Golden Oldies

Hey Cool Cats! That's where it's at! Can you dig it? Groovy, Man!

Yep, I'm a child of the 70's. No denying it. Do you remember hula-hoops, Tang, Holly Hobbie dolls, GI Joe, and banana seats on your bikes? How about Starsky and Hutch and Little House On The Prarie? Those were my favorite shows.

Oh yeah, and what about Wolf Man Jack and the Saturday Night Special. I used to watch that on weekends while I babysat. It was on pretty late and I remember watching it and wishing the people would get home so I could go home and go to bed. I made $1/hour for babysitting, regardless of the number of kids I was watching, and with that money I would go right down to the record store and buy the latest, greatest 45 lps! You did too, you know you did. They cost about $1. I had well over 100 of them by the time I switched over to 8-tracks and then cassettes. You did too--maybe not 100 45s, but you made the switch!

I kept my 45s in two little carrying cases like the one above which you can buy for $15 on EBay. They made the move with me 13 times (I counted it up) in my youth and young grown-up life. I haven't had a record player in YEARS, but somehow I just couldn't part with them.

Last summer, when we made the most recent move, I plucked those records out of the garage--where they'd been for over 12 years--and wondered what to do with them, but moved them again. When Shelley came to visit, I passed them on to her because she still HAD a record player. Someone might as well get some use out of them, right? Plus, they were her memories too, and probably some of those 45s even belonged to her!

Imagine my surprise last week when she said she was mailing a "surprise" to me. I was scared because she'd recently taken a really ugly photo of me, and I thought she was framing it or something. But alas, I was wrong.

In the mail came 7 CD's jam-packed with all those songs from my 45s!!! For Father's Day, her husband got a record player/CD burner thing. She burned all those 45s for me!! How great is she????? I have been sliding down Memory Lane every since!

She burned 159 songs for me! She also said she had to listen to both sides sometimes to figure out which side was the hit, and she still wasn't sure she had it figured out. Amazingly, after all those years in the garage where temps get to -20* in the winter and over 100* in the summer, they weren't warped or damaged too much. What was really cool was that, when she would record them, she put them on the turntable, and then I can hear the scratching noise those records made before the song started. Remember?

"What did I listen to," you are now asking? Well, thanks for asking. First of all, in my town we listened to Major Dan Miller's radio show in the morning, on the way to school, to hear all the latest pop hits. And on the weekend I would lie on my bed and listen to Casey Casem's (sp) Top 40 Countdown. Ahhh, good times.

Some of the songs Shelley burned for me: (Get ready for the flashback!)

"Spiders and Snakes", "Sunshine On My Shoulder", "Couldn't Get It Right", "Rich Girl", "Blinded By The Light", "Dancing Queen", "Half Breed", "Cupid", "Heard It In A Love Song", "Feelings", "Never Been To Spain", "The Candy Man".

YOU'RE HUMMING ALONG TO MORE THAN ONE OF THOSE NOW, AREN'T YOU????

How about "Somewhere In The Night", "Have You Never Been Mellow", "She's Gone", "Weekend In New England", "Devil Woman", "Send In The Clowns", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Evergreen", "Bad Blood", "Lost In Love", "Ebony Eyes", and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

I know, you wish you had my musical taste!!! Looking at the complete list, I seem to have really liked Barry Manilow, ABBA, Hall and Oats, and Olivia Newton John A LOT!! But let's not overlook Donny and Marie, Neil Sedaka, Shaun Cassidy, and Glen Campbell.

If only I had a scanner, I'd scan a photo of myself and Shelley from those good ol' days. You'd be totally diggin' on Shelley's Farrah Fawcet hair and my Dorothy Hamil haircut.

So Peace, my brothers and sisters. Hang loose, and have a far out day! I'll be gettin' down to some of those golden oldies that I have now loaded onto my computer and am playing on my ITunes program while I write an incredibly LONG blog post. We've come a long way, baby!