Well, I'm kind of hooked on that CNN series "The Seventies." I was also hooked on Vh1's "I Love the 70's" (and all the other decades they produced). I credit my shocking success at Trivia Crack to the watching of shows like this....lots of random stuff that really doesn't matter, but continues to clog up my brain to the point where I can't remember where I put my pj's.
Last night's episode on CNN covered the Watergate scandal. I was barely a teenager when the break-in occurred, and I'm sure it took some time for it to get onto my head-in-the-clouds-dreaming-of-Donny-Osmond radar, but I'll not forget the summer of the Watergate hearings.
I was soon to be a freshman in high school and I'd gotten my first real job. An 8-5/five day a week babysitting job. Today they'd call that being a nanny. Back then it was more like being a prison warden. I got the princely sum of $20 A WEEK. I thought I was rich. I opened a checking account in which to stash my hundreds and settled in for what turned into a very long three months.
I remember three things about that summer.
1. We had Chef Boyardee canned ravioli every damned day. It was the only thing in the house the kids would eat.
2. I tried to teach myself to play "Saturday in the Park" on the piano (my employer was our church choir director and may have also taught piano?)
3. The Watergate hearings were the only thing on TV.
Remember, we only had about five channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and some crazy station from St. Louis that showed Bowery Boys movies on Saturdays and Wrestling at the Chase).
It was torture. I just wanted to watch "Young and the Restless," "As the World Turns," and "Guiding Light." I wasn't really all that mesmerized by the hearings...but I watched and half listened. I became familiar with all the key players' names...Erlichman, Haldeman, Dean, Rayborn, Ellsberg, Mitchell.
Last night, I relived those moments. It was quite, well, scandalous. I had no idea that John Dean was in his early thirties when all this went down. And he's kind of the one who broke rank and started talking, even though it was clear that he was a huge part of the snaking obstruction of justice train.
It must have been quite the spectacle as first Agnew resigns, then Nixon's two top aides resign and then there was this crazy snowball of firings of the special prosecutor Cox and the resignations of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General...when I Googled it make sure I got the stats right, it was referred to as the "Saturday Night Massacre."
Less than a year later, Nixon would resign. I felt myself getting emotional watching his political career tank, because for all his alleged paranoia and proven illicit political maneuverings, I think Nixon was a fairly decent president (don't tell my dad I said that...although he'd probably agree). At least in the area of foreign affairs.
As he climbed aboard the helicopter that would escort him out of Washington, DC for the last time, he flashed that infamous double "V" sign and smiled from ear to ear. He had to have been completely devastated. But there he was, smiling and waving from the window of the helicopter.
My last views on the 70's ( at least for this week)...there was a lot - and I mean A LOT - of bad hair and fashion. And a political scandal that would not be challenged in its fervor until a young girl in a blue dress started talking.
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