Grounded in ’76

My mother always dreaded attending parent/teacher conferences. I feared that yearly meeting as well. In fact, I would hide outside for as long as I could hoping that she would forget about it. As a former teacher at a one room school, mom knew about naughty kids, and she never thought she would have a boy that the teachers could not tame. My mischief was mostly talking out of turn, teasing people, and making random comments about popular culture. This is what I get paid for now, so it worked out for me in the long run. ‘I’ll bet those teachers wonder, what kind of a mother would raise a kid like that” she would often exclaim after her session at my old school. For a few weeks in the late fall, my allowance was drastically cut and that resulted in an economic hard ship for me as I tried to feed my vinyl record buying addiction.

Songs that I couldn’t afford to buy in November of 1976 included, The Rubber band Man-Spinners, (Don’t Fear) The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult, More Than a Feeling-Boston, Magic Man-Heart, Livin’ Thing-ELO, Mademoiselle-Styx, Beth-Kiss, and Rock n Me-Steve Miller Band. These were playing on the radio, and I heard them often each night on my Panasonic portable radio which fit nicely under my pillow. Another perk of being a music lover that could not shut up was that I could hear those songs on the radio so much better while I was sitting up front by the bus driver.

This Saturday night on Those Were the Days, I will be driving the bus and spinning all of your favorite hits. We will park for a time in 1976. The radio party begins at 6 pm and goes until curfew at midnight. I hope you will join us at your deer camp, family get together, or at your party of one. Those Were the Days is heard on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com, and on the Civic Media app. Stay out of trouble!

Philip Nee