June 11, 2015- Music, Stuffed Animals, and Writing-Part 2

   Mom still has all of her records, even the Rosemary Clooney 78s. She doesn’t have her old record player that could play these though. I have my record player only it hasn’t been used in about 10 years. That stereo has been in mom’s room for even longer than that.

    I can’t believe that I used to like listening to her musical soundtracks- Gigi, Gypsy, Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Music Man, Bye- Bye Birdie, Jumbo, and The King and I. We watched these movies together too.

    I wish that I never got rid of all but 3 of my Beatles records. I’m kind of embarrassed about my McCartney crush. I did have a poster of him and a Beatles one on my wall during that late 80’s- early 90s phase. 

    I thought that one of our 8^th grade Communion Breakfast (pre-graduation) songs used Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” with our school name replacing “Rock and Roll”. When I recently looked in that booklet, I saw “Graduation” to the tune of Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” which I do remember. But there was also another called “Be Good Eighth Grade” to the tune of “Be Good Johnny” that I definitely don’t recall.

   Why had there even been 2 songs? The former says 1982 with words written by 4 of my classmates and the latter is 1983, with 5 names.  A couple of them sound familiar; they might have been the class of 1984. I am really confused about this.

   Mike mentioned that his class had “The Reflex”. Was it used for this same event or as the main song for his 8^th grade dance- Medieval Times theme? If it was the former, I wonder how they would have changed the words to fit graduation/grade school memories.

   I’m so bad at remembering song lyrics. I do know some Christmas carols still, I think. The songs that I remember most are the ones from my childhood and it’s not like I can recall many of the words. There’s Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”, Lionel Richie’s “You Are”, Kenny Rogers- “The Gambler”, Wham! – “Careless Whispers”, and McCartney/Wonder-“Ebony and Ivory”.

 

                                                                 Rosemary Clooney

                                                                Rosemary Clooney

 

 

Music, Stuffed Animals, and Writing- Part 1

I used to enjoy writing poems and short stories when I was younger. They weren’t that good but it was fun. A few of the stories have my stuffed animal friends and famous people like Frank Perdue and Chef Martin Yan as characters.

   Poochie Weiner (bear), Seamore Otter, and Cinnamon Koala were the ones that were always in them. I still have them and some others in a storage tote. I wish that I had kept most of these.

   Those 3 animals also had their own radio station- WPW; I had such a weird imagination and still sort of do.

   I didn’t have that many records but I used them, a couple of my Dad’s classical music tapes and some 8 tracks for that. We had this big stereo- I can see it in my head but just can’t describe it well- AM-FM, record, and 8 track players.

    I remember every 8 track that we had- The Village People, Engelbert Humperdinck (Grandma next door said that he’s good looking and she saw him in concert), Shenandoah and Oklahoma soundtracks, K-tel- Soundwaves (from Cindy), Doris Day’s Greatest Hits, Dolly Parton- Heartbreaker, one with CB related songs (from Ed), 2 Christmas Compilations and John Denver and the Muppets Christmas.

    Dad put an 8 track player in our Chevy Malibu wagon. I remember that time when we were pulling out of the Bradlees parking lot in the early 80s and the back door opened and I nearly fell out of the car. This was such a scary experience which naturally is so vivid in my mind. Why can’t the good times be this way too?

    I only had about ten 45s in the 1980s- “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, ” Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Gloria”,” Mickey”,” Down Under”, “Shadows of the Night”,” Africa”,” Goody Two Shoes”, ” On The Wings of Love”,  and ” True”.

   I got some other 45s in the early 90s at flea markets. I eventually got rid of many of them and my other records. I’m glad that I kept most of the DD stuff; the” Rio” and” HLTW” 45s got damaged by the heat when I was trying to sell them at flea markets.

 

 

                                                                  

                                                            Our 1976 Chevy Malibu

Doris Day

My mom loves Doris Day and when I was a kid I started liking her too. Mom had the 8 track of her greatest hits that I enjoyed listening to. I got the album of this from my boyfriend in the early 90s. I would like to get the CD someday. I did get a double CD of hers for mom and I'm sure all those songs are on it but it's just not the same to me. I'm not even sure if I'd still like her music. Sometimes I go through phases with various artists. I have Secret Love playing in my head right now.

We enjoyed her movies too. I've seen a couple more of them than mom has - Teacher's Pet and Midnight Lace. The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Glass Bottom Boat, The Thrill of It All, Move Over Darling, Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers, Jumbo and That Touch of Mink. There are a few others that I'd like to see. Maybe they'll be on TCM someday.