1986: Visiting relatives in Lexington Kentucky

Pack up the station wagon!

It's time to go to Kentucky. I have relatives in Lexington, Kentucky. We normally visited them around 4th of July. This was a big deal for my dad because he owned a business and rarely got time off. When he did get time off, it was spent up north in WI. Coming from a small city in WI, driving south was an adventure. People had a southern accent. I didn't really see the Kentucky blue grass though... it was green.

Jack and Charlene Parker had two houses. Charlene's family farm (miles outside of Lexington) had tobacco and Limousin cattle... a competitor breed to Angus beef. The stairs up to the bedrooms in this old house were so steep, it was difficult to climb, and easy to fall down if you went downstairs too fast. When I was at the farm, I got to drive this gigantic tractor, and made a sword out of a tobacco stick. Apparently, tobacco sticks were used in barns to hang tobacco.

My dad would spend half the week at the farm and help Jack, while my mom, brothers, sister and I spent the week shopping with Charlene and stayed at the house in Lexington. Lexington had great shopping mall... and other relatives owned a cool antique store.

Jack also owned and ran a barbershop down the street from the University of Kentucky.CHEVY Barber shop I used to go there to receive a "flat top"... complete with a bottle of Vavoom! hair gel. My dad used to admire the thought of owning a barbershop... "you can work in cash, and everyone's hair that you cut you would do business with... your stockbroker, your mechanic, your doctor, you'd cut all their hair." It made sense that the people that gave you business you'd give business back to. After Jack passed away in early 2008, his daughter Leigh-Ann took over the family barbershop.

Brian Parker and Compact Discs

Brian Parker was very close in age to Tommy and Mike. His bedroom was in the basement. There was a living room down there, and billiard area that had a pool table different than any I've ever seen. I believe it was a bumper pool table. It was in Brian's bedroom where I saw the first compact discs. Smaller than records, and went into a home stereo component cd player. He had an entire wall of cds... seemingly enough be be a DJ.

When I recently asked about his cd collection, he said:
"My first CD player I bought was in 1984, it was a Magnavox (stylish and cost just over $400). My first CD's were Shiela E', Prince, Thompson Twins, Duran Duran, Psychedelic Furs (MTV had a huge impact on my musical taste, especially anything on 120 minutes because you weren't hearing that music on the radio in Kentucky- it was all top 40 crap.)"

Brian and I would play basketball on his hot blacktop driveway and he would do play by play as if we were each on the UK basketball team and the timer was counting down to zero. My first ever ride in a convertible was in his 1968 VW Karmann Ghia convertible... WAY cooler than the station wagon!

I remember watching Mtv in the basement. We didn't have cable TV in Appleton, so it was a real technological experience with cable TV, CD's etc. SO MANY CHANNELS! Plus it was awesome to see all the creative music videos. I took a special liking to Genesis and Phil Collins for some reason. Listening to "Invisible Touch" takes me back to KY.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

It was from Leigh-Ann the I learned the clever art of talk-back and mockery. I didn't realize that's what it was at the time, but it was hilarious. She sat us down and put in the VHS tape of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Little did I know there is an "audience participation" aspect of this movie... there's only so much you can understand as a six yearold. But I do remember the part when they got married at the beginning. There's a line when someone at the wedding says "I always cry at weddings." Charlene promptly responded "and laugh at funerals." At the time I thought this little wise crack was 100% original. I think I fell asleep after that. Now that the internet exists, I found a comprehensive list of all the talk-back moments in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Dr. Ruth

When we weren't watching Mtv, or movies I do recall watching Dr. Ruth. This was a TV show about sex, and 100% of it went over my head (of course)... but I do remember it being on, and also "COOL" to watch. This old lady preaches about sex... watching it now is rather comical and I cannot believe this was so accepted in the conservative Reagan years of the 80's! Alas, if you were "in the know" in the 80's you watched Mtv, Saturday Night Live and Dr. Ruth! Here is an awesome video of Dr. Ruth with Ozzy Osbourne.