Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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1971: That Was the Year That Was by PITT DICKEY My favorite section of the daily paper is "This Date in History." You get to take a ride with Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman in the Way Back Machine to revisit classic moments of the past. I was taken back to a kinder, gentler time on the history page when it duly noted that on Oct. 1, 1971, Walt Disney World opened. Just four short decades ago. "A decade here, a decade there, and pretty soon it adds up to some real time," as the late great Senator Everette Dirksen might have said. I well remember the excitement of the opening of a Disney Pleasure Palace on the East Coast fi nally bringing the Mouse to an accessible drive from North Carolina. As they were building the Mousedom they had a look-out point where you could go and gaze at the Oasis of Fun that was rising from the Florida swamp lands. It was a beautiful thing. Walt Disney has always fascinated me. Walt had me from the early days of the Mickey Mouse Club featuring Annette Funicello's amazing talents barely contained by her sweater; Roy drawing sketches; and Cubby and Karen being cute. I had my own Davy Crockett coonskin hat just like every other kid in the 1950s. I bought into the Mouse, hook, line and sinker. When Jimmy Dodd started saying the magic incantation "Meeska, Mooska, Mouskateer, Mouse cartoon time now is here," I would start salivating like Pavlov's dog, Pluto. Not only did Jimmy tell us the cartoon was about to start, also he read the title to us non-readers. This meant I didn't have to go scrambling through the house looking for my mother to urge her to rush in and read the title of the cartoon to me. I was compulsive about knowing the title of cartoons and didn't enjoy them: nearly as well without knowing the title. But I digress. Let us return to 1971 and the opening of Disney World. What a colorful place 1971 was. Let us wallow in 1971 for a while to avoid the clatter and bad vibes of 2011. The Dow Jones average closed at 890 in December 1971. Gas cost 40 cents a gallon. For eight bucks you could fi ll up most cars. A postage stamp was 8 cents. Remember postage stamps? They won't be around much longer when the postal service goes down like Davy Crockett at the Alamo. The fi rst three years of 1970s were actually the last three years of the 1960s packed with colorful stuff. The Vietnam war was in full swing. Nixon was President and stopped gold from backing the U.S. dollar. That worked out not quite as well as the Trickster thought it would. The vote was fi nally granted to 18-year-olds on the theory, old enough to be drafted, old enough to vote. The Attica Prison riots captured headlines and then vanished into the mists of time. Charlie Manson and three of his female acolytes got the death penalty in California which were life in prison. Charlie still don't surf although apparently he now can have cell phones smuggled into him in prison. Not to sugar coat 1971, some things were troubling. For example the most popular movie that year was a horrible piece of treacle called Love Story which featured the catch phrase, "Love means never having to say you are sorry." No one ever really fi gured out what that phrase meant, but like fl ies on a pot roast, it was everywhere. Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, woke up dead in a bathtub in Paris. Tony Orlando and Dawn hit the top of the charts with the highly danceable "Knock Three Times." Those of you of a certain age will know what "Twice on the pipes, if the answer is no" means. Idi Amin took over in Uganda and re-introduced cannibalism as a political tool to control and digest the opposition. Satchel Paige was the fi rst player from the Negro Leagues to be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Paige was famous for his baseball talents and even more so for his philosophy. He left us with such great quotes as "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" "Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got be common." "Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines." "Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching." And my personal favorite dietary advice: "Don't eat fried food. It angries up the blood." PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com TERM II RUNS FROM OCTOBER 24 THROUGH DECEMBER 17 Open 7 Days a Week THE 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. MU AT NIGHT A European Bistro in Downtown Fayetteville Offering Fine Cuisine and Patio Dining Next to the Market House! Methodist University's evening program offers you the opportunity to earn your degree by taking classes at night and on the weekends. Earn an Associate of Arts with a concentration in leadership and management, or pursue a bachelor's degree. Call today to start your Methodist University Journey! To learn more about admission requirements and to see the degrees and courses available, go to methodist.edu/academics/evening.shtml. Available for Hail and Farewells, Corporate and Private Functions. 102 Person St. • Fayetteville 910-222-8237 6 UCW OCTOBER 12-18, 2011 Engage. Enrich. Empower. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM With Us! Holiday Party Book Your