Personal Story – Page 8 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

1970s T Shirt Craze

It was the decade of personalized T-Shirts. When I was 12 my mom took me to a T-Shirt store at the mall to get the iron-on transfer below put on a shirt. I picked it from different pics they had…It was my favorite shirt until it started to peel and the Beatles were no longer visible.

The origins of the t-shirt date back to the late 19th century, when laborers would cut their jumpsuits in half to keep cool in warmer months during the year. The first manufactured t-shirt was invented between the Mexican-American War in 1898, and 1913 when the U.S. Navy began issuing them as standard undershirts.

In 1950, Marlon Brando wore a white t-shirt as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, only to be followed by James Dean in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. Thanks to these two gentlemen, the popularity of the t-shirt as a stand-alone shirt became standard.

In the seventies, I remember seeing personalized T-Shirts everywhere. The punk movement popularized it also. Below are some of the fun ones.

I’m With Stupid, Keep On Trucking, and I’m a Pepper were quite popular…

Drug T-Shirts were popular…I’ve seen pictures of Keith Moon wearing the Rorer 714 shirt.

The Big Fella by Jane Leavy

This is one of the many books on Babe Ruth. He was one of the most written about person in the 20th century. Jane Leavy took a different approach to write the book. She jumps around in time periods but it’s not distracting. I found out things I never knew about the Babe and that is the reason I wanted to read it. Thanks to Hanspostcard again for another great recommendation.

When I was growing up I read everything I could about Babe Ruth. I never was a Yankee fan and never will be but I do love this period of the Yankees. Unfortunately, some people think of Ruth as this huge obese baseball player because of movies like the terrible “The Babe” in 1992. When Babe came up he was a great athlete and didn’t start getting out of shape until his last years. One thing that I would love to see about the Babe is a well-made movie…we have yet to see it.

The man’s popularity was only rivaled by Charlie Chaplin. If anyone was made for a time period it was this man. He could be crude, brash, stubborn, and generous and was the idol of millions of kids during the 20s and 30s. He was so much better than anyone of his peers that it seemed unfair. The man could rise to the occasion when needed. He did everything big, whether it was hitting a home run, striking out, or living his unfettered life.

Sometimes an athlete is just so much better than his peers and they would be a generational talent. Tiger Woods and Michael Jordon would be in this select group.

When Babe retired in 1935 with 714 home runs the closest player to that mark at the time was his old Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig with 378 home runs (after the 1935 season)…that is a difference of 336 home runs. That is domination.

Ruth had an agent by the name of Christy Walsh. Walsh was basically the first sports agent of his day. He created a highly successful syndicate of ghostwriters for baseball’s biggest stars, coining the term “ghost writer” in the process. Walsh, in many ways, was a pioneer in the public relations field. The relationship between the two was interesting to read about.

The Babe made 70 grand a season playing for the Yankees and at least the same on advertising and barnstorming across the nation in small towns bringing baseball to towns that never would have seen Major League Baseball in the offseason. He was still grossly underpaid for the money he brought into the Yankees. When he would play, the crowds would increase dramatically.

Although black players were stupidly not allowed to play in the Major Leagues at that time, Babe and Lou Gerhig’s teams played black teams in towns all around in the offseason.

If you have interest in Babe Ruth I would recommend this book and Robert Creamer’s book Babe Ruth: The Legend Comes to Life.

“I swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.” – Babe Ruth

Marcia Trimble

Most Nashvillians know her name even if they were not alive when Marcia Trimble was murdered in 1975…Nashville was never the same again.

I saw it all happen on the news when I was 8 years old. That is when I learned that the world wasn’t a nice safe place. I’ve seen it written many times…1975 is when Nashville lost its innocence. It was never crime free…no city ever is but this changed people forever here. It became high profile and went national.

Marcia Trimble was a 9-year-old Girl Scout selling cookies on February 25, 1975, and disappeared where she lived in Green Hills…a very affluent part of Nashville then as well as now.

My Uncle Fulton was a Sergeant in the Vice Squad at that time. We were at my grandmother’s for Easter and I saw his car pulling up the drive and his three girls looked shocked. I saw him walking over to my mom so I walked over also. I remember he looked at my mom and then me and said…we found her and it’s beyond bad. He didn’t have to say who or what…we knew what he was talking about.

Marcia was found murdered and sexually assaulted under a tarp in a garage near her Green Hills home 33 days after she was declared missing.

The prime suspect was Jeffrey Womack…a then 15-year-old neighbor who had told the cops that Marcia had been by his house but he had no money and didn’t buy anything. The police later thought he kill Marcia…and he was suddenly the prime suspect… until 2008.

There has been plenty of crime here before and after this murder but none had the impact of this horrible event. I live north of Nashville but it affected everyone around middle Tennessee. At the time parents were obviously more on guard and kids would stick together while out.

From the Nashville Scene…about the neighborhood it happened in.

Former homicide Lt. Tommy Jacobs, who investigated the murder, says that for whatever reason, many of the children in the neighborhood stagnated in the years after the killing. “We interviewed the kids when they were 9 and 10 years old and went back and interviewed them 20-some-odd years later,” he says. “You won’t believe how many of the kids wound up in a mental institution or working at a gas station. Several of the kids were still living at home.”

60-year-old Jerome Sydney Barrett was convicted after DNA was examined in 2008 and he was sentenced to 44 years in prison in 2009…Barrett had killed more people in Nashville in 1975 and was finally connected to Marcia.

Jeffrey Womack, the kid that was falsely accused, was finally free of suspicion after 33 years.

For more of the details… https://www.insidehook.com/article/action/city-shadows-1974-murder-marcia-trimble-changed-nashville-forever

Two Prostitutes, a Pimp, and a VCR

This is when I learned… if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

This story is so embarrassing I cringe when I think about it. I told a friend I was going to make a post about it and he asked me…are you really going to tell people you were that stupid for a day? It’s not what you think by the title. I’m not a naive person…in fact, I can be cynical at times but… this incident was undoubtedly the most naive moment in my life. Things started to happen and before I knew it…it was out of control. This, unfortunately, is not a made up story. I was raised right and if I would have practiced what I was taught…none of this would have happened…but it was a valuable lesson…

When I was 18 I was working in Nashville on Murfreesboro Road at a company that sold printers and copiers. I was making a grand total of 3.25 an hour. I would go to lunch and stop at a gas station somedays to get a paper. I met this guy there and he said he had a VCR he wanted to sell for 60 dollars. I’d seen him there before there…He seemed a bit shady…back in 1985 a VCR for 60 bucks was a great price. I wasn’t thinking morals at that time, like if it was stolen or whatever.

Stupid me… I said sure I would love to buy it…he said to follow him to a house so I did and we went in and I gave him the money…I know I know…but I did. There were a few people there but he went into another room and came out. He then said the VCR was somewhere else…after that, he asked if I could take him to a place a few miles away because his car was acting up. Bells were going off in my head at this point but… I was thinking of that VCR…so I said sure let’s go. Out comes a young woman in spandex and she went with us. I dropped the two of them off at some kind of business. A few minutes later, out they come and now there was an extra woman in spandex plus this guy. He wanted me to drop them off somewhere else to get the VCR since it had been “moved”…

By this time I was angry, embarrassed and I knew I had been not only had…but had good…and was thinking of a way out…I was scared of the cops stopping me with this crew in my car. I told him I wanted the money back and he admitted he had to give it to someone from the first house but the “girls” were going to make the money back so I would have it. I then took the trio to a destination and I said the hell with this when thoughts of shootings and cops flashed in my head…I dropped them off and they told me to wait and I took off.

A month or so later I went back to the gas station and there he was… I saw him there and I yelled at him “Hey want to buy a VCR for 60 bucks?” as I was walking toward him…he jumped in a car and took off and I never saw him again.

60 dollars for a life lesson is not bad.

I later saved up (what a concept!)…and bought a VCR for around $150…well add the 60 I lost and that would be $210.

My friends have never let me live this down…which if it would have happened to them I would not have either.

Again if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

Baseball in the 1970s

Growing up in Tennessee I was and still am a huge baseball fan. My father grew up liking the underdog Dodgers with Jackie Robinson when they played in Brooklyn while his brothers were Yankee fans. In 1977 I started to watch baseball and through my father connected with the Dodgers. He was more of a college football fan (Tennesse loves football) but I never got his passion for that. I watched some baseball before 77 but I was totally lost in it from then on.

Watching the 70s baseball was a special event. The hair, mustaches, and every color of uniform were interesting. For some reason, the Oakland A’s uniforms were my favorite.

I’ve always liked the individualism of baseball. No rigid measurements in baseball parks like football or other sports. Every park is a unique home. There were cookie cutter (multi-purpose) parks with astroturf like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The 8th wonder of the world Astrodome in Houston. A very old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The pavilion and palm tree Dodger Stadium. The ivy-walled Wrigley field in Chicago and the oh so green Fenway Park.

Baseball wasn’t as accessible then as it is now. You had to wait for the Saturday game of the week and Monday night baseball. That made it more special. There were certain teams they showed more than others. I was lucky, the Dodgers were one of the teams. I remember a lot of Pirates, Reds, Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodger games because they all were very good.

I remember the players of that time so well. Thurman Munson (the only then Yankee I liked), Al Hrabosky (The Mad Hungarian), Dave Parker (He looked like the biggest man ever), Luis Tiant, Oscar Gamble (the cool hair), Bill Lee, Willie Stargell, Greg Luzinski, Gary Maddox, Mike Schmidt, George Foster (who I met a few years ago), Joe Morgan (who I liked better as a player than announcer), Catfish Hunter.

I could probably still mimic most of the players batting stances now.

Some of the managers were just as popular as the players for different reasons. Earl Weaver (one of the pioneers of sabermetrics), Billy Martin (could make about any team win…for a short time), and Sparky Anderson.

Some events I remember are Disco Demolition Night in Chicago (exploding disco records) and 10 cent beer night (that turned into a riot in Cleveland…who would have guessed that?).

My favorite player… Hands down Ron Cey. Steve Garvey was the marquee name of the Dodgers but Ron Cey would come through in the clutch and had a better batting eye than Garvey. I played 3rd base in little league and on up because of Cey. His nickname was “The Penguin” because he ran like one. I tried running like that until the coach asked me what was wrong with me…he thought I was hurt.

When the Dodgers traded Cey to Chicago it broke my heart. He went on to do good with the Cubs but to this day I don’t understand that trade.

I still watch baseball and don’t miss a box score and it is still a game full of characters…maybe not as colorful now.

20 Songs Classic Radio Has Worn Out

Everyone’s list will be different but classic rock radio has just overplayed these songs. It does not mean I don’t/didn’t like the song to begin with…some I didn’t…some I did… There are more than this but I kept it at 20. No need for me to post youtube links…just turn on a classic rock station and they will come to you.

I’ve tried to keep it one per band or artist. The order of these is not really important…you could pull them out of a hat and be just as well. Sometimes the artists have other hits that you don’t hardly hear but no… they stick to the old reliables.

Radio has ruined these for me. Yes, I’m older and have heard them more than some other people but my 18-year-old son suggested a few of them.

Taking Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive – I liked this song at one time…Now I would pull a hamstring getting up to turn it off.
Hotel California – Eagles – I still like the solos at the end with Joe Walsh and Don Felder but the rest I can do without.
More Than A Feeling – Boston – At one time it was refreshing and different. Radio has worked this song like the town pump.
In The Air Tonight – Phil Collins (just one of many) His songs saturated the market so much in the 80s that is was enough for 3 lifetimes
Jukebox Hero – Foreigner – I know huge Foreigner fans but I’m not one of them. This one I know more than I should.
Feel Like Making Love – Bad Company – Not a well-written song to begin with…it doesn’t get better with more spins. They have good songs…Painted Face, Crazy Circles but they don’t get played as much.
Don’t Stop Believing – Journey – Yes it’s catchy and an eighties theme…it fit at the end of the Sopranos…but I can do without it.
Start Me Up – Rolling Stones – Oh how I loved this song when it was released. I liked it a decade later…until Microsoft used it and since then you would think it was the Stones only song.
Tom Sawyer – Rush – See number 5
The Joker – Steve Miller – Hanspostcard says it all.
Money – Pink Floyd – Great band and they have so many others they could play.
Roundabout – Yes – When I hear the octave on the guitar I spin the dial like a top to another station.
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd – In the south where I live this song is required listening…. over and over and over…They have better songs…
Sharp Dressed Man – ZZ Top – I loved the video, the car, and the girls in the video but the song no more. How about the older ZZ Top?
Bad to the Bone – George Thorogood & the Destroyers – In high school alone I heard it enough.
Old Time Rock and Roll – Bob Seger – The first 5 times I heard it…I liked it…but after the 1, 855th time…no more.
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin – It’s been played backward, forward and sideways…and the hidden message is the same…a worn out masterpiece.
Barracuda – Heart – This and Magic Man are like the bookends of worn out songs.
Black Water – Dobbie Brothers – I’ve never bought a record by them and they had great musicians in that band…but this is nauseatingly overplayed
You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi – Not for me the first time or the many times after…in cars, shopping centers, and grocery stores.

To be fair…there are songs that are worn out but yet I still listen to… Who Are You, Baba O’Riley, Hey Jude, Lola, Paint It Black, Brown Eyed Girl…

December 8, 1980

I wrote this back in May but since it’s December 8th I thought I would repost it…I can’t believe it’s been 38 years ago… Seeing that date depresses me…this was not the way to start the decade that was my teens.

Since second grade, I’d been listening to the Beatles. While a lot of kids I knew listened and talked about modern music …I just couldn’t relate as much. By the time I was ten I had read every book about The Beatles I could get my hands on. In a small middle TN town…it wasn’t too many. I was after their generation but I knew the importance of what they did…plus just great music. The more I got into them the more I learned about the Who, Stones, and the Kinks. I wanted to get my hands on every book about the music of the 1960s. Just listening to the music wasn’t enough…I wanted to know the history.

I spent that Monday night playing albums in my room. Monday night I didn’t turn the radio on…I’m glad I didn’t…The next morning I got up to go to school and the CBS morning news was on. The sound was turned down but the news was showing Beatle video clips. I was wondering why they were showing them but didn’t think much of it.

Curious, I walked over to the television and turned it up and found out that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was very angry and shocked. The bus ride to school was quiet, at school, it was quiet as well. Some teachers were affected because John was their generation. Some of my friends were shocked but some really didn’t get the significance at the time and some didn’t care. A few but not many kids acted almost gleeful which pissed me off…It was obvious their parents were talking through them.

I went out and bought the White Album, Abbey Road and Double Fantasy in late December of 1980…I can’t believe I didn’t have the two Beatle albums already…now whenever I hear any song from those albums they remind me of the winter of 80-81. I remember the call-in shows on the radio then…pre-internet… people calling to share their feelings for John or hatred for the killer.

The next few weeks I saw footage of the Beatles on specials that I had never seen before. Famous and non-famous people pouring their heart out over the grief. Planned tributes from bands and everyone asking the same question…why?

My young mind could not process why a person would want to do this to a musician. A politician yea…I could see that…not that it’s right but this? A musician? Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and JFK were before my time. By the mid-1970s John had pretty much dropped out of sight…John and Yoko released Double Fantasy on November 17, 1980, and suddenly they were everywhere…Less than a month later John was murdered. The catchwords were Catcher in the Rye, Hawaii, handgun and insane. The next day we were duly informed on who killed John in the First, Middle, and Last name format they assign to murderers.

I didn’t want to know his name, his career, his wife’s name, his childhood…I just wanted to know why… he says now…”attention”

I noticed a change happened after that Monday night. John Lennon was instantly turned into a saint, something he would have said was preposterous. Paul suddenly became the square and the uncool one and George and Ringo turned into just mere sidemen. Death has a way of elevating you in life. After the Anthology came out in the 90s that started to change back a little.

I called my dad a few days after it happened and he said that people were more concerned that The Beatles would never play again than the fact a man, father, and husband was shot and killed. He was right and I was among those people until he said that. Dad was never a fan but he made his point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oegVVLRZ5MM&ab_channel=videoholicULTIMATE

Remembering Molly

This is will be out of the norm for me and may be boring to some people so you may want to click the back button…but after talking to another blogger I wanted to write it down.

When I was a kid my mom would not let me have any pets in the house. She was a great mom but no pets at all inside. I had outside dogs but none inside. I knew when I got older I wanted a dog in my house…Not just any dog but a great big dog…I guess it was my way of rebelling against those earlier rules.

In 2009 I saw a local ad on the internet for a Saint Bernard puppy. It was the first puppy I ever had in my life. We did have one Saint Bernard before this that we got from a rescue when she was 8 months old. She passed in 2008 after 9 wonderful years.

We named this 6-week old puppy Molly and she was the runt of the litter. We took her home and she would not interact with us in the first two days at all.

On that third day…different story. She took off running through my wife’s flower garden and from then on she was ours and we were hers… She had one bad mishap. After a lengthy rain she wanted to go outside and she ran and while running caught her front right leg in a hole…it stretched her tendons…the vet put a cast on her leg for a month but her leg never looked the same but it didn’t stop her from running the rest of her life.

Molly was THE family dog and was one of us. She gave love but she wanted it also… when she thought she was being ignored… out came that giant paw pretty much making you pet her. She never hurt a living animal except for Bees…which she would catch with her mouth and quickly get them out…She didn’t like toys with squeakers because she thought she was hurting something so I had to take the squeakers out of every toy.

She grew very fast like Saints do and Molly was not a runt anymore. She looked after my son like he was her own. My son’s friends would be careful not to play too rough with him or each other…if they did they would get an earful…and Saints bark loud. Scared the hell out of some of them but she was never aggressive…just barked loud at the kids to stop. You could play but no shoving or hitting or she would referee really quick and wanted order.

She had the run of our house and many utility people were scared to come in but some braved it and were rewarded with a new friend. It was rare but once in a while, I would wake up with a snoring Molly beside my wife and me in bed. She would lay in the busiest part of the house so you would have no other choice but walk over her.

Last Thursday night my son and I went to dinner and came home to a happy Molly…she was happy because we were all at home safe and sound. She didn’t like when one of us was missing. She was demanding our attention that night and she got it.

The next morning she was breathing heavy and something seemed wrong. She would drink but would not eat. It just kept getting worse over the weekend.

I took off of work Monday to take her to the vet. She had been so lethargic that I thought we would have to get a mobile vet. To my surprise I said the magic words “car ride” and she came to life and followed me to the car…She got in the car and off we went. That was the best she looked in 3 days. We took her in and the vet said she was in poor shape but he wanted to do X-Rays and blood work. After that, he told me to go home and he would call. I foolishly let a little hope creep in.

The call came at 1:30 that Molly had cancer all over and failing kidneys. I don’t like playing God but he said that Molly had put on a brave face for us that morning and showed me the X-Rays and I knew we had to make THAT decision. He said it was a miracle she was walking around at all and she was in extreme pain. We waited for my son to get home at 3 and we traveled to the vet all together to say our goodbyes to our beloved Molly.

It was horrible to see my son hurt so bad and it wasn’t a damn thing I could do. We all hurt but we tried to make the ending happy for Molly. It will be a little while before we get another dog…but when we do we won’t be replacing Molly…it will be to add a new member to our family…Molly will always have her place.

My son will never forget his companion of nine years for the rest of his life…and neither will we.

My 9-year-old son and Molly at 6 weeks old…the day we got her in 2009

My 18-year-old son with Molly at 9 years old sitting close to him.

Someone Who Really Didn’t Like Me

I felt bad after the story below happened. I’ve never been an angel but this was one time I didn’t know what was going on.

In 1990 our band was playing in a club called Ronnies every weekend. It was the best time we ever had playing at any place. They had a patio out back and the place was packed on weekends. I was single and was working three jobs, a full time and part time job trying to get ahead and playing music.

The weekends at Ronnie’s was from 8pm – 3am with 15 minute breaks Friday and Saturday. That took more out of me than my full-time job. After my part-time job every day I would go to the park and jog for 2-3 miles…it was the only way I could make it through Friday and Saturday nights. I’m not complaining because it was a great time in my life.

There was a bartender working there and she was really nice and cute and her name was Chrissy. She started to talk to me and we went out on a date after I had known her for a while. We had a good time and I was going to ask her out again the next weekend…This is where it gets interesting.

A week went by and the management of the club thought it would be a good idea to have two bands alternate sets over the weekend so we did that. The other band was good and played similar music. Both bands went over well but it was a pain changing up after sets. When they got off the stage I went up and shook hands with three of them but the drummer didn’t offer his hand back and just ignored me.

I was wondering why this guy ignored me. He shook hands and talked with the rest of us but me. Then I found out that he didn’t like me and I didn’t blame him. I discovered late that night that Chrissy was his girlfriend and he had heard I went out with her…which I had no clue that she had a boyfriend. I’m glad that double band arrangement only lasted one weekend. After that, we were the only band to play…and no I never asked her out again.

After a few more months the owner lost everything and that was the end of Ronnies…but not the end of the story.

A year or so later Chrissy called me up out of the blue and asked me how I’d been. I thought for a second that she missed my charming self (just kidding) and maybe she wanted to go out again…I was wrong. No, she called because she had a friend for me to go out with that I would be “perfect” for… She said her name was Dana and she was attractive, nice, but very quiet. I met Dana at a restaurant a few days later and she was everything Chrissy described her as…in fact I liked her better…so Dana and I started to go out regularly.

I met Dana’s parents after about a month of dating…They liked me and everything was fine until a familiar looking guy walked in the door with a shocked look. He ignored me…yes he was Chrissy’s boyfriend, the drummer from a year before… and the worst part was…he was Dana’s brother!

To tell you the truth it’s a wonder the guy didn’t pick up something and hit me over the head. Not only did I go out with his girlfriend (unknowingly but still)…now I was dating the poor guy’s sister. After that, he and I stayed clear of each other. Not a bad word was shared between us…not a word at all. Dana and I broke up after a couple of months but not because of that. We just didn’t click. I never understood why Chrissy didn’t clue me in on the brother situation.

I never met Dana, Chrissy, or her boyfriend (I don’t remember his name) again after that and I’m sure he was glad to be rid of the likes of me. I was like a bad penny to the guy.

We needed a drummer (good ones are hard to find) later on and part of me thought about calling the guy because he was a good drummer…but I wisely thought better of it.

The excuse for leaving work today

My son texted me this…I don’t think my company would buy it…Of course being at Dodger Stadium would be hard but I will be there in spirit. If the Dodgers win today they will win the division…if they lose they are off to the wildcard game.

Colorado Rockies (RHP German Marquez – 14-10, 3.76 ERA) at Los Angeles Dodgers (RHP Walker Buehler – 7-5, 2.76 ERA), 4:09 p.m. ET. The Brewers and Cubs are playing right now to decide their division.

Helpdesk Calls – Sally’s Computer

Sally’s Computer

I have worked in IT for twenty years and back in the 90’s, I got my start by working on a Helpdesk for a restaurant chain. Back in the late 90s people just didn’t know much about computers…they were hired to serve, cook or whatever… not to be a tech. I couldn’t stand the rude techs who talked down to people. It took patience at times but it was nice helping people.

But…it was hard not laughing at times. Some people thought a computer didn’t work with the natural laws of life like everything else.

I took one call from a lady named Sally. She told me her computer would not turn on. Well, I had Sally go through the cords and electrical cables on the back of the computer right after checking the power button. This restaurant she was working at had a very small office…not too much bigger than a broom closet. Anyway, I was walking her through it and describing what she was looking for…

I hear her moving things around and I heard her say OOOW! I didn’t think anything of it but then I heard an OOHHHH! I asked her if she was alright and she said yes she had hit her head. Ok, we continued on our journey and I was telling her to make sure it was plugged in…another very loud BUMP…OOWW… She said she hit her head again.

I asked her again if she was alright…Sally was a trooper…I thought maybe a little clumsy but a trooper nonetheless.

I wanted to make sure she wasn’t holding the network cable instead of the electrical cable so I asked her what color the cable was in her hand…she said she didn’t know…Ok…

I then asked, Sally you can’t tell what color it is? Sally said no, she said she didn’t know what color it was because there was no light in the office. She said she was in the dark.

I thought maybe a light bulb had gone out in the office…Nope…

Sally then proceeded to tell me that the electricity had been out in the office for over an hour.

Holding back the laughter I told Sally that could very well explain her computer problem.

That Elusive 70’s House

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I like the 60s and 70s. I collect things from that era and even looked for a house in that era…I just didn’t know how many houses we would visit.

In 2004 my wife and I thought it was time to move from our starter home. We were learning to jump from the hall to living room to kitchen because we were getting crowded with our small home with a 4-year-old son, a mutt and a Saint Bernard running about.

We didn’t know what we wanted and were totally naive about house hunting. We only had so much money when we bought our starter home so it was easy…the second house we saw we bought. This time we had options and wanted to find our final house…THAT house… We found an agent and she said: “I’ll show you 6 houses but you need to pick one of them and that will be it.” We didn’t like any of the houses she showed us that weekend.

We told the agent to forget it and started to freelance and ended up looking at 11 more by just going around and making appointments to visit houses. Ok, we are up to 17 now. But by this time we knew what we wanted. We wanted a 1970s style house…split level if possible. An open floor plan with some land…and some room. My wife would not go for shag carpet (dang it) or an avocado refrigerator but she did like the older designs.

At the 18th house we looked at, we found an agent as crazy as we were named Naomi. She was new at being a real estate agent and said she would stick with us through the complete process. We kept going when we could and the number kept rising. I then got laid off my job in May of 2006…and it slowed us down but in July I was working again and the adventure continued.

Naomi could not understand why we would want an older house. She would try to dissuade us. She would try to slip in a new townhouse…we would arrive and say no…but she said she had to try. We looked in multiple counties to see if we could find what we wanted. We found nothing that was remotely close to my work.

We found many houses that we wanted. But it never failed that something would happen. The house would fail inspection, someone would beat us and sign first, at one house someone paid cash and got the house, or they would not take a contingent contract on our house selling…one time the owners changed their minds.

The total kept climbing but Naomi stayed with us…and we reached the 50s…We became really good friends with her and still are to this day. She still invites us over every year to her July 4th party. Namoi was learning with us and enjoyed looking at houses and actually started to appreciate the older houses.

Then it happened in 2007…We found a house (insert angels singing here)…the 55th house we looked at! We got there and drove down the driveway… I knew this was the one… the driveway was shadowed by the top of the trees hanging over it. It was an A-frame (with a 60s vibe) with five bedrooms and surrounded by green everywhere…trees and woods…For some odd reason “Uncle John’s Band” kept playing in my mind. We got there and found out it was built in 1992. We were shocked… We thought it was older.

We talked to the man and wife who owned it. They were two public attorneys (Jim and Diane) and both were so nice. They talked with us a little and said the house was not on the market yet but Diane said we had good “Karma” …and if we wanted it…it was ours.

She bought the house when it was a 900 square foot A-frame on three acres. She then met her husband Jim and had a child…they built a wing and garage on one side…had more kids and built another wing on the other side. It is one of a kind with an open floor plan…and we bought it for under market value because they wanted to live near their work in Nashville and had already bought another house. They were offered more money by someone else but stuck with us…I was surprised but our “karma” must have won out. The inspection passed with flying colors…and nothing went wrong.

So we moved in…The Wife, the son, the Mutt and our Saint…and me of course…The irony of it all? We had searched all over for 3 years and even 60-100 miles away…and this house was 2 miles from where we were living. It’s hidden from the road and we had never laid our eyes on it.

After we bought the house Jim and Diane invited us to dinner at their new home. Turns out Jim knew Bob Jackson…if you don’t know Bob Jackson, he was in Badfinger right before Pete Ham passed away (see I tied pop culture into this). He had some interesting stories and they are great people.

The house has been a great investment…it’s climbed in value but we want to stay here till the end. I don’t have another search left in me…

By the way…We made it up to Naomi…we referred her to two of our friends who bought and sold their houses through her as the agent. She still calls us asking us if we want to go with her at times and visit houses. She said she misses going to see houses with us.

Since it wasn’t a seventies house I thought I would bring the seventies to it… the corner of my music room where I read.

I still hear Uncle Johns Band when I come down my drive…it doesn’t get better than that