Bicentennial Events

When I first set up the Bicentennial Graduates of High School Group on Facebook, I didn't really have a plan. I didn't think our graduating class was better than any other year. In fact, I don't know of anyone in my class that actually got famous or got a street named after them.
What impressed me the most was the fact that the United States was celebrating her 200th birthday. The year had an extra amount of patriotism about it. The red white and blue colors were everywhere. The moral of the country seamed to get an extra boost.

I was inspired to start the group when meeting a new friend from Texas on Face Book who also graduated in 1976. For several years I had been an Oklahoma City area Realtor. I had been blogging and doing everything I knew to do, to keep our business going. Around November 2008, our nation's economy suddenly took a down swing due to several reasons that we may never fully understand. The point is that the media and public opinion was totally upside down to what it was in 1976. As I started researching the events of 1976, I became more and more fascinated with what I found, as apposed to what I remember.
I learned that it was the year that the Concorde made it's first supersonic commercial flights. The Viking 1 and 2 landed on Mars and sent back photographs. It was the first time the Brittish pound fell below 2 U.S. dollars. n 1976, The president of the United States was Gerald Ford. He became president when Richard Nixon gave his resignation. He was president from August 9th 1974 until January 20th 1977. The Bad News Bears movie came out and Apple Computer Inc. was formed in 1976. The first commercial laser printer was released and so was the hit song Hotel California by the Eagles.
A lot of things happened during the year of our graduating class. I got involved with the oilfield, while some of my other classmates started college. The mandatory registration for the draft was ended the year before as the Vietnam war had ended. The American made muscle cars were starting to fade away to the faster and more energy efficient imports.
Fleetwood Mac recorded their album Rumours and the Smothers Brothers did their last show in Vegas. Patty Hurst was found guilty of armed robbery. Red dye #4 was ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
I remember some of the above events as they happened. I actually remember 1977 better. That was the year that Elvis died and Lynyrd Skynyrd had the fatal plane crash, but this group is about 1976.
It was an important year in history. Our class was setting sail into the first wave of the 300th anniversary of the United States. What could we have done different to change the course if events. Does looking back help us to know which way to turn?

Baby Boomers

While delivering a message about giants that are in our life, and how we can overcome them, our preacher started talking about himself being a baby boomer and how so much has changed. Being in the baby boomer bracket myself, I did some research and this is what I found.

In 2006 baby boomers started turning 60 years old at the rate of 330 per hour. The first baby boomers will start drawing social security benefits in January 2008. A lot of my information was found at http://seniorjournal.com/BabyBoomers.htm.

I usually don't blog, but after some interesting things that have happened the last few weeks in my own life, all of this has raised my interest in our young people and the way they self destruct the opportunities before them. It's no secret that smoking can be harmful to your health, and God knows that once you start smoking it's hard to quit. Why, after 60 years of an educated generation are people still picking them up and starting? Our parents didn't have all the material available to understand the harm that smoking does, but they did know that they weren't good for us. Why are our youth so rebellious and non conforming?

This article is not to pick on smokers. I struggle with my chosen habits that my parents and other people warned me about. What puzzles me the most is, that with the education of our particular generation, why doesn't the next generation get any wiser? This is not a new observation and traces to many stories in the bible. I believe that we would all like our children to have a better life, and not have to deal with the mistakes as we did those we made.

If you're a young person reading this, I challenge you to make a difference. Point out to your friends and family, that good choices can make a difference. With your help and good intent, you can make a difference for your children. Hopefully you can start a trend that will be passed on to many generations. If not, they will probably have to learn the hard way as well.

I see many great things coming from our young people. They have gotten past many things that the baby boomers didn't. I hope there will be a future generation soon to come, that will just be called smart. Common sense is all over the place. A person shouldn't have to pay a specialist $110.00 per hour to understand how others succeed.