Me, circa 1976, Oscar the Grouch, and Jim Henson.

I was reading an interview with Charles Farrell on Financial Samurai the other day and Sam mentioned that the Gen Yer’s seem to want to retire early. I had to ask him to clarify what age group the Gen Y generation was. Not surprisingly, it happens to be the people born after 1981. The reason I’m not surprised is that my much younger siblings fall into this generation, and they have a slightly different outlook on things. Of course, I’m making a broad generalization here as not all Gen Yer’s are ready to retire early, and not all Gen Xer’s are going to work well into their 70′s. Many of my readers fall into this Gen Y group, and they all seem like bright and creative people!

But I do think that the generation born after 1981 really missed out on some of the great things that happened in the ’70′s (And I’m not talking about disco!) This decade helped define many things for me, such as women’s liberation and the whole “…I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan…” commerical that defined a woman’s new role: mother, housewife, full-time worker.

Let me rewind and reminisce about that bell-bottomed, flower-printed, plaid-loving decade:

The Movies

With DVD’s on demand, it’s really easy to watch movies dating all the way back to the 1920′s. However, some of the most popular, classic flicks were best seen in a theater. These movies definitely helped shape a decade of exploration and creativity. For instance:

• StarWars – The original 3 movies still give me chills. (I have completely erased the newest trilogy from my memory!) Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia was what all young girls dreamed of being. Han Solo was idolized, and it didn’t hurt that Harrison Ford went on to play Indiana Jones. Poor Mark Hamill was never able to shake the Luke character, but I still loved him in StarWars.
• Grease-I was 6 when the movie debuted and begged my parents to take me. My dad finally visited (I was from that generation of divorced parents) and took me to see it. I didn’t get all the sexual innuendos at the time, it was years later that I realized it was inappropriate for a 6-year-old, but I never forgot Olivia Newton-John and a then-thin John Travolta girating to “You’re the one that I want, whoo hoo hoo…”
• Meatballs / Animal House – The beginning of Harold Ramis movies. College aged, sexually charged, binge drinking exploits. It defined the American youth.
• The Extra Terrestrial – Yes, this movie debuted in the early ’80′s, but for those born in ’81 or ’82, they never saw it in  it’s first release.

Television

• Sesame Street – I grew up with Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I learned to count and fell in love with Kermit. PBS was primed for educationally focused programs including Zoom. How many of you remember Zoom?
• Saturday Night Live -Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Gilda Radner: Some of the most hilarious SNL skits ever.
• Battle Star Galactica - The original, short-lived, series of humans trying to find planet Earth.
• The Brady Bunch – Pretty much defined the new nuclear family, including my own.

This isn’t to say that the whole decade was great, actually many really horrible things happened during that 10-year span: inflation, gas shortage, 1972 Olympic games terrorism attack, disco, gas-guzzling cars. Of course, these are in no order of importance. But my memories as a little girl were overall positive ones.

P.S. I wasn’t on Sesame Street, just touring it that day. I don’t particularly remember this shot, but I do remember Big Bird with the top off, and a man walking inside. That freaked me out! Too bad my 15 minutes of fame happened before I was 5, my memory is a little cloudy about anything prior to 1978.

Which generation are you from? Do you have fond memories of the ’70′s? Or were you not born yet? Do you think the decade you were born in defines you at all?