Beatlemania Hits in 1964

From Yahoo! News.

Jacqueline Horsfall, then 15 years old, recalls her dad calling from the sofa: "The Beatles are on TV.  Don't you want to watch?"  She replied, "The what?  Beatles?"

She joined her parents and wrote in her diary that night: "Sunday, February 9.  The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show tonight.  Their haircuts are out of the world.  I don't think they'll last long though."

The next day, she wrote: "Monday, February 10.  All the kids and teachers were talking about the Beatles. Ten of their songs are in the Top Twenty.  Almost immediately, we started imitating them."

"Tuesday, February 11  After church meeting tonight, everyone was acting like the Beatles.  The boys wore their hair in a fringe, and we played two Beatle albums.  An enterprising classmate sold Beatle photos at school snapped off the Ed Sullivan Show."

I sure wish I had been keeping a dairy or journal back then.

It Had Arrived.    --RoadDog

Thirty years Ago Today We Be Stylin' With New Zenith 25-inch Color Console TV

Looking back at my journal for 1983 (I've been keeping it since summer 1978 and really wish I had been keeping it back to high school and college days) and saw that today, December 5, 1983, a Monday, Polk Brothers delivered the new 25-inch color TV console.

Liz had bought it back on November 29th from Polk Brothers (there's a name for you Chicago folk) for $498, a goodly amount of money back then. I paid for it with deejay earnings and also had bought our first VCR (it's remote was attached by a cord).

We had been watching a 19-inch color TV before that so had really "arrived" in the world of technology. We gave the old one to Liz's parents.

Back in 1983, we were in the midst of quite a cold spell (just like we have coming in this year) and I had to keep the set turned off for two hours to warm up as it wasn't delivered until 6:30 PM to let it warm up as it had been in the truck all day. Not easy as I really wanted to watch it.

AND, we still have that TV. Right now it isn't hooked up to anything as I had to replace it with my mother-in-law's 25-inch color TV as the '83 didn't have the hookup for all the new digital stuff our cable company Mediacom now has. That was just a few months ago.

The set still works very well except for an occasional very temperamental volume control which goes off and on full sound at any given time. Either you can't hear it or get blasted out.

Right now, I plan to move it elsewhere in the basement's North Woods area and use it to watch my old VHS tapes, both bought and recorded.

I will be replacing Frances' 25-inch TV with a 55 or 60-inch HD one in time for our Bear party on Dec. 15th.

Hey, The '83 Still Works. Why Get Rid Of It? --RoadDog

Mighty Big Game for NIU Tomorrow...Mighty Big One 30 Years Ago

Of course, the NIU game against Ball State tomorrow at 7 AM CST is going to be huge for the Huskies, probably their biggest-ever game. We'd really love to go to it, but at our age, sitting out in all that cold which came in yesterday, at night, just isn't a great idea.

I am reading my journal for 1983 and came across another really big game for Northern Illinois back on today's date in 1983 when we played the Toldeo Rockets, already back then, a long-term nemesis. I was at the game, which was played on a Saturday afternoon.

Here is what I wrote: "I went to probably the biggest-ever game in NIU history with the Toledo Rockets. A Northern loss would have kept us away from the California Bowl and insured Toledo another trip to it.

I met Jerry, his wife Nancy, and Kevin (Kevin and Jerry were high school friends at Palatine and went to NIU with me) at the Jungle. I then went to the Sharp Photocopying place in the Junction shopping area. They make copies for 3 cents but unfortunately they are closed on Saturdays. (I was going to make copies of my new deejay contract.)

The game was in progress when we got there but it didn't take NIU long to score. I jumped up and the bottle of schnaaps I had for warmth (and toasting) went flying out of my pocket and shattered on the stadium floor. What a waste!!

There was a placard section on the east side which spelled out "Tuck Foledo." Every so often they would interchange the F and T.

Big, Big, Big Victory!! Students took down a goal post and took it to the Lagoon in celebration."

This Was a Huge Win for Northern and we did end up going to the California Bowl Where I Believe We Played Fresno State, the Team We Are Now Competing With for a BCS Bowl Spot

--RoadDog

Thirty Years Ago Today, I Got My Deejay Equipment

One nice thing about keeping a journal since the summer of 1978 is that I can look back at things and bring back those memories.

Right now, I'm looking at 1983, a "mere" thirty years ago.  The big news today, Feb. 9, 1983, was that I had finally gotten all my equipment from Stereo Studio (no longer in business) on Palatine Road in Buffalo Grove to start my deejay business.

I had spent most all of 1982 learning the trade and playing on the equipment of various places.  I was now ready to go out on my own and make some more money.  And I sure did.  At one point, I almost earned as much money deejaying part time as I did teaching full time.

Over the years I built up quite a record, cassette and CD collection as well as a lot of now antiquated equipment.  I did pay for the lot we built on as well as the basement.

I continued deejaying until my very last job, St, Patrick's Day in 2011.  I am now retired from it as deejay jobs kept getting in teh way of being retired from teaching and the fact I was still using cassette tapes, a tad behind the times.

And speaking of deejaying, listening to a Mardi Gras album right now and Beausleil's "Maman Rosin Boudreaux" just came on.  I played this song a lot around every Mardi Gras.  As good of a Mardi Gras song as you'll ever find.  Combined Cajun, zydeco and second line sounds.

Like good old Ernie Edwards used to say when he closed his famous PigHip Restaurant in Broadwell, Illinois:

"The Equipment Was Getting Old and So Was I."  --RoadDog

Dad Gets Hurt Very Badly Thirty Years Ago Today

I have been reading in my 1982 journal and this date, thirty years ago, the Atlantic Ocean got the better of Dad.  We were at Carlina Beach, North Carolina, back then, just wrapping up a week at the beach.

In the morning, Dad and I went out to look at the lake and Sugar Loaf to look at the old Confederate positions from the Civil War.  When we got back, we went swimming one last time in the ocean.  This is where I pick up that day:

"We all went swimming one more time this morning.  The ocean has been very rough ever since we got here and it nearly claimed "Surfer Bud."  Dad had gotten out further than he deemed safe and decided to ride a wave back in.  Unfortunately, he picked the wrong wave.  I had been going over the top of waves, but decided to go under this one as it looked particularly violent.  It grabbed Dad and threw him with the awesome forse it possessed headfirst into the bottom.  This gave him a concussion and hurt his back badly.

At first, I thought he was just kidding, but soon noticed the pain was real.  He scared me badly.  At first, he couldn't see anything, but gradually the sight came back.  I was more worried about the pain in his back.  He refused to let us call an ambulance and walked back to the cottage.  After he took a shower, we took him to the Federal Point Medical Center, but it was closed so we went back to the cottage, finished packing , and Mom drove Dad, Andy and Chris back to Goldsboro.  (The Prince Reunion was the next day.)"

I Sure Remember This Event.  --RoadDog

Going Back to My 1982: January

I finally got to read my journal from 1982.  I started it in 1978 (and wish I had started it back into at least the sixties).  I still continue with it, so that puts it going on 34 years of my life.  It is a hassle to make the entries, but great to read what I was doing back then.  I would have forgotten most of it.

January 1982 was a busy and key month in my life.

First off, it was very, very, very cold and we got a lot of snow.  I did a lot of complaining about it.  I was also jogging back then, sometimes in the school hallways.  Evidently, my classes were not the best as I also was having problems with quite a few kids.

I kept score at a lot of basketball games for our middle school teams.  And, I was especially amazed at how many times I'd be out to midnight and even 2 AM and still go to school the enxt day.  I sure couldn't do that anymore.

But, the key thing that happened to me was deejaying which I'll talk about tomorrow, 

In January 1982, I Still Would Have Been Thirty.  Wow!!  Could I Ever Have Been That Young.  --RoadDog

January 2, 1980

From my journal.

First day back at school.

Things a mess in the Mideast. Iran still a pain. Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and turned it into a puppet country. Iranians attacked Soviet embassy in Teheran, but Khomeini sent his troops in to protect it., which he sure didn't do with our embassy.

Chicago schools opened as well, but may have to close by Friday is they can't make the payroll. Teachers have decided not to work without pay. Teachers have to pay their bills like everyone else.

Some Things Just Don't Change. --RoadDog


Points to Ponder: Some people are like a slinky...not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

January 1, 1980

Going back 30 years to 1980.


JANUARY 1ST

I noted that this was the 4th year of the journal and that this was the fourth decade Liz and I had lived in. (This is now the seventh decade!!!) I was hoping we'd get a break from prices going up like they had during the last five.

Gas had gone up from 33 cents to a current $1.10 a gallon. Home prices had gone up 50% since we bought our house in 1975.

Some events from the seventies:

1973 graduated college, bought first car (1973 Ford Pinto ($2200), got married and started teaching.
1975 bought house in Round Lake Beach for $33,000.
1977 bought Chevy Mailbu
1974 bought used Pontiac Tempest

We slept until 2 PM. Liz got up before me and took down Christmas decorations and cleaned up from last night's party.

Watched bowl games and charged the Tempest battery.

Oh, to Be 28 Again. --RoadDog


Points to Ponder: Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

New Years Eve 1979

Taking my monthly look-back.

We had a small New Year's Eve party for the neighbors that was kind of a flop. Two couples didn't show up because of sickness and no baby-sitter, but we still think it was because we had dropped out of bowling league with them.

Neighbor Pam had been drinking all day and gotten sick and gone home with Angelo and another couple, so just four of us left at midnight. Played bumper pool and watched TV.

At 3:15 AM, we went to breakfast at a local place. Quite a few drunks in there, but this was 1980 before all the DUI business, Today, there is absolutely NO WAY, I'd be drinking and go out for breakfast that late.

We ended up staying up until 6:30 AM. "Goodbye 70's. Welcome 80's."

Don't Do That "No" More. --RoadDog


Points to Ponder: Don't join dangerous cults. Practice safe sects.

Talking About the Journal

Last night I started work on the 2010 Journal, which marks the 33rd year I've kept it. I started it with a square dancing trip (yep, Square Dancing!!) up to northern Wisconsin back in August 1977 and have kept it ever since. Back in the 80s, I got so busy with deejaying, I missed one summer, but started again. I thought that would be it. Sure wish I had started this back in the 60s.

It, however, is getting rough to do because of the four blogs. I do summarize what I do every day and usually get around to writing it out in more detail. Eventually, something is going to have to go, but not sure yet what it will be.

These journals are a real trip back in time and bring back memories of things and people I would otherwise have forgotten. I'm thinking of finding a library, hopefully Northern Illinois University, to donate it to. I believe it would be helpful to some historian in the future to see what the regular folk were doing during the 70s, 80s, 90s, whatevers, and new whatevers.

I will be taking looks back to thirty years ago, 1980 (has it been THAT LONG?) at the beginning of each month. That also gives me a chance to correct spelling and punctuation as even some really easy words are misspelled.

Journals, or diaries if you will, are a pain, but years later a definite pleasure to bring back those old memories. When I taught language arts, I had the kids write a one hundred word summary of what they did every weekend for a writing assignment. Hopefully some of then kept their history and maybe even continued.

Hoping to Keep the Journal Going. --RoadDog


Thoughts to Ponder: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Happenings Twenty Years Time Ago

One nice thing about keeping a journal for most every day since 1978 is that I can look back and see what I was doing all those years ago. It sure brings back people and events that I would otherwise have forgotten thanks to my CRS. I have been looking at my 1989 Journal (or do you call it diary?).

Back then, we were doing lots of boating, and 4th of July went to a bunch of places on the Chain for bands and celebrating. I saw in the papers that a bunch of airlines were offering $152 round trip to most places in the US. Where to go, where to go?

My buddy Rick suggested San Diego where we could stay with his brother. I'd only driven through the place once back in 1967 with my family. We flew out on the 6th. One nice thing about being a teacher during the summer was the ability to do something like this, and, even better, I wasn't deejaying for a week, so it worked out great.

Talked with San Diego sportswriter Barry Bloom on the way out to SD. Liz flew out the next day. The 7th, we went to Old Town and Pacific Beach and had $1.50 drinks at Jose Murphy's.

OTL Tomorrow and Tijuana the Next Day. --RoadDog