Day 103: The Family Photo Gallery

My mom hung family photos on the walls of the stairwell.

Here's the cruise ship section, as well as my Sparks clock.

 

Baby photo section:

"Stop taking photos and take me for a walk!" Gigi says.

Day 102: 8-track Cartridges!

During the first year after we had moved to this house, my parents bought a stereo for the family room, which had an 8-track player/recorder. Before this, if I had wanted to make my own tapes of my records or record something off the radio or TV, I would have to hold a microphone next to the speaker and be very quiet. You still could not tape directly off the TV, but the stereo also had a cassette player/recorder, so you could make 8 track tapes of the contents of cassette tapes, and vice versa, until the cassette player broke down in the late seventies.

I didn't have either type of tape player in my first two cars, but I got this 8 track player for Christmas when I was about 14:

You would punch the thing on top to go to the next "track". The album or blank tape was divided into four programs, with about three songs on each. Most stereos would play the programs in sequence but on the portable player if you did not punch the top it would repeat whatever program it was on endlessly. I would have my favorite "paths"; songs I would skip or repeat...

Here is my 8-track tape case:

I guess it's not in the greatest shape!

Let's take a look inside...

 This was the first pre-recorded 8-track I ever bought. As you can see, it was in the cut-out bin, though I certainly don't know why! It reminds me of riding in the above the cab bed in a borrowed camper on a cross-country road trip.

I didn't buy too many 8-tracks; vinyl was still better quality and of course tapes lacked the liner notes. These were all from the cut-out bin, or found used in thrift shops.

But I had a lot of compilations I recorded myself:

LA bands: The Zippers, 20/20, The Simpletones, The Bags, The Flyboys, Levi and the Rockats... I think these were all taped off Rodney Bingenheimer's show.

 I would tape a lot of songs off the Flo and Eddie show, but I only taped three whole (three-hour) programs with guests: Todd Rundgren, Marc Bolan and Keith Moon. For a long time I feared for Todd's life! But I guess jinxes don't always come in threes... Here's part of the Keith Moon night.

That's Patrik Fitzgerald. I would have taped a bunch of singles to play in the car.

Beep beep!

Here's some stuff I transferred from cassette;  the Human Hands' and Mau-Maus songs were from local shows and the four last songs were a demo by my pen friend turned boyfriend Mick's band Crash Course in Liverpool.

Here's Marc Bolan on Flo & Eddie. And Ambrosia?! Eegads! I did not find the Todd on Flo & Eddie tape; I believe it got mangled, which is a shame. When he was DJing he played "Roger" by Sparks and that was the first time I heard them.

 This was probably just Dwight's first album; and the audio of Todd's appearance on In Concert. Who could guess that years later I could just conjure it up on YouTube?

Lubricated polyester!

I believe this was the first compilation tape I ever made. "St" for stereo! I am fairly sure someone with the initials DW is bound to comment on my playlist.

 Beep beep beep!

 We went from 40 minutes recording time to 80, and in the latter days, 90! Then my stereo recorder broke down and I bought a ghetto blaster... I did have one more stereo with an 8-track player, but not a recorder. The last time I played any of these tapes was in 1989 when someone lent me their car for a couple weeks. Maybe I left Halfnelson (yes, that was one of my cut-out bin finds) in the player, cause I did not find it with the other tapes. When I pulled out my yellow player I was crossing my fingers, hoping I had not left any batteries in it when I last used it in 1980 or so. But of course I did. Oh well.

I

Day 101: Childhood Books That Survived Flinging - Golden Books

When I was very small and riding in the back seat of our station wagon, I discovered what fun it was to fling my storybooks, one by one, out the window. I was too young to understand that I would never see those books again and although I probably only lost about five of them before a grown-up noticed what I was doing, I remember the lost books were some of my favorites.

Still, I was surprised to see just how many of my original books were still in the house, and how well I remembered a lot of them. Golden Books were the type that I flung, and I shall start with them.

I don't think this title needs any introduction. Of course it was inspired by the song, but came out before the Rankin/Bass stop-motion television special, for which, the first couple of years, we would need to go to my grandmother's house to see, as she had a color television (and we didn't!)

 My favorite movie, when I was young, was Lady and the Tramp.

 


Scamp was their offspring:

Where is the Poky Little Puppy? Hiding in a boot, as you can plainly see on the cover! It was not much of a mystery...

Another favorite film; I remember watching it at the drive-in, just as in the film the dalmatians watch a movie at  a drive-in.

I have been trying to figure out, or remember, with no luck, what my numbering system was for my books. This one has number 4, but it originally was something else, a backwards 3?

The Littlest Snowman liked to collect different colors and flavors of ice cream cones. At one point they melt into his snow and he becomes sort of psychedelic. I loved snow when I was little, or rather, I longed for it as it was so exotic, but something about snowmen, including Frosty, who came to life creeped me out. Don't you think the littlest snowman looks a bit of a shady character? He certainly had a pair of beady eyes! And he wore his heart between his sleeves! Frosty went around claiming to love anybody and everybody too; perhaps I was wisely wary of these indiscriminately loving snowmen. (Why were there never any snowwomen?)

Maybe snowmen just weren't furry enough. I certainly liked little furry creatures.

 Hildy goes missing. It turns out she is hiding away on a couch in the attic, upon which she has her kittens. I guess they didn't get her fixed in time.

Day 100: My Scrapbooks Part One

This was my original scrapbook, which I received for Christmas when I was around 8 or 9. When I discovered Todd, I moved everything to another blank scrapbook, and this one was devoted solely to Todd Rundgren-related stuff. That's glitter nail polish, natch.

This was the very first Todd show I ever saw. It was four hours of fabulousness. I was in the 12th row. Note my comment on the left re: (sic) "Bibi"; I was not a fan!

 Handout from the SMC show:

 I knew this chick at school who was into Alice Cooper. We both would buy or subscribe to Circus Magazine, Creem, and Rock Scene. I would give her all the photos and clippings on Alice and she would give me Todd stuff. If you had two copies you could stick photos on your wall (or inside your locker at school) and leave the other intact in your scrapbook.

From Circus I think...

Here is my other scrapbook.

I was so into chimpanzees; this is a story about Washoe and Lucy; chimps who were taught American Sign Language by Dr. Roger Fouts. They learned abstract concepts and constructed original sentences. I wanted to work with them when I grew up so when I went to UCLA I majored in Linguistics. Big mistake; linguists at this time did not consider this language. In the late 90s I met Roger and he said I would be an ideal candidate for this program observing the ASL speaking chimps, who now live in a sanctuary in Washington State. I studied ASL and applied, and was rejected. Oh well.

From a House of Mystery comic book, this was my favorite story when I was young.

 I was way too young to "come on down", but you could briefly see my dad and me when the camera swept over the audience. If you tuned in that day, that is; this was way before Betamaxes, unless you were the final family in the Carousel of Progress...

More talking chimps!

This was definitely NOT an item in my scrapbook! It was on the back of a page that was however; was it an article about how to kiss? I guess I'll never know!

Placemats from a family vacation to Canada:

Mary Tyler Moore, puppies, Mason Reese and Rodney Allen Rippy!

I believe I circled the songs I liked.

I didn't always agree with the LA Times music critic, Robert Hilburn, but now I miss him!

 Gilbert O'Sullivan and Olga Korbut

 This is a weird one. I used to watch Alias Smith and Jones. Apparently Hannibal Heyes opened the safe, but I can't for the life of me remember the significance of said action!