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In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched his “war on poverty” with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act. During his term, Johnson focused his efforts on assisting the 19 percent of Americans who lived below the poverty line through legislative action. In addition to the Economic Opportunity Act, which created eleven major initiatives like the Job Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Johnson also formed the Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamp programs. These efforts were immediately effective and led to an 8 percent reduction in poverty rates by 1973—the lowest it has ever been since these measurements were recorded. Some of these initiatives, however, were undone by President Bill Clinton when he, along with the Republican-dominated Congress, passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in 1996.

According to Christianity Today, “young radicals” of the 1960s wore buttons with tongue-in-cheek slogans to “express their attitudes toward life.” Many of these buttons showed support for the Johnson administration or promoted peace. Others were simply humorous and touched on the main issues of their day. Some of these buttons read “I Want to Be What I Was When I Wanted To Be What I Now Am,” “Neuroses Are Red, Melancholy Is Blue, I’m Schizophrenic, What Are You?” and “End Poverty, Give Me $10.”

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The Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) has offices throughout the state of California (Anaheim, Oakland, Central Valley/Redding, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Ana, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville), and is considered an active "entity" of the National Labor Federation (NATLFED). NATLFED is run by volunteers and organizes workers who have been excluded from collective bargaining protections provided by law. NATLFED was established in the early 1970s, led by Gino Perente, a former member of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (the predecessor of United Farm Workers of America). 

The stated purpose of NATLFED and its entities is to provide support and assistance for low-income service workers. However, concerns have been raised about the group's lack of transparency and "cult-like" activities. Some former volunteers have described the organization as a front for the Provisional Communist Party of the United States, and a 2016 book by Sonja Larsen, "Red Star Tattoo- My Life as a Girl Revolutionary," described the abuse of women that she witnessed and experienced as a member of the group. Founder Gino Perente was believed to be con-artist Gerald Doeden, living under an alias. Perente gave lectures to volunteers on the writings of Stalin, Marx and Lenin and removed himself from public view in the late 1970s. After Perente's death in 1995, and an FBI raid on a New York office in 1996, access to organizational and operational information regarding NATLFED has been limited. 

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Air pollution, and the health risks associated with it, became a concern for the United States government in the mid 20th Century. In 1963, the U.S. Government enacted the first Clean Air Act followed by the Air Quality Act in 1967. These acts together authorized new monitoring programs and research studies on air pollution in the United States. Regulations and standards based on these findings were then put into practice with the Clean Air Act of 1970. Besides codifying new nationwide standards for air pollutants, this Act created the Environmental Protection Agency and gave it the authority to implement and enforce the new standards. Vehicle emissions were of particular interest at this time, and new regulations governed both the cars and the fuel. Car manufacturers were limited in how much pollution their cars could produce, while fuel refineries were banned from adding certain ingredients, including lead, to commercial gasoline. The Clean Air Act has since been amended twice, in 1977 and in 1990.

Compared with 1970, the United States now experiences 66.9% less air pollution and life expectancy has increased by 1.3 years.

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"Ban the Bra" was an ideology that was part of the 1960s feminist Women's Liberation Movement. Second wave feminism used bras as a symbol of the hegemonic oppression of women. Feminists protested the 1968 Miss America pageant for being sexist; women attending the protest were encouraged to bring bras with them to symbolize patriarchal ideals of female beauty standards. That protest began the largely mythological and trivializing idea that feminists burn bras.

Banning bras, rather than being a literal call to do away with the undergarments, was a figurative call to end the unfairly rigid beauty standards women were expected to adhere to.

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The "Holiday Inn" logo indicates that it was manufactured and used between 1983 and 2007 when the current logo of a single "H" was implemented. Holiday Inn is one of the world's largest hotel chains with over 3,600 hotels around the world. The original Holiday Inn was opened in Memphis, Tennessee in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who was inspired to build his own travel accommodations after being disappointed by available hotels during a road trip with his family. The architect, Eddie Bluestein, named the hotel in reference to the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. By 1968, the 1000th Holiday Inn was opened in San Antonio, Texas. During this expansion era, Holiday Inns featured the "Great Sign," which were at least 50 feet tall, visible from both directions, and included a marquee. After Wilson retired in 1979, the company phased out the Great Sign. Wilson thought this was a terrible mistake. He loved the sign so much that a version of it was engraved on his tombstone. 

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The American Legion is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization created by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization. It has grown since then to be the United States’ largest wartime veterans service organization. The American Legion has done work to advocate for veterans benefits and has produced many youth programs including the American Legion Baseball, one of the nation’s most successful amateur athletic programs, and the Operation Comfort Warriors program, which supports recovering wounded veterans and their families.

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“I hate school” is a quote from Peanuts character Sally Brown, who first appeared in the comic strip in 1959.

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Baseball is a recurring theme in the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schultz. While the loveable beagle Snoopy was introduced by the third comic strip, Linus did not appear as a fully grown child until the year 1953. Snoopy usually plays shortstop while Linus plays second base. They are both members of Charlie Brown’s team. Snoopy is the undisputed offensive powerhouse of the team and in the last game of 1973 almost broke Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. Charlie Brown, however, got picked off base running during Snoopy’s at-bat and the season was over.

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Spot the Dog is a series of picture books by children's author Eric Hill. The first book in the series, Where's Spot, was published in 1980. Three more Spot books were published between 1984 and 1996. The main character in the books, Spot, is a yellow puppy with a brown spot on either side of his body and a brown-tipped tail.

The books were adapted into a television series on the BBC network, The Adventures of Spot, airing between 1987 and 1993, and in 2000 as Spot's Musical Adventures. In 1990 and 1994, two specials, It's Fun to Learn With Spot Phase I and II, were released on VHS.

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Written by John Hughes, and directed by Howard Deutch, the cult classic film Pretty in Pink was released in 1986. The film is about cliques and romance in American high schools in the 1980s, starring "Brat Pack" members Molly Ringwald as working-class girl "Andie Walsh" and Andrew McCarthy as the rich and preppy "Blane McDonough". Anthony Michael Hall was originally cast as Andie's geeky friend Duckie, but backed out of the part for fear of typecasting, and Jon Cryer took on the iconic role. 

The soundtrack for Pretty in Pink primarily featured new wave music, and has been consistently rated as one of the best in modern cinema. "If You Leave," the song in the final scene of the film, was written in 24 hours by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and went on to become an international hit, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in May of 1986. Pretty in Pink was received well by critics and audiences alike, earning over $40 million at the box office, and has remained a fan favorite with an influence on pop culture. The film was released on VHS in 2000, and on DVD in 2002; it was also shown in movie theaters across the United States in February 2016 in honor of its 30th anniversary.