1981 Tight Shorts & Long Socks

February 14, 2024 11:04 AM CDT

During our Those Were the Days radio show on Saturday night, we will spin it back to February of 1981. I was a very small third string forward on the Ithaca basketball team. I was an MVP off the court because I made cool mix tapes to take on the bus and to jam with in the locker room. That was my main contribution to the team. I was a good friend to the cheerleaders. They thought I was funny and whenever I would ask one out, they would break out laughing. It was uncool to have baggy shorts in that era. All of the basketball trunks were short and tight, and the socks would often pull up past the knee. Some of my best moves on the court were when the game ended, and the Friday night record hop got underway. A few of my favorite tunes from early 1981 are, Treat Me Right-Pat Benatar, Ah! Leah! -Donnie Iris, Seven Bridges Road-Eagles, Back in Black-AC/DC, Don’t Stand So Close to Me-Police, Hungry Heart-Bruce Springsteen, I Love You-Climax Blues Band, and Games People Play-The Alan Parsons Project. When I play these on the radio Saturday night, I will remember the frosted windows on the old school bus on those winter trips to Seneca, La Farge, Kickapoo, Wauzeka, Brookwood, and De Soto. These are the songs that played on the AM radio of my 1975 Ford Maverick and on the barn radio as I worked with my dad, or on the juke box at Center Lanes.

I hope that you will join the radio fun during Those Were the Days on Saturday night. You could be the winner of a fun prize when the ‘magic cowbell’ rings. Hear the best of the fifties through the early nineties on WRCO FM 100.9, wrco.com, and on the Civic Media app.

Phil