Thanks

Tonight this site collected it's 1000th hit since April 14th. I know that's not much compared to the other places, but for this little spot it's a good number. A great number in fact, and for the record, that doesn't count the times I've been here, because the counter is set not to include my PC. So it's almost all you guys and at just about 2 and a half months, that's about 400 hits a month. I appreciate it and I appreciate you, each of you. Merci mes amis.

Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll

Okay, we’ve spent some time talking about dating here, so we know none of us experimented with sex before we were married, right? Right. In fact we hardly ever talked or even thought about it, right? Right. Okay, I thought so. So, since that’s settled we can move away from that part of this post.

I’ve said a couple of things about rock n’ roll so far and we all liked it to some degree or another, right? I thought so. We can move on from that part of this post too.

But wait, we were raised in the 60s right? So we were part of the dope smoking, peace loving, free sex generation, right? Right? Come on, help me out here. Your grandkids aren't looking over your shoulder!

At our 25th reunion at the high school, one of the changes that piqued my curiosity was they had removed the stalls from the boy’s restrooms. When I asked why, someone said, “Because of the drugs.” I've attended sporting events and other such affairs at a number of high schools in a good number of states, and only my alma mater had a drug problem so bad they had to remove the restroom stalls!

Which leads me to the point of this whole thing... when did you first become aware of pot? I know I'm going to get a big fat zero for comments on this, but I am curious enough to ask anyway. I became aware in 69 when I was offered some brownies laced with pot while visiting some friends in Knoxville, but I wasn't aware of a lot of it in Loudon. I'm not saying there was none of the evil weed around, because there was, but it wasn't very prevalent in the circles I ran in. Most of the people I knew still opted for beer as their buzz maker, if they had one at all.

Now granted, when I got to California it was everywhere. You couldn’t go to a party without getting a contact high from just breathing the air, but I don’t think dope was that common when we were in school, was it?

Friends

The unofficial theme song of this blog.

It seems to me a crime that we should age
These fragile times should never slip us by
A time you never can or shall erase
As friends together watch their childhood fly

Making friends for the world to see
Let the people know you got what you need
With a friend at hand you will see the light
If your friends are there then everything's all right

With apologies to Elton John

Home Room

I have been toying with the idea of writing something about home room for awhile, but guess what? I don't remember that much about it! I know it was the first class of the day and it was what, 3o minutes long? Other than that, I don't remember much.

Heck, I can't honestly remember who was in it other than Kenny Parks, Nancy Jo Perkins, Gary Poe, Wayne and Becky Poole, and Lynnette, but that's only because they had to be since their last names began with a P. :) Sometimes I think Brenda and Donna were in it, but that's because I think I remember Debbie Nathanson being in it Senior year. Then sometimes I think Doris was in it too, but I'm really not sure.

How many home rooms were there anyway? Four? Five?

I mean it's not that big of a deal. It's not like we did anything special during home room anyway, except maybe hurry up and do some homework for later in the day. As I remember it was mostly a gabfest, or a place to sit and yawn.

So if any of you can say much about it, go ahead. The same goes for assemblies. Other than the special ones like the one Brenda mentioned, I don't recall a lot about assemblies. Wait. Didn't we have one where each home room or specific class was supposed to put on a skit? I can remember being the father character in our little skit. My one and only line was something like, "Bills, bills, bills!", and then I slapped the table I was sitting next to. How prophetic, me complaining about bills. :) I don't even remember who played the mom or the kids. Again, Doris, Ann, and Lynette come to mind.

Anyway, I don't recall much about either subject. Maybe we should make a list of things we only remember bits and pieces about, like home room and assemblies, and maybe somebody else can remember enough about it to take it and run with it. What do you think?

Radio, such as it was

Let me see, for our radio listening pleasure there was... hmmmm... WNOX. Oh, and WLIL. (Who could forget the Saturday morning replay of the football games?) For the life of me though, I can't remember the country station I listened to most. As FM was still largely "drug store" music, I seem to remember things were limited as far as listening to the radio went. I also remember at night turning the knob so painstakingly slow and picking up WSM from Nashville, WLS from Chicago, KMOS from St. Louis, and I've long since forgotten the stations I could sometimes get from Baltimore, Atlanta and Memphis.

Remember how the radio used to get drowned out when you drove under a powerline? Or how lightening would make it crackle? Or how the signal would sometimes fade in and out. I can remember moving the radio every so often to try and get just a few less pops and crackles. I actually miss it sometimes. You can't tune radios now like you could then. You can't move the dial as fine now as I used to be able to, and sometimes that's too bad

I think it was 1965 when I bought a 45 from Tic Toc's called Go Now by a group call The Moody Blues. At the time I thought they were a Beatles wannabe band. I still have it somewhere in a box. It was a good enough song that a few years later when I saw an album by the same group called Days of Future Past, I bought it and never looked at music the same way again. If you're not familiar with that one, it included the songs Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon. It was definitely not the music WNOX played. Not then anyway. They started playing more of it though, just in time for me to hear a song called Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. Again, I liked it so much I bought the album. If you want to irritate your grandmother, try listening to an album that includes a song called The Pusher. If you're not familiar with it, it has a chorus of "I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man". A little tame compared to some of the stuff today, but in 1968 in Loudon, that one would get your butt kicked.

Anyway, I was on my way. Those albums joined others I had of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, and my collection has been varied ever since. About that same time I discovered Creedence Clearwater Revival and a folk singer from Canada called Gordon Lightfoot to broaden my collection even more. Now, whenever I hear an old favorite it makes me think of that staticy old AM radio and searching for something "good" to listen to. Music will never sound as good to me as it did then.

Post Index

This is problably of no real interest to anyone but me. It's sort of an index of posts along with how many comments they have gotten. So far 58 posts (I guess 59 counting this one) and 68 comments. I was trying to figure out what kind of topics drew the most comments. I think Brenda is beating me.... all of her posts have comments. :) But it's obvious the more general the topic, the more comments. Most of my posts are Doug-centric, but I have a crutch... my memory. :) Does that mean I'm going to stop adding posts? Nope. But it does mean I'm calling in reinforcements. Anyone who wants to start adding some, just let me know and I'll get you added to this blog in no time. I know I've said that before, but I think Brenda has done a terrific job and it shows that two writers are better than one, and if that is true, then more writers have to be better yet. Don't be surprised if you get an email one of these days from blogger.com. :) And to the ones that I don't have email addresses for yet, (psssssttt... Darlene and Delphia, I'm talking about you), an email address is all I need to get you started. Think about it. Please? :)

Lets Go To Town! --- 5
My Worst Date Ever --- 3
What Do You Remember Staying In For? --- 0
Stores and stores and stores --- 3
Money --- 3
Night Moves --- 0
Speaking Loudon --- 3
End of the Rainbow --- 0
Thoughts on Memorial Day --- 0
I Can See Paradise by the Dashboard Lights --- 0
Yearbooks --- 2
Teachers --- 2
Characters --- 0
Middle Aged Insomniacs Who Can't Quite Make It Past Hump Day --- 1
I Don't Know Beans --- 1
School Trips --- 3
Cafeteria --- 3
Driver's Ed --- 3
Gym Class II --- 0
The Place --- 0
Gym Class --- 4
Lockers --- 5
State of the Blog and Head Count --- 0
Regrets, I Have a Few, But Then Again… Who Doesn’t? --- 2
Some Things I Learned in High School --- 0
Where Did You Come From? --- 1
What Did It Cost? --- 3
The Funny-looking Balloon Hanging on my Locker --- 2
Can Anybody Here Dance? --- 0
First Car Blues --- 1
Songs That Take Me Home ---0
I Can't Believe I Did That!!! --- 2
The Box --- 1
Time Changes Us All ---0
Food for Thought --- 2
Lifeline --- 0
What If? --- 0
Just For Grins --- 0
Peak-a-boo... I see you!!! --- 0
Anyone Have Any Pictures? --- 0
Can You Say Dress Code? --- 1
My How Things Have Changed --- 0
More Business --- 0
Were We That Naive? --- 0
Why This Blog? --- 0
The State Champs --- 0
The Good Ol' Days --- 0
You know, there is a comments section --- 0
Our First X Rated Movie --- 2
I'll Take the Plunge --- 1
The Way We Were --- 5
Where Did We Go? --- 2
Did We Really Like That Stuff? --- 0
What We Listened To --- 0
Best, Worst and Most Unusual --- 1
Embarrassing Moment --- 1
The First Day --- 0
Recognize it? --- 0

What Do You Remember Staying In For?

Like most of you, over the past 30 years I’ve been running kids from pillar to post for one reason or another. Hardly a night goes by that at least one doesn’t have to be somewhere for something. I don’t mind, it’s part of the job of being a parent, but it does make me wonder about how much running around I did at that age. I really don’t remember that much. There were school and church events, but that was about it. Maybe it was just me, and everybody else was running around like crazy, but I can recall having to make excuses to go out.

Anyway, the point to all this is what did you stay in for, and I’m primarily talking about television. I will admit that in the past 15 years or so, I haven’t watched much television. I watch football and a little baseball, and I catch an occasional movie, but mostly I tend to agree with Bruce Springsteen... “57 channels and there’s nothing on...”

But there were shows that I would stay in for in high school. Laugh-In was one, I rarely missed it. I caught the Monkees most of the time. Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, Bewitched, and even Hee Haw. Also there was Bonanza, Gunsmoke, High Chaparell, and occasionally Dean Martin.

To me, the best night on television came a little later in the early 70s when CBS made it bearable to be home on a Saturday night with a line up that included All in the Family, Sanford & Son, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnette.

What were your favorites?

Stores and stores and stores

This is a compliation of all the traffic, both here and in emails, about stores. I never realized it before, but there was a ton of stores in town. Most were the little neighborhood grocery stores.

First I remember the White Store in town and the Stop and Shop in West End. Then later they built the IGA across the river, and for a time there was a Cas Walker store going into Lenior City. There was also the IGA in Philadelphia.

Now for the little ones. Hill Lomax was in town, right beside the bridge. Going out of town toward Piney, there was Mrs. White's on Greesy Corner and then Bill Akins' store across the street from where Lewis's Grocery was for so long. Further up the hill was Carl Giles' store on top of the hill. On out toward Piney was Simpson's and then Dutton's on down by Jackson. There was another store on the curve where the road into Piney cut off 72, but I can't remember the name, and there was another small store on Steekee Road, almost to the turnoff to Steekee school and I can't remember the name of that one either.

Also in town, Mr. Lawhorn used to have a tiny store just across the tracks from the Junior High School. He used to sell cigarettes for 2 cents a piece. On Ferry Street, out near the old Grammar School, Julian's had a store. Jean's folks I think. In West End was Cathcart's(?) on the corner of 11 and Highland Avenue. Further up Highland was Vair's Store on the corner of Summer Street. Then down 72 from the Junior High School was Rose's, run by John's folks. (I'm running out of grocery stores here, so somebody's going to have to help me out.) If produce places count here there was Ridenor's on 11 just up from the traffic light, and the one that was on the corner of Ferry Street and old 72 near the ball park.

As for department type stores, 5 to 5 used to be downtown by the poolhall for years, then it moved to the West End. There were 5 and 10 Cent stores on the corner by the fountain and between Richeson's Drug Store and Tic Toc's. There was also a Drug Store across 11 from Tic Toc's, next to Greer's. Tic Toc's used to be the only place in town you could by records.

I know I'm missing some more stores on the side streets, but that's about where my memory screeches to a halt. Help me out.

Money

Money, money, money money. Mon-ney. (Somehow it doesn't have the same affect as when the O'Jays sing that line)

I worked all four years in high school. Each summer I worked with the city crew. We cut grass a lot (and I do mean a lot), or we rode around on trucks picking up rubbish, or on the trash truck, or heaven forbid, the limb chipper. We even helped pave roads. I helped pave the road that runs up along side the high school. All of it was just plain ol' hard work?

During the school year I was on the crew that helped Clyde Wagner and Frog Williams clean the school. Every day for an hour or so after school and on most Saturdays for at least half a day.

Later I got on at Maremont. It was a little more money and at least it was inside. :)

Why did I work all that time? Like the O'Jays said:

Money, money, money money. Mon-ney.
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it

High school was damned expensive. Clothes and games and dates and cruising and stopping off at the A&W all took money. How much? Don't ask. If you've never done it, go on the Social Security website and sign up for a Social Security Statement. Each year they'll send you an updated breakdown of what you've paid in and what your benefits might be when you retire. Anyway, included in that statement is a listing of your annual Social Security earnings. It's a little less than what you actually made, but it puts you in the ball park, and you can see just how little you made back then. It's enough to make you cry. :)

Want to hear a funny "small world" story? When I worked at Maremont on the muffler line, my supervisor's name (I think) was Jim Ford. The Ford part I'm positive about. Anyway, he was a nice enough guy, although he did stress a lot. When I joined the Air Force in November of 70 they sent me to Texas for basic training. During basic training, as those who've been in the military will remember, they try their damndest to break you down. They yell and threaten and keep you on the go 16 hours a day. For the first few days you are so scared and tired that you don't know your right from your left and wouldn't say boo to anybody. Anyway, after I was there a couple of weeks we were sitting around one day talking with our Drill Sergeant. He was asking us where we were from and when I told him Tennessee he said he had a brother who lived outsife of Maryville that worked in an automotive plant or something near there. For the first time it dawned on me the sergeant's name was Ford, and after another question or two I realized his brother was my old supervisor.

Night Moves

A recent post on dating had the title of an old Meatloaf song, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. I thought it was appropriate and fit my mood at the time since I did that post a little tongue in cheek. That is a good song and I like it a lot, but like so many guys my age, that song is not the best one for capturing the feel for that period of my life. That credit belongs to Night Moves.**

I was a little too tall
Could’ve used a few pounds
--- A note to Bob Seger. I don't need them anymore, in fact I have a few to spare.

Tight pants points hardly renown
--- At some point, this is the number one concern of almost every guy entering his teen years.

She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points all her own sitting way up high
Way up firm and high
--- Hopefully nobody needs to have this part explained to them.

Out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy
---Or tobacco field, or barn, or Notchin Hill, or wherever.

Out in the back seat of my 60 chevy
--- When was the last time you willingly got in the back seat for any reason?

Workin on mysteries without any clues
--- Very few clues at all, or if there were I couldn't read them. However I did have a very inquisitive mind.

Workin on our night moves
Tryin to make some front page drive-in news
--- Ahh, here we are back at the drive in again. Front page news from the back row.

Workin on our night moves
In the summertime
In the sweet summertime, summertime

We weren’t in love, oh no, far from it
--- But in all honesty, at the time we probably thought we were.

We weren’t searchin for some pie in the sky summit
---Nope, definately not pie in the sky, but it was undoubtably a pinnacle.

We were just young and restless and bored
Livin by the sword
---I don't believe I was bored. To me this line never really fit. If you were bored you would be doing all this because there was nothing else to do (which may have some validity to it), but as I recall, it didn't matter if there was anything else to do or not; this came first. But then, who am I to tell Bob how to write a song?

And we’d steal away every chance we could
To backroom, alley or trusty woods
---See? It almost contradicts itself. It appears that things weren't exactly all that boring after all. You remember this don't you? Every chance you got, almost every place you were, was fair game for at least thinking about giving it a try. What happens to that feeling? Maybe that's the boring part Bob was talking about.

I used her, she used me
But neither one cared
We were gettin our share
--- In retrospect it might appear that each one was using the other, but not at the moment. We were there because that's where we wanted to be and who we wanted to be there with. Wasn't it?

Workin on our night moves
Tryin to lose the awkward teenage blues
--- And man were they ever awkward!

Workin on our night moves
And it was summertime

And oh the wonder
We felt the lightning
And we waited on the thunder
Waited on the thunder
--- We felt the heat and the passion, but were we absolutely sure it was the real thing? Were we lucky enough to ever really feel the thunder, the part that would leave little doubt that this was THE one for us?

I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain’t it funny how the night moves
When you just don’t seem to have as much to lose
---At the time it seemed so big, so consuming. It was like if something happened that might end it, it was the end of the world. Everything seemed to be riding on each relationship. If one ended you licked your wounds, put on your best smiling face to try and make your friends think it was no big deal, and told yourself you would go slower the next time, not get so involved. But then you suddenly found yourself grabbing at the next one like it might be your last chance. If you lost it, you lost everything. We carried more than our hearts in our hands, there was a lot to lose.

Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in
--- Now I’m older and this is my autumn. All those night moves come flooding back when I open the memory gates and let them. But are the memories good, or bad, or maybe a little bittersweet? That’s something we all have to answer for our own night moves.

**With apologies to Bob Seger.

Speaking Loudon

A few days ago I was talking with my youngest daughter about something and at one point she said I was speaking "Loudon". That's what she and my youngest son call it when I use an expression they consider southern. I don't really mind, it reminds me of my roots and affirms their roots for them. The expression are usually just something I picked up from my grandmother. She spent her entire life around Loudon and her conversations were usually peppered with expressions and terms I'm sure you've all heard before.

If it rained really hard it was a "gully washer".

If it was cold it was "cold enough to freeze th' horns off a brass monkey", and if it was really cold she added a part of his anatomy the horns were attached to, usually his butt.

If it was hot it was "hotter'n a Georgie firecracker". I guess Georgia firecrackers had more powder in them or something.

If someone had been drinking too much he was "three sheets to th' wind".

If something didn't bother her it was "water off a duck's back".

If someone was a bad shot, or couldn't throw a ball, they "couldn't hit a barn from th' inside".

If she was mad at us she was "gonna cloud up'n rain all over you".

If she thought someone did something stupid she would shake her head and say, "some folks raise th' dumbest young'ns".

If we said we couldn't do something, or wouldn't even try, she would encourage us by saying "can't never could".

If someone had a big ego she would say "I’d like to buy him for what he’s worth 'n sell him for what he thinks he’s worth".

Anyway, that's a few of them, and a lesson in speaking "Loudon". Can you guys add any?