Good Times: John Lennon's 81st Birthday and the Impact the Beatles Had On Me

SATURDAY. OCTOBER 9

Today would have been John Lennon's 81st birthday.  He was not my favorite Beatle (George Harrison was), but that group really turned my life around.  I'd never paid much attention at all to music before that, but when they came.  Wow!!   It was all over the radio and that music!!  Wow!!  Like nothing I'd ever heard before.

I started listening to the two main Chicago stations that played their music and other music that young people listened to:  WLS, 890 AM and WCFL, 1000 AM.  I couldn't get enough.  I even started buying 45s and albums and my condition just got worse and worse.  I was hooked on music.  Couldn't get enough.

I still am hooked on music.  I still record music on cassettes and have several thousand pre-recorded and recorded cassettes as well as hundreds of 45s, albums and CDs.  I even had a deejay business for almost 30 years (at one time I made almost as much in that as I did my full time job, teaching).

Yep, I'd say the Beatles had somewhat of an impact on me.

--RoadBeatle

Indy 500-- Part 12: Sittin', Watchin' and Yappin'

May 23, 2015

One thing great about RVing is that folks tend to sit outside a lot and there is plenty of time to talk.

While we were outside watching the hockey game during the intermissions, which are twenty minutes long, we would get to talking.  John and Paul are brothers and started talking about their father who is in his 90s, a World War II veteran and still living in his own house with their mother in Skokie.

He sometimes drives them nuts, but both Sue and I told them that they should count themselves lucky as they still have him.  We have both lost our fathers and would love to still have them around.

Sue's father was also a World War II veteran.  Mine graduated high school in 1946 so was too young top go to war.  Her father, Joseph served four years as a gunner on the LST 465.  I told her about the LST-325 docked in Evansville, Indiana.

We also got to talking about buying records.  Sue said her first 45 was "Downtown" by Petula Clark.  She was embarrassed by it, but I told her that was one great pop song.

Her first album was Woodstock and her father sure gave her grief about the Country Joe & the Fish "F chant.

My first single was either "Any Way You Want It" by the Dave Clark Five or "Look Through Any Window" by the Hollies.  My first album was a tossup between "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles and "Greatest Hits" by Herman's Hermits.  I went with the greatest hits as moere bang for your buck.

Do You remember Your Firsts?  --RoadDog