Tie Your Sled to 1972

In late January early February of 1972, I was busy developing my class clown schtick. These skills would eventually help me with my radio career. The studious class of 1982 was 10 years from graduating (most of us). We were riding the bus to Ithaca and then we were transferred to Bear Valley for the school day. Mrs. Mott was my teacher. She was the educator that informed my concerned parents at parent-teacher conferences that I regularly hung out with the girls on the playground instead of playing rough sports with the boys. I loved sports, but I also loved being a good friend of the ladies. Ten years later they all reminded me that I was just such a good friend when I asked them out. When school was out, I would jump off the bus and go directly to my outdoor winter hobbies. One of my favorite Christmas presents ever was a large runner sled. It had a picture of the Apollo rocket painted on it. This sled could hold three kids or one husky boy doing a belly flop. The advantage of the sled over a toboggan is that you can actually steer. I could start up near the hog pen and slide down the driveway all the way past the barn and silo, and I could hop off before the barbed wire fence. The only obstacle was frozen manure in the ice along the way which could stop the sled faster than it started. When that happened, I would slide off and skin my face. It would be spring before the scab healed. The other thrill was when dad hauled manure to spread on the frozen cornfields. He would let me tie my sled to the spreader and I could get pulled down the farm road to the field. I would untie my sled when we arrived at the desired spot. It was all fun and games until dad forgot I was back there one day and I got green freckles. Early 1972 is when I really got into my lifetime hobby of collecting (hoarding according to June) vinyl records. There were plenty of good ones to buy with my allowance. My first purchased 45 was, Have You Seen Her by the Chi-Lites. It seems pretty impressive that a farm boy from rural Wisconsin would purchase a record recorded by an R & B/Soul quartet from Chicago. My second and third purchases were by Donny Osmond and the Partridge Family, and those records did not have as much of a cool factor.

This week on my Those Were the Days radio show, I will be spinning a few from early 1972. My favorites include Day After Day-Badfinger, Sunshine-Jonathon Edwards, Anticipation-Carly Simon, Stay with Me-Faces, Under My Wheels-Alice Cooper, Never Been to Spain-Three Dog Night, Bang A Gong (Get It On)-T-Rex, Let’s Stay Together-Al Green, and Black Dog-Led Zeppelin.

Please give us a call or text between six and midnight Saturday night. I will be in the WRCO studios and I will try to find whatever you request from the fifties through the early nineties. My radio dream that began in 1972 lives on in 2026. I don’t want to wake up!

Phil