In 1979, when Henri Gugelmann debuted his "rat circus" in downtown Bern, he claimed it was the first of its kind in the world. And maybe it was also the last, because I don't know where one would go today to see performing rats.
His trained rats jumped over ropes, ran through burning rings, and crawled along in a "rat race" while Gugelmann, dressed as a clown, directed the show. That sounds like quality entertainment! [Google News: Victoria Advocate, Aug 9, 1979]
It was back in 1970 that "trucking" became all the rage. The "Youthbeat" column in the Winnipeg Free Press (Oct 19, 1970) attempted to explain what the phenomenon was all about, and how it originated:
"Trucking," the expression for an exaggerated let-it-all-hang-out style of walking, is catching on.
The walk, which emphasizes a long forward step with the body tilted backward and the arms flapping in a Jackie Gleason and-away-we-go style, represent something similar to the Negro spirituals' "we shall overcome."
The walk says: "regardless how much we may be put down, we'll keep on trucking."
The expression originates in a blues song played by Duke Ellington in the 1930s. The lyrics say, "keep on trucking, truck your troubles away."
Kids say trucking around in school halls and outside makes you forget about frustrating classes.
The movement was popularized by the underground press. A cartoon strip which I believe originated in the Los Angeles Free Press and was printed locally about a year or so ago showed a grotesque person "trucking."
The cartoon the writer was referring to is, I believe, this one by R. Crumb:
And here's a page from a 1970 issue of The Student Life showing some young people trucking (via Pomona College's Photostream):
Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 27, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Fads, 1970s
Kids today, with their ubiquitous sophisticated remote-control helicopters, don't know how lucky they have it, over previous generations with their more primitive toys.
How a sardonic adult western ever loaned its name to a sappy kids' cartoon will remain forever a mystery. Whose brainstorm was that? In any case, please revel in the ghastly animation.
A self-help book from the 1970s. Among the problems it promised to cure:
How to use self-hypnosis to cure your slipped disc, backache, headache, low back pain, even the painful torticolis or "wry neck" that has defied medical science
How to conquer a condition we call "loneliness" but which our subconscious mind knows to be a genuine starvation of our love needs
Even if you've been smoking for twenty-five years you can give it up overnight—and actually enjoy the so-called "withdrawal" period
An entirely new and different way of controlling overweight—on a self-hypnotic diet that requires no dieting
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.