Give me back my Klackers

In the spring of 1968 i fell in love. Not with a girl or a dog but
with a toy. The KLACKER to be precise. What is a klacker you ask, well
let me tell you, it was a magnificent piece of weaponry, 2 acrylic
balls attached to a sturdy workman like piece of string that when
banged together could drive a parent crazy, and i had to just have one.
A light blue transparent one at that.
Some scrawny kid like me
could own one of these, jump over a 6 foot high fence and smoke the
local bully. Yeah, that was going to be me. Jack, the neighborhood
tough guy wouldn’t get the best of me anymore. That psychopathic
grin would get wiped off his face really quick and than i would dance
over his fallen body like David over Goliath, oh yeah, that 11 year old
130 lb walking jelly bowl was going down. Or so i thought. As i
gathered my nerve and as my friends waited timidly around the corner i
approached the lug and started to stare him down, he didn’t
flinch, i approached a little bit more slinging my klackers like like a
gunslinger in the old west and then it happened, he pulled a giant
slingshot out of his overalls and started to fire spitballs at me. One
by one they stung me and drove me back to cover behind the closest
garbage pail and there i waited for the cavalry to arrive but realized
that the Cavalry had run for cover as well and vanished into the school
and the safety of the Nuns leaving me alone to face Jack one on one. It
seemed like i was there for over an hour[probably just about a minute]
when i got my courage up, got the klackers swinging good and rose,ready
to face my final moments, i came flying out from behind that garbage
can and ran smack into the body of Sister Aloysius, all 6 feet and 150
lbs of her. I went down like a rock ,my klackers flying out of my hands
and landing at her feet, her evil grin even made the bully Jack cringe,
and she had me at her mercy, and Jack was standing behind her grinning
that psychopathic grin of his. I was doomed.
I wound up with a
detention and had my Klackers taken away for 3 days, a punishment that
seemed worse than death, and while i eventually got over that moment,
the tension between Jack and i never cleared up but we stayed away from
each other from then on. For me A moral victory and 3 day’s later
i got my klackers back. All was well again.
And i wonder, did
anybody ever get Jack? Did they get away or did Jack get revenge? And i
wonder where Jack went? Is he living now on a chain gang in Alabama
somewhere breaking rocks with his fists and dancing with a good ole boy
named Bubba? One can only dream.

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Black Day in July:The Banning of Gordon Lightfoot

Since the dawn of the 20th Century music has become a symbol of protest and has in some cases gotten an artist or two a banishment from the airwaves due to the sensitive nature of a song or their political views.  Garth brooks was once banned from Country Music TV because of his song “The Thunder Rolls”,Back in 1967, the Beatles were banned from British radio not once, but twice! Both “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “A Day in the Life” from their  ’Sgt. Pepper’s’ album were forbidden airplay, as they were thought to encourage drug use. Both Billie Holiday and Cole Porter were banned by ABC Radio Stations during the early 50′s, Tom Petty, the Sex Pistols and Frankie goes to Hollywood are just some artists that have had some form of Censorship against them.

But Gordon Lightfoot? What could he have possible done to have been banned from radio?. On April 4th 1968 his song”Black Day in July” was banned from airplay by most major radio stations in the United States. The song itself is about the race riots in Detroit in 1967 and was deemed as too controversial for public consumption.

http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/04/13/

At the above link you can find out what Gordon thought about it, but as for the song itself it portrayed the riots in a way that allowed the regular listener to understand. The result was 43 dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed and Lightfoot made sure that the record made those facts clear,                                                                                                                    ”Inthe office of the President
The deed is done the troops are sent
There’s really not much choice you see
It looks to us like anarchy
And then the tanks go rolling in
To patch things up as best they can
There is no time to hesitate
The speech is made the dues can wait

Black day in July
Black day in July
The streets of Motor City now are quiet and serene
But the shapes of gutted buildings
Strike terror to the heart
And you say how did it happen
And you say how did it start
Why can’t we all be brothers
Why can’t we live in peace
But the hands of the have-nots
Keep falling out of reach”

Tough lyrics and but realistic and as such was the reason for his banning from the airwaves, in 1973 David Bowie would release a song called “Panic in Detroit” but by then the aftermath of the riots had been studied and talked about by scholars everywhere and Bowie’s song did not touch a nerve like Canada’s own Gordon Lightfoot.

Hair:The Article

Hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow
My hair, flow it, show it

Long as God can grow
My hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow
My hair
Hair, we all have it,some of us keep it, and some of us don’t. It winds up growing in places we would never think of, and places we don’t want it. As a child I was threatened with the “hair on the palms” thing if I did something bad, last I checked they were okay, a little calloused maybe but no hair. Play’s have been written about and songs sung about it. Hair products in North America are a Billion Dollar business with everything from gel to Shampoo. Hairspray is often mentioned as one of the major causes of Global Warming. Brushes, Combs and curling Irons are a steady seller to this day. There are perms and weaves, the brush cut(I had one until I was 11), and Afros. Woman can spend 1-2 hours just getting their hair right when going out for a night, and brylcreem was a staple in my house when I was growing up, not for me but for my bigger brother. In High School one year I asked for a Hairdryer for my Birthday and my parents got me one with so many attachments I started calling it my Swiss Army Hairdryer.
Hair has always been an important part of our appearance, I had an Aunt that used to hate me because first thing in the Morning I would wake up with an Afro, while she struggled to get her hair even halfway close to mine. But things change with our hair, at least for guy’s it does.
The Hair on many of our heads is now being distributed to our backs, and our ears and some weird spots in between. I have gone from not seeing a Barber for 1-2 years to making sure I get mine cut at least once a month, the only thing that bugs me about that is then I paid 3-4 Dollars for a cut and now I pay $14 to get less cut and more often. I hated wearing hats as young man because it covered my gorgeous hair, now, I barely go out in the winter without my head covered, not because I am embarrassed but because my head gets colder easily.
Of course at least I have hair, most of my friends are bald, poor bastards.

Fireman vs Police

This is from around 1969[ I'm not sure of the date, but it is in that area] it was a benefit hockey game pitting the Hespeler Fireman against the Hespeler Police. The fireman won 5-3 and I remember having a great time at it. In the picture is Jack Stark,Jack Westbrook and Jim Hillis[my dad]. During the game Police chief Fred Stewart was assessed a number of penalties including 2 minutes for speeding and 2 min for leaving the scene of an accident after two members of the fireman collided and fell down. My Dad had to use a goalie stick that was 3 times bigger than a normal one to hide what chief Stewart called the sure target caused by my Dad’s awkward goalie stance,some called it bowlegged. The police were forced to use wooden pucks on penalty shots to make handling easier. I have no idea how much money was raised but everyone had a good time.

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