Blog
In the summer of 1979, I was busy making hay and mix tapes. There were a few ruffians in the neighborhood that would get together for hoot and hijinks. Some went as far as putting a purse on the edge of a road with a fish line tied to it as they lay in the first row of corn. When a motorist stopped to check on it, the handbag suddenly was pulled into the corn field. This was all fun and games until a big burly motorist started running into the corn and the ruffians had to make a quick sprint to avoid getting beaten up. This is a story I (of course) only heard about while I was studying at the library. Football practice would start in early August, and I was trying out to be the ‘beef’ of the team at the center and nose guard positions. Watching American Bandstand on Saturday afternoons provided me with a look at the latest dance moves that I could try out at the Fall record hops after the Friday night football games. During July of 1979, there were many tunes to jam with while hauling hay, making mix tapes, or traveling to Richland Center to buy my new school pants. My favorite jams from that summer include Let’s Go-the Cars, Gold-John Stewart, One Way or Another-Blondie, Getting Closer-Wings, Dance the Night Away-Van Halen, The Logical Song-Supertramp, Heart of the Night-Poco, and Children of the Sun-Billy Thorpe. In August I attended the Wisconsin State Fair for the first time. Playing at every ride and booth was My Sharona by the Knack. That turned out to be the number one song of the entire year. It was there in West Allis that I spent time at the cream puff stand. That helped prepare me for the kind of football player I became that fall.
It will be great to be in the studio live with you for this weekend’s edition of Those Were the Days. My agility is getting better each day after my recent hip replacement surgery. I should be able to swoop around with my walker and find all of your requests. The tunes from the fifties through the eighties will no doubt knock off my compression socks. Stay with us for trivia and some brand-new prizes between six and midnight Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com, and the Civic Media app. We are going to have so much fun!
Philip