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by Sabrina Spector, JCC Assistant Adults Department Director & Cultural Director
I always thought it was funny as a child when my parents would ask “remember when”? It was pretty annoying to hear them constantly say things like “when I was your age” or “back in the day, we…”. Alas, those horrible words, “I’ll never be like my parents” have come back to haunt me now that I am a mother.
I am the annoying parent who points out what I did or did not have as a child, how we behaved differently, and has no clue about pop culture (it is just happening way too fast for my brain). I actually do yearn for a simpler time when kids played outside, when we all gathered around one TV to watch a sitcom, when people couldn’t be reached 24/7 and time off actually meant time off. Now I sound like my grandparents. What has happened to me?!
Lou Cove, author of Man of The Year, will help me remember yesteryear. He will take us back to a much different time on Sunday, January 21, 7pm. Man of the Year is a memoir about coming of age in the late 1970’s. Lou turned 13 in the summer of 1978 and instead of having a Bar Mitzvah, he met Howie Gordon. Howie happened to have been Mr. November in Playgirl Magazine that year and was vying for the esteemed title of Playgirl’s Man of the Year award. That award would mean a guaranteed ticket to stardom, which had worked for Burt Reynolds. According to Lou, the book is definitely a play on words. While Howie was trying to achieve his title, Lou was learning some very important lessons about becoming a man as well.
As for me, I was only a kid during the 70’s, but Charlie’s Angles was my favorite TV show. My sister had posters of David Cassidy and Andy Gibb in her room, my brothers were all about Star Wars and we walked home from school singing songs about Jimmy Carter on a peanut farm (that’s a vague memory). I even loved my plaid dresses (still do). Things were different and they certainly shaped today’s society.
I’m looking forward to taking a stroll down memory lane and recalling how the lessons we learned in childhood helped pave our individual futures. I’ll be interested in hearing from Lou how we went from a free love society to the scandalous and disturbing headlines of today. And of course, I’m busting out my 70’s outfit for the costume contest too. Hope to see you at this groovy program! Peace, my friends.
Interested in attending this Bank of America Festival of Arts, Books and Culture event? Get your Lou Cove tickets here.
