Growing up in the 70's was, for the most part, a real drag. Disco sucked, TV shows were as plastic as the polyester outfits folks wore back then, politicians were destroying the country and caused us to loose the war in Vietnam, LBJ's Great Society doomed us to decades of socialism, Nixon was too busy kissing communist China's ass, Ford didn't seam able to get anything accomplished due to a Democrat controlled congress, Carter caused taxes and gasoline to shoot up through the roof, NASA couldn't hold the space program together, and Muslims were begining to make a habit of hijacking jet liners and using terror to achieve their political goals. For me, the only things worth remembering from the 70's were muscle cars, rock and roll, and Evel Knievel.
Every time that guy pulled off a crazy stunt, we all sat glued to the edge of our seats praying for him to make it without killing himself and every time, although he didn't always make it safely to the other side of the jump, he lived to do it again another day (sometimes after months of healing and physical rehabilitation). Even after our 200th birthday party celebration ended, after we morned Elvis' death and after we prayed for the return of our loved ones taken hostage in Iran, we still had the amazing death defying stunts of Evel Knievel. In a big, big way, he represented and symbolized the bold determination of our country to weather the worst of times, get back on our feet, brush ourselves off and continue our fight to be the best that we can be and not be held back by our fears.
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