Summer 50 years ago... 1973 what were you doing ?

I was 13 years old. Who knows back then. I am guessing that I was traveling. My parents never stayed home when we were out of school. We traveled the world during the summer. I retained a lot and took a zillion photos. I was into taking pictures back then. I would mail my film and have the pictures sent home.
 

In that summer I kept busy spending a lot of time in our pool, cleaning our pool (we had a lot more evening summer storms back then and there was no such things as robotic vacuums for the pool), playing baseball in Little League, mowing neighbors yards for money, playing a very nerdy table top baseball game called Strato-Matic Baseball with a couple of friends and playing basketball with friends at night. The summer heat did not bother me at all when I was younger ! Sadly, wearing sunscreen was not a consideration back then though.
I also probably spent a week in SD that summer. It was a yearly family vacation destination during the summer.
 
JeeperDon said:
Where in Detroit? I was born and raised there, near 7 Mile and Gratiot, left in 1970 after college to work for IBM in NY.
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About as bad a place as you could get....the Cass Corridor. Believe me, it wasn't my idea. I was a suburban girl, had never lived in a city, never less a city like Detroit.

We had just returned to the U.S. and the baby and I were staying with my parents while my husband went ahead to Detroit to house-sit for his doctoral advisor and look for an apartment for us. He called and was excited about a place he was sure I was going to love. Uh, no.

The good part was that it was not far from Wayne State University and that was the *only* good thing about it. The bad part was that it was the Red Light district and that wasn't the "worst" bad part. The building was full of prostitutes and someone tried to break in our apartment the first night we were there. The windows were all covered with bars, thank goodness.

We lived there for a year and I hated it every minute. I had never seen cockroaches before that. I had never been offered money to perform se*ual acts while I was out pushing my toddler daughter in a stroller. I had never seen so many police in my life.

That was a large portion of 1973 for me.
 
jujube said:
About as bad a place as you could get....the Cass Corridor. Believe me, it wasn't my idea. I was a suburban girl, had never lived in a city, never less a city like Detroit.

We had just returned to the U.S. and the baby and I were staying with my parents while my husband went ahead to Detroit to house-sit for his doctoral advisor and look for an apartment for us. He called and was excited about a place he was sure I was going to love. Uh, no.

The good part was that it was not far from Wayne State University and that was the *only* good thing about it. The bad part was that it was the Red Light district and that wasn't the "worst" bad part. The building was full of prostitutes and someone tried to break in our apartment the first night we were there. The windows were all covered with bars, thank goodness.

We lived there for a year and I hated it every minute. I had never seen cockroaches before that. I had never been offered money to perform se*ual acts while I was out pushing my toddler daughter in a stroller. I had never seen so many police in my life.

That was a large portion of 1973 for me.
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Good grief, @jujube ! Itā€™s a wonder you didnā€™t have PTSD! I would have needed therapy in that situation. Oy!
 
In May of '73 i was 26, living in Honolulu in a small communal household (1 single male, another single female and a couple) 4 bedroom house in residential neighborhood just a few blocks from the beach, the Zoo and the 'Queen's Rose Garden'. i was working for a small clothing manufacturer doing office work in same building as their mfg facilitiies. The building was located on mauka (mountain or inland) side of Waikiki--along the Ala Wai (a canal separating Waikiki from Honolulu proper. i often walked home from work. Waikiki was more laid back and quiet in those days.

If friends and i often stopped at a nearby florist because they'd sell relatively fresh blossoms cheap just before closing. If we were going dancing that weekend i'd wrap bottom of stems (usually of a single peony, but sometimes handful of plumerias or couple of roses) in damp cotton and foil and attach to cleavage of my dress just before leaving home that night. 1) i liked the blossoms 2) it would puzzle people how the flower could be so fresh on crowded hot dance floor. For the same reason--i would sometimes use eyelash adhesive (which i didn't use otherwise) to attach a small light refracting disc right where my collarbones met at bottom of neck and smaller ones on ear lobes.

Also would put brass bells in hems of skirts that would jingle-jangle when i walked. Couldn't hear them in the clubs, but on lines, and on sidewalks going for after club coffee or walking home with my bestie in the house. There was a bus but it was a short walk and the air was cool. More than once you could see others on the sidewalk pondering where the sound was coming from. The funniest time was the two drunk sailors who were walking ahead of us and started arguing because one either couldn't hear the bells or assumed they were both hallucinating. Actually stopped in middle of sidewalk to yell at each other. We said 'excuse us' and walked around them, i grasped skirt and made the bells jingle more when we were a few feet past them.

i experienced an earthquake for the first time while working for clothing people. Also was transitioning to computerized bookkeeping. i figured and typed up payroll data which was fed in to a machine that keypunched a tape that when run thru a huge computer spit out the stack of checks. But by June i was having a lot of 'rhinitis'. Doctor thought fibers from the material got into the air ducts and was irritating my nostrils (and throat over time. House mates and i went to the Crater festival at the end of month as i did every year i was in Hawaii. By July i was working at a bicycle rental stand at the T-intersection corner of Kalakaua Ave, the main drag of Waikiki. The beach was across street to the west and the Zoo to across the other street.

One of best jobs ever. 8 hrs a day on best corner in Waikiki. 1/2 lunch one of bosses relieved me for till the business grew and their were more employees. Couple of days a week i would wear swimsuit under jeans and shirt and go swimming after work. About once a week i'd go over to the zoo. i was quite taken with the Marmosets. Often tourists would be about to give up because the tiny monkeys would be hiding in foliage in their habitat like enclosures. i'd immitate one of their sounds and the Marmosets would come out--usually if their were children present because the kids delighted in the Marmosets as much as me. My other favorite thing was watching people discover that the cage with thick bars and 'World's Most Dangerous Animal' sign merely held a fully mirrored back wall. Cause that's us!

Turned 27 in August, friends took me to a Sly and Family Stone concert and out dancing. Was probably sometime in August that something that seemed like a movie bit happened. There was an armored car that came down the side street and made a right on to Kalakaua almost every day. The driver and guy on shot gun would smile and wave, i'd wave back. Then one very afternoon it pulled into a parking spot in front of the bike stand. The back door flew open and i thought 'OMG they've been robbed!' But then this third guy that i couldn't usually see jumped out of the vehicle and handed me an ice cream and ran back, closed doors and they took off as i shouted "Mahalo nui loa" (Thank you very much).

Maybe not as exciting as the summer months i spent in civil rights movement down south 7 yrs earlier, but a whole lot more fun.
 
Another thing I did that year was went on a trip by grey coach to Alberta for a student exchange program. We spent time with exchange students in Calgary, where I got my first Cowboy hat and then to B.C. and Vancouver. We stayed in some of the nicest hotels. It was a trip of a lifetime and very memorable. We returned home on a 747 airplane. This trip was made in June 1973. My exchange student visit with us the end of May. It was something I was very grateful for and couldnā€™t believe my parents agreed to it but they did. Grade 7 and 8 were probably the best years of my life.
 
Was working as a junior electronic tech at a Palo Alto start-up that made digital keypunch machines. Mid summer did a couple of backpacking trips into Yosemite wilderness. Lots of rock concerts including these famous outdoor ones.

Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage played Kezar Stadium May 26, 1973:

  1. Promised Land
  2. Deal
  3. Jack Straw
  4. Tennessee Jed
  5. The Race Is On
  6. Sugaree
  7. Mexicali Blues
  8. Row Jimmy
  9. Looks Like Rain
  10. They Love Each Other
  11. Playing in the Band
  12. Here Comes Sunshine
  13. El Paso
  14. Loser
  15. Beat It on Down the Line
  16. You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)
  17. Box of Rain
  18. China Cat Sunflower
  19. I Know You Rider
  20. Big River
  21. Bertha
  22. Around and Around
  23. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
  24. Me and My Uncle
  25. He's Gone
  26. Truckin'
  27. The Other One
  28. Eyes of the World
  29. China Doll
  30. Sugar Magnolia
Then the next week June 2, 1973, Led Zeppelin played Kezar Stadium. Recall the first act was the rowdy Tubes and then Led Zeppelin never showed up for an eternity. A San Francisco gal that was a connected, star dealer to well known musicians brought this rock dancer plying the stadium isles back to her Haight place.
  1. Rock and Roll
  2. Celebration Day
  3. Black Dog
  4. Over the Hills and Far Away
  5. Misty Mountain Hop
  6. Since I've Been Loving You
  7. No Quarter
  8. The Song Remains the Same
  9. The Rain Song
  10. Dazed and Confused
  11. Stairway to Heaven
  12. Moby Dick
  13. Heartbreaker
  14. Whole Lotta Love
  15. Communication Breakdown
  16. The Ocean
 
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