The 1970s were an interesting decade.

The year 1979 was the International Year of the Child, and happened to be the year I turned 6, solidly in the “child” category. I feel like the 1970s were a good time to be a child, before education models switched over to a metrics-based system (rather than an actual educational one), when women’s rights were still sort of in the forefront, when kids were still given a lot of independence but we also had effective vaccines. Children’s TV was coming into its own, and focused on slower, genuine-feeling content rather than the flashy junk food that a lot of it is today. (Not that there isn’t good content today, but I think it’s in the minority.)

There haven’t been many periods of my life that I could call carefree, but the 1970s were as close as come for me. It was before I was affected by social pressures and abuses, when I could be totally myself in pretty much all environments (not just at home and among friends), and be accepted.

So 1979 might have been the International Year of the Child, but it was also a year of me as a child. I was in Kindergarten and first grade, and I was generally happy and unburdened. Wish I could revisit it.

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