1986: Ozzy listening party & stomach aches

I remember being pretty little when my cousin Cathy came to live with us for a while. She had a room in the basement, and took care of Amy and me at times when my older brothers and my parents weren't home.

She went to a different HS than Tommy and Mike, and I remember she took me to high school one day. It was Appleton East High School. I remember guys in her class smiling at me and saying "gimme 5!" and I would happily oblige. They treated me like I was cool. (for a 6 year old, haha) And I remember seeing rows and rows of lockers.

There were times when I remember Cathy showing us her record collection. I wasn't sure if I liked music as much as I do now, but it was a fun idea, and listening to music with my cousin made me feel like a grown up. I remember her saying "ok, pick one record out, and then we will play a song on it." After sorting through what was probably over a dozen records, I chose Ozzy Osbourne's Ultimate Sin.

The cover's illustration made it an attractive choice for the typical fan of He-Man.

Her reaction was a little abrupt: "Ozzy!?" She exclaimed.. "he's a mad man!"

I think the hit at the time was Shot in the Dark.

Shot in The Dark-Ozzy Osbourne from Joe Clarfort III on Vimeo.

From an Ozzy timeline, this was the second or so album with guitarist Jake E Lee. He was a guitar player to replace Randy Rhoads.

Randy Rhoads, who I just happen to share a birthday with, and probably one of the best guitar players of all time: classical, electric - you name it. Rhoads died young in a plane accident while trying to "buzz" Ozzy's tour bus in 1982.

Jake E Lee, who somehow figures into the story later at about 1996... When AOL was huge, I met JakeELee95 in an AOL reptile chatroom, and it sure was him. He was out of the band by then. Back when chat rooms were safe! I chatted with him for a bit, I made fun of his choice in guitars "Charvel" and  "Kramer" haha... he said the ones they made him were better than the ones in the store.

1986 was also a time when there was a lot going on with Africa. There were TONS of commercials about the Ethiopian kids starving and charity TV telethons. It was the stereotypical dinner table jargon that "eat your dinner, there's kids in Ethiopia starving to death." There were tons of commercials and "just pennies a day" extended telethons for them.

I got a lot of stomach aches as a kid, and Pepto Bismol was my friend. One night watching these telethons, I had a really bad one. I remember this particular night my brother Mike was home, and he might have already graduated from High School, I'm not sure...  they put me in my parent's bed (probably to get my whining out of the family room) and put the TV on in that bedroom. 

Later, Mike came in and asked me if my stomach still hurt, and it did. So proceeded to tell me he was "a doctor" and could see what was wrong. He felt my stomach and asked me where it hurt, does it hurt here? here? and ended up saying. "Well, go to sleep, and it will be better when you wake up. Just don't move." I took those words to heart, and made sure I didn't move a muscle. Of course, he was right, the next day it was gone.

The pop stations were playing stuff like this... I think this was when I was starting to be more conscious of what was on the radio.

1986: Showbiz Pizza

The first big birthday party I went to had to be around 1986... we drove to Showbiz Pizza, which is now known as Chuckie Cheese's. In my hometown, there was one in the same building as Kmart. It only lasted a few years. When it closed down, the closest Showbiz Pizza was in Green Bay. My memory doesn't serve me whether it was closed down or not by this time.
I do remember sharing seatbelts with my classmates, only boys were at this party... and of course the law wasn't out yet about child seats.

If you've been to Chuckie's you know what you're in for at Showbiz Pizza: tons of games, pizza, and animals playing music. But you need to remember, this is the 80's. So if you think it looks fake now, wait until you get a load of what it used to look like!  No matter the decade, it was entertaining for kids. My personal favorite was the pool of balls you could basically swim in.



MUSIC! LIVE MUSIC
The band looked like this, and they played a variety of songs.



If it was your birthday, this is what you got:

Of course, adults had to sit through this stuff, so of course they played some "oldies"... DO you remember?

These videos look frightening today, but children at the time really ate it up. I'm not sure if I remember any kids being afraid of this environment. 2:20 really start to pick up when they do "Wooly bully." It's totally cabaret, and there's some humor in it. Enjoy!

What I remember most about this particular trip (aside from sharing seatbelts) is finding a pen in the parking lot. I was wearing jeans, and when I picked up the pen (that had been cooking all day in the parking lot), I got ink all over my pants. The mom who was driving us around was less than amused, and it made a good blue stain on my jeans. I might have gotten yelled at for picking up a pen off the ground. But as a 6 or 7 year-old I thought "hey! FREE PEN!"