Anybody Got the Time (Soundtrack of My Life)

        Once spent, time is a commodity that can never be replaced.  I've squandered more than a few precious hours in my life with television or other similarly idle pursuits.  Agreed that rest and relaxation are important--a necessity--to each of us so I won't condemn all the idle time that I've spent.   Still though, I could have done better in the past.  And likely I will waste more time in the future.  That's the nature of life for most of us.





Anybody Got the Time

          In the fall of 1969 I entered college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville as a shy young man after having spent the previous twelve years as a shy guy in public schools.  I always had friends so I can't necessarily say that I was lonely even though I spent a lot of time being alone--that was often by choice.  After entering puberty the one thing that I probably wanted most was a girlfriend.

         Being in college didn't change my love life to much extent and any dating that I did do had no relationship to anyone I knew at the university.   Since I didn't live on campus, but instead still lived at home with my parents, it was almost as though I lived two separate lives--one in the daytime as a student and one in the evenings with my friends, most of whom were not going to school or not going to school where I was going.

         My friends at the university were not many and at such a large school as I was attending it was very rare that I even saw anyone that I knew as a friend during the daytime hours.  I might see some of them on the hour-long ride to and from school where we might engage in conversation, but those were for the most part bus friends whom I rarely encountered in any other setting.   To put it plainly, I had essentially no social life at college.

          However this is not the real story that I wanted to tell here.   What I wanted to tell about is how I spent my free time during the school day when I wasn't in class.  I spent a lot of time in the undergraduate library reading books and magazines or occasionally studying or listening to music.  I was especially passionate about music during those years.  When I wasn't listening to music I was looking for new music that I could buy or plan on buying at some later time.  My wish list was long, but money for music was not in great abundance.

         The library was free.  Spending time there was well within my monetary budget while time spent there studying was better than time spent watching television and the passing parade of people at the student center.  My hours at the library were a cerebral adventure especially when I got sidetracked exploring things that were interesting to me.

        For example in early 1970 I found a classical music magazine on the shelves.  What drew me to that magazine is unclear since I was neither an audiophile nor a buyer of new releases in classical music.  I did buy a fair amount of classical music albums, but they tended to be older releases I found in the cut-out bins.  Whatever it was that made me pick up this magazine, I began to read through it and discovered a section where rock and pop albums were being reviewed for the first time.  I suppose they were trying to expand their readership.  Unsuccessfully I would guess judging from their odd album picks--in other words, unknown artists that would probably never get mentioned in the mainstream rock music magazines.

         One album review that caught my eyes was the debut album by a New York group called the Good Rats.  I immediately recalled having seen this album in the record section of the university center book store--a place where I spent a good amount of free time.  The album sounded interesting enough for me to actually go to the book store and spring for the full price of a new album.  After I took the album home and gave it a listen I was pleased that I had gotten it.  Perhaps the album wasn't the most unique music in my collection, but it held a place in my heart.  Maybe it was because I read about the album in that classical music magazine at the library.

           The magazine had taken a chance on reviewing a genre other than classical and jazz so I had taken a chance on purchasing an album based on that review.   Over the next few years the album received many spins on my turntable.  Even if none of my friends seemed to notice the album, I liked it and that was what mattered most to me.

           For a while I watched the record bins for a new Good Rats album release, but I never ran across any more after that first one.  Eventually I stopped thinking about the group.    When I happen to see the first album in my collection I'd ponder whatever happened to the group, but I figured they had disbanded and faded away.

            That was until years later...

 (to be continued next week...)

        In this post I offer another in my Soundtrack of My Life series.    Robin at Your Daily Dose has been doing the Soundtrack of my Life posts on her blog for a while now.   I had done a few of my own "life soundtracks" on my Tossing It Out blog as well as the song series (starting at this post) I did for my 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on Wrote By Rote. Be sure to visit and follow Your Daily Dose for more Life Soundtrack info.

Born in the Shadow of the Computer (Part One)

"Technology has exceeded our humanity" (Photo credit: Toban B.)

         When I was sat down in front of the Wang computer,  my mind became befuddled.   What was presented as an opportunity was an intimidation that I backed away from.  Now I don't even recall why I was given this opportunity.  It was like the memory of a bad experience that had been erased from my mind.

           This was when I was in high school, about 1968, and it had something to do with Spanish class.  At least this is the class I relate this to.  A hand picked group of promising students was sent to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to learn this new computer technology.  Obviously I was the wrong choice.  I learned nothing and remember nothing.

           So goes the story of my life with computers. The technology loomed large on the horizon casting a shadow over some of us while shining brightly for others.  Though I liked the science fiction nature of it all, the reality merely left me confused.  I've never been too very good with technical or mechanical things.

           The computers continued to pervade every aspect of life as I sometimes felt more and more left behind.   The computer age had already begun by the time I was born in 1951 and yet from the standpoint of those machines I was an anachronistic holdover from another time.  I was not the only one.  There were many of us.  I would like to have been in mental sync with the technology, but my mind refused to cooperate.  Or perhaps I was too stubborn to learn.

         And so it went for the next twenty years, me out of sync with the encroaching new world of computing and computers everywhere, all around me.  I was using them and never thought about how pervasive computers were in every aspect of my life.   Oblivious to the reality, but knowing that the societal evolution was happening with or without me.   I was not part of the equation.

         Then at the end of the 80's, the era of MTV and techno music that signaled the take-over of modern culture by computers, I emerged into this silicon world like a new born baby.

(Due to current computer problems this will be continued...)

         Have you had difficulty adjusting to modern technology?   Are computers more of a bane or a blessing to you?    How have computers directly affected your life?

Related articles

• Microsoft Thinks The Future Of Information Technology Lies In Intelligent Technology
• On Technopaganism
• As Reliance on Technology Increases, OnlineVirusRepair.com Urges People to Protect their Computers from Computer Viruses and Spyware

Sandusky, Ohio

Image via Wikipedia

          At the end of my first year of college in the summer of 1970, I decided to embark upon a personal odyssey to understand something about my past and how I had gotten to where I was in my life.  Attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville had been a liberation in some ways, though still living at home discouraged me from being a part of any social scene at.the university.

          I felt detached in many ways--an observer of life. Like I had felt when I was in high school.   The concept of hitchhiking throughout the United States was daunting and yet I didn't give much thought to anything beyond the adventure of the journey.  A transient's life held a certain assurance of staying detached, but it would also force me to be more confrontational when I needed to be.  At nineteen I was an adult and needed to acquire a greater mindset of independence.

          With my well-prepared backpack and brand new Coleman sleeping bag, I met up in the evening of the last day of classes another student who had a car.   The student, whose name I don't recall, was going to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio where he would be working for the summer at the amusement park.  He had posted for a rider to help him with gas expenses. Since I was going to Cleveland, I took this guy up on the offer since that was the closest ride I could find to my destination.

          Summer weather had come to town.  The warm day had become a warm evening.  It was a good night for driving.  I don't recall what kind of car it was--a late 60s model Datsun maybe.  It was a stick shift and I'd never driven a stick.   He was expecting me to help him drive.  We would be on Interstate 75 most of the way.

            The student drove for the first few hours  until we needed gas.  We were somewhere in Kentucky.  He turned the driving over to me.  It was a bit of a rough start, but once we were moving on the freeway he seemed satisfied that I probably wouldn't have to change gears for awhile and he could sleep for a bit.

            It was the wee hours and I started to get sleepy.  I rolled down my window but after awhile my driving companion indicated he was cold.  He seemed kind of grouchy about it, but I could see he was pretty tired.   I pressed on without the outside air and was fine.

            By daylight we were in Northern Ohio.  It was about 9 AM when we reached Sandusky.  I unloaded myself, my backpack, and my new Coleman sleeping bag by the roadside across from the entrance road to the Cedar Point Amusement Park.  I stood there and watched the student's car disappear up the roadway that led into the park.

             It was sunny and starting to get hot.  There I was at the side of the road on the outskirts of  Sandusky, Ohio.  I stuck out my thumb for the first hitchhiking ride of my odyssey.  I was going to Cleveland.
         

Maryville, Tennessee

Blount County Court House (Photo credit: jimmywayne)

       
          When my parents took our family to East Tennessee in the summer of 1966 it seemed like a vacation, but I guess we knew it was going to be a relocation.  This would be my sixth move in fifteen years.  I guess I was ready to move again, but to the small town of Maryville?

          My parents and my two brothers and two sisters were living that summer in a 17 foot travel trailer parked in the Tarbett Road Mobile Home Park.  The trailer park was primarily for more permanent dwellers, but they had a few smaller slabs that were reserved for tourists or itinerants like ourselves.  Our small trailer made for cozy confinement.  We had often stayed in the trailer when we worked at fairs and circuses so we were accustomed to it.  Besides it all seemed like a summer adventure to us.

          Having most recently come from the Chicagoland area, Maryville seemed like a real hick town to us.  People talked differently than we had been accustomed to--a countrified twang that sometimes made us laugh.  Soon I discovered that there were some really fine people there.  I started making a number of friends in the trailer park neighborhood.  When the decision to move to this town was announced by my parents, I had no problem whatsoever.  I was looking forward to a new adventure in a new place.

          I ended up graduating from high school in Maryville and living at my parents' house while I attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, a  short distance away.  The East Tennessee area was a great place to live.  Only 15 miles from the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountains, my friends and I would be camping, hiking, or doing something in the mountains whenever we had the free time which seemed often.

         In 1975 I went off on my own working in touring shows.  Whenever I was able to I'd go back to stay with my parents and enjoy time with my friends.  Sometimes I'd bring some of the show people to stay in Maryville if we were touring in the area.  I always felt proud to bring them to my hometown.  Yes, that's the way I eventually came to think of Maryville--my hometown.  And even though I haven't lived there in over twenty years, I still think of Maryville as my hometown.