History Lesson

Televisions the size of a room We had a very large television set. Why? Because my dad had his own RCA television store when I was about 3 years old in Chattanooga, TN. He sold and serviced his own sets. Television was new at the time and they came in very nice wood cabinets. My mom did the booking. One time he ran an ad that said “we will trade you for a new set.”

Film Crazy Growing up in the Hollywood area opened a lot of doors for me. My school had some very famous people graduate from there. Movies were filmed at the school like “Because They’re Young” with Dick Clark in the 50’s. Ron Underwood was in my class of 1971. He is a director. He does not know me but I remember Ron at assemblies and he always had a tie on. I had classes with the DePatie brothers. Their dad had the Pink Panther studios. Others were singers, stage actors, producers, and anything to do with the movies, tv, music or stage. Hoover High School was in Glendale, CA. My friends and I did a lot of photography. We turned my bedroom into a darkroom and got our film from from Warner Brother Studios. They just could not use the last 100 feet of the reel so we got it. The film was number Kodak 5254 and had a black backing on it. So we had to take it to Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood to get it developed. Fun days.

The moon My dad worked on the Atlas missile in San Diego, CA and as kids we got to go to Vandenburg AFB to see a test launch. So cool! Then we moved to Glendale, CA. and my dad worked for a place that was big. Block and blocks long buildings. He worked on stuff he could not say what it was. Kids would ask me where does your dad work? He works on space stuff or defense stuff. But his plant was across the street from the Disney plant in Glendale, CA. so that was cool. They had tiny windows at the top so you could not see in. But sometimes they had the bay doors open and I could see them load the truck for Disneyland or later Disney World. I walked home from school on that street so I would check each time i walked home.

Sound I remember the Beatles coming to America. It hit the paper big time. We had the first record album. We watched the Ed Sullivan show live on television that night. I had so much stuff about the Beatles, but not today. When they came to California my mom got two tickets for my birthday. Garage bands were everywhere. So I got a guitar and my friends and I made a group. I am sure it was more than one. My friend Rick and I would play and learn new chords. He got a new job and would take lessons. I had to learn from him. But this guy was a ghost writer and he got The Animals to buy one of his songs. Rick started recording some songs but no luck on the sale of them. Glendale had a row of recording studios. We did have some big names from garage bands in our town.

Fast cars My brother does auto body, so he always had a car to work on. He did some great work and for big businesses in the area. He also worked on his own stuff and for others. He had this 1962 Corvette and he even let me drive it once. I had to get a very long briefing on how to use the stick and 100 things not to do. I love my brother. We have had a lot of fun growing up, like building a model ship and blowing it up in the swimming pool with fireworks. That day is one to remember.