For those who were actually old enough to have experienced the 1970s and not for those who were born in the 70s. What were the pros and cons of that era?

A few brave women were breaking barriers. Sandra Day O'Connor, broke barriers in the legal profession. This picture shows swearing-in ceremonies at the Arizona Supreme Court.

The 70s were a time for mild summers and cold winters for me. I lived in upstate New York and New England.

The biggest differences between then and now concern sex, marriage, feminism.

How can you tell if someone or someone's is trying to recruit or at least test you for a secret organization?

I remember voting for a moderate Republican representative when I lived in Western Massachusetts. Can’t do that now. President Nixon, a Republican, signed Civil Rights acts and established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Republicans are opposing the EPA now.

Times haven’t changed. Anti-feminism is still alive today.

Times have changed.

If our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, why do we perceive weather in the 90s as "hot?"

People from other nations disagreed but we were wealthy, powerful, and were advancing everything from science to entertainment. This quote, from the 1980s, applies equally to the 70s.

When people learned that President Richard Nixon had broken the law, he was forced to resign. Can you imagine that happening now in 2025?

I married at the age of 22. Early marriage was common back then. People also had more children.

How did the trans issue metastasize within just a decade from being a question of kindness and tolerance to a tiny minority to convulsing a whole society?

Inflation was a problem throughout that era. Everyone was concerned about it but no one could control it. It was much worse than anything since.

Conservatives were often polite. The group they expressed the most hatred toward were Russians. Former President Ford, a Republican, eventually became a friend of the liberal Jimmy Carter.

Politics was almost rational back then.

Trump is going to target known criminals in the country illegally for deportation. The Democrats have vowed to fight him every step of the way. Don't they understand this is one of the issues that cost them the white house, the house and senate?

There was also anti-feminist backlash. I remember people making fun of bra-burners, though hardly any woman did that. Some people said things I can’t repeat here.

Now in 2025, MAGA people dislike a polyglot (multi-language) America and look back to the past as the era when America used to be Great. They want to be led by an elderly guy who misremembers that era.

In the 1970s, Americans thought of their nation as the Greatest Nation on Earth.

When did you realize that your childhood was not normal?

People had begun talking about feminism and the proposed Equal Rights amendment to the US Constitution.

My wife stayed at home for years, taking care of the children. That was still common then. I can remember people asking what’s the point of spending money on a daughter's education, since they would just marry and quit work, like my wife did.

Times have changed.

What is better, 4 more years of Trump with the media trying to hurt him, or 8 years of DeSantis with the media licking booty, or 4 to 8 years of RFK with the media hating on him all the time? (Biden is not an option, he can't win)

The war in Vietnam cast an ugly shadow on everything political, even years after South Vietnam fell (1975).

Nowadays, it isn’t remarkable for my daughter to be an attorney or my wife to become a university professor. The Equal Rights amendment became less necessary after courts realized that the words persons and citizens in the US constitution must include women.

America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.

Do Marines really not need sleep during combat training or in general? If this is true, how and why is this possible?

Times have changed.

Sex outside of marriage was still controversial, along with any other sexual irregularity. I recall hearing about the Maine legislature trying to pass a reform that would legalize some of the things my wife and I did. And I remember a woman telling me about how unhappy her father was when he learned that she was living with her boyfriend. Unmarried women weren’t supposed to get pregnant. Gays could be jailed!