*I have added on more to this post so that it no longer is the original. It is also now too long so I am publishing it anew in two parts. This is the first part. I have not subtracted anything.
How has society changed in your lifetime? Well, I don’t know we do everything by computer now.
Yes, that is one. And I resisted that until the last dog died. Now, as I type this on my iPhone, I’ve sorta gotten used to it. But it’s hard to remember all of the ways that things have changed, isn’t it? Or is it just me. My memory has always been bad. Hell, I used to forget I was married every time I went out of town! Be that as it may, I say, we are treating here not of personal failings, be they of memory or eyesight or the 7th Commandment, we're talking here about how society has changed. I am 64 years old and as I’ve told my now grown children of how things have changed in my lifetime I started to make a list. It’s not a very long list because I can’t remember all the things without specific prompting. Here are some.
Smoking. I dare say, in the lives of all but the youngest readers cigarette smoking has gone from vast societal acceptance, even glamorous ("You just put your lips together and blow." Oh!) to verboten and smokers have gone to being viewed as disgusting, ostracized drug addicts.
My mother used to blow cigarette smoke into my ears when I had an earache (I was a sickly child). From which towering disciple of Aesculapius in Barnesboro mum got this cutting edge remedy I know not BUT, I say, BUT, IT SEEMED TO HELP! :o
Only older readers, my age or more, remember the the saturation television advertising of the tobacco companies. The Marlboro Man. Every Sunday night Bonanza came on. Little Joe, Hoss, Mr Cartwright. Popular show, Bonanza. Brought to you my Marlboro cigarettes. The tobacco commercials were tailored to the show’s audience. The Marlboro Man was a handsome, serious cowboy just like the Cartwrights.
The tobacco companies TV ads were state of the art and as ubiquitous (maybe more so) than car company ads are today. The Marlboro ads were great.
DUN, DUN-DA-DUN
DUN DADUNDUNDUN
wreelroo, wreelroo, wreelROO! (music)
wreelroo wreelroo wreelroo
WiTAH! (snap of whip)
Made you want to go out and buy a pack of Marlboro’s, it did, so you too could be one of the Cartwrights.
Virginia Slims. A light butt for the gurlz. Light, lovely little jingle.
La da da da
Da da da da
Da da da
Da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da! (Is my print singing the highlight of the post so far be honest)
Just in time for the Women’s Lib movement.
You’ve come a long way baby (baby?)
To get where you got to today! (which was running across a city street in miniskirt and high heels)
You’ve got your own cigarette now baby
You’ve come a long, long way.
Hell, Virginia Slims still sponsors women’s tennis tournaments.
The cigarette advertising was the absolute best of its time, genius.
The 1964 Surgeon General's report was the beginning of the tide turn. It hit the country as a bombshell and hit my dad as a bombshell as well. He immediately went cold turkey, spending two weeks at home in bed.
But it didn't work that transformation on everyone, not by a long shot. The television advertising was
just too effective. Government warning labels on the packs? Get out of town, man, that weren’t sheet. It took the government banning the cigarette ads on TV, which they could never counteract, that finally worked the paradigm shift.
But still. Into the 1990's I, Benjamin Harris, smoked cigarettes and one could smoke cigarettes anywhere in the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s. I smoked in my office. I smoked in my office when smoking in my office was against office policy. (En passant, I have always been a crabby hermit. When I had to work, I had to work, and I wanted no distractions. One day, long after no smoking became policy I was barricaded in my office preparing for a trial. I had my "Do Not Disturb" sign on my locked door, my suit jacket stuffed at the bottom (I was always a disheveled, crabby hermit.) to prevent the tell-tale fumes from escaping and alerting the smoking police, when came a knock at the door. "WHO IS IT?! (exasperated shout by me). "It's the Attorney General of the United States of America" (from the other side of the door). "Ohshitohshitohshit." Glancing around to find the back exit that never existed in my 12x12 office I snuffed my butt out, put the ashtray in my drawer and walked the six feet through the blue haze to the door and opened it just as naturally and happily as I could under unfavorable conditions. Which was not natural enough for as I smiled and said "Nice to meet you" to the woman who had been my boss for 12 years and who I met on a daily basis cigarette smoke issued from my happy mouth and curled from my nostrils after the fashion of dragons. The two Secret Service agents who were behind Miss Reno had to brace themselves against the wall in silent laughter. True story.) My judge in the '80's even let me smoke in the courtroom! when the jury was not present.
What finally got me to “kick the habit” was the price of cigarettes. When they hit $2 I cashed out. (I have been addicted to nicotine gum since. Great success.)
Underage sex. Anybody remember Gary Puckett and the Union Gap? Their pop songs were very popular in the late '60's, early '70's. Very singable songs, great melodies, Gary had a good voice and clearly enunciated the lyrics. Like these:
Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run girl
You're much too young girl
With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe you're old enough
To give me love
And now it hurts to know the truth
...
Beneath your perfume and your make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know that it's wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes
Yeah, that's the reaction now. The gendarme would severely hurt Gary now if that truth were known but back then...Young Girl reached # 2 on the Billboard charts in 1968. I was thirteen. Used to listen to it all the time on the radio. Driving back from Pittsburgh with our parents my younger brother and I would sing along in the car. "Young girl, get out of my mind. My love for you is way out of line. Better run girl...Whoa oh oh..." Yessiree Bob, used to sing that right in the car with the 'rents. What were they thinking? Why didn't they switch stations? JEE-zus. (Apropos of this. Our parents banned my younger brother and I from watching Star Trek...(?) Because the women all wore mini-dresses (with pantyhose) and high heels. Don't want to give the boys any ideas. What? Yeah, you know, don't want to distract them from stalking young girls like normal boys by getting boners over fully grown, fully-clothed women. First of all, I didn't know what the fuck a boner was till I was like 16. Never had one! (have since become very fond of them.) I had no interest in sex at 13 or 14. My brother and I were puzzled by our parents directive even then. We protested. My brother was pissed. He frigging loved Star Trek. "Why now?" was one of our questions. The ban came well after the show's debut. Into the second or third season. It wasn't as if the show morphed from showing space travelling women in petticoats to miniskirts, the wardrobes were the same from the debut show! Wtf? All we got was "Dresses too short, boy!" (Double parenthetical: I have come to have speculative doubt about our parents explanation. Only recently. Last year maybe. Basis: Ju know the first televised kiss between a man and a woman of different races occurred on Star Trek? It did! Captain Kirk and Lt. Yohurra (sp?). Remember her? Pretty medium skin toned black woman? I swear on my parents' graves I never saw that kiss; my brother never said anything about it if he saw it, I didn't know it occurred until about a year ago. But...An interracial kiss, even a white man kissing a black woman (MUCH better than the reverse, hoooo doggie!), I could see that--more than frigging mini-dresses!--setting off mum and dad. "Race: The Final Frawnteer."))
Anybody heard Young Girl on the radio recently? I don't think you can. I don't think stations can play Young Girl anymore.
When I interviewed with the prosecutor's office in 1981 there was a standard question that they asked that was intended to go to the interviewee's judgment, to how he or she would exercise prosecutorial discretion, a key, key-key-key element in a well-ordered prosecutor's office. The question was,
Let's say an elderly grandmother walks in to file a complaint and you're assigned the case. You meet with her and she tells you that her 15 year-old granddaughter is having sex with her 19 year-old boyfriend. She provides you with a photograph of them in flagrante delicto as evidence. What is your filing decision and why?
I didn't hesitate. I answered "correctly" for 1981. "Ma'am, I am sorry but I'm not filing charges against the boyfriend, Gary Puckett is his name? Yes, ma'am I'm not filing against Gary. It doesn't matter how much evidence you have ma'am, I'm not filing the case. Good day to you."
We asked that hypothetical, I asked that hypothetical question, of prospective employees for years. Then one day, in the '90's, we senior lawyers all got a memo, "You will not ask the underage sex hypo in interviews. Have a nice day."
How has society changed in your lifetime? Well, I don’t know we do everything by computer now.
Yes, that is one. And I resisted that until the last dog died. Now, as I type this on my iPhone, I’ve sorta gotten used to it. But it’s hard to remember all of the ways that things have changed, isn’t it? Or is it just me. My memory has always been bad. Hell, I used to forget I was married every time I went out of town! Be that as it may, I say, we are treating here not of personal failings, be they of memory or eyesight or the 7th Commandment, we're talking here about how society has changed. I am 64 years old and as I’ve told my now grown children of how things have changed in my lifetime I started to make a list. It’s not a very long list because I can’t remember all the things without specific prompting. Here are some.
Smoking. I dare say, in the lives of all but the youngest readers cigarette smoking has gone from vast societal acceptance, even glamorous ("You just put your lips together and blow." Oh!) to verboten and smokers have gone to being viewed as disgusting, ostracized drug addicts.
My mother used to blow cigarette smoke into my ears when I had an earache (I was a sickly child). From which towering disciple of Aesculapius in Barnesboro mum got this cutting edge remedy I know not BUT, I say, BUT, IT SEEMED TO HELP! :o
Only older readers, my age or more, remember the the saturation television advertising of the tobacco companies. The Marlboro Man. Every Sunday night Bonanza came on. Little Joe, Hoss, Mr Cartwright. Popular show, Bonanza. Brought to you my Marlboro cigarettes. The tobacco commercials were tailored to the show’s audience. The Marlboro Man was a handsome, serious cowboy just like the Cartwrights.
The tobacco companies TV ads were state of the art and as ubiquitous (maybe more so) than car company ads are today. The Marlboro ads were great.
DUN, DUN-DA-DUN
DUN DADUNDUNDUN
wreelroo, wreelroo, wreelROO! (music)
wreelroo wreelroo wreelroo
WiTAH! (snap of whip)
Made you want to go out and buy a pack of Marlboro’s, it did, so you too could be one of the Cartwrights.
Virginia Slims. A light butt for the gurlz. Light, lovely little jingle.
La da da da
Da da da da
Da da da
Da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da! (Is my print singing the highlight of the post so far be honest)
Just in time for the Women’s Lib movement.
You’ve come a long way baby (baby?)
To get where you got to today! (which was running across a city street in miniskirt and high heels)
You’ve got your own cigarette now baby
You’ve come a long, long way.
Hell, Virginia Slims still sponsors women’s tennis tournaments.
The cigarette advertising was the absolute best of its time, genius.
The 1964 Surgeon General's report was the beginning of the tide turn. It hit the country as a bombshell and hit my dad as a bombshell as well. He immediately went cold turkey, spending two weeks at home in bed.
But it didn't work that transformation on everyone, not by a long shot. The television advertising was
just too effective. Government warning labels on the packs? Get out of town, man, that weren’t sheet. It took the government banning the cigarette ads on TV, which they could never counteract, that finally worked the paradigm shift.
But still. Into the 1990's I, Benjamin Harris, smoked cigarettes and one could smoke cigarettes anywhere in the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s. I smoked in my office. I smoked in my office when smoking in my office was against office policy. (En passant, I have always been a crabby hermit. When I had to work, I had to work, and I wanted no distractions. One day, long after no smoking became policy I was barricaded in my office preparing for a trial. I had my "Do Not Disturb" sign on my locked door, my suit jacket stuffed at the bottom (I was always a disheveled, crabby hermit.) to prevent the tell-tale fumes from escaping and alerting the smoking police, when came a knock at the door. "WHO IS IT?! (exasperated shout by me). "It's the Attorney General of the United States of America" (from the other side of the door). "Ohshitohshitohshit." Glancing around to find the back exit that never existed in my 12x12 office I snuffed my butt out, put the ashtray in my drawer and walked the six feet through the blue haze to the door and opened it just as naturally and happily as I could under unfavorable conditions. Which was not natural enough for as I smiled and said "Nice to meet you" to the woman who had been my boss for 12 years and who I met on a daily basis cigarette smoke issued from my happy mouth and curled from my nostrils after the fashion of dragons. The two Secret Service agents who were behind Miss Reno had to brace themselves against the wall in silent laughter. True story.) My judge in the '80's even let me smoke in the courtroom! when the jury was not present.
What finally got me to “kick the habit” was the price of cigarettes. When they hit $2 I cashed out. (I have been addicted to nicotine gum since. Great success.)
Underage sex. Anybody remember Gary Puckett and the Union Gap? Their pop songs were very popular in the late '60's, early '70's. Very singable songs, great melodies, Gary had a good voice and clearly enunciated the lyrics. Like these:
Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run girl
You're much too young girl
With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe you're old enough
To give me love
And now it hurts to know the truth
...
Beneath your perfume and your make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know that it's wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes
Yeah, that's the reaction now. The gendarme would severely hurt Gary now if that truth were known but back then...Young Girl reached # 2 on the Billboard charts in 1968. I was thirteen. Used to listen to it all the time on the radio. Driving back from Pittsburgh with our parents my younger brother and I would sing along in the car. "Young girl, get out of my mind. My love for you is way out of line. Better run girl...Whoa oh oh..." Yessiree Bob, used to sing that right in the car with the 'rents. What were they thinking? Why didn't they switch stations? JEE-zus. (Apropos of this. Our parents banned my younger brother and I from watching Star Trek...(?) Because the women all wore mini-dresses (with pantyhose) and high heels. Don't want to give the boys any ideas. What? Yeah, you know, don't want to distract them from stalking young girls like normal boys by getting boners over fully grown, fully-clothed women. First of all, I didn't know what the fuck a boner was till I was like 16. Never had one! (have since become very fond of them.) I had no interest in sex at 13 or 14. My brother and I were puzzled by our parents directive even then. We protested. My brother was pissed. He frigging loved Star Trek. "Why now?" was one of our questions. The ban came well after the show's debut. Into the second or third season. It wasn't as if the show morphed from showing space travelling women in petticoats to miniskirts, the wardrobes were the same from the debut show! Wtf? All we got was "Dresses too short, boy!" (Double parenthetical: I have come to have speculative doubt about our parents explanation. Only recently. Last year maybe. Basis: Ju know the first televised kiss between a man and a woman of different races occurred on Star Trek? It did! Captain Kirk and Lt. Yohurra (sp?). Remember her? Pretty medium skin toned black woman? I swear on my parents' graves I never saw that kiss; my brother never said anything about it if he saw it, I didn't know it occurred until about a year ago. But...An interracial kiss, even a white man kissing a black woman (MUCH better than the reverse, hoooo doggie!), I could see that--more than frigging mini-dresses!--setting off mum and dad. "Race: The Final Frawnteer."))
Anybody heard Young Girl on the radio recently? I don't think you can. I don't think stations can play Young Girl anymore.
When I interviewed with the prosecutor's office in 1981 there was a standard question that they asked that was intended to go to the interviewee's judgment, to how he or she would exercise prosecutorial discretion, a key, key-key-key element in a well-ordered prosecutor's office. The question was,
Let's say an elderly grandmother walks in to file a complaint and you're assigned the case. You meet with her and she tells you that her 15 year-old granddaughter is having sex with her 19 year-old boyfriend. She provides you with a photograph of them in flagrante delicto as evidence. What is your filing decision and why?
I didn't hesitate. I answered "correctly" for 1981. "Ma'am, I am sorry but I'm not filing charges against the boyfriend, Gary Puckett is his name? Yes, ma'am I'm not filing against Gary. It doesn't matter how much evidence you have ma'am, I'm not filing the case. Good day to you."
We asked that hypothetical, I asked that hypothetical question, of prospective employees for years. Then one day, in the '90's, we senior lawyers all got a memo, "You will not ask the underage sex hypo in interviews. Have a nice day."
