Boaz Getaway 1970

Saturday night on my Those Were the Days radio show, I will spin a few from the January of 1970 Top Forty. Music can transport you back in time and this weekend I will be thinking about the songs I heard while on holiday in Boaz. My mother was born in that area and my Uncle Ed was the owner of Stafford’s Supper Club. She would help out in their kitchen Friday nights. After chores, my dad, sister Sue and I would make the drive and have a late supper. I can remember sitting in the back seat listening to the AM radio in our 1963 Ford Fairlane. One of my favorite meals was a small sizzler steak, Tatar tots, and a glass of chocolate milk. My mother would often give me quarters to play the jukebox and there were many great hits to play in early 1970. There were new groups such as the Jackson Five, Led Zepplin, Badfinger, and the Shocking Blue. Creedence Clearwater Revival was having hit after hit, and the Guess Who had arrived from Canada. The cartoon group the Archies was on the back of my cereal boxes and on the radio. It was a great time to be alive and it is a bit bittersweet as I look back. The original Supper Club burned down one Friday in 1970, and a new one was built. Boaz seemed like a tourist town for me. My uncles Leo and Frank also lived there. I could run from each of their houses and enter without knocking. My mom and dad took me on many a drive back then. They would often make a pit stop at a watering hole. I may have been in more bars as a kid than anyone ever. Perhaps you might think that I became a big drinker in my later years. I am what is known as a tea toddler, but I have fond memories of 1970s panelled rooms, cool beer signs, pool and foes ball tables and pinball machines and of course awesome jukeboxes.

Saturday night I will be throwing it back to 1970 on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com, and on the Civic Media app. You can request a song from all of the eras that we play (the fifties through the early nineties). The trivia bell will ring, and we will remember all kinds of pop culture iconic moments between six and midnight. I may fix me a ‘kiddie cocktail’ with a stir stick through two cherries Saturday night. Those Were the Days my friend.

Phil