Cue KC and the Sunshine Band

Madd Maxx emailed me this morning to remind me that on this date 33 years ago, we were graduating from eighth grade. A moment of silence brothers and sisters, for the powder blue tuxedo and the Gunne Sax prairie dress…… Amen.


How Maxx remembers these things I don’t know. I can’t remember where I put my reading glasses ten minutes ago. Anyhow, the email sent my mind wandering a bit down memory lane, and just for spurts and giggles I thought I’d throw out a few tidbits about June 2, 1978. (Other than the fact that I'm old enough to be able to name all of the characters in Fat Albert.) Pull up a seat and grab a Frosty Root Beer friends, while we reminisce about the days when my life revolved around the AM transistor radio and QT Tanning Lotion.

June 2, 1978

-Tom Petty rocked The Midnight Special.

-ELO played to a sold out audience at Wembley Arena in London.

-President Carter was chillin’ at Camp David.

-A stamp cost 15 cents.

-Gas cost 90 cents a gallon and daddy was belly achin’ about it.

-The video game Space Invaders was being launched (Oh, to have all of those quarters back.)

-Match Game was one of the top 3 game shows on television, and my mama thought Richard Dawson was dirty minded. She was right.

-Phil Donohue was on the current issue of TV Guide. Mama thought he was the diddly bop shefizzle.

-A situation was brewing that would soon lead to the suicides of cult leader Jim Jones and his followers.

-The first test tube baby was nearing the end of gestation.

-The average income was $17,000.

-The average price of a home was $54,800.

-TV shows that had just ended for good included the Carol Burnette Show, Maude, Police Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Columbo and Chico and the Man. I wanted to be Angie Dickinson. I’m not sure what that says about me as a thirteen year old.

-Grandpa Walton, Will Geer, would die in another month or so.

-The average price of a new car was $5,000 except in our house where my dad insisted on driving a Chrysler that was older than Will Geer.

-Movie companies were getting ready to release Jaws, which would keep us out of the ocean and Animal House, which would make us Shout. Could I get a little Otis Day, please?

-Ashton Kutcher was four months old.

-Gold sold for $200 an ounce. It’s about $1,500 an ounce today, which shows how much has changed in the last thirty years.

-Israel attacked southern Lebanon and military rebels killed the president of Afghanistan and took over that country, which goes to show how much HASN’T changed since then.

-Oh, and I said goodbye to elementary school by shaking my booty at my first school dance. Some things are worth revisiting.