PLAINS, GEORGIA – If you think things are crazy these days, believe me, the 1970s were even more so! Jimmy Carter got elected in ‘76 because people were ticked off at Gerald Ford after he pardoned Richard Nixon who had resigned in 1974 following the Watergate Hotel break-in Are you following me? That’s not even including the Discotheque craze, the Saudi Arabia oil embargo, and what was known as the Misery Index – calculated by adding the unemployment rate to the rate of inflation.
Under Carter, the index topped out at almost 20 – 11.3 percent inflation and 8 percent unemployment in 1979. Carter was a very nice guy, but not the best president. And, of course, there was Billy – Carter’s younger brother. Both hailed from the Deep South, and became easy to parody, especially after ‘Billy Beer’ hit the market.
Part of marketing for the new beverage included this memorable quote from Billy: “A redneck is a guy in the South who drives around in his pickup truck drinking beer and throws his can out the window. A good old boy is a guy in the South who drives around in his pickup truck drinking beer, but throws his can in a litter basket.”
Those were the days, my friend!
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