1979 OIL crisis led to lines at gasoline stations (Wikipedia).

Reenactment of wars and other historical events is a popular avocation and an American Revolution event is coming to Huntington Beach’s Central Park on March 2 and 3. There’s been Civil War re-enactments there, too, and at the Stanley Ranch and Museum in Garden Grove.

I am a big history buff and enjoy them, but the thought occurred to me – why just wars and stuff in which people are simulating killing other folks?

Why not reenact other important historic events and periods in American history?  My first thought was “The Westward Movement,” but I can’t imagine too many Native Americans being too happy about celebrating how that turned out.

So I settled on another era: The Seventies. The Me Decade. Disco. Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Polyester. Jimmy Carter. Gas crises (two of them!), Watergate. Women’s “lib.” Inflation.

Reenactors would portray figures from that era: Richard Nixon, explaining why his offenses were nothing compared to what’s followed. They would push their cars up to faux service stations with signs reading “Odd License Plates Only.” Folks would stroll around listening to Earth, Wind and Fire or Abba on their Sony Walkman.

There would be totally safe fruit punch drink for sale (get it?). There would be an Apollo 13 capsule for kids to play in.

Wait a second … it seems like the Seventies were awful. Maybe we should be sticking to wars instead. Compared to that decade, simulated combat somehow seems “groovy.”