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.
“Herschel Walker Receives College Football’s Heisman Trophy,” December 4, 1982
Long before he became a late night punchline, this celebrated athlete was winning college football’s greatest honor . . .
Herschel Walker’s first college touchdown (as a freshman), 1980
Herschel Walker runs over an MFer in the 1981 Sugar Bowl
from “Hey, Big Wheels, Let’s Make a Deal!” in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 13, 1988
(*Disclaimer: Walker may have been a great running back, but please don’t mistake his athletic feats for any capacity to serve in the US Senate.)
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), fiction, poetry, and images (photos and flyers), as well as to contributions for the lists.
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.
Published in 1980 by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, this report gives data “for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. They are broken down, when applicable, by type of weapon used, victim-offender relationship, value of property stolen, week of the month, etc. Victims’ age, race, and sex are noted.” Statistics are organized into tables graphs that provide nuanced information about crimes in the late 1970s. For example, from 1977 to 1979, about one-quarter of all murders happened on a Saturday.
The band Alabama wins Country Music Entertainer of the Year, 1982
Though most GenXers, who were 20 years old or younger in 1985, wouldn’t have paid much attention to a Supreme Court ruling about the disenfranchisement of convicted criminals in Alabama, it mattered to the future of voting rights. Alabama’s 1901 Constitution took away the right to vote from any one convicted of “any . . . crime involving moral turpitude”— felonies and misdemeanors. However, according to this lawsuit, “the misdemeanors encompassed within §182 were intentionally adopted to disenfranchise blacks on account of race, and that their inclusion in §182 has had the intended effect.” Essentially, the suit contended that Alabama’s law was designed to prevent as many black people as possible from voting. The US Supreme Court agreed, and Alabama could no longer prohibit people convicted of a misdemeanor from voting. (Unfortunately, felons are still disallowed from voting in Alabama.)
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), fiction, poetry, and images (photos and flyers), as well as to contributions for the lists.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
level:deepsouth 