A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© John Atkinson Wrong Hands Recently, Harry Turtledove - the author of such alternative history novels as Guns of the South and Ruled Britannia - posted his #70sChristmasList on Twitter: #70sChristmasList Harvest gold refrigerator Avocado stove Betamax Quadraphonic sound system English Leather, or maybe Brut Cargo pants for the guys Hot pants for the women Platform shoes A leisure suit A case of Miller Lite Or of US-brewed (aka ruined) Löwenbräu Inspired by Mr. Turtledove's whimsical wish list for the Christmas/Hannukah holiday season, I've decided to share my own wishlists as they would have appeared over the past 40 or so years . Note: The lists reflect my particular tastes and circumstances at the time, and include items that I ended up receiving for Christmas and/or birthdays, was surprised with on occasion or ended up purchasing myself. (In the case of the 1970s, which reflect the Christmas season of 1978, I earned an allowance of $5-per-week by doing chor...

Jaws was a very big deal back when I was 12! (C) 1975 Universal Pictures It's been a very long time since I've read Stephen King's The Stand (in either the original or the Uncut, Unabridged editions), but among the many details and characters in that huge doorstop of a novel, King had one of his main dramatis personae (Frannie Goldsmith) keep a journal in which she sometimes wrote about the pre-Apocalyptic world so that her unborn child would have some idea of what life in the pre-plague years had been like. Because I have not cracked The Stand open since at least the year 2000, I am not sure if Fran merely jotted down lists of people, places, events, foods and other slice-of-life items which were part of her life or if she wrote more detailed descriptions, but I figured I would try to do something similar here, not only to give readers a glimpse into pre-21st Century America but also to help me jog my own memory about my younger days. From the 1970s, starting aro...