tidbits, fragments, and ephemera is a sometimes substantial but not making any promises glimpse at some information and news related to Generation X in the Deep South.
The Superdome in New Orleans, opened 1975
excerpt: “After reaching an agreement to build a stadium, the NFL awarded the area a team, the New Orleans Saints. Construction began in August 1971 and was completed by August 1975. Due to its massive size, the dome stadium was named the Louisiana Superdome. The Superdome covers 13 acres and is 27 stories tall. From the outside it looks like a massive spaceship.”
Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler album, released 1978
Sung by Texan Kenny Rogers and written by North Carolina-born Don Schlitz, this album’s title song garnered the two men tremendous attention. It got radio play on country and pop stations, and resulted in a TV movie with Rogers playing the lead. The only other hit on the album was “She Believes in Me.”
The Indigo Girls play their first gig, 1981
According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, “Emily Saliers was born July 22, 1963, in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved with her family to Decatur when she was in the sixth grade. At Laurel Ridge Elementary School she met Amy Ray, who was born April 12, 1964, in Atlanta, and was then in the fifth grade. The two formed a friendship, and they later discovered their complementary musical talents—Ray’s brooding voice and edgier style balanced Saliers’s vocals and folkier leanings. In 1981 they played for their first live audience: their high school English class.”
The deadline on the Equal Rights Amendment expires, June 1982
When the deadline for ratification of the 1972 ERA passed in the summer of 1982, the amendment basically died on the vine. The ERA would have guaranteed protections against discrimination based on sex or gender, but it did not become law. Almost all of states that did not ratify the ERA were in the Deep South.
level:deepsouth is an online anthology about growing up Generation X in the Deep South during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. The anthology is open to submissions of creative nonfiction (essays, memoirs, and reviews) and images (photos and flyers), as well as to contributions for the lists.
Not everybody wants to sit down and write something. But that shouldn’t stop you from contributing to level:deepsouth, if you want to. The images section is for sharing digitized versions of old photos, flyers from shows, ‘zine covers, artwork . . . One important part of this project is publishing stories about the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s in the Deep South, but there’s also room for photographers and artists to include images of what was going on back then. (And don’t worry about bad hair and embarrassing outfits— we all looked like that.)
Hattiesburg, Mississippi band Buffalo Nickel
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