Sock It to Me-1967

Last week on WRCO’s Those Were the Days radio show, I went back to the spring of 1982. This week we will travel to 1967. Those two years are among my favorite with ’67 (tee hee he said 6-7) being my all-time favorite. Even though I was just a wee Nee and it was not the music I grew up with, I have always found that era as the most creative with incredible melodies and a variety of styles. As I have mentioned on this blog many times, the radio was always on around the farm. The barn radio was our connection to the world. If we jumped into the old farm truck, that radio was on and the kitchen radio on top of the Norge Dryer was on in the background of everyday life. The farm was coming to life, and dad started the ‘big tractor’ (a Farmall M with app: 44 horsepower on a good day) to plant the oats. Little Phil was preparing his play farm field on a piece of sandy land. My imaginary friend, Farmer Jelly, planted a row of oats and corn. I would help him by dropping some seeds in the ground. My hard labor would often be for naught when friendly prized Holstein Lady Belle would slip through the gate and eat the crop or Petunia the pig would slip under the wire and go rooting and tooting. Those were tough times and Farmer Jelly did not have crop insurance. My mom was doing her best to raise an upstanding son to either be a priest or a doctor. Well, she swung and missed on both of those goals. My cousins from Madison would often come and stay at the farm in the late ’60’s. When cousin Mike needed to borrow some socks, mother told me to loan him some from my drawer. For some reason I had monogram socks with the first letter of my name on them. “But mother, I exclaimed, they have P on them”. Expecting the worst she angrily asked, “how did they get pee on them?” “My name starts with P” exclaimed Little Philip innocently.

Some of the big spring radio hits in 1967 were Kind of a Drag-Buckinghams, For What It’s Worth-Buffalo Springfield, I’m a Believer-Monkees, I Think We’re Alone Now-Tommy James, Love is Here and Now You’re Gone-Supremes, Penny Lane-Beatles, It Takes Two-Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, and Happy Together-Turtles. I will be spinning a few of those gems on this weekend’s show.

I hope you will tune in to Those Were the Days on Saturday night. Feel free to request a Top 40/Rock song from the fifties through the mid-nineties between six and midnight. As the weather gets nicer, more friends check in. We are getting nearer to campfire and camping season and great music through the open air across the hills and dales of Southwest Wisconsin. You can listen over the air on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com or through the Civic Media app.

Big Philip