UPDATE: Isn’t funny how dreams and memories work? I was sleeping when one of my memories came back to me of this year. Volleyball! We used to love to play volleyball in the summer and would drink and play for hours. We had a mixture of all types of people (just like the people I fit in with). We had the Jocks, the cheerleaders the heads, the bookworms, lol, we all loved to play around together in the summer, we did not have definitive cliques. From dawn to well into 10 pm we would always be doing something.
Hmmm, what can I say here? This year I gave up my league bowling and concentrated more on football, basketball, baseball and band. One thing I didn’t mention in 1973, because I am getting the years mixed up was that I played for the Cowboys once again, but this year is different I am on JV and started my lettering. This is also my second year in JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp), have my eye on being company leader next year, I am also in the JROTC Drum and Bugle Corps (one of 2 ways I attained Sgt. And my piping) and this is the first year for the Rangers. We had loads of fun and went on maneuvers it was so cool.
Worked the Oktober fest on base as a waiter in the Bier Tent, would close up after and have to clean up the next morning. We would always find money laying around, Sunday morning I made 1000 Marks, close to five hundred dollars, the 4 of us would split anything we found, and yeah we were all honest, so we each ended up with about $177 or so. The Germans would always look at the Americans like we were crazy. First off, when served bratwurst it was served on paper plate with broechen (hard roll) and a dab of spicy brown mustard. Being Americans, we would split the broechen, put the mustard in followed by the bratwurst and eat it like a hotdog on a bun, Wrong! Lol. The correct way (Deutches – German) is to dip the bratwurst in the mustard and take a bite, then take a bite of the broechen, (know why didn’t we think of that?). The other reason is being Americans, you know how we love our corn on the cob with butter and salt (hehe this is a good one). The German people always wondered why we were eating pig food (Pig Food? Yep, that’s right, you hear me! Pig Food!). Corn is grown exclusively to feed the hogs in their slop, and not eaten by humans. Some did get brave and tried it and even liked it! Good times.
Back to football. IF you have ever read Doonesbury and that football team with Zonker Harris, that was about 80% of the team. Think Gary Trudeau has heard rumors about us lol. Our half back would go out before games, put his helmet on and run up against a brick wall. During a helmets only practice, Stan came rushing though the line (he was a defensive tackle, I was a half back), through my ass on the ground, pointed at me and said “Just so you know that I can do that at anytime” He then smiled his big smile reached down, helped me up and dusted me off. That was the last time the whole year he ever “touched” me lol. Back to Zonker, we had peoples that would get high, drink, smoke or combination of any and all of the three. On the away trips we would hang up a army blanket about a quarter way from the front of the bus, and the partying and music would start (both before and after the game, lol). I remember listening to stuff like “Funky Stuff” and “Men Green” just to name a few. Our most memorable game was against Bitburg, now that is like us going against Frankfurt. Bitburgs field we had to go down a little valley at it sat on top of a hill higher than the school. This was near the end of the season, as a matter of fact the next to the last game so it was near the end of November. It was cold, I mean cold and that is how the game started, though sunny (for the time being). In the second quarter it started to rain and boy was that miserable. This should have been an easy game for us, in the third quarter the wind picked up, the temperature dropped and it started to snow. We had a hard time seeing who was who on which team because we were all brown from mud. The middle part of the field was a mud hole. Then in the fourth the sleet came, just when we thought it couldn’t get any more miserable. But we had fun and we won 12 to 8. Can you say party?! Yep, and that night we had a dance to top it all off. You should have seen how fast the guys (and girls) got showered and changed and to the dance, record time. Went to the Winter Dance, dress in JROTC as were most others and had a ball dancing (love dancing, more on that in the later years). Behind Patrick Henry Village (we were lived) was an old burned out barn. Used to have rumors of bodies buried there, etc., but was a popular make out place for the older kids. At this time I had friends from Seniors to Seventh Graders. On of the seventh graders was with me and two other friends when we decided to jump the fence and see. We were walking around front, and he was blowing on something. One asked what are you doing? He said seeing if this balloon is still good. We busted out laughing; he was blowing into a used rubber. Never let him live that down, but also never told anyone who wasn’t there. I have a girlfriend (TJ) whom I just recently got back in touch with, and she would be my last girlfriend in Germany. TJ (and I used to go to the swimming pool off post, it was indoors and had a 5 meter (15 foot) dive. We also babysat children together at the American Legion Post Home (during the meetings).
This was also a sad year for me, I lost three friends. Near the end of the summer, two of my friends, who went bike riding to Karlsruhe, were killed by a drunk driver. If I hadn’t been grounded I might have been with them. The driver went through one 3 foot diameter oak tree before being stopped by another after hitting them, two died instantly and the third at the hospital. Found out later it was my girlfriends’ mother who had served him the last drink at the Club and sent him home; she was broken up about this for quite awhile blamed herself. The other happened during the beginning of my freshmen year. Kerri Quinn, a very good person, had gotten leukemia, but wasn’t diagnosed until too late. She was a classmate, friend and confidant and I miss her a lot. She succumbed before Thanksgiving. I remember our times together dearly, but those are my precious moments of her brief life and I don’t share them with anyone, not even her family or other friends.
There are probably many things I am forgetting, so much happened during this time, it is like a blur. After talking to some of my old friends from that time, most are the same way. We remembered we had fun, we had a good time we laughed and loved, but damned if we can remember much of anything else. As I remember I will update it.
MUSIC:
Songs to come out: Waterloo (ABBA), Tin Man (America), You’re the First, the Last, My everything (Barry White), Smoking in the Boys Room (Brownsville Station also Martian Boogie- my fav), Let It Ride, Taking Care of Business, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Bachmann-Turner Overdrive), Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglass), Haven’t Got Time For The Pain (Carly Simon), Another Saturday Night (Cat Stevens), Diamond Dog, Rebel Rebel (David Bowie), Blackwater (The Doobie Brothers), Already Gone, Best of My Love (Eagles), The Bitch Is Back, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me (Elton John), I Shot the Sheriff (Eric Clapton), Cat’s in the Cradle (Harry Chapin), Heartless (Heart), Rock The Boat (Hues Corporation), Bungle In The Jungle (Jethro Tull), I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song (Jim Croce), Whatever Gets You Through the Night (John Lennon his only solo hit), Jungle Boogie (Kool and the Gang), Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynard), Midnight At The Oasis (Maria Muldaur), I Honestly Love You (Olivia Newton-John), Billy Don’t Be A Hero, The Night Chicago Died (Paperlace), Magic (Pilot), Killer Queen (Queen), It’s Only Rock And Roll (The Rolling Stones), Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (Steely Dan), Don’t You Worry About A Thing (Stevie Wonder), Seasons In The Sun (Terry Jacks) and Jet, Band On The Run, Juniors Farm (Wings).
The Albums: Waterloo (ABBA), Alice Cooper Greatest Hits (Alice Cooper), Bad Company (Bad Company), Badfinger (Badfinger), Endless Summer (The Beach Boys), Diamond Dogs (David Bowie), Burn (Deep Purple), Dark House (George Harrison), Kansas (Kansas), KISS, Hotter Than Hell (KISS), Feats Don’t Fail Me Now (Little Feat), Queen II (Queen), Goodnight Viena (Ringo Starr), Rush (Rush), Desolution Boulevard (Sweet) and It’s Only Rock And Roll (The Rolling Stones).
Events: Jefferson Airplane becomes Jefferson Starship, Beatles breakup is finalized after 4 years, Cher files for divorce, Peter Gabriel leaves Genesis, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac, and the following bands form and debut: Blind Faith (Clapton, Winwood, Baker), Ramones, Van Halen, Blondie, Talking Heads, Rush, Kiss and Kansas.
MOVIES: Airport 1975 ( Charlton Heston, George Kennedy), Back To The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowall), Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (Peter Fonda), Peanuts: It’s The Easter Beagle Charlie Brown, The Godfather II (Al Pacino), The Great Gatsby (Robert Redford), The Longest Yard (Burt Reynolds), The Odessa File (Jon Voight), The Terminal Man (George Segal), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marilyn Burns), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Walter Matthau), The Towering Inferno (Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain) and Thunderbolt And Lightfoot (Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges –looks cute as a girl lol, George Kennedy, Gary Busey).
EVENTS: NBC and CBS start 24-hour News Radio, Nixon Refuses then relents to handover White House Tapes, Nessie (The Loch Ness Monster) is photographed, Jaws is published by Peter Benchley, first human heart transplant, Patty Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, max speed on autobahn reduced to 100 kph (62 mph), Iran/Iraq border war (still at it?), People magazine begins sales, Watergate grand jury indicts 7 presidential aides, worst air disaster to date – Turkish DC-10 crashes killing 346, US Monitor is restored and docked at Cape Hatteras, Charles DeGaulle Airport opens in Paris, last Japanese soldier that has been conducting a guerilla war for 29 years after WWII ended surrenders, Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, first performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Opryland in Nashville, Oil embargo against the U.S. ends, attempt made to kidnap Princess Anne from a mall in London, at least 148 tornadoes are recording in close to a dozen states, World Trade Center opens (remember 9/11), Hank Aaron ties then breaks Babe Ruth’s all time homerun record, Red Brigade kidnaps Italian General Sossi and than later frees him, Barbara Walters becomes news co-anchor on the Today Show, NFL grants franchises to Seattle and Tampa Bay, Symbionese Liberation Army is destroyed in a shootout killing 6, Isabel Peron succeeds her husband as President of Argentina, House Judiciary Committee approves 2 articles of impeachment against President Nixon and recommends impeachment, Richard Nixon resigns, Congress says we can own gold (whoot!), Hurricane kills 4000 in Bangladesh, Gerald Ford becomes the first non-elected president (he was appointed VP by Nixon, and succeeded Nixon after he resigned, never being elected to either office), President Ford pardons former President Nixon of all federal charges, Record 7 hour plus baseball game lasting 25 innings and having 202 plate appearance between the Cards and Mets – cards win 4 to 3, Gerald Ford awards amnesty to all draft dodgers of the Vietnam war, General Haig becomes Supreme Commander of NATO, Riot breaks out in Boston over busing and National Guard is called in, Muhammad Ali KO’s George Foreman in Zaire the famous Rumble I the Jungle, Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras killing 5,000, first elected Mayor of Washington D.C., United States vs. AT&T antitrust suit to break up AT&T, Freedom of Information Act is passed and the LA Skid Row killer starts with his first killing.
CARTOONS: Hong Kong Phooey, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Land of the Lost, Shazam and the Harlem Globetrotters
TV SHOWS:
Ending-Love American Style, Dean Martin Show, Flip Wilson Show (the devil made them do it) and Monty Python’s Flying Circus signs off on the BBC.
Debut – Six Million Dollar Man, Rockford Files, Good times spins off from Maude (Dyn-o-mite!) and every ones favorite ‘hood/cool guy is born when Happy Days premiers (Aaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!)
