My mother would push off getting it repaired for years at a time. The radio that was only listened to in the winter time, permanently stuck on CJOY out of Guelph, that we used to hear about bus cancellations and school closings. These snow days, that I would often use to do an extra school project. An early sign of my life long need to be and feel productive.
When performing in school plays, I would ensure my part was the loudest and most dramatic to be remembered over the lead. I did manage once, to be Charlie Brown in Charlie Brown’s Christmas. As a boy, I had wanted to be an actor knowing that music was out of the question. I couldn’t play an instrument nor understood the concepts. But I vividly recall saying to myself in my farmhouse bedroom bed going to sleep one cold winter’s night that being a musician would be the best job, but since I don’t know how to do that, I will be an actor, as if that would be so much easier!
On occasion my cousin Jeff and his family would visit our farm, he a couple years younger than I, I was likely 10 at the time and he was 7 and was talking about his favourite bands, The Osmonds and The Jackson 5. Although I recognized the names, I had no clue what he was talking about, and more importantly, I realized, that I had no clue about music and that this is something I best not try to discuss with young Jeff from Thornhill, Toronto who was just so much more worldly than I.
On school days we rode a big yellow bus to and from Eramosa Township school, well, that is when we didn’t miss the bus as often as we did. There was this day, waiting to go for either the shortest or longest ride home depending on which direction the bus driver would take leaving the school. On the bus was the object of my grade school desire, Helene. I remember she was talking about her favourite song being ‘Band on the Run’, what the heck was that? And why was this band running? It is funny how in life one forgets so many things, yet I can recall with exact clarity where she was sitting and all of the details.
Somehow, I managed to get and still possess, a K-Tel Sound Explosion LP, and though it was played many times, while the turntable was working with it’s one mono speaker, it was The DeFranco Family ‘Heartbeat’ that really did it for me. My popular music knowledge was now 12 songs courtesy of the good folks at K-Tel.
I recall a coffee mug that was in our farmhouse cupboard, it was a ‘special’ mug, that no one ever used, it had a decal of 4 young men in soft blue suits with their first name autographs on it, and it had absolutely no meaning to me. It would end up being broken a few years later and I recall my mother saying it wasn’t a big deal as they were no longer important anymore having been in trouble with the law or drugs or something. Many years later, I would make the connection.