The 60s Official Site Blog

Dedicated to the memory and history of the 60s from a personal and historical point of view.

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

What Ever Happen to the Cool Jocks?

Driving down the main drag with the radio blaring and listening to the top music of the day was quite a memory! What characterized those great days of the 60s was the cool disc jockeys that jammed the airways during that era. Whatever happend to them? Todays' radio DJs cannot come close to the jocks of yesteryear. The radio personalites today have to use explicit language to get listeners instead funny but innocent pranks that those of yesterday used. The 60s jocks' gift for gab was instrumental in keeping us tuned in. Not only the hit music but their talk kept us coming back.

In my home town of Circleville, Ohio, most of us tuned into 1230 WCOL. It was a very small radio station that broadcasted from Columbus with only 500 watts of power. You lost the station at night so we picked up drifted station which broadcasted with larger watts, like WLS, Chicago, WABC, New York and my favorite WHK of Cleveland, Ohio. At Cleveland, there was a DJ from Florida named Johnny Holliday. His opending monologue went something like "welcome and this is Johnny Holliday, your refugee from the Sunshine State." His craftmanship as a DJ resulted in him being selected for the "Cruisin" series of music featuring outstanding DJs across this great nation of ours. These tapes and CDS not only featured music but commericals, airway checks, and monologue from the DJs. Johnny Holliday was on "Cruisin 64," which I say without hesitation is the best of all the "Cruisin" Series including Robert Morgan of "Cruisin' 65" Where is Johnny today? He works for ABC sports and announces Maryland Terpin basketball games. Still today he has that great voice that so many DJs now fail to deliver.

I also remember the countdowns each and everyday at 3:00 from WCOL. Of course,the countdown usually didn't change but once a week but you listened anyway just to groove on the music and the commentary. It was common back then, if you remember, for a song to be interrupted for fast breaking news, like a bank robbery or something. It was so sensationalized.


Recalling back to the New Year's eves of the 60s, I recall WCOL FM station doing the countdown of the top 100 songs of the year and all my buddies would gather in the basement of my friend's house to celebrate New Year's while his folks had a party upstairs. We would make our bets on what song would be the number one song for the year. The number one song was played right before midnight.

The craziness of the jocks never ceased and they would upset Ma Bell with their telephone promotions that would tie up the phones. The phone systems were not as intricate back then as they are now. They would give away money, concert tickets and yes automobiles. What zaniess and fun was the 60s.

My old WCOL radio station now is a country station. Nothing wrong with country music, in fact I love country music but I still recall the crusin', parking, and just relaxing while listening to the fun radio of the 60s. Do you have a memory? If so please leave a comment.



Visit the 60s once again.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Baby Boomers, Enjoy George Carlin's Take on Aging

As a baby boomer who grew up in the 60s, I chuckle on how humorous but true George Carlin's Views on Aging are. Only George Carlin can look at something so simple and typical and make it funny but meaningful.

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life. . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony... YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour.r.r. r-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.

Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70!

After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!" May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them."

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, and hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

To Everybody Who Is Reading This Remember One Thing: We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

This 60s Icon Is Neither a Person nor a Place

The 60s, as any baby boomer who grew up in that decade, will tell you, was a happening. Our generation had its own music, fashion, war, cars, made specially for cruisin' and TV. Our television programs were so special that many have been made into movies and quite a few appear on TV shows such as TV Land and American Life TV. If the 60s were not special then why are so many young people of today fascinated with that era?


During the 60s, dating and competing with the opposite sex, was just as popular as it is today with one exception. In my opionion, relationships were more meaningful and going with someone meant committed to that person as long as you both continued to wear each other's ring. Remember exchanging class rings? The girls either wore the ring around their neck to signify they were going steady so it was hands off to the other guys. Also many of the girls wore the rings with angora wrapped around the ring, which made it easier to fit around their small fingers. Guys wore the girls' rings on their pinky or around their neck.


Both guys and girls really took particular care on their appearance. The girls always looked lovely and smelled very nice on dates. I always loved to smell the perfume on a girl's neck (as long as it wasn't overpowering). We as guys insured we looked our very best. We wore our best jeans or dresss pants, a pressed shirt and polished shoes. Which leads me to the icon of the 60s that no guy could do without and no lady could resist and that was Jade East Cologne. The girls just went wild over it. I believe it was a toxic agent that released the hormones in the girls. At least that is what I thought and the buddies I hung out with thought.


Jade East was a 60s icon. Who could ever forget it. Just ask any girl or guy from the era. Hey do you remember the cologne Jade East? I don't remember where or how I came about my first bottle but I know I would never go out on a date without splashing some on me. In fact I still have a bottle today and it is still available online.


I remember back in 1965 when a buddy of mine traveled to Waverly, Ohio to see these lovely girls we met down there. It became a weekly ritual it seemed to date these girls. Anyways my friend, Ron kept a bottle of Jade East in the glove compartment for emergencies, you understand. So as we got closer to our destination, I reached in the glove box and pulled out the Jade East and splashed some on me and handed it to Ron who in grabbing the bottle dropped it and it spilled all over the front seat, his sweater and trousers. We now smelled like a traveling (&*#$&*@) house. What a great surprise this will be for our dates.


Of course when we picked them up, the smell in the car was overpowering and perhaps these dates of ours might be the only girls that I know that doesn't like Jade East today. Don't bother polling a Jane or a Jeanne from Waverly, Ohio about how well they liked Jade East. I believe the smell of Jade East is still in that car. When Ron got rid of that car and got a useless Corvair, I believe that smell remained in the car for the new owner to relish.


Those were the days, weren't they?




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