From that same time period, I also liked Jimi's Little Wing. You know his song Fire, correct? That was a standard at the record hops I went to with live, small town bands.
...
And at the other end of the spectrum Pushin' Too Hard by The Seeds. I have a nightmarish memory of The Seeds playing this in a sitcom that featured Kaye Ballard (who?) Older posters will know. Might have been an episode of Bewitched....
= = = = =
Extra money…
Before I was 16...
My Dad had his own business so once I got big enough I usually was delegated to help.
Never actually got paid but if I “needed” money he had would give me a few bucks.
Of course to pick up a few bucks here and there; I would shovel snow, rake leaves,
or mow a lawn or two. No power mower either, it was a reel push mower.
Oh yea, and the preverbal tossed pop bottle was always returned for the 2¢ deposit,
a nickel for one of those quart bottles.
Well we lived close to a super market, and often Mom would send me on a errand to pick
up a few things from the store. The parking lot had a slope toward the street, if
there was a shopping cart at the end of the lot, I would always push it (sometimes a few)
back up to the store. The manager would see me do this and one day manager was talking
to a guy in a business suit. The 'suit' was the District Manager for the chain, He stopped
me as I entered the store and asked me how old I was. (14) He said when I turned 16 that
I had a job at the store if I wanted it. Then he took my name, address and phone number.
(as Paul Harvey would say... "Now the rest of the story"...)
A couple of weeks later 4 area stores in the chain got a shipment of 5,000 watermelons
via open bed semi-truck. The policy of the chain was they don't unload the goods. The
driver had to unload the melons. The manager negotiated that for a penny a melon he knew
a kid (me) that would help. I got a phone call. Now it wasn't that hard. The stores had
a system on metal ramps that had rollers on them, I just had to lift the melons, put them
on the ramp and they would roll down into the back of the store. It took most of the
day, the driver even bought me lunch, and I got $50 mad money. Not bad bucks in 1960.
When I turned 16 I also got the part time job at the store, usually stocking shelves
at night.
I coveted those "carry out" jobs. They were coveted as I recall because there just weren't jobs around for kids. I never did bail but it always seemed as though someone was bailing on a farm somewhere.
I passed papers six days a week for a buck a week for over a year in the fifth grade. I had another route in the eighth grade that I could never do because of sports. It was a lucrative route - for my sub!
I did run an ad when I was 15 for mowing yards and I had a few. If close to the house I'd go off with my gas can; if farther away, my dad would drive me. ( I had one in the country and the old lady paid me three dollars!) Back in those days ten bucks in the pocket bought a lot of stuff. We had a drug store up town with the old fashioned lunch counter. They sold nickle cokes and nickle bags of Casey Jones chips; milk shakes in those metal containers were a quarter.! Comic books were a dime or a quarter.
I believe I have mentioned that the men's night softball league had a guy who sat in the stands each night and handed out dimes to kids who fetched a ball (had to roll across the road), and a quarter if it went into the park pond. Amazing how many of those foul balls made their way to the water in the shadows and darkness behind home plate.
I was amazed one night when two balls hit the road and bounced too far into the water to be retrieved from the shore. But, two older teenagers actually went in and swam about half way out (35-45 yards; 8-10 feet deep and very dark out) and got the balls. No quarters for them - they kept them.
I had more fun leaning against the sides of cars during the games, chasing foul balls and talking to my friends while doing it than most of the other adventures of my childhood. Wonderful summer evenings for 4-5 years. If it was one of the handful of hot days, we swam and got to the softball games a bit later.
When we finally left the park, we would trudge up the hill on old rte. 30, and go to the Snack Shack for refreshments, paying with our foul ball haul. The four-sided , bold face clock on the Wyandot County Courthouse illuminated much of downtown and usually read somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00. I could actually lie in bed and see one side of that clock from my room three blocks away.
Sometimes as we finally walked or rode our bikes slowly home after the Snack Shack, we pass Neumesiters' bakery and the night shift guys would be working on the next day's bread and sweets. The back screen door was usually open in the summer and you could smell the bake goods from blocks away.
If the mood struck us at any time of day, we could go in that back door of the bakery and go to a barrel where the workers tossed discarded dough.. Kids were "allowed" to take chunks of it, shove in to a bag, and go to the park and fish. I'd say between the ages of 6 and 14 I did this hundreds of times.
Oh yea, and the preverbal tossed pop bottle was always returned for the 2¢ deposit,
a nickel for one of those quart bottles.
...
Great memories, pup.
When I was nine, my family moved to a new housing development, where the construction workers left behind countless pop bottles. They let us collect the bottles in our little wagon and we would take them to Phil and Jerry's Foodarama to cash them in. Comic book and baseball card money!
A brand new housing plat in suburbia = a 2-cent pop bottle goldmine!
Forgot the two cent pop bottles and the quarts! The two oldest Bricely brothers, Jim and Mike; a.k.a., Bo and Blue Light and I hauled a shopping cart full of the two centers to Lyons' Foodtown one day and probably got $3-$5.
Bo and I were in the park on a July 4th. morning one year, and a bunch of guys from the local Westinghouse were having a softball game among themselves. They ask us to ump home and the bases and then passed a hat for coins and gave us around $10! (Forever destroying my amateur status.)
One year my cousin Randy and I went around the Wyandot County Fairgrounds collecting pop bottles the Sunday morning after the fair was over. We probably had several hundred and some a. h. appeared, (groundskeeper, etc.) and chased us out and kept the bottles!! Back then we never thought of going home and complaining.
It's no wonder that Rod Serling and Ray Bradbury wrote so many stories about their childhoods and old times, in general.
Forgot the two cent pop bottles and the quarts! The two oldest Bricely brothers, Jim and Mike; a.k.a., Bo and Blue Light and I hauled a shopping cart full of the two centers to Lyons' Foodtown one day and probably got $3-$5.
...
That's a lot of baseball cards and comic books in those days!
Back in the mid-to-late sixties (if my memory is correct): A nickel for a pack of baseball cards and twelve cents for a comic book (fifteen cents for Classics Illustrated). I have no idea what a comic costs now, but I would guess $3-5. That's some serious inflation.
a quarter covered two books and the tax. They really need to bring back spinner racks. Shelves suck. No mystery at all. Spinning to see if your comic came in? Gold.
Fifty years ago as you got out of school you could turn on that a.m. car radio and hear A Little Bit O Soul by The Music Explosion from the Mansfield area ( worked with a woman that went to school with two of them at Ashland Crestview).
Right after that an eclectic station might play Galveston by the genius, Glen Campbell.
Hated the Browns draft and now I don't believe they will ever get it right.
YES! Take for granted scoring 45. A pleasure to watch.
Two late night ravers: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - from the first Zep album. And, I'd Love to Change The World by Alvin Lee and Ten Years After. Both of these old songs give me chills!!
Garden Party by Rick Nelson. Catchy little country rock tune by the good looking teen star of the 50's. Actual a much more serious and better performer than given credit for. died tragically in a small plane crash in 1985 on Dec. 31st. at the age of 45 while doing one nighters.
I actually saw Rick perform one Sunday afternoon in 1982 at the Hollow Inn between Upper Sandusky and Tiffin. This establishment was a hole in the wall in the country. I have spoken about it before as I had the two sons of the owners in school.
Box Car Willie performed there frequently. The mother of my students had been unable to afford to go to shows as a young teen and told herself that if she ever had a chance to own a bar, she would hire acts . And, she did. I believe, you could also order a half a broasted chicken while you watched the show.
Rick was great. A friend" of mine and I were standing outside when Rick was driven to the front of the building. As he emerged he was literally attacked by some very fine looking, just the other side of 40, ladies. Surreal and Rick was great!
At Madison Square Garden Rick was booed when he started to play some newer songs. "And if memories are all I have, I'd rather drive a truck." Rick had a band named The Stone Canyon Band and toured extensively and they were pretty good. Garden Party rose to No. 6 on the charts. Give the song a listen and see how many of the references you can identify.
And, for our other hit tonight, let's go with Abraham, Martin and John by the legendary and still performing, Dion. Seems appropriate what with the 50th anniversaries this spring and summer of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.
Sweet, sad song and very beautiful. My 22-year old hip hopper here loves Run-Around - Sue.
(I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
And play our songs again
When I got to the garden party
They all knew my name
No one recognized me
I didn't look the same
But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
People came from miles around
Everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus
(There was magic in the air
'N' over in the corner
Much to my surprise
Mr Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes
Wearing his disguise)
(But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lott-in-dah-dah
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Played them all the old songs
Thought that's why they came
No one heard the music
We didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou"
She belongs to me)
Hello May Lou...
(When I sang a song about a honky-tonk)
(It was time to leave
But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lot-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
Lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Someone opened up a closet door
And out stepped Johnny B Goode
Playing guitar
Like a-ringin' a bell
And lookin' like he should)
(If you gotta play at garden parties
I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang
I rather drive a truck)
(But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lot-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
Lot-in-dah-dah-dah
'N' it's all right now
Learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So you got to please yourself )
- - - - -
The 'N' refers to 'Nelson'
:>---
Leatherneck
The term "leatherneck" was derived from a leather stock once worn around the neck by both
American and British Marines. In the United States, beginning in 1798, "one stock of black
leather and clasp" was issued to each Marine every year.
As protection...
While the stock is understood to have been worn only for posture,
legend tells that it was worn to protect the neck from sword cuts,
such as cutlass slashes while boarding ships.
The leather stock was adopted three years prior to the Barbary War in
which United States Marines first fought African troops armed with scimitars.
Barbary War is referenced in the Marines' Hymn... "To the shores of Tripoli"
ohiopup - good show on your voluminous contributions!
More on Abraham, Martin And John. The song peaked at No. four. Dion said that he received over 4,000 letters thanking him for the song.
The song was written by a rockabilly cat named Richard Holler (good name!). He also wrote that other reverent like tune, Snoopy And The Red Baron.
Real good version of the song sung by Dion on the Smothers' Brother's' Show. Dion sportin' an early "Beatles'-type haircut" and showing off his chops with some fine finger picklin' guitar work. Still gives me chills. I have read a lot about Bobby Kennedy and his transformation; His death really, really hurt the country.
Not surprised to have read that George Harrison and Rick Nelson were neighbors and good friends, thus George's attendance at The Garden Party.
ohiopup - good show on your voluminous contributions!
More on Abraham, Martin And John. The song peaked at No. four. Dion said that he received over 4,000 letters thanking him for the song.
The song was written by a rockabilly cat named Richard Holler (good name!). He also wrote that other reverent like tune, Snoopy And The Red Baron.
Real good version of the song sung by Dion on the Smothers' Brother's' Show. Dion sportin' an early "Beatles'-type haircut" and showing off his chops with some fine finger picklin' guitar work. Still gives me chills. I have read a lot about Bobby Kennedy and his transformation; His death really, really hurt the country.
Not surprised to have read that George Harrison and Rick Nelson were neighbors and good friends, thus George's attendance at The Garden Party.
Rock on!
While on the subject of Dion, a new musical "The Wanderer" opened yesterday on Broadway. It's based on the life and music of Dion DiMucci. It seems to be much like previous musicals "Jersey Boys", "Beautiful, The Carol King Story" and "Million Dollar Quartet". Whatever the case, I'm expecting it to be well worth seeing:
I can't let the weekend pass without a mention of the 48th anniversary of one of the real tragedies of our lifetimes -- the shootings at Kent State, which took the lives of 4 young Americans and wounded 9 others.
As someone who was a college freshman at EMU at the time, this truly hit home with me and has been forever etched into my memory. I think about this every year with sadness and grief.
I can't let the weekend pass without a mention of the 48th anniversary of one of the real tragedies of our lifetimes -- the shootings at Kent State, which took the lives of 4 young Americans and wounded 9 others.
As someone who was a college freshman at EMU at the time, this truly hit home with me and has been forever etched into my memory. I think about this every year with sadness and grief.
Amen Monclova Steve! To me, May the Fourth is not some silly Star Wars meme. For those of us who grew up at that time (and especially in that area), May 4, 1970, is a day of sadness and remembrance.
I played "Ohio" just today and my son said , Is that Neil Young?" So, I gave him the scoop and he said he liked Neil's rockers better. (Rockin in The Free World)
He knew very little about Kent.
I, on the other hand, was a frosh at OSU and was hitchhiking home from around Marion (someone had given me a ride to that point) and recall clearly truckers swerving at me, probably in response to my shoulder length hair, I was sure.
I walked for a mile or so and an older Black man picked me up. Said he was going fishing at the Indian Mill in Upper. So, we chatted all the way into town and he drove me to my front door.
This is a gross generalization, but it seems as though most of the people who were upset by the students were the 25-45 year old White males.
Probably like many of you, I had a friend or two there. My pool-older- life guard "girl friend" 's brother was a frosh there that day. I couldn't believe the campus closed for the rest of the quarter/semester.
We have commented on her before, but the 14-year old girl kneeling over Jeff Miller is Mary Vecchio, a runaway from Florida. (Picture won a Pulitizer prize) Sixty two today and still asked about her obscure, iconic place that day in history.
Seems like last week or a thousand years ago.
Something to ease the pain tonight but appropriate: Van Morrison with Moon Dance and Tupelo Honey.
RIP ~ John "Jabo" Starks (10/26/1938 - 5/1/2018 age 79
And another era has come and gone. it's fascinating to watch and listen to videos of Jabo and the late Clyde Stubblefield and how they could make a slight change to an established groove, and give a new song its own unique flavor and sound - without sounding contrived.
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