There were, of course, several "70s" even in the same region. Not much overlap between acoustic "country-rock" and the Disco era.

As a child and tween, I got the sense that there was no "I" in the "Me Decade;" that it was for adults and perhaps teens, but certainly not for me.

And while there were cool goofy weird films ( Wizards, anyone? ) there was also a slew of Sunn Classic and Pacific International films about a kid and his bear. We actually walked out on one, and we never walked out on a film.

Saturday morning started getting preachy, and one season they even decided that animation rots your brain and did nearly everything live-action. Sure, suddenly my Dad was interested in the likes of Electrawoman and Dynagirl ⚠️ ↗ and Isis ⚠️ ↗, but I just wanted Animation back.

Some of the music was good and still holds up. But the idea of cynically following trends started to cash-in big-time. Heck, if Leif Garret and skateboarding are popular..... there's your film.

Some of the austerity measures killed off old art forms. The "adventure" comic strip had been dying since the mid-60s, but the newsprint crisis of the early 70s permanently reduced the size of strips and killed their artistry.

But while the seeds of the cultural backlash were planted, the indoctrination hadn't yet begun. I remember a few ( very few ) molester scare-stories. But by-and-large openness and informed liberation were still the dominant values. Sex-ed wasn't about abstinence, but about trying to make future sexual activity safe and responsible.

Meese was lurking in the future. So he hadn't yet attacked sexual permissivness. Nor had the drug-war escalated to the attack on stores selling water-pipes and rolling papers. Not that I was interested, but those stores also supported the hippie comix I was interested in. When the "head shops" died out, so did a lot of other things.

But I do believe that the economic malaise set up the slacker-generation by making it clear that many of them would never have the opportunities that their parents did.

Dante