My Tunes, My Friends

How attached are you to your music? I seem to be quite fond of mine. I can't leave it behind on the hard drive of my old laptop...so I'm slowly loading into my new one. Tedious, when I'm resorting to putting songs on CDs and then loading them into the new laptop. And, before you say it, yes I know about the Cloud. I'm not quite ready to have someone else hold my music for ransom while they jack up the price. So I continue my old time ways.

Some of my songs and I go way back. Doobie Brothers, Steeley Dan, Eagles - those guys have been singing to me a long time! Some take me right back to when I used to listen to the song. "Black Water" by the Doobies. When I hear that one, I always think of when Joanie Troll used to pick me up for school in the mornings. That song would play on the radio and Candice, Joan and ? who else was in the car...Pam? Chris? would sing along. And smoke cigarettes. (Not me)

We always picked out good music for our Big 4 college parties

Several songs remind me of my Sunnyside lifeguarding days - listening to WOW radio out of Omaha. I was really into rock and roll back then - groups like Kansas that weren't really radio material, thanks to the Deardorff connection. My friend Chris Deardorff's brother Scott had a huge music collection. Face it - the 70's rule when it comes to music. From Elton John to the bands I've already mentioned. Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Queen, Al Green, Aerosmith, Al Green, Hall & Oates, Gordon Lightfoot - there are too many to name. My college roomie made listen to "gasp" Barry Manilow. We would borrow Moose and Steve's Stereo for our parties at 230 Campus Avenue during our Junior and Senior years - good tunes!

The 80's weren't all that memorable when it comes to music, yet I came away with a few faves - Springsteen, I've got a great duet by Dolly and Kenny - "Islands in the Stream" love that one, Tina Turner, and more Foreigner. Hey, I got busy getting married and having kids. That era did produce the best dancing song of all time - "Love Shack". I will always remember dancing to that song at the First National Bank Christmas party - it must have been 1987 or so.

Then came the 90's - by now I had joined Columbia House and was getting a cassette a month - yippy! I went through a gospel stage Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant - though I don't have any of those songs on my hard drive now I'm sorry to say. Good stuff. My kids grew up hearing that music and Fleetwood Mac. By the end of the 90's Amy was into music and I kinda liked what she was listening to - Backstreet Boys etc.

I admit it, I like Hip Hop. I am a freak for "Uptown Funk" and other songs like that. Give me Rihanna. My niece Jordan asked Amy if I knew what the lyrics to one of her songs were. Um yes. I just sing along anyway.

Sure, it's taking a while to get my friends, I mean my songs the way I want them in my music library. It's still a work in progress. It's worth it!

He's my Handy Man

A couple months ago Paul and I attended "Team Building", the Thursday after work gathering of federal and former fed NRCS workers. They meet for beverages at local establishments and shoot the breeze. Sometimes the DNR director even shows up...so I'm on best behavior when I go! That last time I attended, we learned that several of them were going to attend the James Taylor Concert November 1. Gary was in charge of getting tickets. We were IN. I'd never seen one of my all time fave musicians live.

I've loved JT, well forever. This week before the concert I kept thinking about one particular song - from the first James Taylor Album I ever purchased, "Handy Man." sweet song - young James

I was a lifeguard at Sunnyside Pool in Atlantic when that song came out. And I had to have it! It was one of those songs. You couldn't hear it on the radio enough - must own! I likely buzzed over to Omaha on my day off from protecting the world's children from drowning to purchase it - on the album JT. He had hair then. And mine was a semi afro...

I'd kinda had my heart broken that summer. That spring I'd met a guy at ISU. He seemed very interested in me. We'd been to each other's spring parties. As school wound down and I was studying for finals and starting to pack to head home for the summer, he sent a dozen red roses to me. I mistakenly thought that meant we were something! Then that summer, nothing. I wrote to him - with no response. Good thing my fab Sunnyside friends were there to distract me with parties and fun...

Sigh. Still I needed a song like Handy Man! I didn't know then there was a Paul Goldsmith in my future...a real Handy Man. Funny - a few years later, when I was married, Paul and I went out with a couple in Council Bluffs - and I found out the other gal had also dated this fella. At the same time I had! Cad. He prolly sent her flowers too.

James Taylor has a timeless voice. He told of signing his first record deal thanks to the Beatles in 1968. Look who is still touring and going strong at age 66. While he might not have the zing star power of the Beatles...he certainly has some iconic songs. I purchased the Best of James Taylor as a cassette and then a CD. Now he's on my iPod.

I like the "Steamroller" naughty version thank you! I remember listening to that with the kids in the car and thinking, "I hope they don't learn those words and sing "mfing blues" in front of somebody someday...".

Paul and I began our evening by meeting some longtime friends for supper and a drink downtown first. I had decided not to attend the ISU home game - thinking the chilly weather wouldn't be pleasant for my shoulder. Shivering and scar tissue - ouch (it's slowly getting better)! Painful ugly loss - ouch. I'm glad I didn't go to the game. It's been a long time since we've had a night out!

Deb and Larry Peterson met us at Three Olives (used to be The Standard). It was fun to spend some time with friends. We got the update on the big embezzlement scandal at a car dealership in Creston. Unreal. How do people think they'll get away with that? I feel guilty if someone gives me too much change...

We walked through the skywalk to The Well. There was a nice crowd at the concert and I saw Facebook posts showing several other people I knew were there to take in this great show.

JT played all my faves, plus some songs from a new CD. He talked about how many of his songs are "tree huggerish" I heart that! He ended the first set with "Shower the People you Love with Love". If only we'd remember to live like that every single day!

JT ended the concert with a couple encores. First he got us all up out of our seats to dance to "Mexico". The set of the concert was very cool - see above. 3 big screens and those posts could show videos too. Some of the songs had videos to go with them. For Mexico...we were there!

And then, of course, "You've Got a Friend". That song has been used for so many occasions through the years. James' wife came out for the last few songs. The final one was an Irish or Scottish folk song and it was gorgeous and a beautiful way to end the evening. Life is good.

My Girl to Woman hero - dead at 90

Helen Gurley Brown - Editor of my formerly beloved Cosmo magazine has passed away at the age of 90.

Cosmo's Founder dies

Proof that a decadent life isn't always bad. She was naughty! And I liked it...when I discovered her magazine as a college sophomore.

Yes - I read all those articles. Like, "What He Really Wants!" I was a fairly inexperienced young girl from Southwest Iowa and was glad to hear the straight if somewhat embellished story told be Mr. Brown. It was somewhat shocking to see the "F" word in print in a magazine! It was our magazine!

I enjoyed Ms. Brown's column in each issue - she had spunk! Even if she was old way back in 1977.

When I received the diamond from my Grandma when I turned 21, I had Harold Hanke (Hanke Jewelry) make the ring based on a design I saw on a Cosmo cover the summer I was a lifeguard at Sunnyside in Atlantic. I still love that ring!

Thanks Helen Gurley Brown for all you did for the young women of the world.

Lifeguard confessions (Part 2)

Marci Merrick - as seen from the high guard chair

Those work/study basket kids got an education working at Sunnyside pool that summer. The two I remember are a boy and a girl - Sharon, a skinny 15ish girl, and Rod? a boy of similar age. Both were shy, at least at first. As they got to know us they loosened up though. I don't know if the education served them well or not...

Aha - I just remember Pat Allen was another guard I forgot to mention, along with his bro Mike - both really nice guys. They were Sunnyside neighborhood kids - blue collar parents. Cindy Sheppard and Kim Waters too needed to depend on their earnings and student loans for college. Thinking back, I was still at the age when I took it all for granted how much my parents had provided for me - a college education, money for a car. I hope I wasn't too snotty about how fortunate I was.

The lifeguards were on 15 minute circuits - depending on how big the crowd was that day. There was the tall chair near the deep end of the pool, a station where a guard hovered on the side of the pool in shallow end, and another chair on the other side in the middle of the Olympic sized pool. There were 3 diving boards - a spring low board, a high dive and a medium. Even though we didn't have slides and other fancy schmancy stuff - that high dive was as thrilling a thing as I ever got myself to go on in a pool! Three meters is a long ways down!

The lifeguard chairs had microphones - which made me all powerful. It's a godlike feeling. "No Running, 3 Springs and off the board, That's it you're outta here, Break Time". Or "Pool is closed due to lightning" was a fave when we were burned out and needed a break.

The sound system carried tunes from the day that still take me back to that time.
The only radio station we could get to come in was WOW, which wasn't our fave station, but I do remember hearing some good bands like Commodores, Foreigner was new - had to go to Omaha to buy their LP, my buddy Robyn loved Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" because her bf was on an Henningsen Construction road crew and they traveled.

Sunnyside had a loft above the office - accessible via a wood ladder. Shag carpet and bean bag chairs were up there along with extreme heat. I spent a lot of time reading up there, sweat rolling off me.  I also made a latch hook rug that summer (remember those?).

Mark had sent me flowers to end the year...then he broke my heart..I found out later he was dating someone else too!

I was a little lovesick - I had been dating Mark, a guy from Fort Dodge who evidently decided summer was a good time to cut ties - but he didn't tell me, he just blew me off. In the pre-cell phone, email world, I sent him a couple letters that were un-requited. Perhaps all my wild partying was my way of dealing with heartbreak. Or it maybe it was just was fun to do...

Sometimes in between guarding gigs we'd sit on our towels and sun - you know with Baby Oil, frying like meat. We'd read Cosmo magazine and gossip. My dermo Ava Feldman is helping me remove evidence of that time in my life - annually frying off pre-cancerous spots.

After-hours in the loft we sometimes played a lil game called "Chugalug". Yes folks, the lifeguards were a bunch of crazy partiers. We never drank during pool hours - but at 9 p.m. - closing time, we got our party on. Heck, I learned to do a flip after a few beers. (I was too chicken without beer). And we didn't just drink at the pool - we drank all over SW Iowa - the Super Bowl, The Villa and other bars around town, Oakland, Greenbriar.

I remember driving over to Audubon on Saturday night with Kim and others to see a live band at a bar - (The band was called the Uglies from Creston with a singer named Mike Bullock. I can't remember my own kid's names sometimes but dumb stuff like this is stuck in my mind...). I don't know what we drank (did they have rufies back then?) but I ended up laying in the parking lot somehow getting pea gravel in my purse - I found it the next day. I hope I wasn't driving. Another time I helped at a swim meet - serving as a timer. After hours in the hot sun, I decided that was a good night to try gin and tonics at the Super Bowl. Five of them on an empty stomach. I still don't drink gin to this day..

There were no swimming lessons on weekends (thank goodness!), and Sunday was always a big hangover recovery day. But it was also pool cleanup day. Not always a good combo...We'd go early and float in the pool on rafts, rehydrating with water and laughing about the events of the night prior. But eventually Marci and Cindi would crack the whip. It was time to clean the changing rooms and pool deck. That's how I learned to clean toilets ya'll - you see at home we had Leona Wheatley - the cleaning lady. We'd also sprinkle stuff call HTH (it was like powdered bleach) on the bathhouse floor and on the pool deck and then hose it down, scrubbing with brooms.

Sunday nights were usually quieter - I needed to stay home sometimes! And please don't let me give you the impression all the lifeguards drank each and every night. I'm sure there were plenty of nights we didn't. I just don't remember those boring nights!

But it's no wonder my mother invited me not to come home that next summer. Who would want a crazy party animal like me around? Someone who was partying hard, only stopped at home long enough to sleep, eat stuff and do laundry. So even though most of the rest of the gang went back to the pool, the summer after my sophomore year I got to go to Grand Junction, Colorado to take a couple summer credits at Mesa Junior College and hanging with big sissies Susi (who lived there) and Cindy (who lives in Vail). It was much lonelier (I lived in the dorm by myself for a month), and less alcoholic, but  I grew up a bunch. And when I got back in early August I was still able to sub at the pool a bit before heading back to ISU.

You know they say, what goes around comes around. Our daughter Amy was a lifeguard the summer after her senior year in high school and the next summer. Her stories are just starting to trickle out. We were relieved when she stayed in Ames after that. You were right Mom.

Confessions of a former lifeguard

Creston built a new pool some 15 or so years ago - despite the modern look the noises are the same as my lifeguarding years

On my walk route today I ambled (but on a quick pace Deb, I swear) by Creston's public pool. Certain things in life take me back to my lifeguarding days. Songs of the day, pool noises, the way the sun sometimes shines on my face at a particular angle...I can't explain it - but that too takes me back.

What can I say - it's the best possible job a kid can have. And I had it that summer after my freshman year of college - the summer of 1977. It's a great job especially when you're working for the Merrick girls - Cindi and Marci (perhaps one of the nicest peeps you'll ever know) and with the rest of a great cast of characters, some of my best buddies. Sally Rodgers (of course was my longtime friend and college roomie, gorgeous but anaware, dorkily funny, smart and loyal). But others became good friends - Kim Waters (who became my sidekick homegirl that summer), Cindy Hmmm last name is escaping me? lived near Lally's. Thank you Ted - who filled in the blank. Cindy Sheppard (another very nice kid I got to know & corrupt that summer), Nellie Juhl (our resident hippy), Cathy Hjortshoj (so funny and cool) and Julia Hoilien (I recently blogged about how much I admire this chick) worked the treat stand with her mom. Candice Drake filled in as a sub. I know I'm forgetting people. Todd Pellett was one guy - I'm sure there were others. Ted Simpson taught swimming lessons.

It was a pretty vigorous schedule - at least during swimming lesson season. I'd go to the pool at 8 or 9 in the morning and be there through 9 at night. But what else did I have to do? I got one day off a week. I'm sure my mother appreciated having me out of the house. In fact she invited me not to come home after the summer after my freshman year. That fun for ya Mom?

A typical day: I would arrive at the pool in my 1977 Red Chevy Monza hatchback - just prior to 8 or 9 a.m. For four weeks in the summer the Red Cross hosted swimming lessons. For the first two weeks "city" kids attended. Their moms would drop them off - some sticking around to watch little junior swim. Other kids rode their bikes to lessons. Often Fantastic Faye - a local figure would hang out outside the fence on his own bike "Silver".

During the next two weeks, it was the "country" kids turn - delivered from places likes Cumberland and Anita in big yellow school buses. Skinny and chubby lilly white kids with plastic bags containing their towels, some with pink nose plugs. Shivering in the cold morning air - in the unheated pool.

I earned every penny of my ($2.25/hr?) teaching under the tutelage of Grand Puba Nancy Pellett, who was following in the footsteps of Betty Lou Pellett. Mom had once taught lessons with Betty Lou, so I was a pool rat from way back.

This was before Red Cross came up with fancy names for swimmer levels. We had Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Intermediate and Swimmer. Of course there were a gazillion beginners - to graduate they had to front float and back float. Some kids are just sinkers and ya gotta feel bad for them. But this is one time when a chunky kid can shine when they float like a cork! We did have "aids" (14 year old helpers) to assist instructors, but darn it sometimes I had to get into that frigid water to instruct. (I bet those parents watching were thinking - "about time!" I know that now that I have viewed similar situations as a parent). All in all - I learned a lot as a swim instructor. Like I knew I didn't want to be a teacher!

After wearing myself out instructing for 3 to 4 hours, I usually had an hour break before I needed to begin guarding lives. Sometimes I got a takeout sannie from pizza hut. Why did they do away with their hoagies with Italian dressing, man they were good! If I didn't go there, Lally's next door or the former A&W - now called Town and Country Drive In. Mona Jones worked there - she'd whip me up a patented Dr. Pepper float with fries. If all else failed, I went home - "Hi mom I'm here to make mess and eat your food."

At one the pool opened for biz. The kids came streaming in. We were daycare for many of them - a pool pass is a cheap alternative to a sitter. Little guys - Dusty and Ricky are two names that come to mind - would arrive in just their trunks with a towel. They were to entertain themselves all day at that pool.

Each pin was numbered

Work/study staff, low income high school kids, helped man the office, checking passes, taking money and dealing with baskets. What baskets you ask? Sunnyside Pool (what a cheery name) didn't have lockers, we had baskets and changing rooms. Each basket had a corresponding pin - a sturdy looking thing that could be quite a weapon if need be!

This blog is getting a bit long (I'm a windy old broad), so I'll start a Part 2 later. We're (meaning Paul, due to my unfortunate shoulder problem) painting the kitchen this weekend and I've got errands to run. And despite the poker-like pain (I know I'm milking it) I plan to clean everything from the top of the kitchen cupboards that just didn't look that dirty until we got it down. I have an appointment to see a surgeon on the 24th since therapy doesn't seem to be helping. Dang it's hell to grow old. It's likely an old lifeguarding injury - blew my whistle once too often or something...

The countdown is on

Until I get together with my girls. No - not the girls from my mammogram. My girls from Atlantic! Preparing for my class reunion has made me think about my child hood - yep...I've been using the wayback machine again!

I've been thinking about those endless summers of my childhood! They were great. Mom would drive us to the Country Club. I got to hang out with my lil friends - those wicker  chairs around the pool made perfect forts when you tipped them over and draped your towel over them. In between swimming, and playing swimming games like nibbles and pretending to take photos of each other on the diving board, we'd go into the snack shop.

Then I'd get my putter out of our cart shed and mess around on the putting green. Sometimes kids would play cards in the snack shop - it was by the locker rooms back then. There was also a color TV just outside the snack shop and we'd watch Dark Shadows - a soap opera about vampires.

When I got older - after my frosh year of college, I just moved to a different pool, but my summer was very similar. I was a lifeguard at Sunnyside and taught swimming lessons. The fort was in the loft above the pool office - we'd drink beers up there (after the pool closed of course) and play the game Chug A Lug.

I worked with a great group - Marci and Cindy Merrick were managers, Sally, Kim Waters, Cindy, and Cathy Hjortshoj. Jules Hoilien worked in the snack shack. We worked 6 days a week, and each day was like the last. They were all fun. At night we went to the bars. I learned how to do a flip off the board after drinking a few cold ones.

We were the cool kids of town - we were young, hard bodies. I won't say I was tan. Damn it's prolly why I have skin damage today. But I was full of myself. On Sunday mornings, we'd go, hungover to clean the pool deck and bathhouse. Then we'd float in the pool on rafts until time to open. Then we'd do it all again.

Now here I am 53. Damn - how did that happen?

3 years ago - when the Atlantic gals were only 50!