1979 Chores

In the Winter of 1979, I was a busy farm, school, and basketball boy. The goal was to milk the cows and get the barn cleaned before school. Some winter mornings mother nature would have other ideas, and the cold would freeze the pipes in the barn, or the Farmall Super C would not start. That left little time for me to wash the cow crap from behind my ears and get to school. Among my classes was drivers’ education with Mr. Elroy Pampuch. Now I had been driving the three on the tree pickups at the farm since I was in my single digit years, but an automatic transmission vehicle was a learning challenge for me. I could not wait to get my driver’s licence in early 1980 and ask out the Ithaca ladies (it was a time of dread for the ladies). After school I was lighting it up on the basketball court (I hit the lights with my high arching shots) and trying to help the Ithaca JV boys team win. After practice I would go home to help finish the night milking.

Music has always been an escape for me and in December of 1979, there were many songs that I was jamming with. Some favorites for my mix tapes include Heartache Tonight-Eagles, Tusk-Fleetwood Mac, Head Games-Foreigner, Jane-Jefferson Starship, Don’t Do Me Like That-Tom Petty, Dream Police-Cheap Trick, It’s All I Can Do-The Cars, and Good Girl’s Don’t-The Knack. My favorite albums included The Long Run (Eagles), Dream Police (Cheap Trick), and Get the Knack (The Knack). On my Those Were the Days radio show Saturday night, I will be spinning a few of the before mentioned songs. It will take be back to those wonderful days of the late 70’s and early 80’s. That was an awesome time to grow up (I am still working on that).

Those Were the Days will hit the air at six Saturday night and for six hours you will be transported to another time. It is a radio party, and I am hoping you will tell your friends about the goofy little show that started back in 1986 on WRCO. It is now heard worldwide courtesy of WRCO.com and the Civic Media app. and it is so awesome to hear memories and stories from our great listeners. I will get the chores done so that we can party on Saturday night.

Phil