My sophomore year carried me through to 1975, many things going on all around. Last year dad got transferred to MEDCOM, his secondary MOS Military Occupational Specialty) is in English, so he joins the newspaper, the Medical Examiner. He is now the Adjutant for the American Legion Department of France and has joined the 40/8. We traveled to different place such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France and all over Germany. One of my favorite memories is that of my girlfriend TJ. We used to love mixing German Dark Beer, Heineken or Lowenbrau and mixing it with root beer, mmmm great! This is also the first and last time I ever bet a female on anything. All this year I had been doing great in the football pool, but when I bet TJ on the Los Angeles/Washington play off game, the bet being the other would be the slave) have to do their chores etc.) I lost. The first and only playoff bet I had lost in Germany the whole 4 years I was there. One of my chores was to carry her across the parking lot from the indoor pool. Never ask a woman what she has in her handbag; you really don’t want to know. Joking around (and I don’t remember about what), she jokingly swung her hand bag at me and I ducked into it getting cold cocked. She had put our shoes in there but it was actually a piece of brick that hit me upside the head, like I said don’t ask. Dad interviewed the convicted Nazi Architect Albert Speer, and after talking to him thanked him for giving him a fair and not prejudging him before the interview. Mr. Speer gave my dad one of his books (in German) and autographed it (when Dad passed away, I inherited this book and have it stored). Another memorable time was at a pep rally, sort off, John Holt’s band Baar Soup was playing a set. The lead guitarist was really going off when all of a sudden sparks flew from his guitar and we lost all power in the auditorium. It seems that his ring hit a string just as it touched the pickup, short circuiting and blowing the schools fuse. Really cool fireworks, and yes he was okay. I was getting pumped for my junior year and it looked like we might be able to stay all the way through, but the Army had other plans for my dad. He got his orders to rotate stateside in the middle of summer, and after sending our belongings stateside we lived in the BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters) until we had to leave, which was about two weeks later. TJ was the first I asked to marry me hoping that somehow I would be able to stay, after all you were considered an adult at 16 in Germany because you were out of school and could legally drink. Needless to say that never happened, but before we had left during the summer festival, I had won a teddy bear and gave it to TJ (side story – this bear would get us in touch 32 years later look in 2007 when it is written, lol).
Next duty station was the Pentagon. While dad was searching for a place for us to live, we stayed at Nana’s in NJ. I started my junior year there in Manville New Jersey, we had a winning team. I was a quarterback on the Varsity. Though I think I had a better throw (being that I was knocking down receivers on fifteen and in’s from a five step drop back), I was the new kid and the played second fiddle to the one that had been there for the first two years. Two a days in the heat were killers. I remember playing Highland Park and was in for a set because starter had to come out for equipment failure. Didn’t do to good, first down pass deflected, run was set back about 8 yards, and the pass on the sideline 40 yards down was dropped, though I was on my butt and couldn’t see if I had overthrown or just he was bumped (later I think cause he was a great receiver). Made a lot of new friends and had a girlfriend named Lynn for 2 months. Dad had found a place and mom moved down to Maryland, but I talked dad into letting me stay until the end of football season (found out from Nana the year before she died that that year was the last time Manville had a winning football team). At the end of the semester I transferred to Parkdale High in Riverdale, MD. We lived in Greenbelt at an apartment complex called Spring Hill Lake. This would be the center of my life for the next few years. Dad was now working at the Pentagon as was mom. Made many good friends there, a few I keep in touch with and one I married, but that is still 3 years in the future lol. When I transferred in the counselor said that I was okay and just needed the normal course work every year. This is the first time I started working with computers. The teacher, Mr. Calhoun, was pretty cool, but he had a thing about smacking gum in class. Learned a lot and between him and the physics teacher Mr. Lentz. We were still doing punchboards and tabulation machines and punch cards.
MUSIC:
Songs to come out: Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way (Aerosmith), Only Women Bleed, Schools Out (Alice Cooper), Sister Golden Hair (America), Pick Up The Pieces, Cut The Cake (AWB- Average White Band), [Hey Won’t You Play] Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, Feel Like Making Love, Good Loving Gone Bad (Bad Company), I Write The Songs, Mandy (Barry Manilow), Saturday Night (The Bay City Rollers – start of hair bands lol), Dynomite Part 1 (Bazuka), Jive Talkin’ (Bee Gees), Walking In Rhythm (The Blackbyrds), Roll On Down The Highway (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Convoy (C.W. McCall mercy sakes alive!), Fame, Golden Years, Young Americans (David Bowie), Theme from Mahogany [Do You Know Where Your Going To?] (Diana Ross), Love To Love You Baby (Donna Summer), Black Water (The Doobie Brothers), Best Of My Love, One Of These Nights, Lyin’ Eyes* (Eagles, *First song I learned to play on a guitar in 1979), Shining Star (Earth, Wind and Fire), Evil Woman, Strange Magic (Electric Light Orchestra), Philadelphia Freedom, Island Girl, Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Elton John who’d you think, Sugar Bear? Lol), Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Eric Clapton), Slow Ride (Foghat), Who loves You?, My Eyes Adored You (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), Before The Next Teardrop Falls, Wasted Days And Wasted Nights (Freddy Fender), Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell), Never Can Say Goodbye (Gloria Gaynor), Once Bitten Twice Shy (Ian Hunter), At Seventeen (Janis Ian), You Are So Beautiful (Joe Crocker), Thank God I’m A Country Boy (John Denver), Send In The Clowns (Judy Collins), Get Down Tonight, That’s The Way [I Like It] (K.C. and the Sunshine Band), Rock And Roll All Nite (KISS), Lady Marmalade (LaBelle), Your No Good, When Will I Be Loved? (Linda Ronstadt), Saturday Night Special (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Spirit In The Sky (Mannfred Mann’s Earth Band), Wildfire (Michael Murphy), Lovin’ You (Minnie Ripperton), Love Hurts (Nazareth), Fire, Love Rollercoaster (The Ohio Players – rumors have the scream as a ral life murder, various scenarios all false, it is one of the band members), I Love Music (The O’Jays), Have You Never Been Mellow? (Olivia Newton-John), Magic (Pilot), Have A Cigar, Welcome To The Machine (Pink Floyd), Amie (Pure Prairie League), Bohemian Rhapsody, You’re My Best Friend (Queen), Chevy Van (Sammy Johns), Black Friday (Steely Dan), Lady (Styx), Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You (Sugarloaf), Dreamer (Supertramp), The Ballroom Blitz, Fox On The Run (Sweet), I’m Not In Love (10cc), He Don’t Love You [Like I Love You] (Tony Orlando and Dawn), The Hustle (Van McCoy), Low Rider, Why Can’t We Be Friends? (War), Squeeze Box (The Who), Listen To What the Man Said, Venus And Mars Rock Show (Wings).
The Albums: ABBA (ABBA), High Voltage (AC/DC), Toys IN The Attic (Aerosmith), Welcome To My Nightmare (Alice Cooper), Beautiful Loser (Bob Seger), Born To Run (Bruce Springstein), Chicago VIII (Chicago), Young Americans (David Bowie), One Of These Nights (The Eagles), Fleetwood Mac (Fleetwood Mac), Fool For The City (Foghat), Dreamboat Annie (Heart), Dressed To Kill (KISS), Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin), Hair Of The Dog (Nazareth), A Night At The Opera (Queen), Fly By Night (Rush), The Tubes (The Tubes), Initiation (Todd Rundgren), The Who By The Numbers (The Who), Fandango (ZZ Top).
Events: The beginning of the “Hair” Bands (Bay City Rollers), One Hit Wonders abound and Funkadelic coming to main stream. Tommy premiers in London. .38 Special forms. Firefall forms. Sex Pistols form. Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo leave the Fifth Dimension for solo careers, breaking up the band. Peter Gabriel leaves Genesis. Apple Records closes down. Ritchie Blackmore leaves Deep Purple and forms Rainbow. Cher divorces Sonny, 4 days after the divorce is final Cher marries Gregg Allman and 10 days later files for divorce (woman make up yo mind!).
MOVIES: The Blue Knight (George Kennedy), Death Race 2000 (David Carradine – How many points for an old lady? Lol), Dog Day Afternoon (Al Pacino), The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood), Escape To Witch Mountain (Eddie Albert), The Great Waldo Pepper, Three Days Of The Condor (Robert Redford), The Hindenburg (George C. Scott), Jaws (Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfus), The Man Who Would Be King (Sean Connery), Monty Python And The Holy Grail (John Cleese, Graham Chapman), Moses (Burt Lancaster), One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (Jack Nicholson), Be My Valentine Charlie Brown, You’re A Good Sport Charlie Brown (Peanuts – Poor Charlie Brown and the Red Haired Girl and somebody hit Lucy she is so mean!), The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin), The Return Of The Pink Panther (Peter Sellers), Return To Macon County (Nick Nolte), Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (June Foray – voice), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien[the creative genius], “Little” Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Meatloaf. Liiiipppsss, Time Warp and elbow sex!), Rollerball (James Caan), Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), Shampoo (Warren Beatty), The Stepford Wives (Karen Rodd – I wish I was Sam Elliott, lol), The Strongest Man In The World (Kurt Russell), Tommy (Roger Daltry) and Walking Tall Part 2 (Bo Svenson).
EVENTS: Space Mountain opens at Disneyworld in Florida. 1800 Unification Church members married at one time in Korea. Bobby Fischer is stripped of Chess title after refusing to defend it. USAF Transport carrying orphans from Saigon crashes killing 155. Frank Robinson becomes the first black Major League Baseball Manager. Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Pehn. Last U.S. helicopter leaves the American Embassy in Saigon, shortly there after Saigon falls. Trial against members of the Baader-Meinhof gang begins in Stuttgart, Germany. Vice President Rockefeller reports on 300,000 illegal CIA files on U.S. citizens. Eastern 727 crashes at JFK airport killing 113. Teamster Union President Jimmy Hoffa disappears (Jimmy where are you?). 500 drown as two riverboats collide in China’s West River. First Assassination attempt on President Ford by Lynette Alice “squeaky” Fromme (member of the Manson Family) and a second attempt by Jane Moore 17 days later. Chartered 707 crashes killing 188. 3000 dead as a 6.8 earthquake hits Lice, Turkey. Boston begins court ordered busing. Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch” is slashed and damaged in Amsterdam. Space Shuttle Orbiter OV-101 “Enterprise” is rolled out. Congress passes bill allowing women into Military Academies and Coast Guard is the first to admit a woman. The Thrilla in Manila Muhammad Ali tko’s Joe Frazier in the 15th. Juan Carlos is declared the King of Spain. 4000 die from earthquake in Pakistan. The “Hail Mary Pass” was dubbed as a last second pass from Dallas Cowboy Quarterback Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson with 24 seconds remaining to beat the Minnesota Vikings 16-14 in the NFC Divisional Play Off Game. Aristotle Onassis dies.
CARTOONS: Hong Kong Fooey, Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show, Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty, The Shazam/Isis Hour, Uncle Crocks Block, Ghost Busters, Oddball Couple and Return to the Planet of the Apes.
TV SHOWS: Debuts – Wheel of Fortune (Game Show), The Jeffersons (spin off from All In The Family), Barney Miller, Ryan’s Hope (Soap Opera), Three for Money, One Day At A Time and Saturday Night Live (George Carlin was the first host, RIP George). Ends – Gunsmoke.
