This year, I’ve been looking back at the year 1980. There’s one more story before the year winds down. ***** North Central College is laid out predominantly in a narrow north-south strip, with the athletic facilities at the south end, and the library and a couple of the dorms at the far north end....
An Odd Note During The Game
Our romp through the year 1980 continues. Previous posts are here, here, here, here, here, here and here. ***** The NCC swim teams spent more than a week at the Horizon Motor Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, waking up early to do grueling three-hour workouts in the mornings, and then spending the afternoons recovering. That...
1980: A New Setting
I’ve gotten a little behind in my reliving the year 1980, so will try to catch up a little bit here. In September, I went away to college. Yes, I had done this before—to Missouri University in 1977—but Mizzou was sort of the expected thing to do, and I knew a lot of people...
One More Saturday Night: The Dead At MRF
I liked the Grateful Dead, but never anywhere near enough to earn the title “Deadhead.” Those folks followed the band all over the country, seeing multiple shows on a given tour, trading tapes back and forth, and generally living their lives for the Dead. Some would keep track of how many concerts they’d been...
July 1980
Several key events from July of 1980, continuing my 30-years-ago reminiscenses: • Sometime around the middle of the month, I saw the Doobie Brothers in concert, with my old Mizzou roommate Bob. This was at the Checkerdome, like the earlier Who concert was, and again we had floor seats. From what I remember, it...
April 28, 1980: The Who At The Checkerdome
Note: This is the third of a three-part “mini-series” of posts. The first two parts are here and here, but if you’d like you can start right in with this one. The St. Louis Who concert announcement may have been the worst-kept secret in the world. By the time they actually went public, in...
Why Should I Care If I Have To Cut My Hair?
“I’ve got to move with the fashions, or be outcast…” The story of our WHO weekend in 1980 continues. Episode 1 is here. After our adventure in Columbia, Geoff and I rode the bus back to St. Louis on Monday, arriving mid-afternoon at the downtown bus station. I showed him around a bit; I...
A One-Way Drive In 1980
Preface: Maybe I have a strong internal calendar. I seem to remember a lot of key dates in my life ; I remember way more birthdays than I have a right to; and if I hear it’s the anniversary of something or other, it always seems to be more interesting to me than to...
London Calling
It was 30 years ago this spring that music–both my own and the world’s at large–got an incredible jolt. The Clash album London Calling was released in England in December of 1979, and in the U.S. in January 1980. Normally I’m not an “early adopter” of new music, but thanks to my good friend...