Put on your walking shoes. Today we shall enjoy yet another stroll down the pot-holed-pocked Memory Lane.

It’s time to look at our old friend, the year 1972, who just turned 50 in January 2022. A decade here, a decade there, pretty soon, it adds up to some real time. Join Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman in the Way Back Machine to see what was happening just one short half-century ago.

At least one of my readers will be able to recall 1972 from personal experience. If the other reader can stay awake for the rest of the column, some vague memories may be stirred and some historical factoids blurbed.
January 1972 saw the return to civilization for Japanese soldier Sargeant Shoichi Yokoi who had been hiding in the jungles of Guam since the end of World War II. Shoichi was not a quitter. He had been hiding out in a jungle cave for almost 28 years. Two local men bumped into Shoichi, who promptly attacked them, fearing for his life. Shoichi knew the war had ended in 1952, but he did not want to surrender due to his training.

Once back in Japan, he said, “It is with much embarrassment that I return. We Japanese soldiers were told to prefer death to the disgrace of getting captured alive.” You have to admire his perseverance despite its overtones of insanity.

Once back in 1972, he may have wished he had stayed in the jungle.

Like the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining,” many things happened in 1972, and not all of them were good.
The friendly skies were not so friendly in 1972. There were at least 16 airplane hijackings that year. The Vietnam War was winding down but was not over. Palestinian terrorists attacked the Munich Olympics, killing 11 Israeli athletes.

The troubles of 1972 were part of Earth’s Manifest Destiny for craziness. Not to be outdone by 1972, the year of our Lord 2022, brags, “Hey, watch this!”
In March, the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment sending it on to the states for ratification, where it died a death of old age.
June 1972 saw the birth of Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen franchise in Arabi, Louisiana. This led to a proliferation of Popeye’s restaurants across the breadth and width of the fruited plain. The invention of its new chicken sandwich ultimately led to the Popeye’s Fried Chicken Sandwich Riots in 2019, when the restaurants could not keep up with demand for that culinary delight.

June also brought America’s most famous third-rate burglary. Nixon’s version of the Beagle Boys got caught in the Watergate, breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters to bug the joint. This caper eventually led to Nixon resigning in disgrace. However, that is a story for another time. But Happy 50th Birthday anyway to the Watergate scandal.

July saw the World Chess Championship in Iceland between American Bobby Fischer and defending World Chess Champion Boris Spassky the Russki. It may be hard to believe, but in the summer of 1972, America caught chess fever. People cared about chess. They were excited about chess. That is a sentence I never expected to write. It was the Americans versus the evil Commies. Bobby was a chess genius and nutty as a fruitcake. Boris was the epitome of Commie chess Grandmaster — big-haired, boring and relentless. Bobby complained about everything, driving the tournament officials up the wall and unsettling Boris. Bobby came out the winner 12.5 to 8.5 games. America rejoiced, then promptly forgot about chess when a new diversion appeared in November.

Atari produced Pong, the first commercially successful video game. Pong was extremely simple and highly addicting. The video game progeny of Pong have lived long and prospered. They now live on your smartphone.

In October, an Uruguayan plane carrying a rugby team crashed high in the Andes mountains. The passengers were not rescued for 72 days. Twenty-nine passengers survived the crash, but by the time they were rescued, only 16 were still living. The passengers had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Two passengers climbed a 15,000-foot mountain without equipment and then hiked for 10 days until they found help. It was an amazing story of self-reliance and courage.

On a final celestial note, on 13 December 1972, the Apollo 17 space mission touched down on the moon. Astronaut Eugene Cernan got out and took a stroll. Eugene’s lunar walkabout was the last time any human touched the moon. Fifty years have now passed, with the moon remaining a human-free zone. Time flies when you are Earthbound.

So, what have we learned today? As usual, not very much. But if you think 2022 is the worst of all times, kindly think again — 1972 wasn’t a peach. History moves on. Remember what Led Zeppelin once sang, “Good times, bad times/ You know I’ve had my share.”

It rains on the just and the unjust. Keep washing your hands. Keep moving. It’s the key to life.