Happy days

[Ozz]

They were "Happy Days"....mostly
Listening to Johnny Smith, AKA Wolfman Jack, his sometimes off-color comments, and wonderful unique voice as we cruised around on Friday nights in my ton and-a-half Oldsmobile beater.
I went to high school East of Kansas City and Independence Missouri, close to a small town of Buckner, It was surrounded by cornfields. I was lucky enough to date a cheerleader, her dad owned the hardware store in Buckner.
There was a stand-alone hamburger joint there, a magnet for our school kids, and the country area surrounding it we had so much fun there.
It seems we were always laughing, having a good time, always looking for some trouble to get into. Lake City Arsenal was in that area, we could drive down to the Jundy farm, go through a couple of gates and park above the arsenal test range and watch the tracers streaking down range, drink our beer and listen to the Wolfman.
Some of the popular songs of that time were "Don’t break the heart that loves you" by Connie Francis, "The Duke of Earl", by Gene Chandler, "Dream Baby", by the great Roy Orbison, and "What’s your name" by Don and Juan. When I hear one of these songs played somewhere, I get Goose Bumps..
We had a stretch of road down in the country called "Seven Hills", we would drive West off of the paved county road onto this narrow road a mile or so to see that it was clear, then turn around and speed as fast as we dared, jumping the Olds over the hills, sparks flew, we yelled and cranked the radio up. How we made it all those times without killing ourselves is still a mystery.
I was known for my backwards driving skills, or idiocy, one of the two, probably the latter. I would back down the country roads as fast as I could, usually at night. One night we got securely lodged in a big ditch, no cell phones back then, one guy lost the coin toss and had to walk 4 or 5 miles to get a buddy’s tractor and pull us out.
John Kennedy was the president at that time, gas cost .31 cents a gallon, a dozen eggs was .54 cents and you could send a letter for .04 cents.
We went to the movies and saw "Dr. No", How the West was Won, and Girls, Girls, Girls.
When we were home in the evenings, we watched Gunsmoke, Candid Camera, Red Skelton, Danny Thomas and Dick Van Dyke on the TV.
Diet Rite, Polaroid Color film and ”Tab” were new products the year of 1962.
Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose, and Kennedy ordered the blockade of Cuba, or as he called it “Cuber”
Those times were great, good memories and good times.

Then there was Viet Nam.

[Emmel]

My goodness Ozz, isn't it amazing how simple things were then. I grew up in the same town I live in now and some things will never change and some will never be the same again!
Remember the drag races on the outskirts of town, no one ever got hurt, maybe the car did,or someones reputation. There were always the fast cars and the local drive-in theater we would sneak in by jumping into your friends trunk!
I think the best invention lately was the satellite radio, you can get the 60's channel anywhere. When you hear a certain song like Pretty Woman, you sit back and try to remember where you were the first time you listened to it or that special lady friend that you dedicated it to at the sock hop!
I was a little on the wild side in my teens and early twenty's then this pretty lady ( the dw!) came along and 3 months after our first date we were married. That was almost 39 years ago, where has the time gone!
Thanks for bringing it up again!!!!!!

[Dustytuu]

Ozz, you bring back memories! I grew up in a town almost like that in rural southern Missouri. We would drag main street, park up on "BlueBerry Hill" and listen to rock and roll. Check out who was there and with who. We would have drag races outside the town city limits on old black top roads. It is a wonder we all survived or didn't wind up in jail.

[Rondo]

Ozz-- You had to put down " What's Your Name" in your listings! Now that is going over and over and over in my brain! Ah the Good Old Days!!

[rogue]

OZZ, and all, if you like the music from that era (as I do), check out this web site
http://www.snjmall.com/chico/

Edit: Click the red button to play the song

Bob

[Ozz]

Mixed emotions listening to some of the old songs.
Thanks, Bob I will do so.

[skypilot]

Wonder if the Music 'polizei' got to that site, none of the songs will come up this morning -- all get server errors. Will have to try it again later -- some songs titles that I remember and would love to hear once again.

Oz -- WolfmanJack -- I remember listening to him on my transister radio, sitting either on the trunk of the car, or out in the grass (city boy here) but we did have the drag races and favorite 'cruize' site -- used to be a place called 'Hobos', (Now Shoney's), Home of the Big Boy. Lot of memories. Thanks.

[Waynem]

Here is another JUKEBOX site to bring back even more memories.

Thanks Ozz.
And for you!
Here is the

MUSIC

And here are the LYRICS