Dreams

True story. Last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamt I lived in a house that was only partially finished. I remember the porch wrapped around at least three sides of the house and was very deep and it was made with wide boards and was open and airy, despite a solid banister that came up to my waist.

To get to my house I had to stop beside this other house with the same type porch and then walk across that porch and thru this mall-like area full of little frou-frou shops and cafes, each with several small tables on the sidewalk out front. These tables and the people at the mall made it extremely hard to get though.

I couldn’t see anyone at the first house, but I could somehow “sense” who lived there and when I walked across their porch I lingered for a few minutes, wanting to invite them to my house. I knew they were there, because as I approached the house I could see their cars parked out back, but I never bumped into them.

The weird part to the dream is although I couldn’t “see” the people in this house, I knew who they were; John Rose, Debbie Husky and Jake Lane.

I guess you don’t have to be Freud to interpret the dream. Over the past couple of years I have attempted to contact each of them, along with many others, but I haven’t tried to contacting them in a long time.

In psychology class once we were told dreams like this meant you were obsessing over something, but I don’t think I am, or at least no more than I have been in the past. There is also nothing significant about either of the people involved that I’m aware of . They were all three what I called “hall friends”, meaning we spoke when we saw each other, but didn’t move in the same circles and very seldom saw each away from school.

I would still like them to stop by my place for a visit though. :)

Music Is An Old Friend

I know I have mentioned music a lot, but for most of my life it has been the one thing that could always take me back home again. When you leave home as little more than a boy you grab at anything familiar because you're so homesick, and music was the first and best way I had of doing that, no matter if I was across the country or on the other side of the world. For example, even today when I hear "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel, I remember the day walking along Commerce Street when I first realized I knew all the words to it, and when I hear Percy Sledge sing "When a Man Loves a Woman", I'm sitting in a booth in Richesin's Drug Store drinking a cherry Coke, and when I hear "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf I can still hear my grandma yelling "Turn that stuff down!!"

It's also funny how some song are presented one way, but sung another way. An example of this is "Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn. If you look up the lyrics on the internet they will be written one way, but Loretta sang them another way --- just the way my grandma talked. The opening line is written, "I was born a coal miner's daughter", but Loretta sang it as "I was borned a coal miner's daughter". Later on it says "The work we done was hard, at night we'd sleep 'cause we were tired," but that came out as ".... at night we'd sleep 'cause we were tard". Only someone from our part of the country can rhyme tired with hard.

Anyway, that's what I mean by music being such a friend. Nothing else I know of has such a firm grip on my memories and can bring any one of them racing into my mind, quicker than a song can. I can't help smiling when I hear "I Want to Make it With You" by Bread, because it reminds me of someone, and I even today I still cry a little every time I hear "Amazing Grace" because I think I heard it at every funeral I ever went to when I was growing up, even my grandma's.

I bought a guitar once and was going to learn how to play it, but found out I was too tone deaf to tune it by myself. I still can't play any musical instrument, but I can play a really mean radio! ;)

We Would Have Been Hell With Cellphones

How did we survive our high school years with what little we had? Okay, I don't think I needed video games, but a computer and a cell phone would have been great.

Just think about it. It seemed to take us so long to get anywhere, even around town. I walked a lot, but even some of those that drove didn't always get to go when and where they wanted. What better time to have a cell phone? I got the evil eye sometimes when I used the phone at home but a cell phone would have came in handy with all that time walking.

How many would have gotten expelled for using the cellphones in school? Ann Jaynes probably would have and so would Allen McNabb, not to mention Donna and Pat.

I don't know if I would have used text messaging that much, because I don't now, but back then I think I would have been better at it. My two young ones do it all the time now. They can type faster with two thumbs than I can with two hands.

MP3 players would have been good too. Ever see someone walking back then with their transistor radio held up to their ear? I did it a time or two and the sad part was noise was pretty much all you heard. Tilt or turn your head the wrong way at the wrong time and you lost the station entirely.

Adjusting the Theme

In another couple of weeks this blog will be 2 years old. In that time the theme of the blog has sort of morphed from being about our class, to being about our class plus our generation. The way things were, not just in school, but in coming of age in a nondescript little town in the Tennessee foothills.

Am I the only one who sees that time and place as being somewhat magical? Where there were no real neighborhoods to speak of, because in a lot of cases, the affluent lived right next door, or just across the street from the not so affluent. Or where a little home town grocery store like Charlie Arp's could co-exist right next door to a bigger super market like the White Store.

We knew another world was out there, because we saw it on TV or heard in on the radio, but that other world seldom crept into our little valley. It came close at times. Very, very close in fact. Just ask any member of the Latin Club about Memphis in April, 1968. For the most part though, the outer world stayed away until it was time for us to make our place in it.

So return with us from time to time "to those thrilling days of yesteryear", where we can get together, at this "same bat time on this same bat channel (site)", and remember a time where the only thing we really had to do was grow up.

Star Wars Vol Fans

I found out the other day that George Lucas was a Vol fan, he just chose to let it show in a subtle way. Don't believe me? Watch the original Star Wars movie again, the one from 1978. Near the beginning of the movie, when C3PO and R2D2 are looking for Leah on Tatooine, they come across the Jawas, you know, those little short guys in the heavy brown robes. Anyway, there's a scene where the Jawas are getting on their ship and several of them are talking in their native language of mumbles when one of them plainly says.....

Rocky Top!!!

If you don't believe me, go back and watch that part, and listen for yourself. :)

We Were There

'm sure you are familiar with those emails that pop up from time to time that says something like, "kids who graduate this year have never seen an 8 track", and includes a list of about a hundred other things that they've never seen, or done, or tasted, or spent, or drove, or... well, you get the picture. Anyway, I thought I would reverse that a little and list some of the things we were the first to see, or do, or use, or eat, or... well, you get the picture here too. :)

1966

Events
John Lennon makes the remark the Beatles are more popular than Jesus.
Texas Western wins the Men’s NCAA title over Kentucky with an all black lineup
The Church of Satan is formed
Daylight Savings Time goes into wide spread use
The Gateway Arch is opened in St. Louis
NOW is established
The Beatles release the Revolver album, and play their last concert, at Candlestick Park
The Black Panther Party is founded
The Department of Transportation is created
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is shown for the first time.

TV Shows
700 Club
Batman
Dark Shadows
Family Affair
Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
Green Hornet
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Mission: Impossible
The Monkees
The Newlywed Game
That Girl

Products
Doritos
Quisp cereal
Twister

Vehicles
Ford Bronco
Oldsmobile Toronado
Toyota Corola

1967

Events
The American Basketball Association is formed
Aretha Franklin releases R-E-S-P-E-C-T
The Doors release their first album
Muhammad Ali refuses military service
Tennessee repeals the Monkey Law
The Beatles release the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Israel wins the Six Day War
The long hot summer of 1967 is marked by war protests and race riots across the United States

TV Shows
Carol Burnett Show
The Flying Nun
George of the Jungle
Ironsides
Monday Night Baseball
Phil Donahue Show

Vehicles
Chevrolet Camaro
Mercury Cougar
Pontiac Firebird

Products
Ho Hos
Rockem Sockem Robots
Slurpee
The Super Bowl

1968

Events
North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo
Martin Luther King is assassinated
The musical Hair opens on Broadway
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
The Beatles release the White Album
The Cincinnati Bengals football team is formed.

TV Shows
60 Minutes
Adam 12
Hawaii Five O
Mayberry RFD
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In

Vehicles
AMC Javelin
Ford Torino

Products
Big Mac
Hot Wheels
Virginia Slims cigarettes

1969

Events
The New York Jets win the Super Bowl
The Manson “family” goes on a murder spree in Los Angeles
The Woodstock music festival is held in upstate New York
Hurricane Camille slams into the Mississippi coast
The first automatic teller machine is opened in Rockefeller Center, NY
Apollo 11 lands on the moon
The Miracle Mets win the World Series
The draft lottery was held for the first time
The first AIDS case is reported in the United States
Unix was invented

TV Shows
Bill Cosby Show
Brady Bunch
Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
H R Pufnstuf
Hee Haw
Love American Style
Marcus Welby
Medical Center
Room 222
Sesame Street

Vehicles
Fiat 128
Ford Capri, and
Mercury Capri

Products
Funyuns
Manwich
Microcassettes
Tic Tacs

1970

Events
Diana Ross and the Supremes perform their farewell live concert
The first Earth Day is organized
The Beatles disband
Four students are shot at Kent State
Loudon High School class of 1970 graduates.

TV Shows
All My Children
Mary Tyler Moore Show
McCloud
Monday Night Football
NBC Nightly News
Night Gallery
Odd Couple
Partridge Family

Vehicles
AMC Gremlin
AMC Hornet
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Colt
Range Rover

Products
American Top 40
King Vitaman

We're Not Baby Boomers, We're Centenarians

The other day I saw a picture online of a sign for Loudon and it's subtitle said "Est. 1870" Of course that brought to mind the Centennial we celebrated during our senior year. The biggest thing I recall is the high school waiving the dress code and letting guys grow beards, or should I say TRY to grow beards? As I recall there was a lot of peach fuzz growing around there, and John Williams put us all to shame. He looked like Grizzly Adams and most of the rest of us couldn't even make it to the Maynard G Krebbs level. But hey, it was fun to try.

The other part of it I remember is the time capsule. It's buried beside the court house and I can't remember if it was going to be opened in 50 years or 100 years. I figure if it's opened at 50 years, some of our class should be there, but if it's a hundred years, well... that's another story, except maybe for one or two that I always considered too ornery to even kick the bucket.

Couples

I'm probably going to mess this up. The memory gets a little fuzzy on some things, especially when it doesn't include me, and I wasn't privy to everything that went on at school. What I do remember though is that certain people will forever be linked together in my memories. Whether they went together a long time or a short time, I can't say, but it becomes impossible to think of one without thinking of the other. Some, like Brenda and Bruce are still together, but whether they are or not, somewhere in my mind these couples will always be together.

Doris Russell and Mike McNabb. This is probably the couple that has been together the longest because it goes all the way back to at least sophomore year, if not freshman year.
Bruce Blankenship and Brenda Nicholson. Another couple who have been together for a long time.
Lynn Black and Connie Moore. They're still together too.
Tony Woody and Genie Vaughn
Peggie Dunkin and Mike Franklin
Janis Gray and Hardin Terry. Even though Hardin didn't go to school with us.
Donnie Miller and Donna Kyker
Joe Watson and Beverly McCullough
Allen McNabb and Susan Rudd
John Rose and Debbie Nathanson
Kenny Parks and Cherry Shelton
Ann Williams and Jerry Trout

Then there are those I found out about later, who may have been together in school and I just missed it. Whether they were or not, when I found out they were together it was like, "Huh, that makes sense, because they make a good couple."

Jerry Jones and Lynette Presley
Estes Queener and Nelda Scott
Dickie Blankenship and Becky Poole

So that's the list, even though I might have missed one or two. Did I?