If you're anything like me, you probably tear up on occasion thinking back to the years of your childhood. For me, the 70s are a  decade full of memories as vivid as any I have.

My body and my mind were growing, and my personality was being sculpted by so many people and things. I remember body counts on the evening news during the Viet Nam conflict, the so-called "gas shortage" and the lines of cars, sometimes two or more miles long in big cities, waiting for gas. I remember Nixon - say no more lol.

I remember the bicentennial in 1976, and the 4th of July that year in particular. My grandfather passed away that day - the very same day he came to this country from Yugoslavia as a stowaway at the age of 12 - the same day he became a citizen when he turned 18. 

I remember... oh yeah! The topic nyuk nyuk nyuk!

I remember how, right around the beginning of my freshman year in high school, I started thinking about the world. And not just the world I was surrounded by every day, but the world. I would listen and learn about changes that were happening everywhere on every front, scientific advancements coming faster and faster, and the advent of some new moral dilemmas that were brought about by all this. Even back then, I questioned whether all the things people seemed to be so proud of and excited about were really progress after all.

What did you think things would look like in the world of 2005 back then? Are you happy with the direction individuals, society, governments, and the world have taken? What kinds of things have you changed your mind about since then?

Where are the flying cars? They promised us flying cars, dammit!  :D

Back in the '70s I was way too young to think about what the world of 2005 would be like. But in many ways it is quite disappointing as we expected science would make things all better. Hah!

I envisioned a war with Russia by now.  Who would have ever thought we would be at peace with them.  I thought about  the 2000s in a sci fi way.  People living on the moon.  A chip in our index finger for that cashless society we all heard about.  Cars that would fly.  I never thought that gas prices would be so high but, above all I thought that the world would be a safer place to live.  I never would have begun to comprehend the horrible things that happen now. I think we have been blessed.  It could be a lot worse.