1978 Not So Bad After All

Jim Dwyer's photo essay, "Scenes Unseen: The Summer of ’78. Long-forgotten pictures capture escape and discovery in the city’s parks.," is worth checking out. A box of long-forgotten photos taken the summer of 1978 was recently discovered by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

Mid- to late-1970s NYC is synonymous in popular memory with urban decay and white flight. The city was purported to be collapsing. These pictures tell a different story. Notice how lean and alert people look. We were still alive in our bodies and our consciousness wasn't so hopelessly mediated by digital electronics.

If only we could go back to the Summer of '78  and plant our flag. But time rolls on. And now we are here, which doesn't look nearly as healthy as then.