The Doctor's blog: "In My Life"

Aaaah, 1972 the beginning of some of the most influential years of my life. I complete my first year in Jr. High school. A lot happens to me in this year. I try out for the AYA Baseball League, at try outs for outfield catch a fly ball with my bare hand (boy that stung). I was “drafted” by the Tigers. We used to go to Campbell Barracks sometimes for lunch at the Bowling Alley (great Hamburgers and French Fries); I started up on the bowling league here. The open lunch to Campbell Barracks USAEUR (US Army Europe) HQ stops after the bombing of the Campbell Barracks killing 3 and injuring 5. Two women, Irmgard Müller and Angela Luther drive a car with stolen USA plates onto the Barracks and park it near the Officers Club. Though the communiqué claimed “Commando Fifteenth July” was responsible, this is code for Red Army Faction Baader-Meinhof for the day that Petra Schelm was killed, and say it is retaliation for the Vietnam bombings. The RAF had been terrorizing Germany since early 1968. This happened on a Wednesday and on Thursday it was my turn to give Current Events and this was my topic of the day, though it could have been less graphic. This starts a lock down and end to lunch at the bowling alley, we can still get on the base, but have to show our dependent ID cards and the base was off limits during school hours. A friend of my dads had a daughter, and we were always over their house, her name was Delores Hoeller (sounds like Heller), we had many good times and I remember her friend Meredith (no last name), truthfully because she was sought after by all the guys in Junior High being that she had already developed to make Dolly Parton blush. We were all good friends and did almost everything together when we could. Also had made a number of friends and acquaintances that would stick with me during my four years here. I learned how to play a card game called Mille Bornes and Canasta. We also played trash can ball, regularly, while waiting for the bus. Trash can ball was played with coal ash cans that had been emptied (the housing units were heated by coal. The can would be put in the corner of the chimney and building and we would have a 10 foot circle that you could not shot inside. The rest of the rules were just like basket ball. During summer we would have tournaments and if it wasn’t at trashcan ball it was at curb ball. Curb ball was played in between two building when all the adults were at work. There was a parking lot in between two of the buildings. One curb would act as home plate. After the parking spaces were a concrete gutter before it went into the common travel area. The idea was to throw a tennis ball against the “home" curb (need to inform readers that these curbs had sharp angles opposed to the rounded ones we see here) and hit the tennis ball on the corner if we could. If it went right it would fly into the air, if you hit the top of the curb it would hit the building closest to you and was a foul (four fouls was an out). If you caught the ball in the air but before it got passed the opposite curb it was an out. If the ball went on the ground, up to the first gutter a single, between the first and second gutter was a double and past the second gutter a triple. If you caught the ball on the ground, you had to throw the ball to hit the “home” curb and if you did you threw the batter out. We had hours of fun playing singles (one on one) or teams. Another game was army (lol), we had a bag full of army men and would go to the sandbox and each would take a corner and build a fort. Then using either marbles or stones we would chuck them at the opposing fort and have a war. The one with the last man standing won, and speaking of marbles we always had a marble tournament going on. We did all this in between playing baseball, swimming and school. One shock of German school was they went all year round (poor kids) while the Americans had the summer off. The parents and I would also go out on some weekends and go traveling to see the sights, we went all over, and some of these trips will get in more detail. This summer was one of them. My Uncle had come over along with both grandmothers and my great aunt. This two week vacation we took to Italy to see the birth land of my great-grandparents and the sights. We had two lady army personnel with us and drove over the Alps. We were driving in a VW bus and dad pulled over to the side. On our side was a sheer drop straight down. He came back a second later and through a snowball at us. There was snow in the Alps even though the temperatures where in the 70’s. We passed through the town of Altdorf Switzerland, the place of William Tell (supposedly) and saw the statue there, then onto Milan. We visited the Basilica there and shops, then headed to Firenze (Florence). The guys (me, dad and Uncle Wayne -dad’s brother) and the two army girls Carol and Dona camped out at a camping ground while Mom, Grandma Florence (mom’s mom), Nana (dad’s mom) and Aunt Mary stayed at a hotel. It was a fun night, but going to the bathroom was something else. No toilet! It was a sloped inset porcelain with two places to put your feet and a hole at the very end (word to the wise, it you use this, make sure you step off and away before you flush or the water comes around your feet!). When we picked up the ladies we heard their horror story, first experience with a bidet, lol. We ate breakfast and then headed to the covered bridge over the Arno River. On the bridge are many small shops, it is here that dad bought a marble chess set with gold plated and silver plated pewter pieces (which as of dad’s death is now in my possession someplace packed away). Next stop was on to Pisa, to visit of course the leaning tower and the adjacent Basilica. We head next to Roma, and toured the Senate, the Coliseum (though we could not go in because a one-legged man had sat on the very top after climbing work scaffolding, threatening to kill himself by falling off if the government didn’t do something about has disability). Since mom worked in the Chaplains office in USAEUR, she was able to have one of the Chaplains get us tickets for an audience with the Pope (being the good Catholics that we were). Since the audience was later in the afternoon, we stopped by and visited some of my 2nd and 3rd cousins. They did not speak English, and only Grandma, Nana and Aunt Mary spoke Italian, mom spoke a little also. They invited us to stay for lunch, and sent the older kids to the corner store while me and the younger played soccer. Lunch started off with a course of Cheeses and Breads (1st), then there was antipasto (2nd), followed by nuts and fruits (3rd), then meats like lunch meats, salami, bologna etc (4th) followed by spaghetti (oh boy the main meal, lol, or so I thought 5th), the whole time either drinking wine or citron. Next came the main meal of roasted meats and many veggies (6th) followed by Italian ice, then dessert, coffee and espresso (with Anisette) (7th and final). Boy was I stuffed. Later I was to find out that the meal we just had would normally be all the food that they ate all week, but had to play host to their American cousins (I felt bad about that). Next was the audience with the Pope, thinking this was a private audience, yeah right, of about two thousand. Pope Paul VI came out and spoke in many different languages, seven in all I believe, the audience hall was huge. Afterwards we toured the Vatican, beautiful place I would really like to go back there some time. We went into the Sistine Chapel. All the women that entered had to have their arms and head covered. After viewing the Sistine Chapel, the ladies had to use the restroom, but were at a loss of where it was. I piped up and told them not only where it was, but what it looked like inside including the antique chairs and couch. They were amazed at this, and asked how I knew. Couldn’t explain, I just did. I have never been in there or seen pictures of it, but what I described was accurate to the last detail (Later we joked I must have been a nun in a previous life, lol). We got to see the Treve Fountain and yes we each threw three coins in it. From there our next stop in our little vacation was Venice, a beautiful place, but nowadays they take better care than they did back then. We decided for supper that we would find a mom and pop restaurant to try the local cuisine. After walking over many bridges and in the back ways, the adults picked one across the canal. We crossed the bridge and were about twenty feet away when this man came out of the front door with boxes in his arms and threw them into the canal. IT was the restaurants trash, and we decided not to eat there, but did find another place, though I do not remember anything of it. Back to Germany and everyone heading back to the United States, except for us and the army ladies of course. Uncle Wayne decided to stay here also and continued on to travel through Czechoslovakia and Hungary (the homeland of my dad’s father and our lineage of, well that is for next year). Uncle Wayne had gotten sick from something he ate there and came back home to Heidelberg. Football season was starting and I was on the highest AYA football team that traveled to other towns, the COWBOYS (yes I did play for the Cowboys, but not the Dallas Cowboys lol), I was playing free safety at this time. Uncle Wayne decided he was going to head for Munchen (Munich) to watch some of the Olympics and be there for the Oktoberfest. Little did any of us know of the events that were in motion for the Olympics. He got to see Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz, but then the tragedy. Eight terrorist called Black September (who were a faction of the PLO), kidnap and killed 11 Israeli athletes. During the siege, my Uncle had told the story of how he had befriended some guys with ABC and that he had taken one of the cameras over the wall and was getting the close up pictures of the terrorists, the one that everyone has seen in the ABC news cast. I don’t know if this was true or not, for He never did lie, but he did have an ABC windbreaker that all the news people had been wearing there, and dad had kept this for many years after Uncle Wayne’s death until it was nothing but rags. He had also came back then went back for Oktoberfest. The only other memory I have is that of when we were playing football (Cowboys), against Frankfurt. Frankfurt had its choice of athletes being that they were a bigger city and had more military brats there. It would be the equivalent of the Pros’ playing against the elementary school pony leagues. Frankfort always won and always won the championship, even in High School (all we had was the AYA and in school Junior Varsity and Varsity, no 7th, 8th, or freshman teams, no “a” and “b” junior varsity teams. Frankfort came to Heidelberg for our first meeting of the season, and we stomped them bad. I want to say that the score was 63-0, that is what sticks in my mind, but I could be wrong and probably am, but it was the beginning of the fall of Frankfurt (this will be continued in the future years also). It also started off my eight grade year and boy what a year that was. We would go to the AYA (oh, that stands for American Youth Association) to play pool, chess, darts, air hockey and Fussball (I was the third best there, Stanlee Green, who also is a prominent person in my life was number one, man he was fast!). As I said also I was into bowling, and was doing pretty good, though this was not my best year that would come next year, but I was decent enough. MUSIC: Songs to come out: Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), It Never Rains In Southern California (Albert Hammond), Schools Out (Alice Cooper), A Horse With No Name, I Need You, Ventura Highway (America), The City Of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie), Lean On Me (Bill Withers [RIP Kerri Quinn]), Me And Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul), Diary (Bread), Your So Vain (Carly Simon), Hurting Each Other (The Carpenters), Saturday In The Park (Chicago), My Ding-a-Ling (Chuck Berry), Precious and Few (Climax), Hot Rod Lincoln (Commander Cody), Too Late To Turn Back Now (Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose), Freddie’s Dead (Curtis Mayfield), John I’m Only Dancing, Starman (David Bowie), Layla (Derrick and the Dominos), American Pie (Don McLean), The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA (Donna Fargo), Puppy Love (Donnie Osmond), Jesus Is Just Alright, Listen To The Music (The Doobie Brothers), The Cover Of The Rolling Stone, Sylvia’s’ Mother (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show), Witchy Woman (Eagles), Crocodile Rock, Honky Cat, Rocket Man (Elton John), Alone Again Naturally (Gilbert O’Sullivan),Day By Day (Godspell), If You Don’t Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes), Taxi (Harry Chapin), I Am Woman (Helen Reddy), Popcorn (Hot Butter), Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne), Operator, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim (Jim Croce), Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards), Black Dog (Led Zeppelin), Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins and Messina), Brandy You’re A Fine Girl (Looking Glass), Everybody Plays The Fool (The Main Ingredient), Rockin’ Robin (Michael Jackson), All The Young Dudes (Mott The Hopple), Song Sung Blue (Neil Diamond), Heart Of Gold (Neil Young), Backstabbers (The O’Jays),Me And Julio Down By The School Yard, Mother And Child Reunion (Paul Simon), Conquistador (Procol Harum), Garden Party (Rick Nelson), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Robert John), You Wear It Well (Rod Stewart), Tumbling Dice (The Rolling Stones), The Candy Man (Sammy Davis Jr.), Summerbreeze (Seals & Crofts), You Are Everything (The Stylistics), Papa Was A Rolling Stone (The Temptations), I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (The New Seekers-No it is not actually the Coke Song, lol), Black And White, Never Been To Spain (Three Dog Night), Bang A Gong (T Rex), Cisco Kid (War), HiHiHi (Paul McCartney and Wings) and Roundabout (Yes). The Albums: Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), Schools Out (Alice Cooper), America, Homecoming (America), The Divine Miss M (Bette Midler – debut), No Secrets (Carly Simon), Chicago V (Chicago), Heavy Cream (Cream), Superfly (Curtis Mayfield), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (David Bowie), Machine Head (Deep Purple), Toulouse Street (The Doobie Brothers), Eagles (The Eagles – debut), They Only Come Out At Night (The Edgar Winter Group), Heads And Tails (Harry Chapin), Jackson Browne (Jackson Browne), Thick AS A Brick (Jethro Tull), Rocky Mountain High (John Denver), Seventh Sojourn (The Moody Blues), All The Young Dudes (Mott The Hopple), Roxy Music (Roxy Music), and Summerbreeze (Seals & Crofts). Events: John and Yoko’s visa expires starting a 3 year long deportation process. Paul McCartney and Wings debuts. MOVIES: Ben (Lee Harcourt Montgomery, The Big Boss, Fists Of Fury (Bruce Lee – the man!), Cabaret (Liza Minelli), Conquest of The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowall), Deliverance (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty), The Doberman Gang (Bryon Mabe), The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man In The Moon Marigolds (Joanne Woodward – one of two movies here I have not seen), Fuzz (Burt Reynolds), The Groundstar Conspiracy (George Peppard – this movie is one of my faves), The Godfather (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall – Ima gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse), Hannie Caulder, Kansas City Bomber (Raquel Welch), Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford), Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood), Kung Fu Pilot Episode (David Caradine), Lady Sings The Blues (Diana Ross – film debut), The Legend Of Boggy Creek (Willie E. Smith – the outhouse scene scared the s**t out of me and everyone in the theatre lol), The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean (Paul Newman), The Mechanic (Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent), Pete ‘n’ Tillie (Walter Matthau), The Poseidon Adventure (Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowall and Red Buttons), Rage (George C. Scott), Silent Running (Bruce Dern- another cool movie), Snoopy, Come Home (The Peanuts Gang), Sounder (Cicely Tyson – the other movie I have yet to see), The Streets Of San Francisco (Karl Malden), Superfly (Ron O’Neal), Tales From The Crypt (Ralph Richardson), They Only Kill Their Masters (James Garner), The War Between Men And Women (Jack Lemmon), and last but not least – What’s Up Doc? (Barbara Streisand). EVENTS: In no Particular Order (lol). Mariner 9 starts mapping the surface of Mars, Space Shuttle is developed, The Queen Elizabeth Luxury Liner is destroyed by fire, a Stewardess falls over 30,000 feet and survives, Bloody Sunday – British soldiers fire on Catholics in Londonderry killing 13, President Richard Nixon is the first US President to visit Communist China, First Flight of the Goodyear Blimp, many natural disasters and accidents kill many people most events over 100 people, George Wallace is almost assassinated in Laurel Maryland and is paralyzed from the waist down (in 9 years I would work at the shopping center where this happened), SALT accords signed by President Nixon and Premier Brezhnev, Officers Club at Campbell Barracks In Heidelberg bombed killing 3 injuring 5 by Baader-Meinhoff Gang, White House “Plumbers” break into Democratic HQ at Watergate Hotel (drove by this many times when I worked in DC), West German Police arrest RAF Leader Andreas Baader (part of the Baader-Meinhof Gang), Explosion at the worlds largest coal mine kills 427 in Rhodesia, 14 “ of rain in 6 hours burst Rapid City Dam drowns 237, West German Police arrest RAF Leader Ulrike Meinhof, first women FBI agents sworn in, Bloody Friday 22 IRA bombs explode in Belfast, New York records 57 murders in 24 hour period, Woodward and Bernstein publish article exposing Watergate break in, last American combat troops leave Vietnam, Bloody Sunday British Soldiers fire into crowd killing 13, Olga Korbut (USSR) wins gold medal in gymnastics, Bobby Fisher (US) defeats Boris Spassky (USSR) for world chess title, Mark Spitz (US Swimmer) takes record 7 gold medals, 11 Israeli athletes kidnap and slain at Olympic complex by terrorist group Black September, 16 on plane that crashes in Andes in Chile survive by cannibalism, President Nixon re-elected, after being elected President earlier Juan Peron returns to Argentina, Apollo 17 last manned flight to the moon, earthquake in Nicaragua kills 10,000, “Immaculate Reception” happens in Pittsburgh game giving the Steelers the win, Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks, Supreme Court rules death penalty unconstitutional (5-4), Atari introduces arcade game “Pong”, Life magazine ceases publication, J. Edgar Hoover and President Harry S. Truman pass away. CARTOONS: The Osmond’s, Houndcats, The Brady Kids, Kid Power, Around the world in 80 Days and Fat Albert and the Cosby kids all debut. TV SHOWS: The Walton’s, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, Sanford and Son.

Well if you read 1965 you might have figured from the ending what one of my favorite shows was at this point in my life. Yep, ‘Batman’, with Adam West (the original), was at the top of the list, with my Batman Utility Belt I got for my birthday, cool. I had to beg my mom to take me to the Batman movie, it was so awesome, this was back when Batman NEVER used weapons of any kind like guns, bazookas, etc. Other favorite TV shows were ‘The Rat Patrol’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Green Hornet’ (God Bruce Lee was awesome, RIP), ‘Time Tunnel’, ‘That Girl’ (Marlo Thomas was a Fox!), ‘F-Troop’, ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’, ‘Star Trek’ (are you a Trekkie?) and who could forget ‘The Monkees’? Sitting in front of the TV watching Saturday morning cartoons. Though ‘Underdog’ premiered in 1964, this is my earliest memory of him, Sweet Polly Purebred and Simon Bar Sinister (booo). Watching ‘Atom Ant’, ‘The Beatles Cartoon’, ‘Space Ghost’, ‘Secret Squirrel’, ‘The Jetsons’, ‘Tom and Jerry’, etc. And of course, everyone’s favorite, “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!”, always wish I had a dog like Snoopy, and OMG, his house was huge on the inside. Also the first airing of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” (You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch! lol). One of the good songs, that returned to me later in my life, was a one hit wonder by Napolean XIV (who?, yeah that is what I said), "They're coming to take me away, Ha-Ha. I’m a believer, Monday, Monday, Wild Thing, Purple Haze, Bus Stop, Wipe Out (loved that song). Movies included ‘The Green Berets’ (one of my all time Faves), ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ (Lee Van Cleef was a drinking buddy of my dads!), ‘Georgy Girl’, ‘Our Man Flint’. Another one of my favorite movies 'Fantastic Voyage' with Raquel Welch (OMG, do I really need to say anything else?) came out. This would bring me years later to the start of one of my all time favorite authors, Isaac Asimov. At this time we were living on Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas. I learned many things that year, though I was only 7 and in 2nd grade. Met two girls that lived on base, I’ll remember always, Wendi and Bobbi, used to jump rope with them. Bobbi was one year older, and this was my first look at female anatomy, lol. Also learned on a hot day with no A/C (back then) you did not mess with your dog while he was eating (under the table). He bit my ear and had to go to the ER. Most memorable about this time is that if Child Protective Services of then were like they are today, mom would’ve ended up in jail and I would have been in a foster home. This is the first of my three trips to the ER this week. Next was cuts on my chin and the third was stitches on top of my head. The third time we entered the ER the nurse was already filling out the paperwork, lol. Let me be perfectly clear so there is no doubt, I was an accident prone – waiting to happen child and all my medical records and junk were of my own doing most of the time, and my friends the rest. My parents were great people, a little strict, but when I grew older I realized their wisdom. My grandmother came down for Christmas, and we went to downtown El Paso to see the Tumbleweed Snowmen. Went to white sands to cut down our own Christmas tree, mom got sick of the “Silver Fake Tree’ we bought the year before. Same time that her cat had kittens in my old baby carriage (will explain why we had it in later blog in the 70’s). Seeing the star on the Davis Mountains. In the summer my Dad TDY’d to California for 2 weeks, me and mom got to go along, courtesy of the US Government, and got to see Disneyland and Knotsbury Farm through the same Courtesy. Also learned to swim by daring one of my dad’s drunk squad members to throw me in the pool, he did, in the deep end, and dad replied he’ll learn to swim soon enough, but he did jump into the pool and rescue me. Dad was an NCO on the test team for the Chaparral Missile (see default pics). Dad also use to play fast pitch softball, this was my Friday night lights, he played first base, and afterwards we would go to this little cantina just near the boarder. They had the best burritos I can remember. God I miss him, Rest in Peace. So you can see, my memory is starting to come together, just wait it gets really good. In the seventies I might just have to go month by month, lol. Oh yeah, side note, school tested my IQ and wanted to advance me at least one grade if not two, mom and dad against this.

Dad was assigned to Germany once again; he left to set up ‘house’. While he was there we picked up a college roommate, don’t remember her name but remember she was nice looking and we had fun water fights while washing the car, mom’s white Impala, which someone had hit and totaled when it was parked out on the street. I am getting pretty good at bowling for an 11 year old. I will turn 12 this year and start Junior High in the fall. Little did I know that I would be doing this in Germany. During the spring of this year, I had an experience I will always remember, though I could not even tell you how it started. It seems for almost two weeks (could’ve been longer or shorter), this black kid who lived down the street and I were constantly after each other. First him and his buds would chase me and the next day me and mine would chase him. One day my mom was home when this happened. She took me to his house, his name is Roland, and knocked on the door. My mother told his mother what had been going on, while they were sitting down talking, we both were standing. Don’t know which one had asked “So you want to fight each other?”, the other piped in “Then both you boys go outside and beat each other to a pulp and don’t come back inside until one of you is dead!” (boy, child protective services would have a field day with that in this day and age). We both looked at each other and both said no ma’am, we don’t want to fight, so they made us apologize to each other and shake hands. From this point on we were great friends until I had to go to Germany with mom, but hey it was a great time in my life. This is also how I got the scar on my right knee. We played tag football out in the middle of the (asphalt) street, sometimes we got a little rough and it would be come tackle football (lol), I got my knee scraped being tackled on the asphalt, it took a chunk out of my skin. At the same token, we had a new guy, guess he never played football, and went to block me and lifted his knee and caught me in the chin that is how my front tooth got chipped. When I get to Germany I am in Junior High, woohoo, and join band. Though I really wanted to play drums, I was assigned Clarinet. Our first chair was a very beautiful girl named Nancy Gifford, and though I was interested, she wasn’t (Dad was an officer, but that was not the reason), but me and her sister Michelle got along pretty well and even she could not understand her sisters actions (hmmmphhh women, lol). The band teacher was real memorable, not because he was a great teacher, but he picked his nose, deeply, during class and flicked it out over the band students. (Yuck!). MUSIC: Songs to come out: I’m Eighteen (Alice Cooper), Where Do I Begin – Theme Form Love Story (Andy Williams), How Can You Mend A Broken Heart -Lonely Days (The BeeGees), Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers), DOA (Bloodrock), Baby Im-A Want You (Bread), One Toke Over The Line (Brewer & Shipley), It’s Too Late (Carole King), Rainy Days And Mondays (The Carpenters), Peace Train (Cat Stevens), Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (CCR), Gypsys Tramps And Thieves (Cher), Coulour My World (Chicago), One Tine Soldier (Coven), Cherish (David Cassidy), Go Away Little Girl (Donnie Osmond), LA Woman - Love Her Madly (The Doors), Levon – Tiny Dancer – Your Song (Elton John), One Less Bell TO Answer (Fifth Dimension), Signs (Five Man Electrical Band), My Sweet Lord (George Harrison), Want Ads (Honey Cone), Theme From Shaft (Isaac Hayes – He’s a bad Mutha – shut yo mouth), Love The One Your With (The Isley Brothers), You’ve Got A Friend (James Taylor), Me And Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin), Mr. Bigstuff (Jean Knight), Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull), The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez), Take Me Home Country Roads (John Denver), Imagine (John Lennon), Me And You And A Dog Named Boo (Lobo), I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson), What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye), Brand New Key (Melanie), Got TO Be There (Michael Jackson), I Am…I Said (Neil Diamond), Mr. Bojangles (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Another Day – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul McCartney), Indian Reservation (Paul Revere and The Raiders), I Just Want To Celebrate (Rare Earth), It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo Starr), Maggie May – Losing You (Rod Stewart), Brown Sugar – Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones), Oye Como Va – Black Magic Woman (Santana), Family Affair (Sly and The Family Stone), You Are Everything (The Stylistics), Just My Imagination (The Temptations), I’d Love To Change The World (Ten Years After – one of my fave songs, great guitar riff), Liar! – Old Fashioned Love Song (Three Dog Night), She’s A Lady (Tom Jones), Knock Three Times (Tony Orlando and Dawn), Get It On (T-Rex), Smiling Faces (Undisputed Truth), Behind Blue Eyes (The Who – and another fave) and lastly I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Yvonne Elliman from JCSS). The Albums: April Wine (April Wine – don’t you just love album names like this?), Blue Oyster Cult (Blue Oyster Cult), Anticipation – Carly Simon (Carly Simon), Tapestry (Carole King), Carpenters (The Carpenters), Jesus Christ Super Star (Original cast Ted Neely, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and others – never got a chance to see it except in the theater. Many years later at a discount /used stuff store, going through albums and found an original with the play leaflet in it, asked how much and he said 50 cents, gave a dollar and ran out the store before he new what he had), Chicago III (Chicago – inventive just number your albums), Fireball (Deep Purple), Coat Of Many Colors (Dolly Parton), American Pie (Don McLean), The Doobie Brothers (The Doobie Brothers), L.A. Woman (The Doors), Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), The Electric Light Orchestra (The Electric Light Orchestra), The Concert For Bangladesh (George Harrison), Shaft (Isaac Hayes), Aqualung (Jethro Tull), Imagine (John Lennon), Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin), Little Feat )Little Feat), Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson), What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye), Ram (Paul McCartney), Every Picture Tells A Story (Rod Stewart), Sticky Fingers (The Rolling Stones), A Space In Time (Ten Years After), The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (Traffic), Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison), Who’s Next (The Who), Wild Life (Wings), Fragile (Yes) and ZZ Top’s First Album (ZZ Top of course). Events: First time the soon to be megahit “Stairway to Heaven" is played – at the Ulster Hall, Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuts, Jim Morrison of the Doors is found dead in the bathtub in Paris France, Duanne Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia, The Montreux Casino in Montreux Switzerland burns down, Deep Purple is staying across from it and it is documented in the song “Smoke on The Water”, The very first Rock Opera opens on Broadway – Jesus Christ Superstar , Godspell also opens. MOVIES: The Abominable Mr. Phibes (Vincent Price), The Anderson Tapes (Sean Connery), The Andromeda Strain (Arthur Hill – one of my favorite Sci-fi’s), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Angela Lansbury), Big Jake (John Wayne), Brian’s Song (James Caan), A Clockwork Orange (Malcolm McDowell), Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery – Bond, James Bond), Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood, who else?), Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter), Fiddler on The Roof (Topol – a great movie, eh Tevi?), The French Connection (Gene Hackman), LeMans (Steve McQueen), The Omega Man (Charlton Heston), Pink Floyd : Live At Pompeii (Pink Floyd, give the boys film and room and no telling what will happen), Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood), The Presidents Plane Is Missing (Buddy Ebsen), Shaft (Richard Roundtree), Summer Of ’42 (Gary Grimes), Support Your Local Gunfighter (James Gardner – plays great western roles), Willard (Bruce Davison) and everyone’s favorite Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder, who else can play this? Certainly not Johnny Depp – my opinion). EVENTS: Cigarette Ads are banned from TV, Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Idi Amin becomes dictator and president of Uganda, Bomb Attack on the Capitol Building by The Weather Underground – Bill Ayres and Company (Name sound familiar?), Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali to retain his heavyweight belt, President Nixon ends the China blockade, Watergate Team breaks into the office of Daniel Ellsberg, Attic State Prison Riot, Rahway Prison Rebellion, President Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa’s sentence and the infamous ‘DB Cooper’ hijacks a plane, collets $200,000 and jumps at a rear hatch, never to be heard of again. CARTOONS: Premiering are Deputy Dawg, Jackson 5ive and Pebbles and Bamm Bamm. TV SHOWS: Debuted this year are Alias Smith and Jones, McMillan and Wife and everyone’s favorite All in the Family.

Fifth Grade in El Paso Texas, going to Stanton Elementary. At this time Texas has the best school system in the United States. Our Science teacher is an ex-Vietnam vet, who went back to college to teach. He had come back because of his purple heart and this is the first time I get first hand knowledge of what the war was really like, and not what it was portrayed on the nightly news. I don’t even remember his name, but he would tell us stories about some things that went on. One of the kids had found out that he had been wounded and asked him about it. He told us you could walk into a village, in the south and not know if they were friendlies or not, while you were there they were pro American, and when the Vietcong were there they were pro Vietcong, they didn’t care they just wanted to be left alone. His unit entered a village, and like usual they would try to help the people and give candy to the kids. He had turned his back and was talking to someone one when a five year old boy came out of the hut and stabbed him in the kidney with a knife. I also got my first taste of authority I was made a crossing guard/hall monitor, wearing the orange sash and badge (lol). I learned this year how good I was at math, in class while doing base numbers (ugh, I know for those that don’t like math), I discovered a short cut that would work on all but base 6 (I believe, I can’t remember it anymore, to much has happened between then and now, lol). I remember sitting on the edge of the seat praying with the world that the Apollo 13 Astronauts would make it home safe (and now I live near Mr. Lovell here in Houston and Mission Control as a matter of fact is a couple miles up the road). Interesting side note, that is not of this year but Commander Lovell was the pilot of Gemini 7, which had the first space docking with Gemini 6 and I have a picture of Gemini 7 through the window of Gemini 6 (original). NyahNyah, explain in future blog how I got it, around mmmm, 2003. Anyway, back to this year, I turned 11 and remember watching the nightly news on the Vietnam War, the protests at the Universities and the race riots all over the US. Most of the movies listed I have seen this year, we are living off base. Dad bought a house on Tetons Avenue, and the fun thing was walking to the corner 7-11. At this stage in my life, I thought that the four places we have lived were all over the City, I would not find out until 2001 how close all these places really were, like three were within 10 blocks of each other (my father-in-law brought back a map of El Paso at my request so I could show the kids where I lived). Dad had bought a Studebaker for 50 dollars that he was going to fix up, and he had a white Chevy Impala. It is at this house I came to hate yard work, since it was my job to mow the lawn for my allowance. Problem is that during the summer, when it is hot and dry, the lawnmower doesn't mow the lawn but kicks up a lot of dust, and it would get in my nose and mouth (even with a handkerchief tied over my face) in my eyes etc. I got my butt chewed out about taking my bike down in the concrete drainage ditches. Kids had been killed in them due to flash floods, it would rain on the Davis mountains and be perfectly sunny in the City. Dad and Mom are bowling nuts, Dad was a good bowler, and I got my first taste of bowling and signed up for the youth league and bowled every Saturday (and of course I got the bug). The music I also remember and a lot of it became and still is my favorite. I do remember it being hot during the summer, but next summer it will get hotter. I am taking swimming lessons and am called a “minnow”, lol, and progress through shark by the end of the year. I play baseball but the only thing I actually remember is the coach chewing some of us out because we kept going swimming on game days. I remember going to White Sands Missile Range and cutting down our Christmas tree for this Christmas. MUSIC: Another busy year for songs, one time wonders and music in general. Songs to come out: Snowbird (Anne Murray), Jingle, Jangle (The Archie’s), Son of a Preacher Man (Aretha Franklin), Up on Cripple Creek (The Band), The Thrills is Gone (BB King), Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles), Lonely Days (The Bee Gees), Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Hi-De-Ho (Blood, Sweat and Tears), Ride Captain, Ride (Blues Image), It Don’t Matter to Me and Make it With You (Bread), Gypsy Woman (Brian Hyland), We’ve Only Just Begun and Close To You (The Carpenters – Karen was a fox and died way to young), Looking Out My Back Door and Up Around The Bend (CCR), Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? And 25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago), Ohio, Our House, Teach Your Children and Woodstock (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Dianna Ross), I’ll Never Fall In Love Again (Dionne Warwick-haven’t we all said this many many times? Lol), Hey There Lonely Girl (Eddie Holman), Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes (Edison Lighthouse), Spill The Wine (Eric Burden & War), After Midnight (Eric Clapton), One Less Bell To Answer (The Fifth Dimension), All Right Now (Free), House Of The Rising Sun (Frijid Pink),My Sweet Lord (George Harrison), Honey Comeback (Glen Campbell), If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot), American Woman, Hand Me Down World and No Time (The Guess Who), ABC (The Jackson 5), Fire and Rain (James Taylor), She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Joe Cocker), Instant Karma (John Lennon), Steal Away (Johnnie Taylor), Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell), Lola (The Kinks), Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin), Question (The Moody Blues), Mississippi Queen (Mountain), In The Summertime (Mungo Jerry), Cracklin’ Rosie and He ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (Neil Diamond), Mr. Bojangles (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Spirit In The Sky (Norman Greenbaum), I Think I Love You (The Partridge Family), Leaving on A Jet Plane (Peter, Paul and Mary), Take A Letter Maria (R. B. Greaves), Born To Wander and Get Ready (Rare Earth),For The Good Times (Ray Price), Do the Funky Chicken (Rufus Thomas), Black Magic Woman (Santana), Bridge Over Troubled Water and Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel), Tears Of A Clown (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), Love The One Your With (Stephen Stills), Green Eyed Lady (Sugarloaf), Celebrate (Three Dog Night), Candida (Tony Orlando and Dawn), Domino and Moondance (Van Morrison) and Summertime Blues (The Who – though Blue Cheer did a dynamite version in 1968). The Albums of 1970: Lit It Be (The Beatles), Black Sabbath and Paranoid (Black Sabbath – Ozzy Rocks), Close To You (The Carpenters), Morrison Motel (The Doors), Closer To Home (Grand Funk Railroad), Workingman Dead (The Grateful Dead), American Woman (The Guess Who), ABD (The Jackson 5), Rides Again (The James Gang), Led Zeppelin III (Led Zeppelin), Atom, Heart, Mother (Pink Floyd), Abraxas (Santana), Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel) and Moondance (Van Morrison). And the events, a sad year for us rockers. The Beatles officially break up with Paul suing them in court, though John had actually left the year before. Other breakups are The Dave Clark 5, The Monkees and Simon & Garfunkel. Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 premieres. Rock fans mourn the passing of two legendary greats Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. MOVIES: The movies of the year and ones I remember are Airport (Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bassett, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes and Dean Martin – Cuz), The Aristocats, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (Charelton Heston, Kim Hunter), Catch 22 (Alan Arkin), CC and Company (Joe Namath – without pantyhose), Chisum (John Wayne), Colossus: The Forbin Project (Eric Braeden – the book by CF Jones was excellent), Horton Hears A Who, Kelly’s Heroes (Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Dion Rickles, Donald Southerland [Bad Vibes], Carroll O’Connor and Gavin McLeod – one of my favorites movies), Let It Be (The Beatles), Love Story (Ali McGraw and the preppie Ryan O’Neal), M*A*S*H (Donald Southerland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Gary “Radar” Berghof and Rene Auberjonois), Patton (George C. Scott [the General],Karl Malden), Scrooge (Albert Finney), Start the Revolution Without Me (Gene Wilder, Donald Sutherland), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (Kurt “Dexter” Russell, Cesar Romero), The Owl and The Pussycat (Barbara Streisand, George Segal), The Call Me Mr. Tibbs (Sidney Poitier, Martin Landau, Ed Asner), Tora! Tora! Tora! (Jason Robards), Tribes (Darren McGavin, Jan-Michael Vincent, Earl Holliman), and Two Mules For Sister Sara (Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine). EVENTS: Memorable events of the year are 4 students killed by National Guard Troops at Ohio State University Protest (spawns the song by CSNY), the voting age is lowered from 21 to 18, the Concorde makes its first supersonic flight at 700 mph, Apollo 13 is launched and the famous word “Houston We Have A problem” from Lovell is uttered, they return safely 3 days later. Race riots abound all of the states still. Hurricane Celia is the most expensive Gulf Coast Damage recorded, PLO hijacks 4 planes, and Anwar Sadat becomes the President of Egypt. 142 die at a French Discothèque when fire breaks out and all exits are padlocked. Tom Dempsey of the New Orleans kicks a record 63 yard field goal. Pope Paul VI is wounded by a knife wielding Bolivian Painter in the Philippines. South Korean Ferry capsizes killing 308 and the first successful craft lands on Venus launched by the USSR. CARTOONS: Saturday morning cartoons see the debut of Motor Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Sabrina and the Groovy Goolies, Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, The Bugaloos, Dr. Doolittle, the Harlem Globetrotters and Josie & the Pussycats (meow, hot for a cartoon lol). Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau makes it’s debut in the papers, my favorite is of course Zonker Harris, a little bit of me and what will become friends when I play football, we all were a lot like that. TV Shows that came into existence this year were All My Children, Monday Night Football (Browns 31 Jets 21) and The Odd Couple. Oh Yeah, how can I forget everyone’s favorite girl Laura Petry now has her own show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Red Skelton Show and Chet Huntley go off the air.

Fourth Grade completed, woohoo and I am 10 and living in a foreign country, Germany. A lot happens this year in the world. I remember watching the moon landing and staying up late. I got a 10 speed bike for Christmas. Some friends and I on the way to the rec (recreation) center in the daytime hear of a wild boar stalking the woods. We are living on base at Landstuhl Germany, 3rd floor. Me and my peeps are going to go out hunting the boar (luckily we never find it, but it has been taken care of). One night on the way to the rec center, which was down a small hill there was a patch where the water ran that had frozen over. We would surf –like slide down here, and have been doing it for a couple of weeks, but this night one of us falls and breaks his arm. The summer was good for the most part. Ricky Gordon, my bud (who still lived on the economy) and I formed a “band”, lol. He had a guitar and I had tin cans for a drum set. We did this after our Beatles summer on post having watched, Hard Days Night and Help! Which we rolly-pollied out in the field pretending we were the Beatles (lol). My parents went on a vacation and I stayed with Bill and Marie (she was French) Lombardi and His Family a friend of Dads, he had two daughters and a son. I remember Francois and Luigi but not the littlest ones name. The first night at their dinner table, naive as I was, someone had farted and Bill asked who cut the cheese, I said I see no cheese (like I said, naive). The kids giggled at me until Bill explained. They lived in France and we were playing one day, running in the wheat fields, and I was blinded (found out later I had allergies, and my eyes had swollen shut). My grandfather, Poppop dies later in the year, and my parents have to fly back stateside, they think I am to young for funerals. Someone was supposed to stay with me after school on the third day, but no one was there, and didn’t know where to go or get a hold of anyone and I was locked out. Ended going to the MP's (Military Police), don’t remember exactly what happened but I know that someone came and got me late that night. I started fifth Grade here, but would finish someplace else. We move early next year. MUSIC: Busy year in rock n roll. Songs to come out this year are Get Back and Come Together/Something (The Beatles), Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head (BJ Thomas), Spinning Wheel (Blood, Seat & Tears), Proud Mary (CCR), Touch Me (The Doors), Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto (Elvis Presley), Aquarius (The Fifth Dimension), Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town (Kenny Rogers), Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin), Leavi9ng on a Jet Plane (Peter, Paul and Mary), My Cherie Amour (Stevie Wonder), Love Child (Supremes), Sugar Sugar (The Archie’s), Crimson and Clover (Tommy James and the Shondells p good love song), Pinball Wizard (The Who) and In the Year 2525 (Zager and Evans). Some of the mega albums and bands to come out: Alice’s Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie – had to be stoned to watch the movie), The Band (The Band), Abbey Road and Yellow Submarine (yeehaw) (the Beatles), Blind Faith (Blind Faith), Blood, Sweat and Tears (Blood, Sweat and Tears), Willy and the Poor Boys (CCR), Grand Funk (Grand Funk Railroad), In the Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson), Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II (Led Zeppelin of course) and Ummagumma (Pink Floyd). And the events, wow, this was the year: Beatles last Public Performance on top of Apple Studios, John and Oko Bed In for Peace, Rumors of Paul’s death, Altamont Freeway (what the heck were the Stones thinking?) and last but not least……WOODSTOCK!!!!!!!!! MOVIES: Notable Movies of the year are Alice’s Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Natalie Wood), A Boy Named Charlie Brown (poor Chuck), The Brain (David Niven), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Paul Newman and Robert Redford), Cactus Flower (Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn wow sock it to me! Baby), Dragnet (Jack Webb) Easy Rider (Peter Fonda), Good Bye, Mr. Chips (Peter O’Toole), Hello, Dolly (Barbara Streisand), Krakatoa, East of Java (Maximillian Schnell – good ads, but movie, well ehh), Marooned (Gregory Peck), Puss n Boots (boy did mom love Disney, we saw this one also), Support Your Local Gunfighter (James Garner- always plays good funny cowboy gambler), True Grit (John Wayne) and the Wrecking Crew (Dean Martin – cuz). EVENTS: One ton meteorite hits Chihuahua Mexico, The Chicago 8 are indicted, First eye transplant, Queen Elizabeth II’ Maiden Voyage, Apollo 11 lands on the moon (One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, I remember this late night), Edward (Ted) Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an accident (one week later) and Mary Jo Kopechne dies in the car underwater, the Mansion Family kills Sharon Tate, Abigail Foldger and Jay Sebring, Supreme Court order immediate desegregation of all schools, Wendy’s Hamburgers opens up, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) begin in Switzerland, Alcatraz is seized by Native Americans, Draft is instated (first time since WWII), John Lennon offered the part of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and the USAF closes project blue book (yeah, right lol). CARTOONS: New cartoons are The Pink Panther (so cool, now he sells insulation – childhood actors, lol), Hot Wheels (did you have some, I did), Dastardly and Muttley (they have their own show), The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, H. R. Pufnstuf (Jimmy, where is Witchiepoo and the Golden Flute?) and everybody’s favorite, this year our favorite dog (besides snoopy) and his snacks debut Scooby Doo? Where are You? Can you say Scooby Snack? (I wonder what was in those things?!). TV Shows: Last Episode of Star Trek (can farther than they have gone before), last Smothers Brothers, Hee Haw debuts along with Love American Style, Monty Pythons Flying Circus (God is it really that old?), The Courtship of Eddies Father and Room 222.

This year has been interesting. I have graduated from third grade and I am 9 this summer. We took a summertime vacation and drove from El Paso Texas to New Jersey. Went through Wichita Falls up to St. Louis, saw the arch, skirted the northern states and went thought Pennsylvania, where there was this restaurant over top of a tunnel on the interstate. The tunnel went through the mountain and you could go up to the restaurant and over look the traffic on the interstate below. I spent a good deal of time here, I forget how long, but long enough to spend the Fourth of July here and see my bestest friend in the whole world, my grandmothers next door neighbors son, Joey. My grandmother, Nana, and her next door neighbor Mrs. DeLuccia, well they had been good friends for awhile. I was a year older than Joey, but who cares we used to play together all the time. There was maybe five feet of distance between Nana's house and Mrs. D's house. Nana was pure Italian, and always had something cooking. Lillian, Mrs. D., was Polish and always had something cooking there. It is a wonder that us boys, and Joeys older brother Michael, weren’t as big as house. Now the most interesting thing about this house was two things. First Nana’s bedroom window looked right into Mrs. D’s kitchen window over the sink. These two instead of picking up the phone would holler across to each other for borrowing things, coming over, whatever. It would always start out “Yoohoo, Mrs. Bloom!” Which I found out later came from a 1950’s sitcom the Goldberg’s where it was a similar situation, lol. The D’s got an above ground swimming pool, I forgot what Mr. D did, but Poppop, my grandfather, ran his plumbing business form the basement of this house, Cherry and Zekes Plumbing. He used to name his trucks, one was Leaping Lena, named after Nana, lol, there was always something going on. A picture of the three of us can be seen in my just me album. The DeLuccia’s had a bigger lot, with apple trees and cherries and a whole lot of things surrounded by a bush on all sides, so you couldn’t really see in (this got us into a bit of trouble in 1971. A memorable and notable incident happened on the July fourth celebration. We were over at my other Grandma’s in Sterling, visiting my moms side of the family and my cousin Joey (not the same person as aforementioned), and my great-grandpa and grandma Cortese, moms grandparents, still talked with the Italian Accent and still made his own vino, in the bath tub. The love his life was his birds, it looked like millions; he had parakeets, pigeons and many others, in a coop outside. All my great cousins lived in this building. The incident happened at Aunt Toni’s house, we had all the cousins there my mom had her three sisters and their husbands (except Aunt Roseanne who was widowed) and my cousins, Andrea, Ronnie, Cheryl, Terri, Kim and Mark. The top four were all a year apart, so we ran around together. While throwing firecrackers, my dad, after a long lecture on firecracker safety, allowed me to throw just one fire cracker. It happened to be an M80 (which got me into trouble mentioned earlier in 1971). Dad got his cigarette and lit it, I was getting ready to throw it when my littlest cousins, Terri and Cheryl, ran in front of me, so I held it, looking for a place to throw it, watching the fuse get shorter. When there was an opening I tried to throw it far, but it exploded abut 6 to 10 inches from my hand. My ears were ringing and my hand hurt like hell, even after sticking it into ice water. Nothing broken, or damaged though my hand did swell and stayed that way for a time. I blame this incident on why my handwriting sucks so bad, it used to be pretty good. The next incident that starts my long journey after we headed back to El Paso, was dad got orders to go to Germany, he left before Christmas, and was go9ing to get everything set up for us to come over there. Mom had applied for a civil service job as a secretary, to help make ends meet. She was worried about passing the exam and tells the story of that night she was visited by her Dad who told her not to worry, everything would be okay. See, Grandpa Leonard died before I was born, even before mom and dad were married, about 5 months before. This year was the start of my otherwise (I thought boring) interesting life, because from here everything starts to happen so fast that a lot of it is still a blur. We ended up going over there and living on the economy, that means off base, in a little town called Sands. Taking off in a plane, BOAC, we had a long flight, we had a long wait at the airport. When the plane landed it had blown a tire. After they finished changing it, and were taxiing it blew two more, so they had to change all the tires, overall about a four delay which also had a thirteen hour flight time afterwards. We landed in Frankfurt Airport, and man it was amazing, everything seemed new and different. Dad was stationed up the road, in Missau. Our landlord would watch me after school, and take me to a butcher shop, where they would buy the food for the day, and the butcher always gave me a sample of something. Brasunschweiger was my first, and I loved it, until I latter found out what it was (second time in Germany, but the Braunschweiger tastes different than its American counter part, liverwurst). I also went to a German school, since there was no room in the American School on base and it was easier this way. This is memorable for a number of reasons, the first is a good look into the German culture I was immersed in and the second was a lesson. In the school, I could not speak English, until English class, and then in English class I was told I was speaking it wrong, guess I was speaking American, lol. The rest of the year is just a blur, except that dad got a scar on his head from an accident he was in (before we got there), which stayed with him for the rest of his life. We had a Mercedes to drive, well dad did. Memorable events that happened during the year Events: The Tet Offensive occurred, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, the Zodiac Killer begins his/her reign of terror (and had never been caught), the first flight of the Boeing 747, first successful heart transplant, the firs explosion of a Hydrogen bomb (by the US), the first Big Mac was sold for 49 cents, Evel Kneivel made his famous crash at Caesars Palace, and the Frito Bandito is born. Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Dave, don’t do that Dave. My God, there are stars), Night of the Living Dead (memorable time in 1977 watching this movie), Yellow Submarine (bubble gum machine lol), The Love Bug (go Herbie go), Planet of the Apes (Charlton Heston: It's a mad house. A mad house. And: Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!). Rosemary’s Baby (Mia Farrow), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Dick Van Dyke), Ice Station Zebra, and my top two all time favorite John Wayne Movies: #2 The Green Berets and #1 Hellfighters (If this movie ever comes on and we are supposed to go someplace, you better just go, because I am not going anywhere, lol). Music: Johnny Cash sings at Folsom Prison, David Gilmour replaces Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd (landmark), the Yardbirds disband, the New Yardbirds or Led Zeppelin perform for first time. Albums: The White Album (The Beatles), Beggar Banquet (The Rolling Stones) and Electric Lady Land (The Jimi Hendrix Experience). Songs of the year were: Sky Pilot (The Animals), Lady Madonna and Hey, Jude (The Beatles), Suzie Q (Creedence Clearwater Revival), Sunshine of Your Love and White Room (Cream), Hush (Deep Purple), Hello, I Love You (The Doors), This Guy’s in Love with You (Herb Alpert), In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly, a good reason not to name songs when you are blown away really was to be In The Garden of Eden), All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix), What A Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong, the Great Satchmo), Sitting on the Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding, became #1 after his death), Mrs. Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel, I forgot to mention in 1966, one of my favorite songs by these two, Sounds of Silence), Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf), Jumpin’ Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones), Love Child (The Supremes, RIP Florence), Mony, Mony (Tommy James and The Shondells – later I would love dancing to this song), Magic Bus (The Who – Yes, it is the same ShuShu and Becky). TV: Rowan and Martins Laugh-in (Soc it to me Goldie, Verrry Interestink), Adam-12 (one adam 12 see the man…), the Ghost and Mrs. Muir and the Mod Squad. Cartoons: The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour (Beep, Beep, everything from the ACME Co., lol), Wacky Races, The Batman/Superman Hour and Archie (hmmm Betty or Veronica, the world may never know!). Well that is all my knowledge for now on my year life in 1968! Thank you for stopping by my mind. 

Well, as we can all see my first five years on this planet was really nothing to it. During this year many great movies that I would later come to love came out. Just to name a few My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins won at the Oscars. Saw Dr. Zhivago at the drive in along with the Pink Panther. My all time favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas (I remember this!) One of my favorite bands, and one of the girls I love (Grace Slick) debut as the Jefferson Airplane, later Jefferson Starship, then just Starship. Beatlemania is in full swing. Billion Dollar Betsy (Hurricane Betsy) hits New Orleans (they still haven't learned have they?). The great Northeast blackout occurred, hitting 8 states and lasting for up to 13 1/2 hours. This termed the phrase, where were you when the lights went out? Second Vatican Council II was open and closed. Some of my favorite memories are of television shows, and this year a lot came out: Lost in Space, Green Acres, Wild Wild West, Hogans Heroes (I know nuthink!, loved Schultz), I dream of Jeannie, Get Smart (missed me by that much) and Thunderbirds (God I remember those lovable marionettes). Gilligan's Island, Gomer Pyle, the Munsters and the Man From Uncle all carried over from 1964. Some of these I remember clearly, and some from repeats and now cable on TVLAND. (Getting old yet hahahaha). There was a lot of turmoil in a America with the march for freedom to Selma and the Vietnam war. I was in first grade and we (mom and I) were living in Raritan, NJ. Dad was stationed in Korea. The world was looking good to me, after all I am six and in first grade. I remember the drive-ins and playing at the playground, and those irritating, lovable, seducing intermissions with the hotdog getting chased by the bun. Well, ran out of 1965 braincells so here it ends. As the years come closer more stuff happens and I remember (or forget) more. Stay tuned. Same Bat time, same Bat Channel.

This one hits home. A very good friend of mine whose is family to me was put in the hospital tonight, have no info other than she is in grave condition as of now and waiting to hear more. Please keep her, her family and my family in prayer during this time. Will update as soon as I know more. Angel prayers, power, strength and healing is desperately needed. Doc

Well, it was bound to happen, got a couple of things mixed up lol. TJ was my girlfriend in 1975 and chased after Nancy in 1972/73. Call it old age lol, but some of the people I am still in touch with also say the same, those years seem to blur together. We all had a hard time coming back stateside, adjusting fitting in... and a lot of people when we told them of the things we did, they would be like so what? This may be part of the reason that I always thought I led a boring life, hhmmmm, maybe not so boring after all. Well, If I catch them I'll correct them lol, but who knows after all 50 is half a century so a lot can happen. And did.

I turn eight this year, going from second to third grade. Near December we had a sock hop, had my first real girl friend, if you want to call her that Jeri (short for Geraldine) don’t ask why she spelled it with a J, haven’t a clue. We went to the sock hop; she stood a good eight inches over me (with flats on) and had braces. We danced all night, to some of the songs mentioned. The three songs I remember of that night are Never My Love and Cherish by the Association (both slow dances) and the final song of the night, Colour My World by Chicago and my first real kiss. It was a magical night, I was so sad when her Dad came to pick her up. I remember the failed Apollo 1 and the death of the Astronauts and seeing the race riots on TV and the war in Vietnam broadcast nightly by Walter Conkrite. The famous “Summer of Love” was a time to remember, and though I am only eight, it and the music from it would be a large part of my life to this day. Music and movies are some of the things that shape us, and there is a long list of both for me. We are still living in El Paso, renting a house on Mt. Rushmore Avenue. Going down to the corner 7-11 for slushies or ice cream, summers at the pool (man it was hot). Playing baseball on an organized team for the first time (outfield if you must know, and no I wasn’t a starter). I loved school, getting good grades. I have always loved school, sick I know, but I love to learn, about anything and this helps me in my future years. Other things that happened in this year of my life, some I remember, and some I don’t, but they all happened. MUSIC: This is where a lot of my music of today is grounded. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band (all time favorite) came out this year. Artists like Aretha Franklin (Chain Of Fools, RESPECT), Bobbie Gentry (Ode To Billy Joe), Donovan (Mellow Yellow), Dusty Springfield (The Look Of Love – was in one of my Favorite Movies Casino Royale), Jefferson Airplane (Somebody To Love, White Rabbit – was in love with Grace Slick, mmmm), John Fred and His Playboy Band (Judy In Disguise), Lulu (To Sir, Sir With Love – good movie), Petula Clark (Don’t Sleep In The Subway Darling – also a good actress), Procol Harum (Lighter Shade Of Pale – My Uncle turned me onto these guys in 1969), Scott McKenzie (San Francisco[Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers IN Your Hair]), The American Breed (Bend Me Shape Me), The Association (Carrie Anne, Never My Love, Windy [see previous blog 1966]), The Beatles – One of My Top Three Favorite All Time Bands (Hello-Goodbye[my first 45], Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields), The Byrds (So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star [yes I do, lol]), The Doors (Light My Fire, People Are Strange [my theme song, if any]), The Mamas and The Papas (Dedicated To The One I Love), The Royal Guardsmen (Snoopy vs The Red Baron), The Seekers (Georgy Girl[yes I got teased about this]), The Supremes (Reflections), The Turtles (Happy Together), The Who (I Can See For Miles), The Young Rascals (Groovin), Tommy James and The Shondells (I Think We’re Alone Now) and Van Morrison (Brown Eyed Girl [used to sing this to the Girl that would become my wife when we first met]). Bands like The Velvet Underground, The Who, Procol Harum, Pink Floyd (another of my all time favorite bands), Jimi Hendrix and Moody Blues start this year off in various ways. Moody Blues Days of Future Passed and the Jimi Hendrix Experience are released. Pink Floyd plays first concert in Quadraphonic Sound and The Who destroys their instruments on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Show. Monterey Pop Festival and the beginning of the “Summer of Love”. Other notable music events of the year: First Issue of The Rolling Stone Magazine. New bands/people starting their career: Ted Nugent, George Clinton, Sly & the Family Stone, Blue Oyster Cult, Captain Beefheart, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Genesis. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour shown on BBC1. MOVIES: Notable Movies of the year are Barefoot In The Park (Robert Redford), Bonnie and Clyde (Warren Beatty), Casino Royale – one of my fav’s (Peter Sellers, Woody Allen), Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman), The Dirty Dozen (Lee Marvin), Doctor Dolittle (Rex Harrison), Fahrenheit 451 (Oskar Werner, based on a book by one of my favorite authors Ray Bradbury), For A Few Dollars More (Clint Eastwood), The Gnome Mobile (Walter Brennan – mom took me to a theatre to see this one), The Graduate (Dustin Hoffman music by Simon and Garfunkel), Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (Spencer Tracy), In The Heat Of The Night (Sidney Portier), The Jungle Book (mom took me to this also), Thoroughly Modern Millie (mom was a Julie Andrews fan, I liked it and Julie Andrews), To Sir, With Love (Sidney Protier, Lulu, I will stop whatever I am doing to watch this movie), Valley of the Dolls (Sharon Tate), The War Wagon (John Wayne one of his first ones that I saw) and You Only Live Twice (Sean Connery “My name is Bond, James Bond” and there was no other). EVENTS: Other happenings is America loses it’s first astronauts on Apollo 1, killing Gus Grissom, Edward Higgins White and Roger Chaffee when fire breaks out in the Apollo Command Capsule. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution defining presidential succession is enacted. War protesting is all over the place setting the stage for the next couple of years. Russia has their first cosmonaut die in Soyuz 1, Vladimir Komarov, when his parachute doesn’t open. Elvis and Priscilla get married in Las Vegas. The are a number of race riots in the US cities, a number of people killed, injure and property burned or destroyed. Most notably, the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River in Point Pleasant, WV collapses killing 46 and is linked to the Mothman mystery (another good movie), right before Christmas on Dec 15. CARTOONS: New cartoons are Fantastic Four, Journey to the Center of the Earth, George of the Jungle (yes I got teased about this one also), Aquaman Superman Hour, Topcat, and Johnny Quest.