C'mon Get Happy

Video courtesy of YouTube

If the title instantly puts a song in your head, we’re in the same age group. I recalled this song after I thought about the current shape of our country as 2024 draws to a close. I needed something to calm me and take me to a better place mentally. Since I can’t travel back in time, I wanted to do something to bring the past back into my life.

I got my hand-made yellow Smiley Face Worry Stone and made it my avatar because it made me feel much better. I plan to keep this stone with me as long as possible. The symbol from the 1970s really meant something. If you grew up in the 1970s, you remember the yellow smiling face telling you to “Have A Nice Day’ everywhere around you. The faces were much more popular than red hats are today, and the message is so much nicer. It’s almost as if the smiley faces made us all feel better instead of red hats making us all batshit crazy while struggling to cope with the world today.

There is energy in everyday things, notably minerals, and crystals—a definite positive sensation from this stone, which I carry daily. I just rubbed my thumb on it, and tensions melted away. It isn't necessary to believe in any supernatural power when there is so much natural power around us that doesn't involve worshiping people who allegedly got nailed to a tree for suggesting that we all be nice to one another. When I think back to the 1970s, I remember my childhood. We are somewhat naive when we think about our childhoods, but that is because we recognize the good things. We didn't know about the bad things that happened because that worried our parents instead. I’m not saying the 1970s were perfect, but they were a great time to be a kid!

We had no Cable TV, computers, cell phones, or other modern conveniences. We had our bicycles and our friends with whom we hung out. Summers were great when we stayed out until after dark without adult supervision, and no one got raped or killed. If someone had a cassette tape player, they were the luckiest kids in the world because we could listen to the latest cassettes or songs we recorded on the radio. Speaking of radio, there were FM stations that we listened to all day long, and if we traveled, we heard totally different personalities and playlists from the stations a few towns away.

I think our parents were so mellow because there was no 24-hour “news” cycle to keep the fear and paranoia turned 11 all the time. I was 10 years old when the Watergate hearings took place. They were on every network because they were news. There was no Fox News to present stupidity as some alleged reasonable point of view. Facts were facts, and there was no argument about it.

Mom and Dad told me how important things were for all aspects of life. They taught me never to be a fool because of something someone said to me that I had to believe. First and foremost on that list was Religion. My parents let me go to church with friends and to Vacation Bible School for two summers until I started questioning things and discovering no logical or rational basis for their beliefs. That was when I realized what it was to learn things for myself. 

There was a war then, too. It was called Vietnam. It ended in 1975 when I was 11 years old. Most people opposed the war, some from the beginning and others as the war dragged on and on. 

I remember school was a place to either love or hate. It wasn't a place where we had active shooter drills; we had fire drills and tornado drills. The thought of anyone bringing a gun into a school never crossed our minds. We all lined up and took our vaccinations at school; I never knew anyone who refused because of their parents’ religious objections. Granted, I was in a small town, but the idea of not protecting a kid through a vaccination was considered child abuse.

As kids, we were allowed to take risks. We jumped our bikes on makeshift ramps, pretending we were Evel Knievel. We went to public swimming pools with deep ends and diving boards, not the glorified kiddy pools of today. We disappeared on summer mornings and didn't return home until dinner. When we got hurt, it was a learning experience. Most of us figured out our mistakes and kept right on going. We freaked out about a new movie called “Star Wars” and went to see it repeatedly.

I remember the Bicentennial Train that rolled through our town. It didn't stop, but it slowed down so everyone along the side of the tracks could see inside where the Liberty Bell was displayed. Kids and adults were in awe of something like that coming to our town, even to roll through. We were all caught up in the Spirit of ’76 that summer. There was a new band who released their first album, both called Boston, and we listened to that over and over. Some kids liked disco when it came around, others hated it.

I remember the 1970s fondly, the decade when I grew up and turned 16 at the start of the 1980s. Nothing beats the wonderful memories of that simpler time when people decided to “C’mon Get Happy.’