I can so relate to this character "the 70s" easily as I shared much of the same pop culture at the same time. Loved the twist to this "assignment" from our workshop. Make it work for YOU as a writer, always. And thanks for the ear worm: Brand New Key.
What an interesting concept, a character sketch of a decade. I think I will give it a go for the 80’s and see if it will be a help in my framework for my life storytelling. Thanks for sharing yours!
Great characterization! Some aspects you've touched upon which might be especially significant in terms of your family context, when considering where our parents were situated generationally in the '70s:
* Our parents were typically first- or second-generation Americans whose ancestors arrived from Eastern and Southern Europe in intense poverty in the early 20th century. No one provided clear guidelines on how to shift from an old-world mentality to a new-world one, which typically overlapped with a shift from working-class to middle-class sensibilities (whatever that means), but many of our parents were called upon by their historical position to replace fully one set of cultural stake posts with another
* Our parents were born and raised in cities before "movin' on up" to the suburbs. The life of being a city person is in many ways inescapably public, and drastically different from suburban life where privacy and the interiority of home life were symbolized by our moat-like pruned front lawns, whose weedlessness was a mark of one's success and civic duty as a suburbanite. That said, city life can also offer a type of privacy based on the anonymity and depersonalization of living amongst millions of other people, which is lost in suburban life (not to mention small-town life) where everyone knows not only who you are, what you do, and with whom you've done it, but also feels free to share that information with their neighbors across the street (Gladys Kravits of "Bewitched" is always watching, and doesn't need binoculars like the voyeur in "Rear Window").
* Our parents were raised in extended familial environments, where grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins played integral roles in one's life. This familial social network went hand-in-hand with city life, where relatives tended to live within a few blocks of one another. (I love how the film "Avalon" demonstrates this and the shift to suburban nuclearization of the family symbolized by TV and TV dinners.) These family members were invasive at times but also important support systems. Kids were often raised as much by their grandparents as by their parents. All of this changed significantly with the flight to the suburbs.
* Our parents were raised in environments where religious obligation was much more pervasive than it was in ours. They had to live up not only to their families' expectation but to their sense of religious duty, which could be claustrophobic in its obligations. Many of our suburban parents continued to see their church or synagogue as the center of their social life and experienced significant peer pressure to uphold their community's values, even if they lost the sense of truly religious faith.
* Most of our mothers were a bit too old and set in their ways to exercise the full set of opportunities advanced by second-wave feminism. In suburbia it was not acceptable to go bra-less into Kilroy's grocery store, let alone to insist that their husbands do the shopping at least 50% of the time. Of course they were fully aware of the great freedoms being imagined if not lived out by feminist writers in New York and other large cities, but these freedoms would have to be toned down and suburbanized somehow in the Stepford-Wives environment they were trapped within.
I can so relate to this character "the 70s" easily as I shared much of the same pop culture at the same time. Loved the twist to this "assignment" from our workshop. Make it work for YOU as a writer, always. And thanks for the ear worm: Brand New Key.
What an interesting concept, a character sketch of a decade. I think I will give it a go for the 80’s and see if it will be a help in my framework for my life storytelling. Thanks for sharing yours!
Thank you, Kyla. If anything, it may spark some long-buried memories…
Great characterization! Some aspects you've touched upon which might be especially significant in terms of your family context, when considering where our parents were situated generationally in the '70s:
* Our parents were typically first- or second-generation Americans whose ancestors arrived from Eastern and Southern Europe in intense poverty in the early 20th century. No one provided clear guidelines on how to shift from an old-world mentality to a new-world one, which typically overlapped with a shift from working-class to middle-class sensibilities (whatever that means), but many of our parents were called upon by their historical position to replace fully one set of cultural stake posts with another
* Our parents were born and raised in cities before "movin' on up" to the suburbs. The life of being a city person is in many ways inescapably public, and drastically different from suburban life where privacy and the interiority of home life were symbolized by our moat-like pruned front lawns, whose weedlessness was a mark of one's success and civic duty as a suburbanite. That said, city life can also offer a type of privacy based on the anonymity and depersonalization of living amongst millions of other people, which is lost in suburban life (not to mention small-town life) where everyone knows not only who you are, what you do, and with whom you've done it, but also feels free to share that information with their neighbors across the street (Gladys Kravits of "Bewitched" is always watching, and doesn't need binoculars like the voyeur in "Rear Window").
* Our parents were raised in extended familial environments, where grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins played integral roles in one's life. This familial social network went hand-in-hand with city life, where relatives tended to live within a few blocks of one another. (I love how the film "Avalon" demonstrates this and the shift to suburban nuclearization of the family symbolized by TV and TV dinners.) These family members were invasive at times but also important support systems. Kids were often raised as much by their grandparents as by their parents. All of this changed significantly with the flight to the suburbs.
* Our parents were raised in environments where religious obligation was much more pervasive than it was in ours. They had to live up not only to their families' expectation but to their sense of religious duty, which could be claustrophobic in its obligations. Many of our suburban parents continued to see their church or synagogue as the center of their social life and experienced significant peer pressure to uphold their community's values, even if they lost the sense of truly religious faith.
* Most of our mothers were a bit too old and set in their ways to exercise the full set of opportunities advanced by second-wave feminism. In suburbia it was not acceptable to go bra-less into Kilroy's grocery store, let alone to insist that their husbands do the shopping at least 50% of the time. Of course they were fully aware of the great freedoms being imagined if not lived out by feminist writers in New York and other large cities, but these freedoms would have to be toned down and suburbanized somehow in the Stepford-Wives environment they were trapped within.
All very good points, David! Thanks!