With the Band in 1979

Yearend activities for the 1978-79 school year were all around during the middle of May at Ithaca schools. I would soon be out of school and then the real work would start. Dad would stick me on the Farmall Super C tractor to cultivate the corn rows. Trying to stay awake while going less than a couple of miles an hour was a real challenge. After that it was into the hay mow to help put away around 8,000 bales. Even though I looked forward to the end of the school year, roaming the hallowed halls of IHS was a little easier. I got in shape running away from Principle Ernest Modjeski. One of the unsolved pranks from May of 1979 was the hidden messages on the tape caper. I arrived early for our band concert and a young lady from my class was also there. She and I walked into the empty gym which was set up for the program. Every concert was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape machine. Two mics were placed on each side of the chairs. The young lady got on one mic and me on the other as we hit record. While disguising our voices we went back and forth with remarks about our director and the various sections of the band. The day after the concert we listened as a band to the performance. When the tape started, all of the comments were played for the group. For some reason, no one was able to figure the mystery voices. I am only admitting this now because I am pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired and the percussion section is not available to beat me up even though I said on the recording that they all cut the cheese.

Saturday night during Those Were the Days, we will try to act more grown up. You will be able to hear the hot tunes from the May of 1979 chart. Songs that were playing on my Panasonic Stereo were I Will Survive-Gloria Gaynor, Rock and Roll Fantasy-Bad Company, Old Time Rock and Roll-Bob Seger, Heart of Glass-Blondie, Renegade-Styx, Good Times Roll-Cars, Heart of the Night-Poco, Blow Away-George Harrison, and the Logical Song-Supertramp. It will be a pleasure to play a few of these iconic tunes along with all of your requests for tunes from the fifties through the mid-nineties from six to Midnight Saturday night.

Please give me a call or text. It is so much fun to hear your stories that are brought back by a song or a topic that we talk about during Those Were the Days on WRCO FM, WRCO.com, and the Civic Media app. I promise I won’t say rude things on tape about you like you have cooties or something.

Phil