I Was 16 in 1979, California's Bay Area

Started by Private User on Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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Jenny Forbes, born 1963, San Jose, California, USA. I was a junior at Live Oak High School, Morgan Hill, California in 1978-1979. Disco was still big and we were wearing Dittos slacks and Love's Baby Soft perfume, and curling our feathered hair like Farrah Fawcett. Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize, Iran took our embassy hostage, and Jim Jones staged a hideous event in Guyana. I was invited to a premiere-party to watch the first episode of 'Battlestar Galactica' ([Lyon Hyman Green Lorne Greene], Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict) in the fall of 1978; 'Little House on the Prairie' was in the middle of its run and 'All In The Family' was in its last season, which pretty much sums up the sublime-to-ridiculous nature of the entire year. For me, any of the following names or phrases summons a flood of memories. Everything was so intense when I was 16!

Sublime:
Mother Teresa
Margaret Thatcher
SALT II
Pioneer 11
ESPN
Egyptian - Israeli peace
Smallpox eradicated
USA - PRC
Voyager 1
Polish Solidarity
Skylab
'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', by Douglas Adams
Snowboarding invented
'Trivial Pursuit' game introduced
Usenet
VisiCalc
Sony Walkman
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs. Kramer
Pink Floyd's"The Wall"
Taxi

Something Less Than:
Saddam Hussein
Khomeini
Sandanistas
Lord Mountbatten's assasination
The Who concert
Iran hostage crisis
American Airlines Flight 191 crashed
Patty Hearst
Sverdlovsk/anthrax
John Wayne died
Three Mile Island
Jonestown
Gas lines
Brezhnev
'Flowers in the Attic', by V.C. Andrews
Bungee-jumping reinvented
YMCA sues the Village People
McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal
Sid Vicious dies due to a heroin overdose during the trial for murdering his girlfriend
The first commercial cellular network
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
"I Will Survive", Gloria Gaynor
Mork & Mindy

USA Cost of Living:
Inflation rate - 11.2%
Average cost of new house - $58,100
Average annual income - $17,500
Average monthly rent - $280
Cost of a gallon of gas - 86 cents

(I can't add Lorne Greene, aka Lyon Himon Green, to the project, so perhaps a curator will do it for me. Also, he may be ready for an MP...)

Here's the list of people I need to add to the Project. As you can see, I'm having trouble finding many of them on Geni:

Unknown Profile
Leonard Nimoy
DeForest Kelley
James Montgomery Doohan March 3, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
George Hosato Takei April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Majel Leigh Hudec February 23, 1932 in Columbus, Ohio, USA
Gloria Gaynor born Gloria Fowles, September 7, 1948, Newark, New Jersey
Walter Marvin Koenig September 14, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Nichelle Nichols born Grace Nichols December 28, 1932 in Robbins, Illinois, USA
Persis Khambatta born October 2, 1948 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India died 18 August 1998, Bombay, Maharashtra, India (heart attack)
Mark Lenard Born Leonard Rosenson October 15, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, USA Died: November 22, 1996 (age 72) in New York City, New York, USA
Dirk Benedict aka Dirk Niewoehner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Benedict
Robin Williams
Pamela Sue Harmon
Sid Vicious (born John Simon Ritchie 10 May 1957 - 2 February 1979)
President Jimmy Carter
Richard Hatch
Dirk Benedict
Little House on the Prairie
All In The Family
Mother Teresa
Margaret Thatcher
SALT II
Egyptian - Israeli peace
USA - PRC
Polish Solidarity
Douglas Adams
Snowboarding inventor
Usenet inventors
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs. Kramer
Pink Floyd's"The Wall"
Taxi
Saddam Hussein
Khomeini
Lord Mountbatten
The Who
Patty Hearst
John Wayne
Jonestown
Brezhnev
V.C. Andrews
the Village People

Jennifer, look in Sci Fi project for Star Trek characters.

Look in Forgotten Actors project for Lorne Greene and other characters.

Cool, thanks Kenneth!

WOW Jennifer, what was I shallow compared to you!!! LOL

The Deer Hunter was my favourite film for years!
And all in the Family? Loved it!

:-)

I know Morgan Hill! Friends from UCSC were from there.

Hatte Rubenstein Blejer Oh, wow, that's amazing to me! When I was living there, even people in nearby San Jose didn't know where Morgan Hill was. It was a lot smaller then. That's when Santa Clara Valley was the main prune-growing reason and schools there started two weeks later than most so the kids could pick prunes - my first job!

Private Oh, my goodness, I don't think I was all that deep, lol!! I did grow up just a few miles from Berkeley, though, so I think most of us were made more aware of issues than kids who got to enjoy being kids, if that makes any sense. I actually staged a very successful protest when I was in junior high, lol!

Boyfriends that year I think were two different Roberts! One very tall and handsome that I wonder why I didn't appreciate more, and the other very sweet that makes me wonder the same thing... ;-)

I'm trying to remember the name of friends from Morgan Hill. I can remember the faces, but not the names. Remember that Santa Cruz was not that far and it was the early days of UCSC so really smart "local" kids attended.

Yeah, Santa Cruz was the beach we snuck out to! lol My mom took some classes at UCSC while working on her masters and tried to get me to go there later, as she said it was the best college she'd ever been to. I've always wished I'd paid more attention, lol!

I wish you could remember the names - the town was so small back then that there's at least a chance I might know them, or the families...

Jennifer, I live in "Blossom Hill" area of South San Jose. My granddaughter goes to Santa Teresa High School. My hair stylist is in Morgan Hill. I used to have my office in Santa Clara.

NO!!! Wow, how awesome! My ex went to Santa Teresa High and we lived in his dad's house off of Blossom Hill for a couple of years in the 90s. Small world! Who's your stylist? Although, the town has exploded to the degree that I don't even recognize the streets anymore, much less any people...

My first "real" job, besides picking prunes, was at the Granada Theatre on Monterey... I went to P.A. Walsh Elementary and was a befuddled Acorn at Live Oak. How long have you lived there, Maria?

How odd - we're related through the Mendenhall lines and I was just working on a couple of those profiles today - in fact, a couple hours after I was working on it, Erica added it to a winery project. What a small world. I lovelovelove the connections we make on Geni! ;-)

I love what we are all adding :-) and Jennifer great you read so many good books! I did so to but maybe started with 16 for the great authors. Must say saw only the romantic part in all those books and later understood the books better by rereading (and sometimes rerereading it :-) . But books were always a great joy to me. And dancing, could not stop dancing and singing all the top 40 hits here in Holland :-).

Jennie, thank you sooooo much for starting this wonderful project, it's so much fun!

Jennifer, I've been on this end of town for a couple of years, but have been in San Jose for more than 20 years. My stylist is Karen at Artistry in Hair [http://www.artistryinhair.com/Artistry_In_Hair/Karen.html].

The Mendenhalls are a fascinating family - four continents, US, England, South Africa and Australia. Check out this discussion. I'm working with a couple of people to complete the SA branch. [http://www.geni.com/discussions/83206?msg=756929]

You're welcome Jennifer! I have fun too with it and I wanted to start a project where everybody can join. You only have to been 16 years old ever... LOL. So I hope more jump into this, men and women from all parts of the world. So nice to see a part of our lives and share what we have in common and what is different.
And it brings back memories! We all have bad or sad memories of course but there were always things what made us happy or content or helped us through rough times. And that can be good memories now.
Even fun! :-)

Rest in Peace, Robin Williams. His profile is now updated.

Oh my gosh, that's terrible. He was a neighbor of my sister and she saw him here and there. What a talented man.

It's tragic. I know he struggled with depression but it's hard to think it couldn't be beat. Mimi thank you.

Such a horrible waste. I've struggled with terrible depression at times but only came close to giving up once. I was very lucky that the right interventions were available for me - but each person requires a very different mix of helps. I'm so sad that he didn't get whatever he needed.

I moved to Santa Cruz in '79 so know Morgan hill pretty well. and the dittos etc. so much happened those years.

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