The Ghost of Thanksgiving's Past

Delmonico · November 21, 2012, 08:18:38 AM

OK, I have the idea there are some folks here around my age with perhaps a slight checkered past. (Would anyone be up-set if I called them old burnt out stoners?) No big deal, just that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and now thanks to modern computers and the internet we can keep up that old Thanksgiving tradition.

Which one you may ask, well the one you spaced out years ago, back when when the radio started playing that newer stuff over and over they called top 40.

Go back with me to the days of yesteryear, back to the early 70's when we had all those great FM stations that played album rock, you know, they called them the deep cuts, the stuff that was too long to play on the AM stations, remember AM music stations, the ones you had to listen to because your car only had an AM radio and a cassette or 8-Track hanging under the dash.

It is now noon on Thanksgiving and all over the radio dial you can here the same thing, just seconds off each other because the music didn't come in on a feed, the DJ had to play a record.

Sometime this Thanksgiving please remember the past as it was, a friend at work said a couple years ago he saw Arlo in the Macy's parade on a float. Bet he was laughing inside about how they had an old "long haired hippie weirdo freak" in the Macy's parade. "But that's America."

Ol Gabe · November 21, 2012, 08:55:18 AM

Ah, memories!
I fondly remember those days as I ease my way into senility, I mean senior years. Here in eastern Iowa we had a great FM station that played Arlo's tome every Turkey day at noon with no commercials. My wifey and I would be finishing up stuff for the big afternoon meal before the crowd of relatives got there and football became the most important thing next to who got the wings and legs from the 20 lb. bird.
We'd take a break, set at the kitchen table, tune up the volume a bit on our old radio, share a bottle of cold stuff and laugh our collective butt's off. We had seen the movie and had enjoyed the sound track many times but the Turkey day playback became something we looked forward to almost as much as a Turkey, lettuce & mayo sammie on rye while watching the 10:00 news.
Sadly, the FM station changed formats and Arlo's tome is not to be heard anywhere in these climes, we see the movie once a year on one of the cable channels but it just ain't the same.
Thanks Del for bringing back a memory, and Happy Thanksgiving to all the rest!
'Ol Gabe, and now I can't get that tune out of my mind for the rest of the day!

Delmonico · November 21, 2012, 09:04:14 AM

We have one Oldie's FM that still plays it, but at 11 instead of noon.

Stu Kettle · November 21, 2012, 10:04:29 AM

I don't even listen to the radio much anymore. I'm a Mac fan so I have iTunes - I can listen to Alices Restaurant anytime I get the urge on my computer or iPod, I could even play it on my phone. Sometimes when I'm by myself & don't have any of those electonickle devices handy, I'll just sing it myself, 'cause I still know all the words

WaddWatsonEllis · November 21, 2012, 11:29:57 AM

Hi,

I always felt that if I listened to Alice's Restaurant again, it would be the definite Litmus Test and tell me that I had shrunk into a suburban decadent liifelstyle ... now having listened to it, I think I feel the same as when I was 18 .... only older physically ... I went on to Richie Haven's 'Freedom', Crosby Stills & Nash Woodstock (written by Joni Mitchell) ... it was like being 18 for about 15 minutes ... Thanks for the Time Travel!

Delmonico · November 21, 2012, 12:36:31 PM

Wad, are you just another "Bozo on the Bus."

"We're all bozo's on this bus."

GunClick Rick · November 21, 2012, 09:03:20 PM

Looking back Wad 18 was about 15 minutes

Crow Choker · November 24, 2012, 10:15:16 AM

A 8-track or cassette player hangin under the dash!!!! What were they? Back in the 60's (in north-central Ia) all we had was a local AM station that played 'the tunes' of the day(KRIB, Mason City) and that's all you could get during the daylight hrs.. At night we could tune in KAAY out of Little Rock, Ark/KOMA out of Oklahoma City, Okla/WDJY out of Minneapolis, Minn/ and WLS out of Chicago. All the cars only had a AM radio with a dash speaker. My Dad bought a used 63 Ford Galaxie in 1964 that also had a rear speaker. The car had a switch under the dash you could use to turn on either the front or rear speaker or both at the same time. We thought that was big time stuff. (The 63 Ford had a police pack 390 cu in engine, big 4 barrel carb the local Ford dealer had bought for himself, then in '64 ordered a 64 Ford for his persoanl car. It was a screamer!!!!!!!)
First time I ever saw a eight track was when one of the older guys I ran around with bought a new Chevy Caprice in '68. It had an 8-track player in the glove box. It came with a demo tape that had around 15 tunes on it, everything from Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, Perry Como, New York Philhamonic, and had around three 60's type rock and roll. We thought that was a big deal and took his car 'crusin' to the near by big city. We wore the tape out because all we wanted to listen to were the three rock tunes, so after hearing them, we had to fast forward all the stuff we didn't like to hear the 'good stuff'. Problem was, there were not any stores in the area for some time that carried any 8-tracks. Those were the days!!!! The good old days!!!!
Delmonico: 'Old burnt out stoners'? You can call me Ray, you can call me Jay, but you don't nessasay-ally have to call me an OBOS!

--- Ifin that means I may have used some product back then that would qualify me to be a stoner' then I need to disqualify myself. Never did, never wanted too. Now there was a time when the item that was said to have made Millwawkee famous (ie Schlitz) was a nessasary item we thought was needed riding around listening to tunes that I plead guilty to. Like I said, Those were the days!!!

Crow Choker · November 24, 2012, 11:12:55 AM

Oh ya Dell, thanks for postin 'Alices Restaurant". Been awhile since I heard it. My favorite thing about the whole song is the '27 8x10 glossy photo's with circles and arrows with a paragraph on the back.' Back when I wore a badge, I had a couple of guys 'in' for some minor theft issues. One of em' told me I didn't have a xxxx thing against them. I told them 'Maybe I have 27 8x10 glossy photo's with...........and a paragraph on the back of each." The two set there a minute looked at each other and then spilled their guts on their misdeeds. Still laugh when I think of that incident and hear Alices Restaurant!!! Some years later I saw one of them and we were talking, he said "You got that 27 photo bit from Arlo Guthrie's song didn't ya". I had to admitt my guilt. He said that was his only 'fray' into lawlessness and thanked me for sterring him straight. Part of the thanks should go to Arlo to I suppose. Have good day! Yers, Crow Choker

Delmonico · November 24, 2012, 11:41:36 AM

Clyde Clifford, Beaker Street, 11 pm to 2 am Mon-Sat night, KAAY 1090 Little Rock.

Don't forget WWL New Orleans and Charly Douglas and the Road show for a change of music.

GunClick Rick · November 24, 2012, 12:09:35 PM

Wolfman Jack Roseritta,Baja,calif. AAwwoooooooo,i know your out there baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA2m7KYqG5s&list=LPEv7OJifAC6I&index=3&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgY4JIkenI&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PL96D35413631B68FE

Crow Choker · November 24, 2012, 01:03:01 PM

"Clyde Clifford", thanks Dell! A co-worker and I were just talking about a week ago about Beaker Street and neither of us could remember the name-both had brain freeze. Just as a hunch, I entered the name into the vastness of cyber-space and wonder of wonders, up came a whole page on KAAY, Clyde Clifford and Beaker Street. Had pictures of Clyde, then and now. Had histroy facts about Beaker Street and 'even' had one link where you could hear some of the old program, hear Clyde, all the wierd background sounds, etc. Talk about a trip down memory lane. I had always pictured him as a George Carlin look-a-like. Not, looked like 1001 guys I grew up with. Today, he looks like alot of guys I know who've put on weight and have gotten older with me!!!! Rumor heard by us northern Iowans was that he was a 'hippie' type, smoked something besides Winstons while broadcasting, and did so from some remote house built on a cliff. Just what us poor boys in 'fly over country' heard!
Ah, yes-WWL, Charley Douglas and the Road Gang. Listened to that many times working the late night patrol shifts. Good tunes and comedy acts(Jerry Clower-Wendy Bagwell). 0400 hrs, the Chuck Wagon Gang singing Gospel hits!! By the way Dell, take that hash picture off, makes me hungry for it everytime I see it. Looks mighty good!
GunClick: Heard of Wolfman growing up, but never heard any of his broadcasts untill he went national and was on DicK Clarks TV productions. My radio reception limits didn't bring him in.

WaddWatsonEllis · November 24, 2012, 01:36:20 PM

Hi,

I guess I am a bit younger ... 'cause we had FM ... and KSHE in St Louis (where my father was stationed)... then there was "The Only Black Spot on your Radio Dial' at 1610 AM and KXOK, the local top 40s radio station .... I got to go back to Scott AFB when I was grown up ... the reciprocating prop jobs were gone (I still think one of the greatest sounds is a recip engine starting up) <but and some of the buildings were different, but the runways were the same ...

TTFN,