Tag: 1970s

March 12, 2024 – Convoy

March 12, 2024 /

There were some pretty campy movies in the 1970s. Believe it or not, I don’t think Convoy was one of them. Yes, it has some cheesy action and some CB jibber, jabber and the plot was a little thin, but the subplot was subversively amazing. In fact, so good that I don’t think they even realized what they had done.

Convoy was a movie released in 1978 based on the song by CW McCall in 1974. The embedded video is a modified version of the original song which is the opening of the movie. The movie stars Kris Kristofferson as a truck driver who inadvertently leads a group of trucks on a convoy that is essentially trying to escape a dirty sheriff.

This movie is currently playing on Pluto. If you have internet access, then you can also watch the movie for free. My wife was gone for the weekend and I turned this on while I was cooking in the kitchen. I soon found that I was too invested in the story that I needed to finish it.

The night before, I was watching James Caan as The Gambler (1974). I fell asleep before the movie was over so I wanted to watch the last twenty minutes. I saw that Convoy was coming up next. As a fan of The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit, I figured I was going to like this and I wasn’t dissapointed.

I am not a trucker and I don’t know any. I really don’t get what a convoy actually does other than it is pretty menacing seeing a whole line of trucks bearing down on you. But, I think this movie has inspired a genre of protest whereby truckers impede goods movement or traffic. The last, most famous one in recent memory was the Canadian trucker strike of 2022 over requiring vaccinations for Covid-19.

Known by the CB handle ‘Rubber Duck’ (Kristofferson) or more commonly Duck, realizes that the only way out of his predicament is by driving to Mexico. This draws a lot of support from close by truckers who join up in the convoy. This in turn creates a regional sensation with the public. Remember, we only had three TV stations in those days.

What makes this movie great is that the New Mexico governor tries to coopt the public sentiment and support for the truckers into helping his campaign for senate. There it is, the ugly gold nugget. The people were largely oblivious as they are involved in the party of it all. Meanwhile, Duck and the other truckers could see right through it. There was a lot of political babble from the governor about feeling the pain and taking action with the people.

This is the where we stand. As an example, as soon as the politicians took hold of the tea party, it died. A leader has to be ambivalent of the details and aloof of the results to be effective. We used to call that integrity or doing the right thing for the right reasons. When you have a stake in the results, now all of the sudden the purity of the movement is compromised and the absolutism of right and wrong become subjective. As long as we have lessor of two evils as our choices, it will never work.

End Your Programming Routine: Look beyond some of the antics, this is a great movie. As a matter of fact, there was a time when people believed that legal didn’t equate to right. It took me a long time to get there, but I am here now. Sure, maybe there were other problems around like equality but we are quickly becoming equal slaves.

November 15, 2023 – Just the Good Old Boys

November 15, 2023 /

Maybe I shouldn’t even be writing this but I have a hankering to watch The Dukes of Hazzard lately. It was on TV from 1979 to 1985 and it was definitely my favorite show on TV. In fact, it was the only show on TV that we were permitted to watch. I was four when it started and ten when it ended.

Until around middle school, my brother and my bedtime was 8pm. That means that any prime time TV was out of the question. TV was also severely restricted in our house as well. We got to choose one TV show a week that we were permitted to watch. This is what we chose of course.

Even Saturday morning cartoons got the boot early in my life. My mom thought that my brother and I got too wound up after watching them. I knew that was the edict but I still liked to turn on the TV in the morning before anybody was a up. With the old manual TVs, you could turn the volume down and then turn on the TV. One morning I woke up and the cord was cut on the TV. That ended that.

I think I know the trigger here. I have been looking at CB radios a lot lately. Since CB became super popular in the 1970s, it played a prominent role in the Dukes of Hazzard. All the vehicles, including the General Lee had CBs and the characters communicated via radio during their hijinks. You also had other souped-up cars like the 1976/77 Pontiac Firebird on Smokey and the Bandit during that time that were using CB radio.

This is not to forget the General Lee is a 1969 Dodge Charger and I am helping my son out with his 1969 Mercury Cougar here and there. I was running errands a couple weekends ago and I saw a 1969 Ford Ranchero and all the sudden I was looking up prices of project cars. It seems like my destiny is colliding with The Dukes of Hazzard.

The truth is, as much as I liked the show, I remember very little. I love car chases and jumps. Put a brush guard on a hot rod/race car and drive it like you stole it. Who can resist siding with Robin Hood. I might remind you that Bo and Luke were (wrongly) convicted felons and so firearms were prohibited, that is why they used bows. My brother and I ate that stuff up. Western wear and Daisy Dukes… I am talking myself into buying the entire show since I cannot rent it and it is not streaming anywhere.

Finishing the highlights, the theme was sung by Waylon Jennings, one of the outlaws of country. This was also a time of peak popularity of Hee-Haw. The show reeks of the era of late seventies/early eighties. It was a simpler time, my wife would say a ‘whiter’ time. I can’t argue that, but what I am saying we were all united by less choices.

A few years ago, I was looking for something family friendly and I did end up buying the first episode on Amazon. I don’t think my kids enjoyed it as much as I did. But, it is a new day. My older son has a new appreciation for cars now and he is liking the idea of CB radio and driving passenger cars off-road. So, maybe we can try again.

End Your Programming Routine: After living in the south for a couple of years, The Dukes of Hazzard is not as big of a stretch as people living elsewhere might believe. There are still moonshine runners, there is a lot of debate over the confederate battle flag and racing is popular. I have heard of more than one person outrunning the cops when the ‘blue lights’ come on. But , so is doing the right thing when it matters. Big heart leaves me smiling after thinking about my time in the south as well as the Dukes of Hazzard.