So it happened, my lovely South American flower has turned the BIG 40 corner, and has finally joined the club.  Now she’s allowed to participate in the mellow wave that enables 40+ people to take everything a little less seriously … and we can smile at younger people stressing around trying to be cool.  40+ year old people are cool by definition!

A quick look in the rearview window (history time) reveals many interesting events.  Not that I remember these things myself, given I would only have been a year old at the time.  Most of these have been mentioned and displayed in many movies and history books so you should know these too.

Let’s kick it off.  And, before you get all smart arse on me, I know that there are many other events that should’ve been mentioned, but this is a not a history lesson.  It’s merely a short trip back in time to what happened the year my wife was born.

• “I’m not a croock” slogan was kicked off when Nixon finally accepted responsibility in the Watergate saga and resigns a year later.
• The awesome nations Ireland and Denmark enters the EU, some months after the national referendums gave them entry into the elite club.  Some might argue that it was the worst decision, which I totally disagree with – please note, Ireland has literally repaved all the roads in Ireland twice, with the money they received.
• Europe was hit by a deep recission as the oil prices increased, and many countries introduce car free Sundays.
• The World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in World
• US introduced carpet bombing of Cambodia, which interestingly signaled  the end to the bloody Vietnam war conflict, and troops returned home to abuse and mistreatment.
• Allende was overthrown by Senior Pinochet, another evil fecker, who immediately introduced the South American country (Chile) to what it really means to suffer under a dictator.  Thousands of people fled the country and many more were killed.
• Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl, beating Washington 14-7.
• IRA bombs Kings Cross, Whitehall and Old Bailey … all in London UK
• The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Movie.  Meanwhile, Mr. Brandon declined to receive the Oscar for best actor and instead sent a native indian (Sacheen Littlefeather) to give a speech about the governments mistreatment of the native indians.
• Basque terrorist group known as ETA kill the Spanish Prime Minister
• We (well, not me of course) invented TCP/IP which now means that I have a job working with TCP/IP happy days for internet surfing.
• ABBA only finished 3rd in the annual Eurovision contest 🙂
• The Norrmalmstorg bank robbery in Stockholm (Sweden) introduced the world to a new term – Stockholm Syndrome.
• And a few strange celebrities were born in ’73; Tyra Banks and Monica Lewinsky

James Blunt even wrote a song about 1973, which received a fair bit of attention when it was released back in 2007.

I’m overly delighted that I’ve been able to spend the last (almost) two decades with my wife.  We’ve grown with each other over the years, mainly out, and we have three wonderful kids.  The amount of stuff we’ve experienced to date has been awesome and I’m looking forward to a lot more cool adventures.

Love you!