Late 1973 - when I was fourteen - was a seriously scary time. I have a very clear memory of hearing on the news one Saturday afternoon that Arab forces were mov

Late 1973 - when I was fourteen - was a seriously scary time. I have a very clear memory of hearing on the news one Saturday afternoon that Arab forces were moving against Israel, and of hastening outside to tell my father, who was mowing the lawn. I still consider it a defining moment in my life: Like September 2001, or the Kennedy assasination. Always surprised that noone else seems to recall it like this. To me, that was truly the start of the dreary seventies, very much the deat knell of the last remaining sixties optimism. Oil shortage real or imagined, rising unemployment, a crisis spirit that stayed with us for many years and still cast shadows. And the nuclear alert. It was known at the time that the US had gone on heightened alert. It scared me shitless, I remember.