Our 3rd Annual Bicentennial Encore

Michelle Newman 0:00

Sky rockets in flight.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:07

Happy belated 249th birthday. America. Can you believe you guys? I know

Michelle Newman 0:13

she doesn't look a day over 180

Carolyn Cochrane 0:17

Gosh, I don't know. I think she's looking a little

Michelle Newman 0:21

she does a really good point. Yeah, she's

Speaker 1 0:23

looking alone tired these days. Yeah, super tired.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:27

We can only hope she gets a little makeover before next year. You guys, 250 it is the semi quincentennial. Has a name. Yep. I don't know about you guys, but I just can't imagine that anything is going to be like that once in a lifetime. Generation defining year of 1976 you guys celebrated the bison video.

Kristin Nilsen 0:53

We're the only ones. We're in. We're the only

Michelle Newman 0:56

ones. And as children during that time, well and as female children we had, we had, like, long dresses that were, like, red, white,

Kristin Nilsen 1:04

and you're the best Ross hat, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09

so true. I mean, everything our wardrobe for an entire year was kind of based around even was, you know, yes, celebrating our nation's birthday. Um, I recently went on Reddit to read comments. And if you guys ever get bored listeners, Kristen and Michelle and you want to just humor yourself, go on Reddit, put something Gen X related in. I just put in Bicentennial, hundreds upon hundreds of Gen X related comments that had me kind of rolling. And also it's comforting again, because for us this I don't know any other generation that could have a particular year in their childhood that they can go back to as a collective and have these shared memories. It's just, I don't think it exists, and I don't know that it ever will. Well, maybe in the tri centennial, but we won't be around. And who knows? Well, on other planets,

Kristin Nilsen 2:03

it's one of the only things that we that people can experience as a collective culture all at once. That's happy, right, right? A lot of people are like, Oh, I remember the Challenger exploit. Oh, I remember 911 but this was a good thing,

Carolyn Cochrane 2:20

yes. And it involved everyone. I mean, involved our parents, our grandparents. Yeah. You know, television, TV, songs, schoolhouse, I mean, all those things which we talk about in this episode that listeners will hear in a few minutes. But in terms of the wardrobe stuff, some of the people had some recollections of clothes that they wore, like regular every day. We're not talking necessarily the costumes and the pageants and the parades. Everything from like, the Bicentennial quarters to people in their Reddit comments were reflecting on the decor of their homes, like people said they had, like, revolutionary war scenes on their couches, like that was the fabric. Yes, all of that we were like, all in on colonial America and raids and our moms sewing those costumes.

Kristin Nilsen 3:05

Okay, you're making me think now I'm sorry. Totally interrupted. That's okay. So there was a trend in this time to have these very antique types of things in your house. And that's that was my house. I didn't have a mid century modern house. I had an antique house with kerosene lamps and pewter bells. And now I'm understanding where this came from, because this was not like 1800s it was more like 1776 Yeah, it was a lot of pewter.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:32

Yes, lots of pewter. We had the Declaration of Independence that my mom got it like some sort and then she, you remember we talked about when you would burn the edges, like parchment, you burn it, and she burned the edges, and then shellacked it on a piece of wood, and it hung

Michelle Newman 3:51

some artwork. That's a choice, yes, choice. It's a statement too.

Kristin Nilsen 3:58

Yeah, we it was a lot of wood. It was a lot of dark wood. It was very, it was very, what's the word? I'm not primordial. That's not. It was, it was old,

Carolyn Cochrane 4:14

no, and the furniture was designed that way. We had a thing called it wasn't until I was an adult I realized what this is. We had a thing called a dough box. It was, we used it as a like side table, and we kept our magazines in it. And I thought it was like, D, O, B, O, x, but, like, as an adult, did my mom say, No, that's where they would put the dough for bread into rice. But it was a piece of and what? And it wasn't an antique, you guys. It was like,

Kristin Nilsen 4:40

reproductions. Yeah, it was Jason Penny, yeah. How many Windsor chairs? So many Windsor chairs, like the kind that Paul Revere would have made. We

Michelle Newman 4:49

did. We just basically our entire house. My childhood was just like sponsored by wicker, wicker, and

Carolyn Cochrane 4:59

so getting back. Back to kind of the fashion stuff. Some of the people that commented on Reddit really made me laugh. One person remembered that they wore red, white and blue checkered tough skins.

Michelle Newman 5:16

I had that this is amazing. I'm writing all these things down for social

Carolyn Cochrane 5:20

media. Yes, be and then there were all these people underneath, much like how you just reacted Kristen, oh my gosh. I had those tough skins too. I did too. And to me, that just screams Gen X. We're talking red, white and blue checkered pants from Sears. Yes, tough skins. And my moms,

Kristin Nilsen 5:36

we get into these big fights because my favorite outfit was, I've said this on this podcast before my red, white and blue checkered, tough skins paired with, like, a rainbow colored granny square, and my mom was like, it doesn't match. It clashes. I'm like, What is clashes?

Speaker 2 5:53

They don't care. Yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 5:56

Oh yes. Well, you are not alone in your red, white and blue checkered. Oh god, I love those pants for sure. So a couple other things I thought I'd just share with you guys and see if you remember, because I don't think we chat about any of these in the episode. And some of the I was hoosker Dude, and some I just had to laugh about. So evidently, it was a big deal to paint fire hydrants during during the bicentennial. And so people have these distinct memories of their fire hydrants in their town. One was like they were all Minutemen. One person commented, my grandparents had Benjamin Franklin in front of their house, like their fire hydrant was painted like Benjamin Franklin was all these patriotic themed fire hydrants. Cute, yeah, fire hydrants. So I thought that was really fun, and I didn't quite remember that, like I I see those in those cute, little, quintessential small towns that, you know, they just got all in, and did I love it? And then, Michelle, this is a question I have for you. So somebody shared, they just remember all their red, white and blue clothing, and every store and window display, everybody, everything was filled with flags. And they also remembered that their family drove to George comma, Washington. So I think there's a town called George Washington. And they in 1976 for the Fourth of July, they cooked the largest cherry pie, 60 feet across. I don't know if it was like to break a world record. And this Reddit commenter, their family went to have a piece of the pie, and the line was so long to

Michelle Newman 7:25

go. Well, I imagine, I'm imagining two things right now. Well, one, I didn't live there, and that, and I, and even when I did live there, which would have been 1979 80 all the way to 84 all the way, I don't know of George comment, Washington, but this giant, pious remembering of one of reminding me of one of my very favorite children's picture books that I talked about in that episode that we did on children's picture books called the giant jam sandwich. And like the birds and the helicopters have to bring in, like the top piece of bread. I'm imagining that right when you said it. I could picture those illustrations, but with like the lattice work,

Carolyn Cochrane 8:03

another commenter on Reddit who's from Philadelphia, and he said, we might have gone a little bit over the top, but his grandfather painted his Ford Pinto to look like a giant American flag. Yes, gen x

Michelle Newman 8:18

to the nth degree with that. The thing is, so don't you all like, and when you said that too, I was like, Oh, I remember seeing those. I don't but, like, I could picture it so perfectly. And I think it's because as children, that whole year, like, leading up to it and probably after it, everything was painted, like the American flag, yes, the jeans and like the checkered but also I can almost picture like women walking around where one leg might be, like the stripes and one leg is blue with stars. I don't know.

Kristin Nilsen 8:48

I'm just like, your shorts are red and white stripes and the pockets are blue stars. It was tons of

Michelle Newman 8:54

stuff. Everything was Stars and Stripes. Yeah, right.

Kristin Nilsen 8:58

And I think we do talk in this episode about the beer the crocheted beer can hats. Do you remember those? I'm sure we say this in the episode, and there were lots of red, white and blue beer can hats, the crochet hat. Gosh,

Carolyn Cochrane 9:11

yeah, we, I mean, we really, I think, as a whole country, dove in head first, and we're like, Yeah, we were going big, or going home. Yeah, it was very fun. This made me kind of laugh. There's a commenter on Reddit that said there's an old photo floating around somewhere in their house, of them and a friend at 10 years old, sitting outside on the driveway, both of us in red, white and blue, with my friend holding a copy of the US Constitution and me holding my flute. We spent the day walking around our neighborhood with me playing Yankee Yankee doodles, and her waving a flag and the Constitution.

Michelle Newman 9:46

Oh, my God. I love those children so much, and I love that she's just waving the Constitution

Kristin Nilsen 9:57

right now, I'm gonna start doing that now. I'm gonna every week. Okay, go on. I'm just gonna waive the Constitution. I'm just gonna wave it.

Michelle Newman 10:03

Make sure you burn the edges first, though,

Carolyn Cochrane 10:06

oh yeah. When else would we have done that and kind of gotten, not gotten away with it? But it probably didn't seem that odd, like, oh, look what we're doing. Like

Kristin Nilsen 10:16

the kids are just celebrating. Yeah, it was ultimately, like a party. It's like, it wasn't necessary, it wasn't patriotism, as much as it was a party. This is our party. Look at the party you were having for all of

Carolyn Cochrane 10:28

us. Like you said, it's so happy, yeah, like no matter what else is kind of going on this parades and pageants and flutes and waving things. I mean, it's

Michelle Newman 10:39

just but it was, it was it was happy, it was joyful, but it was the pride we felt like we felt so just genuinely proud, yeah, to be an American and proud of our country as children, you know, yeah? And as we talk about in this encore episode that you all will hear, this was also an Olympic year. So, I mean, the pride is on steroids everywhere,

Carolyn Cochrane 11:05

exactly, exactly, because we get to cheer for the country.

Kristin Nilsen 11:08

Remember, too, in those days, we had the two Olympics, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics in the same year. So it was almost like the Olympics went on for the whole year. And there's a place in this episode where you will hear us, remember, we recorded this a long, long time ago. This was at the very beginning, like five years ago, at the beginning of when we began this podcast. And you'll hear us stumble over how to refer to Caitlyn Jenner, because, of course, who won the decathlon? Caitlyn Jenner won the decathlon, but in five years ago, we were like, wait, but we're not supposed to say the old name. And now we know, of course. So we were trying to grapple, within real time in the episode, how to go about doing that. We thought, well, whatever happened in 1976 that's we use that name in 1976 and then we use the now name for right now. The truth is, now, of course, we know that that is a we call that the dead name because that's harmful to Caitlyn Jenner. It hurts her feelings so. So now we know if we were to do this episode all over again, we would say Caitlyn Jenner

Carolyn Cochrane 12:12

throughout, yeah, and those Olympic moments are as much a part of our memories of that year as anything. I mean, we've got Dorothy Hamill,

Michelle Newman 12:21

I think Nadia Comaneci. Yeah, Nadia. We were all Nadia Comanche that summer. Yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 12:28

Do either of you remember, you know, a lot of brands, restaurants, whatever, had kind of commemorative items that you could collect. And I didn't remember this, but one Reddit commenter talked about taking a road trip from Ohio to Wyoming and seven up, had this thing where each state had its own commemorative can. And if you collected all 50 of them and arranged them in a pyramid, it made a picture of Uncle Sam. Oh, my God, I want that now, all the collecting that year between the quarters,

Kristin Nilsen 13:04

just Bicentennial quarters, and if you found one, it was it was lucky. You're like, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 13:10

exactly.

Michelle Newman 13:12

You didn't save that.

Carolyn Cochrane 13:15

And lastly, I want to mention a comment that was shared a lot, and I don't remember this, but I want to ask if you guys do. Lots of people mentioned the American Freedom Train. Okay, so this was part of the celebration, and it was a train that traveled across America to celebrate, obviously, the bicentennial. And it was specially designed, red, white and blue. And when I saw a picture of it, I thought, I think I remember hearing about it, but I don't think I ever saw it, and it carried over 500 historical artifacts. So it had the original bill of rights that it traveled with a lunar rock from NASA, and it had stuff from the Smithsonian. Somebody said they remember seeing Dorothy's dress from The Wizard of Oz. And it just stopped in towns across the country, and lots of people have remembered, you

Kristin Nilsen 14:03

guys, what? Okay, I don't remember that, but I think that's a great idea, and I think they should do it now. Yeah, I think they should do it now with the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights, with the Liberty Bell, with all of these things to remind people, to remind people of what this country was founded, because I think we've kind of lost our way.

Michelle Newman 14:24

Just about to say, I'd be like, you guys want to read that closely. Read

Kristin Nilsen 14:29

just read it. Just read this. Yeah, read this right now. And this is what this country is all about. I also want to remind people that all this attention to George Washington, and Is he one of the greatest people of all time, and why do we revere him? Why was he such a good leader? This is why I'm just going to remind people, just put this in your in your memory banks. The number one thing that made George Washington so special to this nation is that at the end of two terms of being President, he voluntarily walked away. You. To share power with somebody else, and that him abdicating power was something that people simply couldn't believe. This was how it was, the peaceful transfer of power, and that was the number one thing that made him a great leader.

Michelle Newman 15:17

Everybody's deep, breathe deep. Amen,

Carolyn Cochrane 15:19

George, I wanted to share with you guys a note we recently got, and when I say note, I mean handwritten with a stamp on it, put in the mailbox that arrived to Carolyn, Kristen and Michelle and PCPs. And it has to do with this episode that we're about to encore for you guys our 1976 episode. So this comes from our listener, Leanne, and she wanted to share with us that after listening to our 1976 episode, she took out the 1976 videotape to watch with her parents and her brother. Okay, so I'm guessing, in my mind, that they took their eight millimeter jam Ruby camp thing and got it transferred onto VHS, that fancy new VHS tape. Yes, that that evening, after watching it just led to a lot of fun and funny stories. And she goes on to share that pop that's what they called her dad left us sadly last year, but because of this night that they had, sharing their memories of 1976 we have a lot of pieces of him that we would not have had without that night. Much appreciated.

Kristin Nilsen 16:30

Hi, Leanne, thank

Carolyn Cochrane 16:32

you guys. Yes, I mean all the memories and listeners, why not do that after you listen to this episode today, like reach out to a sibling, a family member, a friend, that you have a memory about this particular year, any maybe Fourth of July or summer memory, but you will uncover things that you maybe never knew, you never knew, and it will give you an insight that you didn't have

Michelle Newman 16:56

before. I just feel so honored that that our conversation is what led to that. Thank you, Leanne, for letting us know that and for sending us a letter.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:06

So really, you guys, it was a rare moment when our entire nation kind of paused and looked back. And I kind of say, at least, as we're looking back now, actually agreed on a lot of things, at least that's the memory I have. And I kind of like that memory, and I don't think that, as I said earlier, another generation can point to a single year and say that was ours, yeah, but we can, and in this encore episode, we unpack how the Bicentennial, it didn't just mark a milestone in American history. It marked us.

Kristin Nilsen 17:33

I really think that, yeah, for sure, did.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:38

So please enjoy episode 3819 76 from pet rocks to patriotism. Can you imagine hearing those lyrics and then Dan Rather coming back saying, Welcome back to our all day coverage of the nation's 200th birthday. Hello World. It's a song that we're singing. Come on, get happy.

Unknown Speaker 18:01

Whole lot of love in the A

Michelle Newman 18:05

welcome welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society. The podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who knew that the box of 64 was better than 48 but still made do with 24

Carolyn Cochrane 18:19

we believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition. And

Kristin Nilsen 18:31

today we will be saving the year that lit up the sky with patriotic celebrations, Olympic glory and the most famous red swimsuit in history, 1976

Carolyn Cochrane 18:41

I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen, and

Michelle Newman 18:44

I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Kristin Nilsen 18:51

So if you guys asked me to name one memory from 1976 it would be this, I open the door to step outside, and on the doormat is a dead squirrel with no head. It's a headless squirrel. What? I know? And this was not an unusual thing at my house, what? And you know what? I Oh, I know. Okay, so it was my cat. My cat liked to go catch things and eat their heads off, and then would leave it on our doorstep so that we would be proud of him. And so on this day in 1976 I see the headless squirrel, and I don't even care. I'm not even scared. I'm not even mad at the stupid cat for leaving me this special gift that he likes to leave us. And normally, I would see the headless squirrel, and then I would screech, and I would refuse to go to school because I can't, I can't cross the threshold because there's a headless squirrel. It was super stressful. But not today, motherfuckers, can we bleep? Can we bleep? Because God bless America. Today is the goddamn Bicentennial, and it's like the best day of my whole life.

Michelle Newman 19:59

I've got a flag to wave. I've got a bomb pop to eat.

Carolyn Cochrane 20:05

I was excited about the bicentennial. I can't say that I was that excited. Your Enthusiasm is quite admirable to be. Yeah, it really. It really is. I mean, I do remember it the whole school year, like January 76 until the end of the year, being very patriotic. And we did have a colonial America Day, and my mom sewed me this, gosh, authentic colonial outfit.

Michelle Newman 20:33

Did you add the little, the little,

Carolyn Cochrane 20:37

um, I had a little cap, and I was a woman, so i i like it was like a bonnet, and I had the dress and an apron. And perhaps this is where my love of Williamsburg and my thought of, when I retire, I want to go to Williamsburg and be one of the little actresses that reenact you, but really good at that, carrying my little basket. But I love that outfit. There's bread in the

Kristin Nilsen 20:59

basket, though, right? Yes, because, yeah, probably get a snack. Yeah, Carolyn has thought about this a lot. Carolyn,

Michelle Newman 21:05

I think you've showed, showed a picture to us of that outfit. Actually,

Carolyn Cochrane 21:10

that was even earlier. That was when I was in kindergarten, that outfit when I was Betsy Ross in the school play. And kind

Michelle Newman 21:18

of long, a long term love affair with colonial America. I don't have any real specific, specific memories of 1976 and like you guys do have, like the Fourth of July even, because I was six, turning seven in 1976 so I was in first and then second grade. I'm imagining and the Fourth of July I was, we spent the month of July at my dad's house in a little, tiny, one stoplight Tumbleweed town in Texas called Woodson. So most of my memories of 1976 are tied to toys and TV shows and playing with friends making up dances, you know, that kind of stuff I don't really have. So you didn't do, you

Kristin Nilsen 22:01

don't have a specific Bicentennial, July 4 bison. You didn't have a celebration in your town or no? Well,

Michelle Newman 22:07

no, because we would have been in Woodson, which was very, very tiny. Maybe we would always go to this thing called the fandangle. So maybe they did a specific that was a really big gathering of a lot of like, almost like an outdoor wagon wheel, country musical type thing. I met Lady Bird Johnson there. Maybe that was the year I met Lady Bird Johnson. She wrote in the little, tiny train thing with us. But no, I mean, other than, you know, my sister and my daddy and I always used to blow up fire ant hills with firecrackers. So maybe we blew up a couple extra ant hills. So

Kristin Nilsen 22:36

this is very interesting, because there was no federal celebration of the Bicentennial, because they deemed that it would be too expensive, so they encouraged local celebrations instead, because that would foster more of a small town vibe. And that's really what they were trying to get people to do more of an Americana kind of feel. And I didn't live in a small town. I lived in a city neighborhood, but city neighborhoods oftentimes feel like their own contained small town, and my small town was on fire, and it definitely felt like Mayberry that day. It was the whole neighborhood celebration. Did feel like Mayberry? It was a small town that day?

Carolyn Cochrane 23:14

Wow. I was trying to think of what kind of celebration we had. I lived in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, so definitely not small town, and I didn't remember any parades or anything like that, but my sister and I both have the same distinct memory, and it involves our yellow and green shag carpeting because we were both sitting on that in front of the TV watching the Tall Ships, yes, going down the I remember that, yes. Well, that was actually this huge event called Operation sail, and it had hundreds of these tall, majestic ships that came from all over the world and floated down the Hudson River. And my dad is a nautical buff. He loves He was in the Navy, and he loves ships and so. And then he and my mom are from New York, so this was must see TV for us. We were plunked in front of it, and that is the memory I have that event. And then my sister and I both remember my dad had purchased my he had told my mom, if I die tomorrow, I would be really happy if you let me buy this. And it was a quadraphonic stereo, which was a really big deal in the mid 70s. It had these four speakers. And so my dad put the four speakers on the living or the family room that carpet, and you would sit in the middle, and then he played his album from the Air Force marching band, and he played that song like, Dun dun dun, dun, dun, dun,

Michelle Newman 24:50

dun, surround sound. It was

Carolyn Cochrane 24:53

literally and there were these jets that would fly in the in the record, and it sounded like they were going right. Right over your ears, and I would remember my dad just staring at us because he knew it was coming, and he wanted to see our reaction to the jets flying over our heads. And so my vision of Fourth of July is the tall ships, and my dad with this anticipatory look on his face as we sat plunked between these four at the time, seemed like giant speakers on our floor. I mean, who put speakers on the floor and sitting in the middle, and he would just be waiting for those jets to fly over, and

Kristin Nilsen 25:29

that is your door, and the

Michelle Newman 25:33

speakers were probably, like, 15 inches tall. I know,

Kristin Nilsen 25:37

okay, that really that? That's one of the questions that I have, because I most of the time when we have patriotic celebrations, they are some they're sort of a celebration of the military. I do not remember any military celebration in 1976 it was all Mayberry. It was, I don't remember anything on TV, in the news, certainly not in my little neighborhood celebration. I mean, maybe they had the guys walk down the streets with the flags, but even that was dicey in 1976 that was not what people were looking for in 1976

Carolyn Cochrane 26:11

Yeah, I I agree. I don't really that doesn't come into my memory at all. The only other thing that does, and I want to ask Martha, I'm feeling she might have been glued in front of her TV, but Bob Hope had his Bicentennial star spangled spectacular, and that featured Sammy Davis, Jr, Debbie Reynolds, captain, and Tenille and Donnie and Marie.

Kristin Nilsen 26:35

Oh, my goodness, I know that is a star studded

Carolyn Cochrane 26:39

bison. Star Spangled spectacular Sure was. Yeah, I feel

Kristin Nilsen 26:44

like there was sort of an indoctrination that has a negative connotation. But I don't mean it this way, that they were trying to amp us up for what was coming, for whatever celebrations we were going to be taking part in. And so if you think about Schoolhouse Rock, that whole 1976 76 season was the America rock era. That had to be on purpose, and so it started. America rock started at the end of 1975 with no more kings. The shot heard around the world, and the preamble, we the people, in order to form a more

Michelle Newman 27:15

perfect reunion. We've already covered that right. Followed at the

Kristin Nilsen 27:20

beginning of 1976 with, I'm just a bill the great American melting pot Elbow Room, which is about the westward expansion, aka stealing native people's lands. And finally, fireworks. There's gonna be fireworks. Fireworks celebrating. And that was about celebrating the Bicentennial, and that was released just prior to July 4, so that for six months, they were amping us children up on the carpeting in front of the TV on Saturday mornings. So

Michelle Newman 27:46

a lot of the information we are going to share today comes from a great podcast for us, Gen Xers, called for the record the 70s, hosted by Amy lively, who, by the way, you guys, is another podcaster. I want to read me bedtime stories. I know voice is her. Voice is love better. Yes. Amy is a high school US History teacher who is also a big music nerd, especially for the music of the 70s. So her episodes examine the intersection of the songs we love with the things that were happening in the world at the time and friends listening, if you like what you hear today, you can go even deeper by listening to her episode, episode called the spirit of 76 you can find it exclusively on Spotify or at FTR seventy.com it's such a great podcast, and it's just so very interesting and informative, and I'm really enjoying it.

Kristin Nilsen 28:39

She's my new favorite historian. Everybody's got to have a favorite historian, right? She's my favorite historian, and her episodes are chock full of juicy tidbits that will make you go, huh? I did not know that, and here's the perfect example. So while I was all hopped up on bomb pops on the Bicentennial, there were a lot of people who were not excited about the bicentennial. Jesse Jackson. This was probably the first time Jesse Jackson came into our memories. Jesse Jackson was asking people to boycott the Bicentennial because he said people of color will not were not yet free. And there were some who celebrated the Battle of Little Bighorn instead, which is also known as Custers last stand. That's where the Lakota, the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes combined forces to defeat us. Forces and and 1976 would have been the 100th, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn. I did not know any of this

Michelle Newman 29:34

well. Think about it at I mean, Carolyn, What grade were you in four? I was in fifth. Okay, so they, you might have been learning about that. I'm going to keep going back to what our teachers were teaching us. You know, in first and second grade, they weren't teaching us about, about the Battle of Little, big horns, anything bad, nothing like that yet, right? And and also, we've talked about this before. It is such a shame almost how sheltered we were, you know, we weren't even being taught necessarily. Really, you know, if they would have, if in first and second and third and fourth grade, if someone would have tried to explain to us the reasoning behind Jesse Jackson boycotting one, we probably wouldn't have really understood, because that wasn't widely discussed. No, really. I mean, at least in my family, we didn't have these lovely open discussions. So I'm just thinking, also, I'm gonna assume teachers shied away from that kind of discussion.

Kristin Nilsen 30:26

Oh, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Well, and if people were having fun planning their bicentennial celebration, they'd be like, Don't Rain on My Parade. Exactly, right, right. Okay, so the accidental theme song of the Bicentennial was afternoon delight, which was as far from a protest song as you could possibly get, you guys,

Carolyn Cochrane 30:47

I cannot get over that, because, believe it or not, afternoon delight by the Starland vocal band was the theme song played Throughout CBS is all day coverage of the Bicentennial, hosted by Dan Rather, so all day long, you could be hearing, gonna find my baby, gonna grab some after

Michelle Newman 31:17

like you get the sound effects of The skyrockets

Carolyn Cochrane 31:19

and fly. That's the only, yes, you've got the stuff. That's the only connection, I think. And then so you can you imagine hearing those lyrics and then Dan, rather coming back saying, Welcome back to our all day coverage of the nation's 200th birthday. I've got to believe there is some former CBS intern somewhere laughing that his or her joke idea for afternoon delight being the theme song made it all the way through. And you guys, I gotta tell you, because, as all of our listeners know, and you all know, I can't just leave it at that. I gotta go,

Kristin Nilsen 31:53

oh no, no, deep dives. There's a rabbit hole to be sure. Oh, wait. Can I say before? Though, I think it's, there's the skyrockets in flight. But we'll talk about this little this a little bit more is, I think people really wanted to be unserious and afternoon delight, whether you're listening to the words or not, just sounds incredibly silly and unserious.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:14

Well, one it was already. It hadn't hit number one yet. It was a popular song. But the week after the all day long coverage with the theme song playing, it actually hit number one on the Billboard chart. Not sure if there's a correlation between between that and hitting number one, but good to note, the songwriter actually took the title afternoon delight from the name of a happy hour menu at a bar he frequented. So it wasn't until that song got into our minds and into popular culture that the idea of making it about sex was even a thing. So

Kristin Nilsen 32:50

okay, so do you mean that? So I thought, after I learned about it, that afternoon delight was referring to Nookie in the afternoon does did we take that from the song? Yes, the song. Okay, the song. So the song created. Song

Carolyn Cochrane 33:05

created that definition of afternoon sex, which I guess was not really a thing, because he talks about usually happening at night, but let's go and Guy rock

Michelle Newman 33:16

it during the day, but it's a it was a menu item at a cafe. It was the So when he says, gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight, gonna grab some delight, it's almost as if you could substitute that with gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight, gonna grab a double cheeseburger, basically, yeah, because that can't be it's so perfectly means it

Carolyn Cochrane 33:37

does, and that's what he meant it To me. I think he loved the the phrase afternoon delight. And that made him think of, oh, what else can an afternoon delight? Yeah,

Michelle Newman 33:47

right. So he did like a play on that word, yeah, play on those words, exactly. And

Carolyn Cochrane 33:53

speaking of words, you guys, I was blown away. I learned this yesterday. So because of the success of the song. CBS actually gave the starlight, the starling vocal band, a variety series.

Kristin Nilsen 34:07

Oh, I remember this. I was all,

Michelle Newman 34:09

there, you get a variety series.

Kristin Nilsen 34:13

They've never done anything else, but you can have your own TV show.

Carolyn Cochrane 34:17

So I was watching clips from it yesterday, and there's a clip of them singing like in front of some river or whatever you guys there is a line that I've said wrong forever. Talk about misheard lyrics. I'm thinking though that maybe for the radio, they change this. And this is why, because I saw this lyric, this lyric written two different ways, but when I watched them move their lips, this is what they say, rubbing sticks and stones together, making sparks Ignite, and the thought of rubbing you is getting so exciting. What?

Speaker 1 34:57

Not loving? Not loving? You know,

Carolyn Cochrane 35:01

oh, a link

Kristin Nilsen 35:02

to, well, we're rubbing sticks and stones together. We're like, we're like to, oh, this is where's the English teacher to help us with the metaphors

Carolyn Cochrane 35:10

I know. So when I saw their limit,

Michelle Newman 35:12

you help with that metaphor,

Carolyn Cochrane 35:17

I could not believe it. I was in shock. So I went back and watched it a few times, and then doing my research. What are the lyrics? And so I don't know if maybe for some radio stations in the Bible Belt, you couldn't say rubbing you, so you had to change it to loving you.

Kristin Nilsen 35:33

Because when you go to look up their lyrics, what does it say? Does it say loving you

Carolyn Cochrane 35:37

been both ways. I found them. You see both Yes, of course, they won Grammy that year for Best New Artist, and then they never had a hit again. Well, speaking of music and crazy, silly songs, what else was out

Kristin Nilsen 35:49

there? A lot of the music from 1976 fell into the silly category, kind of like fluffy and unserious. And I've always wondered, WTF with muskrat? Love

Unknown Speaker 36:00

muskrat Susie, muskrat Sam do the jitterbug. Not that I

Kristin Nilsen 36:14

didn't love that song. I loved it, but what the hell with the muskrats? Like Did somebody say, I've got a super idea about a song about muskrats. What do you guys think? I mean,

Michelle Newman 36:28

yeah, they did, right? I have, actually some I have, it is a little bit, yeah? It's like a little woodsy creature, okay, Naus on wood, yeah. So the song you guys was originally titled muskrat candlelight, and it was written and recorded in 1972 by Willis Allen Ramsey, and it does indeed describe a romantic liaison between two muskrats named Susie and Sam. Did you Yeah, muskrat Sam? Do the right. Okay. So did you know, though, that in 1973 the band America recorded a cover of it

Kristin Nilsen 37:17

that does not match at all. That makes no sense.

Michelle Newman 37:20

They changed the name. They're the ones who changed the name to muskrat love, and their version reached number 67 on the Billboard, hot 100 chart. Okay. And then along comes Tony Tenille. So when Tony Tenille heard America's cover, she said to the captain, do you think she called him the captain? Think she okay? Do you mean so she said, Captain, are they singing about muskrats? This is hysterical. And they were like, We need these lyrics. We need to know this song. So they went out the next day, they found the lyrics, they found the sheet music, and they added it to their club Act, and the audiences went nuts. So then and when they were one track short for their 1976 debut album, which was called songs of joy, they added it. They added muskrat love to it. They're like, we need one more song. This has been Real, a big crowd favorite. Also, this is funny. I don't know if you guys remember this in their version, but the captain, he has synthesizer generated sound effects which are supposed to simulate muskrats mating.

Kristin Nilsen 38:21

Oh, wait, oh, oh, wait. You just blew my mind, because I was like,

Kristin Nilsen 38:30

I thought it was just like, muskrats talking, Oh,

Michelle Newman 38:35

little Kristen. Oh, you know what? Oh, little Kristen, put your ear muffs on. It's earmuffs. Yeah? So that song, so their version, Captain and Danielle's version, made it to number four on the hot 100 chart, even though people have very definite opinions on its greatness. Yeah. And I have a really fun, funny fact you guys, when Queen Elizabeth visited the White House in 1976 for the Bicentennial good captain Tenille, weirdly chose to sing muskrat love for the queen of all their songs

Kristin Nilsen 39:10

is so 1976 I can't even stand it, like we can just end this episode right now. That's it. That's all, folks. Because you know everything you need to know about 1976 and

Michelle Newman 39:21

one guest said it was in very poor taste to sing of mating muskrats before the queen. And Tony Tenille said only a person with a dirty mind would see something wrong. It's Disney esque, to which I will challenge Tony Tenille by saying reminding her of these lyrics. Now he's tickling her fancy, rubbing her toes, muzzle to muzzle. Now anything goes as they wriggle, starts to giggle.

Kristin Nilsen 39:50

You is getting me so excited,

Michelle Newman 39:52

really? That's Disney asked to Tony to kneel. So, I mean, so that tells us. That tells us everything we need to know about Tony. And the captain's night night time

Kristin Nilsen 40:03

was that maybe those were his little sounds that he makes.

Carolyn Cochrane 40:06

I've got to go see if there's a clip on YouTube of the Queen's the Queen's reaction to them singing that song. What is a

Kristin Nilsen 40:15

muskrat? Oh my gosh. Okay, another song that Amy lively talks about in for the record the 70s. Did I say that correctly for the record the 70s? Yes, in her 1976 episode is the song December 1963 by Frankie Valli in the Four Seasons, which reached number one in March of 1976

Kristin Nilsen 40:40

me, because in 1976 we were having a love affair with the 50s. Frankie Valley was not a current act. This was a throwback act. This was a comeback for them. They were popular in the late 50s and the early 60s. Early 60s are always kind of considered part of the 50s, because of the innocence, the nastiness hadn't begun yet. But this song, which was clearly about losing your virginity, by the way, speaking of muskrat love, was a huge hit, a huge

Michelle Newman 41:14

hit. Oh yeah, it was. I this actually doing research for this episode answered a question for me, that song has, since I've been a child, has always been one of my very favorite songs. I love that song. I think I always thought it was from the 60s, and it wasn't until like, two days ago that I learned that was actually recorded in 1976 so it actually answers a lot of questions of why this song has always, always, always been a, really, just a huge favorite of mine, probably because I heard it on the radio all the time in 1976

Kristin Nilsen 41:54

Yeah, it was not on the oldie station. It was like number four on there. No, it was Wonder number one in March of 1976 and I just just like rubbing sticks and stones together and rubbing our bodies together, and then the muskrats with their funny little sounds. Here are the lyrics that dot did not I just think this is very poetic, but now I'm like, Oh, this guy is doing it. I feel a rush like a rolling ball of thunder spinning my head around and taking my body under and as I recall, it ended much too soon.

Michelle Newman 42:26

So in the in the musical Jersey Boys, it's really cute. It's all of the Four Seasons Ricky Bell and the Four Seasons songs. And it's, it's one of those jukebox musicals, but it's very cute. It's basically about how they all got together as a group. And it just tells their story, and they use all their music to tell the story. But yes, when they sing December 1963 it is about one of them singing about losing his virginity.

Kristin Nilsen 42:49

Isn't that fun? I never

Carolyn Cochrane 42:51

would have put I never I just realized that when I listened to that episode of the podcast, I again, just maybe the romantic in me. I thought it was just about love at first sight, like he'd walked into this party and kind of across the room, saw this girl, and then the party ended too soon, and he had to leave. Like, not that Carolyn,

Kristin Nilsen 43:15

that, but that makes perfect sense. That's how, that's how a child would think. And then, oh, when the party ended too soon, I have to go home. I like this song. Think about, think go back in time and think about what we were thinking about the 50s at the time. Because in 1976 we had happy days. We had Laverne and Shirley. I was invited to lots of 50s theme parties where you had to wear your poodle skirt. Grease comes out in 1978 whose theme song is also sung by Frankie Valli, who was a throwback artist. Do you remember Shauna? Oh, yes, right, Shawna and I had their own TV show.

Michelle Newman 43:47

Yeah. I also loved, I loved 50s music, but i Happy Days was my show. And in 1976 even if Chachi wasn't on it, yet, I was so into happy days that was, you know, at age at age seven, that was a show I could watch and almost kind of feel like I was watching a grown up show.

Kristin Nilsen 44:05

Yeah, for sure, it was because it was grown up situations, oftentimes. And do you remember 1919 76 this is super memorable for me, and I'm just trying to, I'm taking the temperature to see if it was as big a deal to everybody else as it was to me. 1976 where the pinky Tuscadero esque

Carolyn Cochrane 44:22

episodes. Oh,

Kristin Nilsen 44:24

my Carolyn, just like crossed herself. Basically, remember the

Carolyn Cochrane 44:27

accident,

Kristin Nilsen 44:28

the motorcycle. Motorcycle Accident? Yeah, so, um, I've always wondered, like, Why? Why this? Why did we have this big fascination with the 50s at the time? And Amy, lively from for the 70s, answered my question for me. She says it perfectly. She says the 70s inherits weariness from the 60s, lots of fussing and fighting to borrow a line from the Beatles, and so we play make believe with the 50s. And she says we Gen Xers liked it because it was presented to us as a fun time to be a kid or a teenager. It was. It was a fad, just like anything else, but the fad was fueled by a mythical presentation of the 50s as opposed to what it actually was, and we can thank Happy Days for that. But I think her observation that it was presented to us as a fun time to be a teenager, that's what it was for me, for sure.

Carolyn Cochrane 45:14

And now a pause for station identification.

Kristin Nilsen 45:19

In 1976 the nation was celebrating our Bicentennial, and people had feelings.

Michelle Newman 45:24

They did. You might say, they were following the people and conversations they enjoyed, and were also raiding and reviewing all sorts of stuff that year, the politics, the Olympians, the music and movies,

Carolyn Cochrane 45:40

yeah. And, you know, they were sharing the things they loved with their friends.

Kristin Nilsen 45:46

Oh, definitely. And now, just like in 1976 we need you to do the same.

Michelle Newman 45:52

That's right, just like Sonny and Cher, if you like honey and Cher, yes. Oh, just like sunny and share Kristen. If you like what you hear, please follow along where you listen. If it's on Apple podcast, just click those three little dots in the top right corner. On Spotify, you can't miss it. It's a big Follow button under our image. And on other platforms, I'm not really sure, but just look around, and much like you did with Dorothy Hamill, rate us. Please click those five stars, which is a gold medal, by the way, on Apple, and add to the nice reviews that are already

Carolyn Cochrane 46:32

there. And just like your love for Charlie's Angels, share our podcast and social media pages with friends. It's the only way we know you are enjoying what you're hearing.

Kristin Nilsen 46:43

And do you want to get fan mail? It's super easy. Maybe it's not from Andy Gibb sigh, but if you sign up for our emails, you'll get super fun Gen X news from the PCPs delivered straight to your inbox. Just go to our website, at pop preservationists.com and enter your name and email

Michelle Newman 47:02

just like 1976

Kristin Nilsen 47:05

sure Michelle, just like 1976

Carolyn Cochrane 47:08

and now back to our show.

Kristin Nilsen 47:11

Let's circle back to wacky songs. If there was a top 10 silliest Songs of All Time list, I would definitely put Disco Duck on there. Released

Kristin Nilsen 47:28

in 1976 let's just add that to the pile, right? But also, what about convoy? Come on.

Kristin Nilsen 47:40

One. Convoy sounded super random and hokey, but convoy was actually a protest song. I had no idea. I learned that from Amy on her podcast. Yes, this is comes directly from Amy, the gas shortage and the new 55 miles per hour speed limit was getting in the way of truckers doing their jobs.

Michelle Newman 48:06

I loved learning like the CB lingo.

Kristin Nilsen 48:09

I had no idea what any of this was. All I knew is that I wanted a CB radio and Michelle, I just know that you had one. I just know that you

Michelle Newman 48:18

did. We did. My stepfather had one in our motor home, and we got to use it. And my handle was baby shrimp. And I would, he would let us use it, and I'd be all like, you know, break a one nine. This is baby shrimp. We got a smoky at mile marker, 87 on 190 and a plain brown bag out. What a bag like an unmarked car, an unmarked police car. And, you know, can you just picture this little seven year old breaker one, nine, and then he'd let us do the 10, four, good buddy. And the trucker, the other truckers, loved it when my sister and I would get off, I'm sure the CB, and then they would be like, you know, hey, they are little lady or whatever. And it was just really fun, because you guys see, these were our 1976 cell phones, or, like, I mean, they were walkie talkies, but they were only cell phones because people actually did. The truckers definitely relied on them.

Carolyn Cochrane 49:09

I was gonna say it provided hours of entertainment for my family and buckle up people, literally, figuratively, because we lived only about less than two miles from interstate 10. That's where our house was, so we could get the CB transmissions and everything right in our driveway, like that's how close we were. So after dinner, we would go out in the car, the whole family, we wouldn't leave the car. The car wouldn't leave the driveway. We would sit in the driveway, and my dad would talk on the CB radio, and we would just be entertained by the conversations that he was just sitting in the driveway, just sitting in the driveway, in the car, the whole family in the car, the whole family, because we could get that all up. We were that close. And yeah, so that's what we did. And then so I called my mom the other night and I asked her, because I can't remember what my dad's handle. Was and she said, I don't remember his handle, but I do remember the handle of our parish priest. Father domic,

Michelle Newman 50:06

before you say it is he the one that were

Carolyn Cochrane 50:10

Speedos? No, no. Angelo. Angelo, you may

Michelle Newman 50:15

proceed if he was the one that were Speedos. I did not want to know his handle. No,

Carolyn Cochrane 50:19

no. This was nice father domek from st Bartholomew's in Katy, Texas, and his handle was Charlie Tuna, because his first name was Charles. So he my mom couldn't remember my dad's, but she could remember our priests, Charlie Tuna. And so

Kristin Nilsen 50:36

why tuna? Oh, wait yes, because the Charlie ad chicken at the sea, chicken of the sea. Yes,

Michelle Newman 50:44

Carolyn, probably one of the most 70s, 70s, 70s memories I've ever heard in my life, and I love it so much that your fam that was your entertainment.

Carolyn Cochrane 50:55

Oh my gosh, it was. And it even translated into my bedroom because we lived so close to the interstate, and I learned the FCC didn't have enough channels for all the CV communication. So before they actually added some more channels out in whatever the world of electronic communication, my walkie talkie could pick up some of the conversations as well as transmit them. So I could be in my room at like, nine o'clock at night, and I would pretend I was a trucker,

Michelle Newman 51:30

as long as your handle wasn't blonde bombshell.

Carolyn Cochrane 51:35

What is it you had? You know, blonde bombshell. But I would lie and say like, our our way to get pretty much everywhere, was interstate 10, so, yeah, to get to the grocery store, because we were that far out, kind of in the suburbs. And so I knew the mile markers because we passed them. And so I'd lie on there, and I'd say, Smokey, uh, you know, I'm you did? My voice was like of an 11 year old girl. They probably figured out.

Michelle Newman 52:05

Girl, really good point. Christian and I are like, Oh, my God, she fooled all the truckers, and she's got this little, tiny, 11 year old voice, that's right, she's probably got, like, Christy and Jimmy McNichol playing in the background.

Carolyn Cochrane 52:19

I felt so like I was breaking

Kristin Nilsen 52:21

all the ban again is so 1976 that people would pretend to be truckers

Carolyn Cochrane 52:27

on their walkie talkie from Sears, I'm sure,

Kristin Nilsen 52:30

pretending to be a trucker convoy, the lingo, all of it is an example of phenomena that was just exploding in 1976 there were so many phenomena this year, things that exploded and took hold of every kid in your classroom. Let's start with the Olympics.

Carolyn Cochrane 52:52

Could there have been a better year than 1976 for there to be Olympics? And remember friends that this was when the winter and summer Olympics were both held in the same year. We don't do that anymore now, but in 1976 we had Winter Olympics and we had the Summer Olympics. So we start off our national pride year of 1976 in February in Innsbruck, Austria, because they host the Winter Games. And ladies and gentlemen, we were introduced to Dorothy Hamill and her hair.

Michelle Newman 53:27

Yes, I literally just got goosebumps all the way down to my ankles.

Carolyn Cochrane 53:30

We love Dorothy. We love that she won the gold medal. Yes, that was very exciting. But I think more long lasting was the hair. Did either of you have a Dorothy Hamill haircut,

Kristin Nilsen 53:42

it was my first haircut. The Dorothy Hammer was my very first haircut. You got your Brady haircut. That's right, Dorothy Hamill into a Dorothy Hamill because, if you remember from our Brady Bunch episode, I was afraid to get my hair because I was under the impression that new hair grew out of the bottom of your old haircut, like Carolyn Brady's haircut with the ski jump at the bottom, the ski jump mullet. That's what I thought would happen if you got your hair cut. So it wasn't until Dorothy Hamill that I took the plunge, and that's when we got a blow dryer, and my mom would blow dry my hair, and it would be all smooth and straight and round, like a bowl on my head. It was beautiful.

Michelle Newman 54:20

I just think that there was nobody except Dorothy Hamill who could truly have a Dorothy Hamill haircut, not just because that's her name, but because to truly have a Dorothy Hamill haircut, you gotta spin. You gotta spin. Gotta spin, spin, spin, spin, spin. So he flies out in all the little layers. And if you're not Dorothy Hamill, you're not going to spin like that, so it just kind of lays, yeah, flat.

Kristin Nilsen 54:45

Or if you're my hair, it sticks up. That is so not Dorothy Hamill. Or if

Carolyn Cochrane 54:50

you're my sister, you just spin around really fast in our living room and hope it happens. But she insisted that it would not happen unless. Washed her hair with short and sassy shampoo.

Michelle Newman 55:04

I'm picturing your sister as the Tasmanian devil. That's how she got everywhere.

Speaker 3 55:11

Dorothy Hamill introduces the shampoo for short hair, short and sassy shampoo. It makes my hair shiny more important. It gives my short hair, wonderful body. So

Carolyn Cochrane 55:22

fast forward seven months to August, 1976 now we are in Montreal, and we are there for the Summer Olympic Games. And these were pretty iconic. You guys. Oh

Michelle Newman 55:33

so iconic we are. I mean, well, I guess that's what iconic means. Carry on, yes. Well, we

Carolyn Cochrane 55:41

were coming off of our nation's Bicentennial high and the flames of our patriotic spirit were flamed when Caitlyn Jenner, at the time, known as Bruce Jenner. And I'm going to preface all of this you guys with I want to say this correctly. I want to use the right pronouns. I want to refer to Caitlin, who was known then as Bruce, who won the decal. Work in it, we're working. We're working. We are learning

Michelle Newman 56:13

when we're referring to 1976 I guess my opinion would be that when referring to 1976 or any time before Caitlyn Jenner made her transformation. My feeling is that we could refer to 1976 as Bruce and use the pronouns him, he. You know, obviously, now we don't do that, but I don't know if that's right, and I'm going to admit that I'm a little bit ignorant and knowing if that's okay to

Kristin Nilsen 56:43

and it's hard to know when you're talking about a news event, it's one thing to be talking about an individual in their individual life, but when you're talking about a news event, because did Caitlyn Jenner win the decathlon, or did Bruce Jenner win the decathlon? I

Michelle Newman 56:56

mean, Bruce Jenner won the decathlon, but Caitlyn Jenner has always been in Bruce Jenner,

Kristin Nilsen 57:02

right? Bruce Jenner would probably say he was always Caitlyn Jenner. Of course, she would always say she was always Caitlyn Jenner, but Bruce Jenner got the gold medal. This is very confusing.

Michelle Newman 57:11

So this is tricky, but here we go.

Carolyn Cochrane 57:14

I still recall that image of Bruce at the time, of him running around the track or just holding the American flag and just feeling like, Go America. It was just such a perfect example and such perfect timing for that spirit.

Kristin Nilsen 57:31

I never put that together. Carolyn, how it came on the heels of the Bicentennial, and this six months of being indoctrinated by the shot heard around the world, and we the people that that moment, the Olympics moment came when we were still bubbling over with patriotic pride, exactly, and that may be why we remember it so well. Do you guys remember the Olympic the Olympic posters you could get at Burger King?

Michelle Newman 57:55

No, we never ate at Burger King.

Kristin Nilsen 57:59

This was big because it was like a collector's item, and you wanted to get the right one, because maybe this week it was the Bruce Jenner poster, but next week was going to be the Nadia Comaneci poster, and so you had to beg your parents to go to Burger King at the appropriate time so you could get the appropriate poster. And I did score. I got the Nadia Comaneci poster. I

Carolyn Cochrane 58:19

got it. The other iconic moment from the games was the perfect 10 scored by gymnast Nadia Comaneci from Romania. Am I saying Nadia's name, right? Is it Comaneci?

Michelle Newman 58:29

I always say Comaneci, but I was also,

Kristin Nilsen 58:32

you know, I've heard, I don't know, and I want to say Comaneci, because there's an eye on the end. But I also hear people say Coman each okay, we'll ask Nadia Yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 58:39

And she married Bart Connor eventually, who was also a male gymnast. So I don't know if she goes by Nadia Connor now, but

Kristin Nilsen 58:46

anyway, that would be a bummer. If she did, it would be

Michelle Newman 58:49

Oh and remember Nadia's theme? It was played

Carolyn Cochrane 58:52

everywhere. Yes. Okay, cut that. Okay. Okay, so you looked

Michelle Newman 59:01

like you settled back. Well, yeah, I am gearing up. She's just like, Oh, she's gearing

Carolyn Cochrane 59:06

up. Okay,

Michelle Newman 59:09

we'll strike that and you will continue. So

Carolyn Cochrane 59:11

this was the first perfect 10 scored by an athlete in the Olympic Games, and because the scoreboard only displayed three digits when her score was shown, it showed as 1.000

Kristin Nilsen 59:24

my god. I did not know this isn't

Carolyn Cochrane 59:26

that crazy. I guess they never expected anyone to get a perfect score, and she ended up earning three gold medals in the games. It was amazing. And obviously, because we remember, the world was mesmerized by her perfect performance, and she was solidified as a forever piece of our pop culture memories with the song naughty.

Kristin Nilsen 59:58

Anyone who played the. Piano in 1976 learned how to play Nadia's

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:02

theme, right? Surprisingly enough, you didn't learn it before that, because it was originally written in 1971 the soundtrack for bless the beast and the children. It was just kind of an instrumental in the background, and then it was rearranged a little bit, and in 1973 was used as the theme for the young and the restless. Oh, that came first. That came first. I did too. I did too. But no, it wasn't until a montage of Nadia's performance during the Olympics on the ABC Wide World of Sports, where they played at that time. The song was called cotton's dream. That was the name of it from the sound effect they played that underneath the montage of Nadia's performances, and the public went crazy. They reached out to ABC. What is the song? Tell us the name of it. Where can we find it? A and M Records, who had the rights to cotton's theme. Thought, hmm, lots of interest. Let's release it as a commercial song. Let's change the name to Nadia's theme. They released it on August 26 1976 it was on the Billboard charts for 22 weeks. Oh my god, peaking at number eight. And you guys, Nadia Comaneci never performed to Nadia's thing,

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:22

no. Oh, it was just from a recap. It just was a

Michelle Newman 1:01:27

little marketing and PR can do for you. That

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:30

is amazing, though, but it comes from outcry too. So these people who are watching the Wide World of Sports are so moved by the combination of Nadia comanichi And the song that they make phone calls, right? That's a good example of how the collective drives culture. So they didn't give us that we asked for it, right? The people at Wide World of Sports weren't looking for a hit song. They were. They were just like, grab me a piece of music, get that thing from the soap opera, and it becomes a huge hit.

Michelle Newman 1:02:00

Yes, I just remember my memories of Nadia. I clearly watched it on television. I don't remember that. I just remember for months playing on my swing set and singing Nadia's theme as I swung on my little trapeze bar, probably just with my knees up, but I was obviously a world class

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:18

gymnast. So how would you sing it? Because there are no lyrics. You just go, you just hum it.

Michelle Newman 1:02:25

And then I would get really into that. That was probably my big dismount.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:36

Did you guys have a pet rock?

Michelle Newman 1:02:38

Oh yeah, I don't know if I had the official pet rock, but I think I you just go

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:43

in your backyard and pick one up.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:44

Yeah, that's, um,

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:48

so the pet rock. What I got? One? I got one for my birthday in March of 1976 Yes, I did, and it was ever so exciting, but I seriously expected it to do something. I was so confused. I didn't understand this abstract concept of this rock was supposed to be a Live Pet. I mean, I'd really thought I was going to open the box with breathing holes in it, and I was going to take it out and it was going to say, Hello, you had issues with that, though, Christian, I really did. I know abstract thinking was difficult for me, and it came with a little manual on how to take care of your pet rock. And it had all these jokes and puns about your pet rock, like it was a Live Pet. And I just remember reading it going, This is bullshit. This is

Michelle Newman 1:03:33

true. They all look different. Or did they all look the same? No,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:36

they were all different. They were actual rocks.

Michelle Newman 1:03:40

They are but like, were they all basalt rocks, or were they all the same type of rock? Like, were they all, you know,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:46

I what I recall is that they all had the same cue.

Michelle Newman 1:03:50

Yeah, they were rocks, but I don't know if they were manufactured rocks. No, they were not manufactured. They were on, I think I just made one. I don't think I wanted one. I mean, if I couldn't feed it baby food and it pooped out in its pretend

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:04

diaper, I thought it might. I thought I might have to feed my rock and it might poop, but nothing happened.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:09

I remember I decorated. I mean, my pet rock had a really fancy, smashy bed bedroom. It had a bean bag in it. Oh, lucky. Well, I made that. It was like all in a shoe box, but yeah, and I put some grass in there, but it had some nice decor that surrounded it, but I didn't expect it

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:27

to poop. The whole thing lasted like six months at the most. They came out in 1975 at the end of 1975 and they had a huge, huge batch of sales right around Christmas time. By the time it got to my birthday in March of 1976 the fad was already dying. Oh, and they were discounted on the shelves, so I may have gotten one of the last pet rocks. So maybe that's why mine was so inactive. He was kind of wearing out. But they sold over 1 million pet rocks, oh my gosh. And they were $4 each. So this guy became a millionaire. I'm a millionaire. That

Michelle Newman 1:04:59

is definitely good. Going on the Instagram during 1976

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:03

week. Oh, hell yeah. I mean, talk about just a flash, just a tiny flash that burned like fire through our

Michelle Newman 1:05:09

classroom. Yeah, I turned seven years old in 1976 so I was in my sweet spot with all the toys. And I told you guys in our Christmas episode back in December of 2020 that at the top of my Christmas list in 1976 was Stretch Armstrong, you remember? And I got him. Okay, so Holly hobby. Holly hobby actually launched in 1975 but really gained popularity in 1976 the rag doll. Holly hobby.

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:35

I had the doll. I had the rag doll, I had the lunch box. I had Holly hobby wallpaper, and I had, and I had my denim shirt with the holly hobby applique on the back. Carolyn

Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:46

had that too. I did. Mine was painted, though mine was handling, that's

Michelle Newman 1:05:50

right, the Bionic Woman, Jamie summers Barbie doll with the little plastic part you took off her leg, and you could see the

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:56

little you could lie on the side inside the mechanism inside. That was cool.

Michelle Newman 1:06:01

Almost all my friends though, they would lose the little skin part that you could take off so that you couldn't really make her just be normal. Yeah, the Barbie star traveler motor home and dune buggy was a big deal.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:12

Oh, the motor home was big. That was very cool. I did COVID That. This

Michelle Newman 1:06:18

is when the weebles haunted house was released in 1976 the sunshine family. We've posted sunshine family on Instagram several times, and people go nuts. A lot of these toys you guys are coming straight from the Sears 1976 wish book. Easy Bake oven was very big in 1976 and the holly hobby version, especially, which I still is still sitting in my mom's closet. I've told her I do not want it, but yet it still sits there. Do you remember the little Pepsi machine that you could put the and you got the little tiny, waxy cups with it?

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:51

Here's something that people got for Christmas in 1976 that I think blows them all away, and that is, I can't even believe that this was a gift, that this was a gift, that this is the kind of thing that people would give it gifts, as gifts, but they did the Farrah fawcet poster. Oh, and not just boys, girls, too. Your son, here's some nipples. Yes, totally, I know. Isn't there stocking? Yes, yeah, but it's only

Michelle Newman 1:07:16

because the parents wanted, I think I've said this before in our Eight is Enough episode, it's only because the dad wanted the excuse of giving it to the son, so the Son would put it on his wall so the dad could go in and look at it. I'm gonna go have a talk with son.

Kristin Nilsen 1:07:31

I'm gonna read bedtime stories tonight. Oh, I'll do stories tonight. Yeah. But I had lots of girlfriends who had that poster on their wall too. She was an icon, not just for boys, but for girls too, she was, I mean, could she be the most beautiful woman who ever lived? I think it's possible. I will say something about that poster, even though, yes, the nipples were shown through her swimsuit. I think it's a very tastefully done poster. It's not overtly sexual. No, I don't think so. And she was instructed to be overtly sexual. They were like, we'd make this sexy. And she was like, You know what I'm gonna do, what I want, fellas, back off.

Michelle Newman 1:08:05

And maybe that's one of the huge appeals of that poster, is that it's not overly sexy. Is that, that it's very sexy, but almost just in a I'm just gonna sit here in this swimsuit, this one piece swimsuit type of way it might

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:19

be the difference between sexy and sexual. Wow, right, deep. So this is, this is a really interesting story to me. So this, this poster was shot in her own backyard, the backyard she shared with with Lee Majors, and it was, this was before Charlie's Angels. All of this time seems to smash together, and we associate the poster with Charlie's Angels, but really, this is before she was on Charlie's Angels, and the owner of the poster company had never heard of her before, but called her after his neighbor told him that his teenage son was buying women's magazines so he could look at this girl in shampoo ads, who was Farrah Fawcett. So the guy is like, Hey, she is kind of a looker. Let's put her on a poster. They wanted her to wear a bikini. She refused to wear a bikini because she has a scar on her stomach. She always wore a one piece because of this scar. And so when she refuses to wear the bikini, she just goes inside, goes inside and gets a red swimsuit from her own closet. So that was her swimsuit. Wow. And like you said, it's not overtly sexual at all. I think the headlights are famous, and that certainly helped. But there's nothing that can be done about that she's not making her nipples poke out. And there was a rumor that still flies around that you can see the word sex written in the highlights for that room, not then the headlights in the highlight.

Michelle Newman 1:09:46

Have you seen it? Yeah, I can

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:48

show it to you. Oh, I'm gonna go back and look. I don't know that. I mean, you have to stretch your imagination a little bit, but if you do, you can see the word sex. So it's sort of like this thing that is not overtly sexual, but it's in. Inviting people to think about sex. Do you know where that swimsuit is

Michelle Newman 1:10:04

now? Where? No, I don't say it's in the Smithsonian. Yes, in the Smithsonian that I think it's earned its place in this mystery. It is in the Smithsonian's collection of culturally significant objects like leather jacket, like Fonzie, leather jacket has a place in the Smithsonian then I say that red swimsuit deserves I

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:25

agree. No matter what your opinion of it is, it took hold of the culture. It did so the poster earned 12 million million dollars. She earned $400,000 in royalties, which was way more than the $5,000 a week. She earned

Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:41

interesting you say that she never wore a two piece bathing suit because I was just looking at a poster that had Charlie's Angels on it, which, by the way, debuted in 1976 and it had Farah and Jacqueline Smith and Kate Jackson. And Jacqueline Smith is in a bikini, and Farrah, I think she's just in a kind of a regular ish outfit. And I remember looking at it thinking, I wonder why Farah wasn't in the bikini. And now that makes a little bit more sense.

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:12

Okay, so what else were you guys watching on TV in 1976

Michelle Newman 1:11:14

Well, other than happy days, I was all about Donnie and Marie. I'm a

Speaker 3 1:11:22

little bit I'm a little

Michelle Newman 1:11:27

bit rock and roll. I'm a little bit down here, my soul. Did you guys watch the Donnie Emery show? Oh yeah, religiously. So, the Donnie Emery show premiered on January 23 1976 and Donnie was only 18. Emory was just 16. Wow. 18 years old, yes. And if you do go back and watch on YouTube, She's precious and has so much confidence, but she looks so much older. And I think it is her confidence that makes her seem so much older than 16. Yeah, yeah. At 18 and 16, they were the youngest duo to ever host their own variety show, wow. And it always opened. My favorite part was that ice skating, they always opened with ice skating. And they're good. They're like, really good ice skaters. They poked fun, even at their squeaky clean image a lot. One time, Donnie was singing a song and the lyrics that said wine and whiskey, and they changed it to milk. I

Kristin Nilsen 1:12:18

think that's really cute, and it's really smart, and it's reading the culture. Because Don't you think that their squeaky clean relates back to our fascination with the 50s, when they thought everything was so innocent and fun. And you can sort of contrast that with maybe something like Sonny and Cher, which kind of had this sexually charged energy, and then let's have Donnie and Marie instead. As we move into 1976 I will never be able to get the iconic image of it's the album cover. It's the dolls of the pink and purple chiffon outfits that they were wearing. That's always what I will picture Donnie and Marie in forever and ever

Carolyn Cochrane 1:12:55

so iconic. And speaking of iconic and what our podcast is all about these pop culture nuggets. When I was in college, we had a party, and it was a themed party, and it was opposites attract, and I took Andy, and we were a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. Good for you. And everybody knew what we were.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:20

Yep, everybody knows you didn't have to explain yourself to anybody. That's so funny.

Michelle Newman 1:13:26

Okay, so real quick, I want to give you a list of the other shows that premiered in 1976 that we were all probably watching. You guys. This was a great, great year for television. Bring it

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:36

on. I want to hear that debuted in 76 years. Debuted in 1976

Unknown Speaker 1:13:48

we have Alice cracker face.

Michelle Newman 1:13:53

Oh, I love that show we have. What's happening? Hey, hey, hey, I know Laverne and Shirley. That wasn't 1976 Yeah, wow, I would a bionic woman was 1976 oh yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14:07

Jamie summers, Mary, Steve Austin,

Michelle Newman 1:14:10

so they can have bionics. They're gonna say bionic babies. Okay, we've got another really good one, Three's Company. When my dog.

Michelle Newman 1:14:30

Family premiered in 1976 it's all the shows I know The Muppet Show premiered in 1976 you guys. Okay, hold on tight, because we've got two coming up that's gonna blow your minds, Electra Woman and Dinah girl from the craft Super Show. And the craft Super Show both premiered in 1970

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:47

woman and Dinah girl, that was one of my favorite. I was I was very confused about electro women and Dinah girl because I didn't know if they were mother and daughter or sisters. No, they were just over. Course I didn't understand, and you didn't mention anything that wasn't meaningful to me. You didn't mention a single thing where I was like, All right, okay, yeah, they're all pretty iconic. Okay, so the news was on TV also at the time, because in those days, we only got our news from two sources. You watched it on TV or you read it in the newspaper, but it was only on twice a day, but you didn't carry it around with you in your pocket, so you didn't read the news all day every day. It was just these two places. And also seeing it through a child's lens means you may remember stuff, very specific things, for very childlike reasons, and maybe you didn't understand the bigger stories. So for instance, I was terrified of Son of Sam. I was afraid. Son of Sam was going to leave New York, where he had a job as a serial killer, and he was going to come to St Paul, Minnesota, and he was going to climb in my window and he was going

Michelle Newman 1:15:51

to kill me. I do remember the election, yeah, the President, my mom was a huge Carter supporter, and my sister and I had these little T shirts that said, vote for Jimmy Carter, that I'll post a picture on on social media, because my sister still has hers. So I remember Jimmy Carter. I remember the peanut farmer. I remember Amy Carter. Oh, yeah, I

Kristin Nilsen 1:16:11

love exactly my age. So that was huge. I thought we were going to be friends. Yes, I wanted to be friends with Amy Carter. It's probably the first election that a lot of us remember, okay, and in my third grade class, I voted for Jimmy Carter, and I was under the impression that I actually voted for Jim for you, yeah, that that my vote counted. I was like, Oh, here's my ballot box, voting for Jimmy Carter, and we had a and the fact that he was a peanut farmer, I think just really like like, translated to children, he seemed like a really nice like, yeah, he was a nice guy, whereas Gerald Ford was super boring and looked like a grandpa, and that didn't translate to us at all.

Michelle Newman 1:16:50

Also Jimmy Carter, I mean, he was a dad for us at that age. He had a really lovely little family and a wonderful they were wonderful parents, and their daughter was very happy. And it was just, it was sort of idyllic that that could happen, you could become, you could have just a young daughter and be a dad and be president.

Kristin Nilsen 1:17:07

And that was very appealing.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:17:08

I remember all of that, but I also remember Jimmy's brother, Billy. And Billy was kind of the black sheep, it seemed. Billy beer, Yes, Billy beer, and he was maybe gonna bring him down, but he still loved his brother Billy, which I think that was really sweet. Yeah, he didn't

Kristin Nilsen 1:17:26

try to distance himself. Hey, Billy. He was like, wing. Okay, so in at the end of the 1976 episode of for the record the 70s, Amy gives us the top 10 songs on July 4, 1976 our country's bicentennial. And that top 10 actually explains a lot for me and tells you a lot about where we were at the time. So I'll give you just a few, and you'll see what I mean. In the seven spot number seven, get up and Boogie by silver convention.

Kristin Nilsen 1:18:01

So disco was no longer confined to the soul or R and B charts. It's starting to come into the top 10. Number five was shop around by Captain

Unknown Speaker 1:18:12

and Sunil,

Kristin Nilsen 1:18:17

which is a throwback. That's a 1961 song from Smokey Robinson and the miracles. So we've got our 1950s love going on again. Number two afternoon delight. Silly, silly. And the number one song in all the land on July 4, 1976 was silly. Love Songs by Paul McCartney and wait

Kristin Nilsen 1:18:51

Ta da, it's all silly. You

Michelle Newman 1:18:53

know what's interesting think about So Sean Cassidy's first album is all covers of basically a 50 songs. Leif Garrett is singing surfing USA, and he's singing a lot of her. So this all the music even, is just so indicative of the 1950s that we

Kristin Nilsen 1:19:08

were so in love with it. We were so in love with it. And so Paul McCartney song is very meta, because it is a silly love song, and it is a clap back to John Lennon, who was dissing him for not talking about serious things in his music, and you're just doing silly love songs, man. And so Paul McCartney was like, Damn right, I am. And the truth is, Paul McCartney was reading the room. He was reading the crowd correctly. Number one, he's on the charts. John Lennon isn't. But it was like, we didn't want serious things in 1976 we needed to relax and just ignore all the shit that came before. So my theory about 1976 is that it was all about what we wanted America to be, what we wished that it would be, with no more death and destruction and unrest and scandal. We just. Wanted the baseball and apple pie part. We wanted small town celebrations. We wanted silly love songs. We wanted to forget about Watergate and Vietnam and just go to Mayberry. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 1:20:11

we wanted Donnie and Marie on ice skates and with the balloon drop at the end of every show.

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:16

Yes, we did. So thanks for going back to 1976 with us today, if you're sick of the you're sick of the news, I suggest you make yourself a 1976 playlist and watch some happy days. Good

Michelle Newman 1:20:28

idea. And also make sure you are following where you're listening and sharing the podcast and the love on social media we are at pop culture Preservation Society.

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:38

In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of those regal Beagle regulars, Jack tripper, Janet wood and Chrissy snow, two good times,

Michelle Newman 1:20:46

two Happy Days, Two Little

Carolyn Cochrane 1:20:48

House on the Prairie. Cheers,

Michelle Newman 1:20:51

cheers.

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:52

Information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to me, the crushologist and Carolyn and hello Newman and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, I guess there's always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded at modern Well, a woman centered co working space in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards Nan, keep on trucking and may the Force be with you. We get

Unknown Speaker 1:21:20

a happy feeling when we're singing a song. We.