Just to Put a Few Things in Perspective

Via Ann Althouse, this page from the Book of Lists for 1976.

What I found more interesting than the fact that O.J. Simpson was the favorite hero for both boys and girls was the fact that Mary Tyler Moore was number six for girls and 10 for boys. What was Mary Tyler Moore doing in 1976 that made her so special? I guess maybe the Mary Tyler Moore Show was still on, but MTM will always be Laura Petrie to me.

Of course, the fact that O.J. Simpson was the top hero for fifth graders in 1976 wasn't at all surprising to me (I was in sixth grade then). We all loved O.J. He was cool. Which is part of the reason I was so shocked during the O.J. trials to find out that we were all wanting to convict him because he was black. For everyone I knew, no one had cared much that O.J. was black, and if they did care, they thought it was a positive thing. Shows how much we knew, huh?