ridiculously expensive. I remember riding with Grandpa Maule in his aircraft carrier sized Lincoln Continental (white with a brown vinyl roof) around Council Bluffs and Omaha trying to find a gas station with gas for less than $0.50 a gallon. I don't remember seeing lines at any gas station like I saw happening on television at other places in the country.

Larry Csonka carried the Dolphins to another win at Superbowl VIII, a game I'm sure I didn't see because Dad didn't start watching football until the late '80s. I started the second semester (third quarter) of Kindergarten and was thinking I kinda liked the school thing. I didn't like singing even though Miss Allen (later to be Mrs. Zahner) played a mean piano.

The Wolfpack of North Carolina State won the first official Division 1 Basketball Championship just five days before my sixth birthday. The first women's varsity basketball team took the court at my Iowa State University and finished the season with an 8-8 record. My interests at that time were more of a kickball variety.

Stephen King was published for the first time with his novel titled "Carrie," one of the few King books I haven't read - I was engrossed in "A Duck is a Duck" at the time. The New York Nets took the ABA Post Season Championship.

I bought my first Lego kit (Set #420, "Police Car") at the Sears Toy Department at the Crossroads Shopping Mall in Omaha - this store had the best selection of toys at that time. It was this year that the price of a pack of gum was entered into a cash register at an Ohio store using the Universal Product Code - the first scan of the UPC barcode.

Martial arts was all the rage what with "Kung Fu" on the TV on Saturday nights and "Kung Fu Fighting" topping the pop charts.

In the fall I started 1st grade. I could finally use the "Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy" taunt that I endured for a year. I did not like my teacher much (Mrs. Ulmer) but I cannot for the life of me remember why. The Oakland Athletics ("A's") won another World Series and just a few weeks later Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle.

Mom and Dad traded in their red '70 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme for a new '74 Chevy Blazer. It has a 350 c.i.d. engine, full-time four wheel drive, and a removable fiberglass top. Most people mistakenly call it a Bronco. Mom is livid because it was navy blue on white instead of sky blue on white. The Beast is born.

About the same time as one of the coldest winters in Midwest history began a partial skeleton was unearthed in Ethiopia that dates back about four and half million years. Further discussion of "Lucy" is discouraged in this State (Kansas).

1974 was an OK year for me.

This post's title is from the ABBA song "Waterloo" which reached #6 on the Billboard Top 40 Pop Chart in 1974.

Be safe