50 for 50: 1975

YEAR: 1975

AGE: Turned 5 on Nov. 6

LOCATION: Chicago, McVicker Ave.

SONG I LIKED: "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers

TV SHOWS I LIKED: "Garfield Goose"; "Electric Company"

BEARS' RECORD: 4-10


In 1975, I started kindergarten and was already kind of reading, mostly thanks to plenty of kids' books that were in the house and public television. My sister Jenny was born five days before my fifth birthday. We had an Irish setter named Lady, after the Styx song of the same name, who ran away. I think my dad had a 1969 Mustang convertible this year, replaced by a brand new Buick Century that started falling apart on us by 1978.

My most lasting experience from this year was the beginning of summer becoming my favorite season.

I think I've written about this before but can't find the original post: Going to a drive-in movie one perfect summer evening. From our house on McVicker, I imagine the path must have taken us down Naragansett to Nagle and to Superdawg (this might have been my first time to at my favorite hot dog place), then up Milwaukee several miles to the Twin Drive-In in Wheeling -- if that's where we saw it. I'm assuming it was because it we wouldn't have hit Superdawg otherwise if we were just going to the drive-in across from the HIP (which is long, long gone).

The movie we saw was "Escape to Witch Mountain," which I don't have much of an affinity for, but the music along the way on the radio made the impression that's lasted all these decades later. The songs include:

  • "Sister Golden Hair" by America
  • "Killer Queen" by Queen
  • "Listen to What the Man Said" by Paul McCartney and Wings
  • "Only Yesterday" by the Carpenters
  • "One of These Nights" by the Eagles
  • "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc
  • "Love Will Keep us Together" by Captain and Tenille

Those were probably enough songs to get us to Wheeling. Hearing "Sister Golden Hair" as the sun was setting driving northwest has stuck with me so much that I listen to it every year when I write my annual summer solstice post.

Whether summer became my favorite season at that point or it happened later because school let out, I can't say. Despite the fact I hated the water and summer generally included swimming, I still loved summer days and summer nights. This adventure to the drive-in is the first summer memory -- and there have been hundreds since.

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more