[rikdpola]

To K's point, my parents bought their last house in 1966. As a kid I remember my dad telling me that of the 20 houses on our street, ours was one of only two that never held a mortgage, which he was proud of because he grew up poor and worked in a factory for many years. Of course, my dad also started pulling silver coins from his pocket change in the '60s and '70s because he was certain that some day it would be worth much more than face value.

One other related side note: society's attitude toward a lot of things changed between the Summer of Love (1967) and Nixon's resignation over Watergate (1974). Those were two critical turning points points in our history. In 1967 people began to reject the "establishment" as self-serving. In 1974, they began to reject it as corrupt. Watergate introduced into our society a national cynicism that exists to this day. A lot of the good-ol'-boy bullshit that goes on was first outed during that 1967-74 time frame. Much of it was related to the exposure of the Viet Nam War. It was the first U.S. war to be televised. But I digress...