Do you Remember?

Growing up in Fresno in the 70's and 80's wasn't so bad. As I was driving today I had some flashbacks of that era, I'm sure most of this isn't unique to Fresno.

I used to go to the midnight movies with my slightly older Uncle and Aunt. Admission was a couple of bucks. I was about 13 or 14, nobody "carded" me. I can remember seeing "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". The crowd that attended was every bit as bizarre as the movie! The Zombie classic, Dawn of the Dead was playing quite often. I also remember seeing the Punk Rock documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization". The line into the theatre reeked of clove cigarettes and everybody seemed to have some booze stashed on them.

I remember when the TV went to "snow" or multi-colored bars at midnight! Just after the National Anthem played whist you viewed a picture of an Astronaut holding the American flag.

I remember listening to Vin Scully call Dodger games on my small radio. That man can paint a picture over the airwaves (what a voice!). I remember Walter Alston.

I can remember hearing Gordon Lightfoot songs on AM radio for some reason.

I used to have an 8 track tape player that looked like a robot. I believe it was called 2XL. I remember having 8 track tapes for AC/DC, Blondie, and the Village People, how's that for musical variety! I had a pile of vinyl albums and 45's. I also used a giant cassette player to record songs off the radio. I remember yelling "shut up!" at my brothers and sisters because I was afraid the noise they were making would drown out the song I was trying to record.

I remember there was a local drug store who would give kids stamps if they collected the shopping carts in their parking lot and from the surrounding neighborhood. You'd stick the stamps in a little booklet and when you filled the booklet you could turn it in for a free ice cream.
In the Summer, the parking lot would have 9 or 10 kids harvesting carts. What a hoot!

Sometimes, I wore a plastic Dodgers batting helmet to school (in the 4th or 5th grade, not high school just in case you were wondering).

I walked to school, or rode my bike (without a helmet). When Spring came around I brought my ball glove with me, like most of the boys. We played baseball at recess, with a real baseball. In the Fall and Winter, we played football. Or, had a rough game of "smear the queer".

My grandma bought me Avon cologne that came in a bottle shaped like a car, along with an arrowhead necklace.

I remember rotary phones. CB radios. Atari. Drinking from a garden hose. Teachers dressing up to teach. Alpha Beta supermarkets. Tomato sandwiches (I still love 'em). Jars of sun tea of my grandma's front steps. The hum of the fan in my room.

I remember a long drive from Fresno to Sacramento in the back of my dads pickup truck. We never wore seat belts, I don't even know if our car had 'em.

I remember the smell of grape vineyards and orange groves.

I remember when scary movies were just scary, not virtually Satanic! I used to keep count of how many times I saw Star Wars, it seemed important at the time. Jaws scared the hell out of me.

I remember my first bike. It was yellow, with a "banana seat" and chopper style handle bars. My brother had a matching one. We'd ride around the neighborhood pretending we were "Jon and Ponch" from CHIPS. We'd even park them next to each other in the driveway.

In the early 80's I fell in love with cycling. It was an era of steel frames, downtube shifters, and toe clips! The pro peloton was sprinkled with the jerseys of KAS, Peugeot, Hitachi, Gis, Fagor, Bianchi, Panasonic, Carrera, La Vie Claire, Renault, Del Tongo, and eventually 7-11. Bernard Hinault was the Patron!

Life wasn't all so bad ya know?