1979-1981 the basement, the car, and up north

The Basement
Much of the music I heard in the early days of my life obviously was not played by me, rather, my family. I have to older brothers, Tommy and Mike; and my older sister Amy. Tommy and Mike shared half of the basement of our house growing up and used it for thier bedroom. As a kid, you're afraid to go downstairs unless there's a light on. When my brothers were down there, I knew it was safe. No Gremlins. I used to run down there whenever I heard loud music. Although their record collection wasn't huge, what they had was really really good. My earliest remembrances of music were in that basement.

The Car
One distinct early memory of music was in my mom's 1977 Grand Prix: white vinyl hardtop and T-tops... cherry red. Very hot car. She had the radio up, and and 101.1 WIXX Green Bay/Fox Cities was on. It was a catchy call sign and these people would always sing the name of the station on the radio. It was probably the first radio station I could name. I was riding in the Grand Prix and listening to WIXX when my mom got pulled over by a cop. She turned off the radio. I must have had no idea what was going on, but I think she told me to be quiet. I have no idea how young I was when this happened.

This was the first time I saw a woman talk her way out of a speeding ticket! It surely wouldn't be the last. I remember the cop looking at me to. Probably the first cop I ever saw that wasn't on TV. I was in a baby seat in the back. Remember this story when 1989 entries come along and she does it again. I still don't understand how women, especially my mom have this talent of talking their way out of traffic violations.
101.1 WIXX


Up North
The jukebox in bars around the Wisconsin Northwoods provided much of my early music listening. My parents enjoy countless weekends in the Wisconsin Northwoods. In the late 70's, my dad bought a cottage on a point of a lake. He wanted to buy this cottage ever since he was very little. Some of my aunts and uncles had cottages and trailers on the lake as well. The attached garage was transformed into a summer home for my grandparents. After I was born in '79, I would soon be spending much of my summers and weekends 'up north.' Our value of family was unmeasured up north. Among the activites we did as a family: horseshoe tournaments, fishing, campfires and "UN-GA's" (newspaper parachutes that fly when lit on fire), and hunting... the activity that really stood out was the pontoon boat.

We as an extended family (aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins) would gather on my dad's pontoon boat. Since there wasn't many seats on it, many family members brought lawn chairs. The big thing to do in my early years was to go "bar hopping" in the pontoon boat. There were many bars on the lakes's shore. We would park the pontoon, drink, play some pool or this contraption called a "Humstrum" (or party fiddle) and move on to the next bar. The jukeboxes in the bars up north were probably some of the earlier music I've ever been exposed to. Bands like Alabama, CCR, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers, etc. were mainstays on the jukeboxes up north. Of course I was too young to really take any of it in, I have vague memories of being VERY little and riding on an almost cap-sizing pontoon boat singing songs on a dark lake. As child, I would be "quizzed" on where Maa's tavern was across the lake and my dad would ask me to point to it. It was one of the few bars barely in plain sight from our cottage's shore, and it had a big red boat house that made it easy to distinguish even when you're little. How many other children could have told you where the nearest BAR is!?
Humstrum Party Fiddle