Were you at Northland during the 1973 school year? Fifty years ago, the US population was 211,908,788 people and the average life expectancy was 71.4 years. The median household income was $10,512 and the average new home cost $35,500. In January, it cost about $1.06 for a gallon of milk (up 2 cents). As a recession set in in 1973 (caused in part by rising grain and oil prices), egg prices soared to $0.78. A gallon of regular gas was $0.39 and a postage stamp was $0.08 (up 3 cents in ten years).
The 46th Academy Awards for 1973 movies included:
Best Actor — Jack Lemmon.
Best Director — George Roy Hill
Best Actress in a supporting role — Tatum O’Neal
The Best Picture award went to one of the top grossing movies of the year. Do you remember the movie? It wasn’t “The Exorcist, it was a nice little film about 2 grifters trying to pull off the ultimate con in old time Chicago. It also was Robert Redford and Paul Newman’s second movie together.
The top-rated television show was “All in the Family”. The Emmy Award for best comedy actor was Alan Alda for “M*A*S*H”, which also was the Best Comedy Show award winner. Mary Tyler Moore (best comedy actress) and Cloris Leachman (best comedy supporting actress) were both on the same show – did you watch their hilarious antics?
Album of the year was “Innervisions” by Stevie Wonder. “Killing Me Softly With His Song” won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and for the artist, Best Pop Female Vocal. Do you know her name? On Billboard’s Top 10, Elton John had a twofer, with “Crocodile Rock” at number one and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” at number seven.
In the world of sports, the Miami Dolphins won Super Bowl XXIII, the New York Knicks won the NBA championship, the Oakland A’s won the World Series. And, best of all, The Ohio State Buckeyes won the Rose Bowl! To see what else was going on in the world during 1973 click the link below.
What was going on at Northland during 1973? Well, The Viking’s football team took the City League Championship, Kathy Janszen was voted Homecoming Queen.
Jerry McAfee was completing his first year as Director of the Instrumental Music Department at Northland, and even Ronald McDonald knew NHS was the place to be.
And junior Dwight Yoakum, maybe you’ve heard of him, played the lead in NHS’s production of “Flowers for Algernon” 
Check out what else was happening at Northland by looking through the 1973 Valhalla Yearbook.