What's Goin' On?

I have been stunned by two events that are in the news right now.  These are serious subjects and I can't believe how little we have learned to get to this point.

The first was the American soldier gunning down 16 people, 9 of which were children  (The others were women) a couple of weeks ago, in Afghanistan.  This man served 3 tours in Iraq; had suffered a head injury and lost part of one foot.  He had been promised he would not be deployed again.  He was.  He had spent some time drinking with fellow soldiers before he walked out of camp, fully armed.  Alcohol is illegal in Muslim countries.  Why was it there?  I'm smart enough to know that anything banned is black marketed as soon as you can snap your fingers.... and we've been  there for  a decade now.  So, I'm not really surprised it's there. 

I don't doubt he shouldn't have been deployed.  This is a very troubled individual for sure.  Life, as he knew it, is over.  It is also over for his family.   It absolutely destroyed many Afghan families. 

This followed the burning of many Korans in Bagram Air Base a few weeks before.  I believe our soldiers did not realize what the books were.    This is what I choose to believe.  Maybe I am naive.  That started riots in the streets and attacks on our forces, putting them in more danger than usual.

Now this.    Our troops have been ordered out of the cities (humble as they are) and back to the bases.  I say.... get out.   The time has come to bring our men and women home.

I can't believe we are in the same position we were in, during the 1970s when Marvin sang this song.

The other news story that has me hanging my head. is the down right murder of  17 year old Trayvon Martin by "Neighborhood Watch"  member George Zimmerman.    Zimmerman was told by the 911 operator to stop pursuing the teen.  He did not.  Trayvon was carrying a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles.  Zimmerman was carry a revolver and shot the defenseless teen.  The boy can be heard crying for help on the 911 tape before you then hear the sound of a shot being fired.  It rips out my heart.  I cannot even begin to comprehend how his parents feel.

Leave it Marvin Gaye to ask the question we all are wondering. 

 ( I'm also wondering about the guy in that green suit behind Marvin.  Some things from the 70s should not come back in style!)

Ouchy!

This is the third day of a migraine run so please forgive me for not reading and commenting lately.  I really am missing you all.  

I have gotten migraines since I was 11 years old.  My mother got them  and, fortunately, only one of my three daughters gets them, but rarely.   My mother's stopped after menopause so I was hopeful, but that was not my case, unfortunately.  So, I do have prescription medication for them.  Over the years I have tried all kinds of stuff.  Some of the prescription medications have such a small amount of dosages, like Imitrex has only 8 tablets in a script (they may have more now, I don't know. ) that I would delay using them until it was too late to help.

So I have learned to work through a lot of  head pain.  I spend years in florescent lighting and working on computers, both of which trigger headaches in "normal" people. 

I did want to make a comment today though, so bare with me typing with one eye closed and the headache above the other one.  (Only half kidding there.) :)

I just saw that "Soul Train's" Don Cornelius died at 75, due to a self inflicted gunshot.  I was a Soul Train girl.  It used to come on, in my area, after American Bandstand, in the early 1970s.   Don Cornelious was a sharper dresser and could "bust a move", although, he generally didn't.

It got me thinking that we also lost Don Kirshner in January of 2011,   He was hugely instrumental in getting the Monkee's television program on the air,but what I knew him for, was "The Midnight Special " that came on at 1:00 am.     I want to say it was on Saturday night,  but it may have been Friday. 

This is an infomercial (really? on Youtube?) but it does show how many huge performers Don Kirshner was able to book for this program.  You can just check out a few in your memory banks.  My dear husband is 5 years younger than me, so he is swearing he was too young to stay up this late but maybe his babysitter watched it.  Give me a break!  Of I was 21, he was 16.  I told him he read too many Playboys at 16 if he thought he had a babysitter then. Men!

We've lost 2 big icons of our generation.  Dick Clark is still hanging in there after his stroke.  I can't tell you how many hours I watched Amercian Bandstand.

I texted my husband at work and he texted back.... Casey Kasem?  He's still with us.   Casey and his "long distance dedications"  was radio but he, along with these gentlemen of television, entertained our generation.  They were the voices and the venues of our youth. 

I have fond memories of both the Dons.  Thank you for  the music.

Peyton Place

The book by Grace Metalious first appeared in 1956.  It is tells the tale of the dark side, below the surface, life of a small New England town.  The movie starring Lana Turner came out the next year. I was 6.  I didn't read the book until I was in high school, sneaking it into study hall.

Peyton Place, the TV show, was on from 1964-1969 and starred Dorothy Malone, Ryan O' Neal and Mia Farrow .  It was television's first night time soap and I was hooked.  1964 was also the year I was a Freshman in high school.   This was a "have to watch" program for my girl friends and I.  I was lucky that my mother liked it too.  It was considered pretty daring at the time.


Of course, my favorite character was not the virginal Allison McKenzie (Mia Farrow).  Oh, no.   I was in awe of Betty Anderson's (Barbara Parkins) "bad girl" persona.  She was much more daring than I was so I could only imagine doing the things she did.  Actually, I couldn't imagine them.  There were certain things, many things really, that "nice girls" didn't do because you didn't want to "ruin your reputation", so said my southern mother.  Seriously.   I mean, we were taking Home Ec classes and learning how to sew aprons.  

I thought Ryan O'Neal was dreamy but he was he was a "bad boy" because he "did it" with Betty Anderson.  Betty's reputation was really shot.  I probably would not have dated him because of the guilt by association thing.

 I was just starting to date as a Freshman.  Mostly, I dated Senior football players.  I really don't know how that started but, again, I had to follow the unwritten rules for nice girls.  I remember one instance when a couple of my guy friends saw me walking up town and stopped the car to talk.  I could see the driver was holding a beer between his legs on the seat. He asked me out on a date and I said no....because of the beer.  Later I said yes, because he wasn't holding a beer at the time.   Why that made sense I do not know.  Probably because it is easy to ignore certain things if the proof is not staring you in the face.  Nice girls did not drink beer or date those that did.....accept we knew they did, we just refused to acknowledge it.

I am certainly not passing judgement on anyone that chose to do things differently.  I fully admit I was raised with guilt.  My mother was an expert at that.  Plus, it was the times.  It was the end of an era before birth control and the whole sexual movement began.  It wasn't long before I was singing "If You Can't be With The One you Love, Love the One You're With" right along with everyone else.  I sang it but I didn't live it. As I tell my daughters,  I was a hippy for the fashion style, not the life style. 



Back to Peyton Place though - On one occasion, there was some reason we girls could not watch Peyton Place, so my mother tape recorded it for us to listen to later.   I took that tape to school, where I was a librarian for 3rd hour... (which mean for one class period I worked in the Library)  and the Head Librarian let us listen to it together.   I was a librarian for my Freshman year and a small part of my Sophomore year.   Small part because I got kicked out of the library for talking to boys......  and not just kicked out for that hour... I was the only librarian that I know of, that ever got kicked out of her job!   I had to go to study hall the rest of the year.  (It was so worth it!)  So, when my girls had "talks too much" written on their report cards, I could really understand that. It's genetic.

 There was Dark Shadows  in the afternoon but Peyton Place had the night and my imagination.

Dark Shadows

When I was flipping stations the other day, (back's very much better now) I watched a few minutes of a ghost hunting thing taking place at Seaview Terrance in Newport, R.I.  I stopped to watch because they gave a brief history of the "house"...sure.... and that it was used as the Background shot of one of my favorite television shows of the late 60's and early 70s.   Dark Shadows.......

                                                                     Google photo

The actual home, Seaview Terrace, began in Dupont Circle, in Washington D.C. in 1907 by Liquor millionaire, Edson Bradley.  In the 1920s, he had it taken apart, stone by stone and moved to Newport Rhode Island.  Can you imagine?   The move began in 1923 and took 5 years to complete.  54 rooms on three floors, moved.

Mrs Bradley, a music lover is supposed to still haunt the home and continues to play her piano in the music room.  If she loved that house enough to move it, I guess she loves it enough not to leave it either.

It became a school from 1951 -61 after being bought from the City of Newport (when the family lost it over back taxes) for $8000.   40,000 square feet.  $8,000.... I think that even  in 1950 dollars that has still got to be the steal of the decade.  As with the great plantations of the south, it's not the price of the building, it's the upkeep that is so expensive.

 In the later 60s it was called Burnham by the Sea, and was a school for girls.   Can you imagine?  That was during the time Dark Shadows was huge. It would be like going to school at Hogwarts today.

They do have a website.  http://www.seaviewterrace.org/index.html

It doesn't say anything about it being open so it may be a private home again.  I did see other sites where people have gone there, so Maybe now it's closed to the public.  It is just fun seeing a little piece of our past really exists.

I'm wondering if they will use it for the new movie too.  They almost have to for us oldsters that know what the house looked like.

Johnny Depp.....Barnabus Collins
Helea Bonham Carter.... Dr. Julia Hoffman
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard...Michelle Pfeiffer 

 

You can still see some of the out takes of scenes and bloopers on Youtube.  Of course it looks pretty cheesy now, but back then, I was hooked.

With the Twilight series so big, I think this one will draw some interest just based on the vampire thing.  For me though, I'm remembering that teen that rushed home to see what was going to happen next in Collinsport.

You Can Admit It

I've done it.  You may have done it too.   Raise your hand if you have ever done the Limbo.

Chubby Checkers was extremely popular when I was a preteen.  Most of his hits were in the early 1960's with The Twist, Pony Time, Limbo Rock and Let's Twist Again.

I'm sure I Ponied around the world at least once.  Those dances and songs may have started in the early 60s but they stayed around all that decade, and maybe into a wedding reception or two much later.

When I was in Junior High, (Middle School now) our High School had dances in the gym every Friday night, during the summer.  I could get in once I was in the 7th grade.  It was soooo exciting to watch the older high school students dance.  There were rumors of one very pretty blond that would dash off to the girl's bathroom to loosen her bra straps so that her Shimmy had more shimmy, so to speak.  That was pretty hot stuff back then.

So many of the Chubby Checkers dances were popular then.  Everyone could Twist.

It was so much fun when dances had names....and my joints didn't pop and crack when I moved them.

First Concert

I happened to hear this today on one of the "oldie" stations and remembered this was my first concert.  Well, actually, my parents took me and maybe my sister, (I'm not clear on that) to see Johnny Cash at the old Cobo Hall in Detroit back in the late 50s to 1960-61 era.    But, this was the first one I saw when I was a teen.

Johnny Rivers at Western Michigan University in 1968.

Do Do Do Wahhhhhh,  Schoobie Doobie.....

"The Poor Side of Town "

"Baby, I Need Your Lovin"

Being a music lover, I've had the good fortune to go to many live concerts since, but every girl remembers the first. Right?

"Summer of 42"

While I was writing my last post, I was thinking about World War II books I've read and movies I've seen and this one came to mind.  It was released in 1971. It is a small film that only had one real star, Jennifer O'Neill,  the rest were young men I didn't know, but did go on to do other work.

As the title says, it takes place, for three male teenage friends, that are thinking and talking about the things teenage boys hold dear,  over a summer vacation on Nantucket Island.  The war in Europe is ever present.  Throw into that mix a beautiful young woman, Jennifer O'Neill, that is married to a soldier off  in that war.  She waits for his letters and misses him beyond words. 

The theme song, "A Summer Knows"  is hauntingly beautiful.  This film raises a multitude of emotions.  You will laugh and you will cry but you won't forget "The Summer of 42".

You may be able to get it from Netflix but it looks like Youtube has all of it, broken into pieces, which may not be the best way to watch it but that is available.

Does anyone remember this one? 

Please Share

My mother never showed me these pictures.  After we lost her, 4 years ago, my sister and I found them while we were going through her papers.  And....being a genealogist, there were a lot of papers.  She would go on and on about great great Grandpa Easter's third cousin, twice removed, etc,.etc, but she didn't show us these.  I wish she would have.

These were taken in 1947.  She was 17.  At 18 she was married. She moved from Missouri to Michigan as a teenage bride, leaving all she had ever known.  3 weeks after her 20th birthday, she had me.  She never talked about her teenage life much.  I know she didn't date.  She worked, selling tickets, at a movie theater and that's where she met my father.  Life with him was rather trying.   For the last 30 years of her life she suffered the agonies of Fibromyalgia.  But right here......there is hope, joy and a warm summer day.   She is every bit a pretty as the other pin ups of the 1940s.  I don't think she knew that.  I wish I could have told her.

During my teenage years, she would join me and my girlfriends that had spent the night.  She would sit on the bed with us, asking all about our dates, boyfriends, dances, movies, etc.  She enjoyed hearing about them as much as we did going.  We never thought she was invading "our space".  Years later, the girlfriends would remember how she did that and how they enjoyed it too.  My sister and I did so much more, socially, than she did.  Homecoming Dances, majorette, proms and more proms, homecoming court and bridemaids.  I know it brought her joy.

I would swear there is nothing left to share with my daughters.  I've been told TMI Mom.  TMI..  My youngest daughter asks the questions.  Any questions about my past.  I always give her an answer.  She said she knows I will tell her to mind her own business if I don't want to talk about a certain subject, but I am pretty open and have not found that subject yet.  Maybe I didn't ask my mother the right questions or just maybe, she didn't feel as comfortable discussing herself.  It was a different generation.  You know us boomers...  We let it all hang out.