The 43

YEAR: 1984 AGE: Turned 14 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Ave. CUBS' RECORD: 96-65 SONGS I LIKED: "Jump" by Van Halen; "Pride (In the Name of Love)" by U2 MOVIES I SAW: "Ghostbusters," "The Karate Kid" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "It's Your Move," "V" MUSIC VIDEOS I ENJOYED: "Legs" by ZZ Top; "Round and Round" by RATT VIDEO GAMES I PLAYED: Jumpman Junior; Punch-Out As nostalgic as I am, you might think that the end of eighth grade and graduating might have made me wistful and maybe a little sad that a chapter in my young life was concluding. I felt that when high school and college was ending and when we moved to Utah.  In retrospect, as I was considering what to write for 1984, I realized something: I couldn't wait for eighth grade to be over. Fall of eighth grade started out fine, but as the school year progressed, I began feeling moodier, self-conscious, more unsure of myself, and ev...

YEAR: 1983 AGE: Turned 13 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue WHITE SOX'S RECORD: 99-63 SONGS I LIKED: "Mr. Roboto" by Styx; "She Blinded Me with Science" by Thomas Dolby; "In a Big Country" by Big Country MOVIES I SAW: "WarGames," "Never Say Never Again," "Return of the Jedi" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Family Ties," "Cheers" VIDEO GAMES I PLAYED: Star Raiders, Kangaroo, Dragon's Lair MUSIC VIDEOS I ENJOYED: "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top; "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats In 1983, I kind of officially became a geek. I owned a computer (an Atari 400) and was playing more video games than ever. I really started loving Dungeons and Dragons and was playing in three different groups. I loved "Kilroy Was Here" by Styx, which, in retrospect, appealed only to a certain age group that I was in. I was totally into science fiction, and the growth spurt began that mad...

YEAR: 1982 AGE: Turned 12 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue BULLS' RECORD: 34-48 SONGS I LIKED: "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner and Garcia; "Africa" by Toto; "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band MOVIES I SAW: "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial"; "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"; "Tron" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Silver Spoons"; "Voyagers!" MUSIC VIDEOS I ENJOYED: "Centerfold" by the J. Geils Band; "Pressure" by Billy Joel VIDEO GAMES I PLAYED: Donkey Kong (arcade), Megamania, Grand Prix I've been writing this blog for 13 years, and a good chunk of my posts have been dedicated to nostalgia and reminiscing. So when I started considering what to write for 1982, I kept coming up with topics that I already have covered in the past. Our family took our first real vacation in February 1982. I covered that trip extensively, starting with this post . I could write about video game...

YEAR: 1981 AGE: Turned 11 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue DEPAUL BASKETBALL RECORD: 27-2 SONGS I LIKED: "Too Much Time on My Hands" by Styx; "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC MOVIES I SAW: "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Flash Gordon" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Fridays," "Battle of the Planets" In 1976, my dad bought a Pong console -- the kind you plugged into your TV, had two paddle controllers, and just four games and you had to play against someone else. Thus started my long-lasting relationship with video games. My grandfather owned an Atari 2600, and eventually, we owned a Fairchild Channel F system in the late '70s that seemed to always not work on us (and, once, I swear a puff of smoke emitted from it -- the console wasn't known for its reliability). I liked arcade games, too -- I wasn't any good at Space Invaders, but my friends got me hooked on Galaxian, and Pac-Man debuted in early 1981. Yet...

YEAR: 1980 AGE: Turned 10 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue CUBS' RECORD: 64-98 SONGS I LIKED: "Roll with the Changes" by REO Speedwagon; "Train in Vain" by the Clash MOVIES I SAW: "Empire Strikes Back," "The Blues Brothers" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Solid Gold," "Real People" The picture leading off this blog may be a little blurry. The kid at the forefront is small and couldn't pronounce his Rs well. The production was theatrical for 9- and 10-year-olds. The accomplishment for the kid wearing the floods and a hat that said "Tour Guide" was minor but real. Fourth grade and 1980 represent a switched flipped in my brain. Gazing back through time, that year separated in my mind being a little kid and being a not-so-little kid. We all have milestones in our lives, but this one, for me, is when things became much, much different. I was more analytical, more perceptive, more introspective. And what...

YEAR: 1979 AGE: Turned 9 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue BEARS' RECORD: 10-6 SONGS I LIKED: "My Sharona" by The Knack, "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire MOVIES I SAW: "The Muppet Movie," "Rocky II" TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Challenge of the Super Friends," "Mork and Mindy" I'm not sure how I became so drawn to the news, but as young as 6 (and maybe even 5), I was watching local newscasts and reading the newspaper. I likely didn't understand much of what I was seeing, but I understood that every newscast started with the important news, included a weather forecast (for some reason, I really appreciated Harry Volkman ), and usually finished off with sports. I also caught on to how the newspaper was situated. When we lived on McVicker, my grandmother (who lived in the upstairs apartment) subscribed to the Sun-Times , although I can remember an occasional Daily News in the house. The weather map was...

YEAR: 1978 AGE: Turned 8 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Rascher Avenue SONGS I LIKED: "Turn to Stone" by ELO ; "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty TV SHOW I WATCHED: "Battlestar Galactica" CUBS' RECORD: 79-83 I wasn't sure what to write for 1978. This year started and ended with disco, with "Grease" in between (which I wouldn't see until 1980). I started playing T-ball, saw my first Bears game, made my first Communion, and got my first bicycle (which I couldn't figure out how to ride until, again, 1980 -- though I learned on my sister's bike in 1979).  As I was struggling to come up with a topic today, I thought about third grade today and recalled something hadn't bubbled up in my brain literally for decades. The story isn't happy -- it was somewhat painful -- and it doesn't paint one of my teachers in the most positive light. However, even though years have passed since this life event has crossed my mind, it mig...

YEAR: 1977 AGE: Turned 7 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, McVicker Avenue, then Rascher Avenue in Oriole Park SONGS I LIKED: "Star Wars Theme" by Meco; "Fly Like an Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band MOVIE I LIKED: "Star Wars" (duh ...) TV SHOWS I LIKED: "The All New Super Friends Hour"; "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" (which, for years, I was convinced that maybe I just imagined, because it never showed up in any sort of reruns, and without an internet, there wasn't an easy we for me to prove it existed -- but it turned out to be not a dream) CUBS' RECORD: 81-81 WHITE SOX'S RECORD: 90-72 BEARS' RECORD: 9-5 BULLS' RECORD: 44-38 Sometime in the winter of 1976-77, Dad took me to see my first Chicago Bulls game at the Chicago Stadium. I can't remember who the Bulls played or if they won, but I do remember being enthralled by the giant four-sided scoreboard hanging over the court, and how the adds at the bottom of the...

YEAR: 1976 AGE: Turned 6 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, McVicker Avenue SONGS I LIKED: "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees; "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Chico and the Man"; "Emergency" BULLS' RECORD: 24-58 Something that's disappeared from the childhoods of American kids -- and a concept I tried explaining to Ben a couple weeks ago -- is Saturday morning cartoons. They probably were only a thing for about 40 years; by the 2000s, network television programming specifically geared toward kids had mostly disappeared. With Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, DVDs, and now streaming, every day can be Saturday morning cartoons. Of course, we had cartoons all week on channels 9, 32, and 44 -- after school and in the morning -- but they were all reruns and not that new. That was OK ... and made Saturday mornings even more special (even, in retrospect, most mid-1970s cartoons weren't as good as class...

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...

YEAR: 1974 AGE: Turned 4 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, Wood Street in Bucktown, then McVicker Avenue near Riis Park SONG I LIKED THIS YEAR: "Sing" by the Carpenters CUBS' RECORD: 66-96 I collect old episodes of American Top 40 , with Casey Kasem. The vintage shows are syndicated, and there's an iHeart station the plays nothing but countdowns from years past. Lori thinks I'm a little nuts for recording the episodes, but I love the nostalgia value and once religiously listened to it every Sunday in the early '80s. (Plus, I prefer real digital copies I can listen to anytime on my computer or iPod, rather than luck-of-the-draw streaming.) AT40 has aired since 1970, but I've sort of set a age limit on the episodes I record: nothing before 1974. I'm not necessarily against pre-1974 music -- 1972, for example, might be the most eclectic year in the history of pop music -- but I don't remember the songs from then as much as listened to them anew in the ...

YEAR: 1973 AGE: Turned 3 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, New England and Irving Park, then Wood Street in Bucktown BULLS' RECORD: 51-31 Road trip! When I was 2 1/2 and Julie wasn't quite 1, our family and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Howard (my godmother and her husband, and my parents' best friends for years) drove to St. Louis. We went to the Gateway Arch and to Six Flags. And amazingly, I remember a smidge of it. I can recall this encounter with the goat and my apprehension at the time. Also, I  remember, albeit vaguely, looking out the Gateway Arch -- and there aren't any pictures of that anywhere. The only other travel adventure I recollect (barely) from pre-1976 was Honey Bear Farm, a kind of resort/series of gift shops in southern Wisconsin sort of near Lake Geneva. Other than that, the longest trip we'd attempt was to Carpentersville to see relatives. (Now, Carpentersville is just another Chicago suburb ...) I don't want to get much more into what I remember or...

YEAR: 1972 AGE: Turned 2 on Nov. 6 LOCATION: Chicago, apartment on Kildare and on New England and Irving Park BEARS' RECORD: 4-9-1 My mom told me this story on how our family landed in our second apartment. Grandma was driving her and me back from the Harlem-Irving Plaza, even then known as the HIP, when they passed an apartment for rent across from the sprawling acres of land known as Dunning, which was Chicago's mental institution. That sounds creepy, but the actual street is a couple hundred yards away from any building. Plus, the apartment was bigger and needed to be -- my sister Julie was on the way. Mom liked the apartment, which was also nicer than our current one. She had been using a diaper service for my tender tush but offered to give it up if Dad agreed to move to the building just off New England Avenue. Already, I lost something because I was the oldest child! Julie arrived in July, and by all accounts, I was happy to have a little sister. I have a vague, vagu...

In 50 days, I turn 50 years old. That sounds like the perfect impetus to start an ambitious blog initiative, scan a bunch of old pictures, and write about one of my favorite subjects: me! The fact 50 is so close hasn't quite sunk in yet. I don't feel 50, all the creaks and odd gray hairs not withstanding. Writing a post a day until my birthday, each focusing on a different year, isn't an entirely original idea, but I believe it will be fun and, of course, get me writing at a time, post summer, I'm usually not writing much. I'm starting with the two months of 1970 and all of 1971, then will take it a year at a time. I hope not to recap so much as to tell a story from each year. YEAR : 1970-71 AGE: Not even a year old, at least until Nov. 6, 1971 LOCATION: Chicago, apartment on Kildare and Irving Park CUBS' RECORD: 83-79 OK, so I don't have many stories to tell when I was an infant. I talked with my mother about the apartment on Kildare -- our family's ...

 My designated summer ended this week, and wow, it really came to an end. Labor Day was sort of lazy. I grilled burgers for dinner. The day wasn't as hot, and we knew a cold front and wind -- so much wind -- would be coming through overnight. The weather roared in. We awoke to gusts of up to 100 mph. I drove Ben to school and needed to backtrack several times because trees and branches were blocking streets. The power went out in the neighborhood, and I spent most of Tuesday trying to work a little without wasting the precious juice in my phone and Mac. The wind subsided eventually, and I walked Popcorn around the neighborhood in the chill and observed the tree damage and almost every block without power. It was all surreal, to say the least. We settled into the night by candlelight and flashlights. I worked on logic puzzles, and Ben studied as we listened to music.  As frustrated as I was, the mellowness of the whole situation was kind of nice. Unfortunately, we still didn't ...

Another fast week as summer hurtles toward its conclusion. Even without much chauffeuring and running around, the work week zipped by -- it's been quite odd how the next weekend arrives before I get into a groove.  My brain is back in fantasy football mode -- this took awhile in 2020, but with my main league's draft last Thursday, I needed to get up to speed quickly. A few mock drafts helped narrow my focus, and I ended up with a team I'm generally happy with.  Here we are on Sunday after a somewhat boring weekend. Today was the final day of the Gillespie Redneck Swim Club before a put the pool away for the summer (and yes, another feet-by-the-kiddie-pool selfie is in order). I grilled the last two nights; we ordered The Pie on Friday. The heat returned, which made the cold dunkings in the kiddie pool all the more refreshing. I'm already looking ahead to next weekend and realizing, September will be almost halfway done after that weekend ends. Basketball and swim season...