A Time More Innocent? Naive? Dumb as a Rock?

[Guest ncm2169]

While driving this weekend, I found myself mind-wandering back to the '60's and '70's when (we now think) life was just a bit more "simple."

 

I focused on two newspaper articles which exemplify the phenomenon. Both appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, not exactly a backwater publication. Think about how "hep" the editors were.

 

One was a headline probably somewhere in the Summer of 1969. It read:

 

GI's Beat off Viet Cong.

 

The other was likely in 1970, when I was in a fraternity at the U of M. Every October, each Fraternity House on "Fraternity Row" decorated their houses for Homecoming. The frivolity was usually the subject of a feature article in the StarTribune. That year, a photographer who accompanied the reporter covering the "story" shot a picture of 2 of my fraternity brothers posing in front of all the decorations. The caption read: "Pictured above at the XXX Fraternity are (Joe Blow) and Jack Mehoff."

 

Simple, innocent and naive continued well into the '80's whenever Ronald Reagan told a story about someone (maybe him) "pulling a boner."

 

Anyone wanna venture a guess as to how many years it will take before this country frees itself from the prison of Puritanism? x(