Can You Feel It?

[thebes]

Tests next week and then graduation. High school is over. Anticipation and regret.

Who cares.

At the moment its a warm late spring night in June,

1967. The air is sweet, the evening

holds endless promise. Ive got the

family car, a 65 Ford Custom and $2 for gas.

Not the fanciest ride but its a 352cc V8 with twin carbs under the

hood. It will leave rubber for a block

and hold a crew of six. Ill load it up

with various members of that loose confederation of Bishop Ludden and South

side pals known as The Goon Squad.

Pretty soon well have two or three cars running together, score some

beer (3 quarts for a buck) and find a spot away from the cops for a sit-down to

set-up the night.

Well hang around

talking about everything and nothing.

Insults, jokes, girls, false bravado, sports, teachers, dating, music,

girls, bars, summer jobs, and yes, girls.

Theres always talk, always movement, always ideas, comments and

observation. The restless energy of

youth.

Plans will be formulated.

Theres a dance at St. Anthonys maybe well meet some new girls. Lets head over to Garzones and play some

pool. I heard theres a free concert up at SU (Syracuse University). Lets go to Danzers for some sandwiches and

beer served in frosted mugs. So-and-sos having a kegger in the empty lot next

to the golf course. Why dont we head over to the nurses training school

downtown, honk our horns and see if we can entice a few of them out of their

dorm. Should we grab our girlfriends

and sneak into the drive-in.

Who cares what we do, well eventually decide a course and

head out. The plans will always change

throughout the night. At the end well

be up to 20 or down to two or three hardy souls stoking our engines and

watching the late night characters streaming in and out of the all-night greasy

spoon.

We can sense it on the wind. The coming days and years.

More schooling, military service or straight off to work. Labor, jobs, weddings, children,

advancement, disappointment, careers, divorce, death, family and friends gained

and lost. War, turmoil, health and

illness. At graduation well pledge

endless friendship but as the decades roll along this will be true for so very

few.

Adult life is marching towards us like a juggernaut. Tonight though we are free. At this moment our choices are as endless as

the stars in this sweet summer night.

Over time as we make our decisions, both good and bad, those choices

will narrow and dim the firmament of its luster.

Maybe thats why we spend these precious hours doing

everything and nothing.

It doesnt matter because theres a ton of good music on the

radio to guide us through the night, to set our moods and plans. They just finished playing The Stones,

Paint it Black and are launching into Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels CC

Ryder.

I wonder what you guys were listening to around high school

graduation time?

[Guest Anonymous]

A whole lot of REO Speedwagon....

[Daddy Dee]

I drove the Chevy to the levy.

[HarryO]

The British invasion was here. Dylan was hot. The Byrds. Pioneer 8-track super sound with about 8 speakers tied around moms hand me down '62 Fairlane station wagon. Scored big one night with Laura H. to The Associations' "Cherish". Bobby Goldsboro had a few good songs as did Tommy James. Led Zeppelin hit me hard. Clapton, Mott the Hoople, the Who. Life changed all around. Boones Farm moved over and passed the Doobie to "Love Saves" and Gooda Cheese. Sit on the side of the interstate and listen to the trucks blast by with some "Neckers" and chew the tops off the cactus. Chicago was a good band. Motown was so effin cool by '68. Diana Ross was always a good choice on a date. mom's old Fairlane gave way to a '65 Goat 4 yanker. Still kicking the Led, Iron Butterfly Metamorphasis. Trower was coming into his own. Saved up and scored a Pioneer Super tuner cassette player for the Goat. Big old dial on the face. Cassette was AWESOME. No more 8 track hiss and chunks between tracks. Caught my first good concert home on leave. '69. Styx, Serpent is rising I believe. Little Rock Arkansas. It was in a great big bar. My best Bro (Halstead) Blew the motor in the Goat the next night. I gave it to him to drive when I went overseas. I guess it was time for the nylon gears to let go on the timing chain anyway. Valves through the piston. Scuffed up a couple of cylinders beyond the bore. Hendrix, Joplin, Stones, Strawberry Fields forever, Apple, Mclain. I still don't remember much. Kick a.. HardRockin' time

I hate getting old

Harry

"

[Amy]

I wonder what you guys were listening to around high school graduation time?

<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

John Mellencamp's Lonesome Jubilee (Cherry Bomb, Check it Out, Paper in Fire) really comes to mind... and The Doors.

[ZAKO]

Cherry Pink & apple blossem white.......

[capo72]

This will reveal my age for sure, but anyway the Seattle sound was coming into mainstream and Pearl Jam "10" was just released. I was swept off my feet!

Jeremy

[thebes]

Glad you were able to share some memories guys.

Look what do you think of this one, is it too bittersweet? The reason I'm asking is I intend to work on it a bit more, drop the share the music reference, and put it up on a website setup for my 40th high school reunion. Maybe it'll draw a few more to the reunion.

[LoudnClear]

At the end well be up to 20 or down to two or three hardy souls stoking our engines and watching the late night characters streaming in and out of the all-night greasy spoon.

This is a cool perspective I haven't specifically thought of, but it sums up many of my nights back then so well, I was usually one of the last two or three to call it a night.

[jtnfoley]

This will reveal my age for sure, but anyway the Seattle sound was coming into mainstream and Pearl Jam "10" was just released. I was swept off my feet!

Jeremy

Puppy! (wait... I was listening to the same stuff in HS... I must be a puppy too!)

[Islander]

We were listening to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zep, the Doors, Donovan, the Beatles, Blind Faith, Alice Cooper, The Stones, Springsteen, Steppenwolf, Cream, The Mothers, King Crimson, Grand Funk, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, the Who, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and it was all new then.

A lot of that was "underground music" and you wouldn't hear it on the radio, but we'd pass around the albums and tell each other about cool bands. I remember seeing the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors and Santana on the Ed Sullivan Show.

At dances, one of the Righteous Brothers hits was usually the last dance (ladies' choice). Cherish, Walk Away Renee, Na Na Hey Hey, Brown Eyed Girl, Honky Tonk Women, a Whiter Shade of Pale, were the good (not bubblegum) singles we'd hear all the time.

Since I was in Quebec, we got to hear some Charlebois as well, especially Lindberg.

[fini]

Brandy was a fine girl, and we were all trying to get Maggie May to wake up...

[Mallette]

Oh, Martin!!! Thank you for inviting response! I read most of it while it awakened my own memories of that sweet year of 1967 and I so wanted to relate. However, your prose so often does that to me I fear some might feel its a competition. It is not, as I am not a worth competitor for your word imagery to start with, and my responses are always directly instigated by the sheer beauty of your marvelous constructs.

Suppertime now, and I must give this thought. I am so looking forward to my fortieth this September. It is strange that these people seem to mean far more to me now than they did then. Many have fallen, others have risen, and all have grown rich with experience and mellowed with age.

1967 was a VINTAGE year. Many of us are long since vinegar, but some are sweet memories that linger still...

Dave

I

[Marvel]

Dang nab it! I totally have been out of it. My fortieth as well. I was an acoustic guitar player, and really not into R&R too much. So I was always listening to the Kingston Trio, PP&M, the Limelighters, Chad Mitchell Trio. I later would come to love Sgt. Peppers, Satanic Majesties Request. And REO too, as Gary Richrath was at my house often, practicing with a local band. And I was soon to be around folks like Dan Fogelberg and my longtime friend Chuck Perrin.

Boy, does this bring back memories. I can't thank you enough.

[Speedball]

Meatloaf....Bat Out He-"double hockey sticks".[+o(]

[oldbuckster]

SAM and DAVE.......OTIS REDDING..........BOOKER T. and the MG's.............slowly the CREAM, and the JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE weasled their way in........BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD..."For what it's worth"...The GREATEST Protest song ever written.......and who could forget..CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAIL...............Goodbye Beach Boys, Jan and Dean the REAL world was kinda' ugly then..............

[Mallette]

One's first 18 years of life mimic the rest. You start at the bottom, work your way to the top, then you die and find yourself reborn as a young adult at the bottom of the heap again, this time playing the endgame for keeps. In the spring of 1967 those of us at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />ArkansasHigh School in Texarkana Ark/Tex (Or Tex/Ark if you lived on the other side, or Texarkana USA if you were sick of the whole debate) were flush with our hail mary pass to the end zone on the last play of the game bringing our first victory over hated rival Texas High in 19 years. Theyd almost canceled the game after AHS boys incinerated the Texas Tiger mascot in its cage in retaliation for the decapitation and running up the flagpole at Broad and State Line of the head of the AHS Hog mascot. It was the last year of segregation on both sides of town and we were determined to make the most of it by demonstrating our school spirit. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Many of those with whom I shared childhood had already gone off to war, and some had already paid the ultimate price in what I and others would later describe as "a sh****y little war, but the only one we have." Khe Sanh and the Rockpile were nightly news, along with Operation Cedar Falls which resulted in the capture of huge quantities of enemy supplies...mostly American supplies they'd requisitioned. Operation Junction City sent hundreds of helicopters sweeping over Tay Ninh to the sound of "Gotterdammerung" (if the movies got it right) and by the time we were getting outfitted with our robes desperate air battles raged over Hanoi and Haiphong costing the commies half their air force.

My father passed away in February and my childhood was not far behind. My mom announced his passing as I rushed through the door excitedly telling her Id made Allstate Band for the second year in a row. Id buried many relatives from my huge extended family in the past, but my father fell like an enormous Oak tree shattering the sheltered years and leaving me alone in the suddenly unfamiliar and frightening forest. The band spring concert followed his funeral by a few weeks with a blockbuster program including The Universal Judgement , (Camille De Nardis), Tulsa: A Symphonic Portrait in Oil, (Don Gillis), American Overture for Band, (Joseph Willcox Jenkins) and featuring yours truly playing the piccolo part from the Stars and Stripes trio on tuba and string bass on Dixieland Suite. I was sorry dad wasnt there, but I am sure he was just as satisfied from his more distant listening position.

My mother's 1964 Chevy was pretty much mine on the weekends. I'd installed an Allstate 45 RPM changer under the dash and a Cathedral Sound speaker in the rear. I still have the changer. Id never had the cash to acquire a Muntz 4 track before they were beaten out by the sonically and physically inferior 8 track. Already my audiophile tendencies were showing as I found the 8 track sound decidedly inferior to my vinyl rig. Most of my friends shrugged and nodded at each other at my eccentricity just as they do now. My mixed stack of favorites for Saturday night cruising between the Texas side A&W Root Beer and the the Arkansas side A&W Root Beer included Frank Sinatra (My Way), Red Rubber Ball (The Cyrkle), Jimmy Mack (Martha and the Vandellas), A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum), San Francisco (Scott McKenzie), Silence is Golden (Tremeloes), assorted New Beats, Archie Bell and the Drells...the usual suspects. "Eleanor Rigby" played on KTFS radio to the beat of the windshield wipers with a springy echo from the Cathedral Sound as we cruised down

Hickory Street

in the darkness that ended with the bright lights of the A&W at Hickory and E. 9th. Cherry vodka and 7-Up was the drink of choice and could be stepped in mixed with Frito Pie, fries, and a variety of other tasty offerings almost anywhere particular people congregated.

In March, the Southern State College Mulerider Band played at AHS on its spring concert tour. Jeff Christianson, one year ahead of Rick and me and MIA for one year from us, was there and played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto on euphonium. Extremely impressive. He was the same old Jeff, sort of, but also changed and it appeared he was only half himself and half something else. He was a pledge to the band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi and his brothers-to-be kept yelling at him to do this and that silly thing. They all appeared to be adults to us and we stayed respectfully back from them until the old blue goose rolled away with Jeff waving from a window.

Senior Proms back then were not so grand as today. Of course, the girls dressed to die for and the boys wore ties, but there were no limos. The Egyptians played most of the playlist mentioned above, and quite well, I might add. Of course, the chaperoned festivities in the gym were merely the formal prelude to the real partying to come. First event was a midnight movie at the Paramount Theater (now the marvelously restored Perot Theatre with its magnificent original theater organ still in the basement waiting to be restored). Around 3am we headed off to Camp Albert Pike on NarrowsLake where wed rented a cabin. We played Tripoley well into the morning until I grew sleepy (which happens after a case or so of Lone Star Beer) and went to a bedroom for a nap. I awoke to the smell of warm, sweet flesh and gazed into the face of a young woman so beautiful my heart stopped momentarily, then began re-routing blood from my brain to other places. Id gone to school we her every year except first grade , and while shed been nice enough to me in all those years she was also way beyond my class to even desire, much less socialize. However, those barriers were collapsing. BTW, she is still absolutely stunning. About noon, I took my winnings and headed back to Split T.

Graduation was rather strange, and in and of itself warned of childhoods end. Id been used to sending off others from the band playing the Elgar P and C trio in endless, monotonous repetition, but this time I was sitting with those about to be outcast from our warm pond into the forbidding sea looking out on the band members Id spent the last 7 years in gestation. My best friend Ricky Lancaster was class president and made his stirring call to greatness between belches of Country Club Malt Liquor.

Then it was over. At first, nothing much appeared to have changed. While a few more disappeared into the Vietnam quagmire, most of the summer of 1967 occurred between the Texas A&W and the Arkansas A&W as always. Sergeant Pepper exploded onto the scene and I taped my first copy from friend Suedes Allied TT onto my Concord 727 RR Id purchased instead of a car (I MIGHT have been an audiophile). Id discovered that if I took the wings speakers off and tented them over my head on the bed, the bass response was awesome. By July I realized I had no plans and that Uncle Sam had plans for those who didnt. I announced to my mother I wanted to go to college. So whats stopping you was her response. She offered me 10.00 a week allowance as long as I was passing. Yup, childhood was over. Dick Clarks Caravan of Stars was playing at Southern State College in Magnolia, AR. Rick Lancaster and I headed over and spent a marvelous musical evening with Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, The Yardbirds, Bobby Heb (who broke his ankle jumping of the stage doing a WILD rendition of Sonny) Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and a few others I cannot now recall.

August 6 was my birthday and my mom presented me with a really neat FM portable radio and a synopsis of the rent Id now be paying. No big shock as that had been the policy for my brother and sister as well. Looked like time to grow up.

Two weeks later I pulled up in front of Ricks house in my moms borrowed Chevy. When he appeared with his beat up old suitcase, I called out LETS GO TO COLLEGE! and we set off down highway 82 towards Magnolia with Whiter Shade of Pale wailing its sad tale we'd soon act out from my now rather dated 45 rpm changer. Over the next 4 and a half years, we began to sprout legs and spend more time breathing air. Then we crawled out of the pond altogether and it was all a distant memory.

Thanks, Martin. I needed that. Ill be revisiting the pond the weekend of September 29, 2007. I think I can find my way back.

[seti]

I wonder what you guys were listening to around high school

graduation time?

Zappa.....Fugazi....... It drove my friends nuts as they were listening to REM and Camper Van Beethoven. I liked Camper Van but REM drove me nuts.

[IndyKlipschFan]

It is late may early June 1980... Not quite a year later in 1981 would we have MTV in the fall... So music was still about all of the coolest DJ's giving it to you like a good friend. I looked all around me and realized a lot of these people that I know right now.. Right this minute, will all go like me off to our next chapter in life. A few years before the movie animal house hit in 78? and fraternities and sororities were all the rage in Bloomington, Indiana. John "Cougar" Mellencamp, our local hero, made it big and STILL could be seen around campus playing music or just hanging out! People at our HS graduation all 1,638 of us in my huge HS class.... would ask us as if we really knew the answer to, " OK, son..What do you plan to do with yourself? What will you be in 5 years?" So I had to ask my dad the same question.

One of the best advice I ever got from my dad was frozen in time.... "Where you will be son, in 5 years, depends on really 2 things... The people you associate with, and the information you process." You make yourself valuable through study and hard work. We all have but 24 hours a day to do so. You hang out with good people for you that support you and nourish your desire and zest for life that you also enjoy their time with you! That advice is still true today.

Thebes said, "Well hang around talking about everything and nothing. Insults, jokes, girls, false bravado, sports, teachers, dating, music, girls, bars, summer jobs, and yes, girls. Theres always talk, always movement, always ideas, comments and observation. The restless energy of youth."

THAT one thing... Talking late at night 10- 3 am..... where you do not judge too much, but question everything, support each other, and say man.... your crazy!!! All within 10 min on any topic as a "kid" thinking your an adult, at 18- 22, is what I miss most about HS going into College.

[Allan Songer]

The first record I ever bought was "I Want To Hold Your Hand" single by the Beatles at the Singer Sewing Machine store. What year was that? 1964? I was about 7 or 8 years old.

The first LP I ever bought was "Revolver."

Just think! I COULD have been buying "A Love Supreme!" DOH!