Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Round Table For Friday, November 21st, 2008

1976, I used to have the 45. Is it my turn to blush?

I had a whole collection of 45s as a jr high and high schooler! I still had some in the attic, when my kids(as teens) found them, and asked what they were...

I had a ton too - I'm a bit of hoarder... the younger people at work always crack up when I say "I had that 45". It's an alien, old-people concept to them. Interestingly I have replaced nearly every single I had growing up with digital versions now - my iTunes at work contains over 103 days worth of music... Gordon Lightfoot is here, I'm listening to "Sundown" right now.

Steve, your friend is more generous than we were, we referred to it as "the armpit of the Midwest". I've never lived in a place that seemed to be disliked even by people who chose to stay there. When I would make fun of Evansville, it was never defended but usually elicited a simple "yep" from locals. It kind of took the fun out of being miserable.

ROFL!

Oh 45s! When I was a wee lad and a serious troublemaker (I'm much more casual about it now that I'm old) I was in the local Winn Dixie with a buddy. In front of the store was a display rack of the current Top Twenty 45s. I grabbed one of them and said "Hey look! a Frisbee!" and I tossed it Frisbee style down the aisle.

It rose on the air currents, just like a Frisbee, higher and higher, all the way up to the ceiling, where it struck a twelve foot fluorescent tube, which immediately exploded with a great BANG and a shower of sparkling glass. Two large pieces of tubing plunged down on terrified shoppers scattering below.

I watched in amaazement. Did I do that? Wow.

If there were any doubt at all in my mind, it was immediately dispelled by the store manager's heavy hand on my shoulder. He showed me where the front door was, and invited me to stay on the outside of it for the duration of my life.

Excellent! Fluorescent tubes shatter incredibly, very cool.

Hey, you don't happen to remember what song it was, do you? "Too High" by Stevie Wonder? "I Want To Take You Higher" by Sly & The Family Stone (or Ike & Tina)? Steve Miller's "Fly Like An Eagle"?

Somebody stop me, I can do this all day...

"Up Up and Away"?

"Superfly"?

"Fly Robin Fly"?

"Walking On Broken Glass"?

I don't know if this was ever issued as a 45 single, but Richard & Linda Thompson's Shoot Out The Lights would have been perfect!

Thanks you guys. It also wasn't "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia". And it wasn't "Here Comes the Judge".

That came later.

NPR has just announced that Tim Geithner has accepted the Secretary of Treasury job, Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, and Bill Richardson will be the next Secretary of Commerce.