BECAUSE THIS BLOG WILL BE INTERACTIVE...I HIGHLY SUGGEST PRINTING OUT THIS PAGE ON YOUR PRINTER...BEFORE PROCEEDING FORWARD...
I'd like to take you on an interactive journey down memory lane...with me...back to the 60's!
I will be introducing you to some ancient relics of my past that were very important to me for some strange & not so strange reasons...
First off...GOOFY GRAPE...!!!
Goofy Grape was a flavor of a Kool-Aid like flavored powder drink mix called FUNNY FACE!
Funny Face tasted great and each flavor had an outrageous name: goofy grape, lefty lemonade, ollie-ollie orange, choo-choo cherry, rootin-tootin raspberry & laugh-out-loud lime...
Way back in the early 60's they had flavors: Injun Orange & Chinese Cherry but they were later deemed offensive...due to their racist sterotypes they implied...
Go to...YOUTUBE.com...and see for yourself...this stuff was very real...
Go to YouTube.com...and SEARCH for...Funny Face Drink Mix-banned commercial...
...(watch it...)...Here you will see your typical little 60's kid like me or my brother Danny getting excited about this wild & crazy new drink craze...from Pillsbury...(before the Dough-Boy)...
Now fast-forward to 1973...Funny Face had the same pitch but a catchy new song to get the kiddies to guzzle down Funny Face in the heat...The song really stuck in your head...
SEARCH YouTube...Funny Face Drink Mix Commercial 1973 Bewitched...
Now let's fade back again...and re-discover another one of my favorite special drinks that was a huge fad for a little while...GREAT SHAKES...!!!
I can remember being up in Knollwood...around 5 years old...in the kitchen...peering up into the cupboards and spotting GREAT SHAKES...Great Shakes was basically this neat little chocolate powder drink mix that came in a special plastic tumbler cup...You just poured in the powder and some milk...covered with this neat lid...and shook, shook, shook...It tasted just like a Milk Shake...Check it out...!!!
SEARCH YouTube...Great Shakes Commercial-Mid 60's...
Notice the Beach Boys-like theme that was all the rage as teens danced about...such an innocent era for so many of us...It's really hard for me to realize I lived thru that by-gone era...
Now for a SHOCKER...!!!...You always remember THE WHO as the 70's Super-group with an endless string of all-time classics...Well...go back a few years and hear them singing the virtues of GREAT SHAKES...Egad....Talk about being total sell-outs...This almost makes them as bad as The Monkees...
SEARCH YouTube...The Who Great Shakes...
To hear this sappy promo with Keith Moon of all people...talking up Great Shakes is a little startling...indeed...
Next up.....JIFFY POP POPCORN...
Jiffy Pop was a huge highlight of any Friday or Saturday Night...It was the treat that was just as fun to make as it was to eat...You would fire up the gas range and let the flame get a little high to add a small element of danger while your arm moved in a small circular motion over the flame until the aluminum foil pan would burst high up with the kernals fully popped...
SEARCH YouTube....Jiffy Pop Witch...
Here you get to hear the witch repeat again & again the little verse that was repeated by everyone including my sisters...as they would shake the aluminum pan over the flame...
Next up...FRITOS CORN CHIPS...
Fritos jumped on the scene as an alternative to potato chips...They really weren't that great, they were greasy and made you a little nauseuas if you ate a whole bag...But they had this great pitch-man who sang home the virtues of this 60's snack...The Frito Bandito...would come on and sing his Frito Bandito Song and that's all you needed...You were hooked...
SEARCH YouTube...Frito Bandito Corn Chips Better Quality....
I can remember demanding my Mom to buy a giant bag of Fritos because it had a Frito Bandito eraser that you could stick on top of your pencil...I was nuts over that eraser...This is about 1969....Damn, talk about a morbid obsession...I might have carried that thing in my pocket forever wherever I went...back then...
Some other familiar favorites in the O'Leary house were Heineman's Chocolate Chip Cookies which we could only get from Dominick's grocery store...Also Green River--Lime Soda and Cactus Punch Soda...before Hawaiian Punch came along...Mister Salty Pretzels, Old Mainze Maple Syrup for our French Toast...SilverCup White Bread...Cheez-Itz...Kayo Chocolate Milk that came in a can...(a favorite of me and my Mom...I could almost drink a whole can down in one gulp it was so good...)...Ore-Ida Fozen French Fries with Lawry's seasonings sprinkled over the top...Huge Box of Jay's Potato Chips which held 2 big pouches...Banquet TV Dinners...(which were downright awful compared to today's frozen entrees...)...Dressel's Cream Puffs and Chocolate Cream Cake...Gonella Fresh Crusty Italian Bread....on and on...My sister Karen also was nuts about the diet soda called TAB...(Search Youtube--Tab Commercial 1982)...There was also some kind of delicious marshmellows covered in chocolate with a cookie on the bottom...that was unique...
One vivid memory is seeing my Mom put out a few frozen tins of Birds-Eye Frozen Strawberries to thaw out a few hours before she would make Strawberry Shortcake covered in whip cream, I can remember on one such night, I was bouncing away on my giant spring-hinged horse-y as we watched this TV Game Show that involved actual taped Horse Racing...The "Jewel" grocery store handed out these tickets as you checked out and they were special chances at winning prizes if your horse won on this game show that was on Channel 9...We would be yelling and screaming at the TV...for our horse...which usually had a funny name like...Betty's Beauty, Lucky Chucky, Harry's Hair Cut...etc...I don't think we ever won...Well, maybe once, but I think all we got was $10...but it was still all very exciting...
They also used to hand out tons of S&H Green Stamps at stores which we collected by the thousands...filling up books and books of these stamps so you could collect neat little discounts and prizes from local department stores...My Mom and sisters would lick, lick, lick away, filling up the pages after pages of these awful glue-tasting stamps...But it was all worth it because you usually ended up with some really neat stuff for free...
I hope you were able to capture a little sense of the 60's...Jim O'Leary style...compliments of YouTube & Me...I'll be following up with another similar entry next time...which will be equally stunning, funny and bizarre in so many ways to some of you but just another passage in time for some of us...I'd be very surprised...If you haven't felt the time warp...that was the 60's...by now...Some of the clips were in color, some were in black & white...It must seem really odd to those who didn't live thru that transition...I guess we were lucky to take it all in stride...as dramatic the changes were...within our worlds...that would rapidly evolve for all of us...
Until next time...When You're Hot--You're Hot--You Need Alot--Al0t--THAT'S FUNNY FACE...!!!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Joe O'Leary or James Bond...???
I guess it would be alot of fun to look back at my brother Joe's progression from his angelic early moments to his very humorous expoits as a typical Tommy More hooligan...
Joe was the first boy of the family...after 5 girls in a row...Not only was my father beeming with pride but he instantly inherited 6 mothers to watch his every move...Joe could be seen early on, wobbling about, holding rosary beads...This was evidence enough to my Mom that he would someday grow up to be a priest...
Joe had a great imagination playing with plastic dinasaurs and MOON MEN...A very odd combination but as we would find out, Joe was no ordinary kid...He excelled in school but never wanted to be thought of as anything special...As a matter of fact, I think Joe took great pride in remaining grounded hanging out with his crazy bunch of friends who would remain life-long buddies up to this very day...
Joe certainly did have his wild side and a penchant for being a little diruptive...His antics with my brother Dan remain classic stories...of which some of them I've shared already...I think Joe was fortunate enough to take advantage of what his surroundings offered him...
His young teenage years were very unique times...It was then, that a show called THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E had every young kid utterly fascinated with being a SPY of some sort. Other shows of his era included were I SPY and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and IT TAKES A THIEF and GET SMART and WILD, WILD WEST...All of these new shows had a flair for getting their heroes in and out of trouble with miraculous deeds evolving from impossible scenarios...I think every kid from that era had a little bit of rambunxious curiosity to push themselves to the limit...and try to get themselves out of improbable jams....
See, originally...along came JAMES BOND, 007...He became an icon, for these youths and his wild adventures of dangers and delights...bringing on a whole new perspective to a young generation that had been trapped in an endless amount of old western tv shows...Seeing cowboys shoot em up at indians had become a little tedious and the life of a dangerous spy was alluring and elusive...like opening a pandora's box...
Joe, like all his friends, had this new sense of thrill and adventure within them and they kinda pushed their limits as they run rough-shod all over the neighborhood...I think he could recall many endless stories growing up that were probably a little on the wild side...and taking risks and chances became a typical thing to do on any given night...
As Joe grew older, he indeed had a robust personality...that indulged in quite a bit of partying and this out-going, good-natured attitude served him well as he grew up on the South Side.
For instance...Listen to this little story...My Dad had this loud, obnoxious gold-plated bell hinged to the top of the inside of the basement door, that stood far back in our laundry room...in our house on 86th Street...This door was the escape route for all of the young O'Leary kids when they had over-stepped beyond the curfew for which my father had established...See, if they came thru the kitchen side door...that was within ear-shot of the bedrooms upstairs...But the basement door...was as far off as you could get. The laundry room, almost itself, almost muffled all sounds, due to the large amount of stuff stacked for storage like board games and sports equipment and stacks and stacks and rows and rows of clothes that had been ironed by my mother, earlier that night.
The concrete floor in the laundery room never left a hint that a footstep could be heard and it was a perfect place to regain your composure...But on some occasions, all of us kids would stumble in a little tipsy and set off the dreaded clattering bell....
RING-A-LING-A-LING...!!!!
Even though we tried as hard as we could to gently turn the key in the lock of the door from the outside and carefully, almost praying as we would creek the door as slightly and as slowly as we could...sometimes the bell would just need a little jostle to send out that horriffic tremor of sound that echoed throughout the house...
You have to remember, most of us...were still at an awkward age...where our clumsiness got the best of us, sometimes...Sadly causing our worst fears to come true...That disruptive noise just went right thru you...It was just too much to rationalize at that point...
RING-A-LING-A-LING...!!!
We all can still hear that high-pitched, alarming, ear-shattering whail...God, that thing was pure evil...The bell wasn't even that big...but the sound it emmited...well...you can get the picture...
In a way, it was kinda comical...because the drunker you were...the more desperate you wanted to conceal your entry past curfew...Yet, it always seemed futile as the door just got nudged a little too aggresively and the result was a thunderous clatter...Sometimes, even worse, you'd be so pre-occupied that you completely forgot there even was a bell on the other side of the back door, basement entry....(Yes, we were that incredibly dumb & stupid at that age...)
It was an ingenious device that my father had installed and insisted that it was there strictly to act as a burglar deterrent...but it was really the funniest thing you would hear, sometimes, in the middle of the night, as some unfortunate soul stumbled in...having had a few too many libations...
Surely, as can be, the bell went a clatter and that person would instantly become horrified. It was as if somebody had thrown a bucket of ice water in your face...the startling alarm echoed and echoed all the way upstairs to my parents room...which in turn...awoke my father from a dead sleep and suddenly he would jump up and immediately proceed downstairs...He was furious, he was angry and he was ready to kick some butt...as his footsteps thunderously, pounded and pounded, down each and every step....You could just sense his temper coming to a boil as he got closer and closer and closer...down two flights of stairs to the basement where he was ready to unleash his wrath upon one of his kids...It didn't matter which one...they were in big, big trouble...I'm sure right now, many of my brothers and sister can recall such a moment happening to them long ago...That damn bell meant some heavy duty chores for the following day for the person who set it off...
But I do have to say...My brother Joe, was like a ninja door opener...even when he was quite toasty... I don't know if he saw this as a way to enact something he had seen in a spy movie or what...It was like a phenomenenol, super-spy, magic trick that he had mastered like no other. Somehow, Joe would just pry the door ajar and set off a tiny, little tinkle...I don't know if his gangly height helped him reach up and clench the bell, silencing it from erupting, drowning out that venomous noise...or he just had the luck of the Irish going for him...
No matter what it was, I always got the sense that he saw himself as somewhat of a master spy, a 007, James Bond type-of-guy, who could get himself out of any predicament....
I can fondly recall such a moment...really a classic Joe moment...late at night...a little past curfew...as I had somehow found myself down in the laundery room searching for something.
Suddenly, the basement door came open, in came Joe, stumbling in...with the uncanny ability of keeping the bell down to a mere trickle of noise...He shut the door and then burst out in laughing as quietly as he could contain himself...For he had once again, demonstrated his amazing ability of thwarting my Dad's curfew trap...
As you can plainly see...Joe was James Bond...at least in our house on 86th Street...
I betcha he forgot about that...
Joe was the first boy of the family...after 5 girls in a row...Not only was my father beeming with pride but he instantly inherited 6 mothers to watch his every move...Joe could be seen early on, wobbling about, holding rosary beads...This was evidence enough to my Mom that he would someday grow up to be a priest...
Joe had a great imagination playing with plastic dinasaurs and MOON MEN...A very odd combination but as we would find out, Joe was no ordinary kid...He excelled in school but never wanted to be thought of as anything special...As a matter of fact, I think Joe took great pride in remaining grounded hanging out with his crazy bunch of friends who would remain life-long buddies up to this very day...
Joe certainly did have his wild side and a penchant for being a little diruptive...His antics with my brother Dan remain classic stories...of which some of them I've shared already...I think Joe was fortunate enough to take advantage of what his surroundings offered him...
His young teenage years were very unique times...It was then, that a show called THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E had every young kid utterly fascinated with being a SPY of some sort. Other shows of his era included were I SPY and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and IT TAKES A THIEF and GET SMART and WILD, WILD WEST...All of these new shows had a flair for getting their heroes in and out of trouble with miraculous deeds evolving from impossible scenarios...I think every kid from that era had a little bit of rambunxious curiosity to push themselves to the limit...and try to get themselves out of improbable jams....
See, originally...along came JAMES BOND, 007...He became an icon, for these youths and his wild adventures of dangers and delights...bringing on a whole new perspective to a young generation that had been trapped in an endless amount of old western tv shows...Seeing cowboys shoot em up at indians had become a little tedious and the life of a dangerous spy was alluring and elusive...like opening a pandora's box...
Joe, like all his friends, had this new sense of thrill and adventure within them and they kinda pushed their limits as they run rough-shod all over the neighborhood...I think he could recall many endless stories growing up that were probably a little on the wild side...and taking risks and chances became a typical thing to do on any given night...
As Joe grew older, he indeed had a robust personality...that indulged in quite a bit of partying and this out-going, good-natured attitude served him well as he grew up on the South Side.
For instance...Listen to this little story...My Dad had this loud, obnoxious gold-plated bell hinged to the top of the inside of the basement door, that stood far back in our laundry room...in our house on 86th Street...This door was the escape route for all of the young O'Leary kids when they had over-stepped beyond the curfew for which my father had established...See, if they came thru the kitchen side door...that was within ear-shot of the bedrooms upstairs...But the basement door...was as far off as you could get. The laundry room, almost itself, almost muffled all sounds, due to the large amount of stuff stacked for storage like board games and sports equipment and stacks and stacks and rows and rows of clothes that had been ironed by my mother, earlier that night.
The concrete floor in the laundery room never left a hint that a footstep could be heard and it was a perfect place to regain your composure...But on some occasions, all of us kids would stumble in a little tipsy and set off the dreaded clattering bell....
RING-A-LING-A-LING...!!!!
Even though we tried as hard as we could to gently turn the key in the lock of the door from the outside and carefully, almost praying as we would creek the door as slightly and as slowly as we could...sometimes the bell would just need a little jostle to send out that horriffic tremor of sound that echoed throughout the house...
You have to remember, most of us...were still at an awkward age...where our clumsiness got the best of us, sometimes...Sadly causing our worst fears to come true...That disruptive noise just went right thru you...It was just too much to rationalize at that point...
RING-A-LING-A-LING...!!!
We all can still hear that high-pitched, alarming, ear-shattering whail...God, that thing was pure evil...The bell wasn't even that big...but the sound it emmited...well...you can get the picture...
In a way, it was kinda comical...because the drunker you were...the more desperate you wanted to conceal your entry past curfew...Yet, it always seemed futile as the door just got nudged a little too aggresively and the result was a thunderous clatter...Sometimes, even worse, you'd be so pre-occupied that you completely forgot there even was a bell on the other side of the back door, basement entry....(Yes, we were that incredibly dumb & stupid at that age...)
It was an ingenious device that my father had installed and insisted that it was there strictly to act as a burglar deterrent...but it was really the funniest thing you would hear, sometimes, in the middle of the night, as some unfortunate soul stumbled in...having had a few too many libations...
Surely, as can be, the bell went a clatter and that person would instantly become horrified. It was as if somebody had thrown a bucket of ice water in your face...the startling alarm echoed and echoed all the way upstairs to my parents room...which in turn...awoke my father from a dead sleep and suddenly he would jump up and immediately proceed downstairs...He was furious, he was angry and he was ready to kick some butt...as his footsteps thunderously, pounded and pounded, down each and every step....You could just sense his temper coming to a boil as he got closer and closer and closer...down two flights of stairs to the basement where he was ready to unleash his wrath upon one of his kids...It didn't matter which one...they were in big, big trouble...I'm sure right now, many of my brothers and sister can recall such a moment happening to them long ago...That damn bell meant some heavy duty chores for the following day for the person who set it off...
But I do have to say...My brother Joe, was like a ninja door opener...even when he was quite toasty... I don't know if he saw this as a way to enact something he had seen in a spy movie or what...It was like a phenomenenol, super-spy, magic trick that he had mastered like no other. Somehow, Joe would just pry the door ajar and set off a tiny, little tinkle...I don't know if his gangly height helped him reach up and clench the bell, silencing it from erupting, drowning out that venomous noise...or he just had the luck of the Irish going for him...
No matter what it was, I always got the sense that he saw himself as somewhat of a master spy, a 007, James Bond type-of-guy, who could get himself out of any predicament....
I can fondly recall such a moment...really a classic Joe moment...late at night...a little past curfew...as I had somehow found myself down in the laundery room searching for something.
Suddenly, the basement door came open, in came Joe, stumbling in...with the uncanny ability of keeping the bell down to a mere trickle of noise...He shut the door and then burst out in laughing as quietly as he could contain himself...For he had once again, demonstrated his amazing ability of thwarting my Dad's curfew trap...
As you can plainly see...Joe was James Bond...at least in our house on 86th Street...
I betcha he forgot about that...
Thursday, September 11, 2008
My Brother-In-Laws Charlie&Ed&Joe John&Pete
My Brother-In-Laws....Sometimes it's kinda funny to look back at the early years of my life and the people who would somehow just show up at our front door on 86th Street...especially these gangly youths...who were barely old enough to drive, who seemingly carried a swagger of reckless abandon...wanting to take my sisters out on a date...But, for the most part, that is how I remember my brother-in-laws, to-be, back in the late 60's.
Each of them quite different but all part of a young generation...that was quite ahead of their time...They would be driving the coolest cars ever to be made...The cars of the 60's were incredibly huge and they had enormous power...all style-ized, spacious, dazzling, souped up---the ultimate vehicles for teenagers to go to wild extremes...in every which way...
Here these young guys would pull up to our house on 86th Street, with probably a 12-pack of Schlitz Beer hidden in a paper sack, in the back seat...trying to contain their excitement of meeting up with my sisters for the evening...
Of course, they had my Dad...famously called Papa Joe, by them, under their breath...to contend with some times...It was the wild card they had to deal with...
Who would answer the front door when they rang the door bell? Would it be me...Jimmy???-The frenetic little bugger who was always full of fun. My mother...who would always try to be as gracious as possible and almost embarrass these guys with her harmless little inquisitive banter or would it be...Uh ohhh...Ohhh noo, Papa Joe!!!
If it was the wild card and it was Papa Joe...all that swagger and confidence went out the window for these young guys as they would face the firing squad...of blustery warnings of dating his young daughters and exactly the time he expected them to arrive home that night...It must have seemed like an endless 5 minutes as they tried to initiate a conversation with my father who pretty much knew exactly what was going down for the evening, so he was going to lay down the law and put a little damper on their unbridled excitement...
Finally, my sisters would emerge, all bright & bubbly...It seemed as though, girls back then had to expend quite a bit of fuss getting all pretty & perfect for their boyfriends...probably using a whole can of hair spray or conforming to the hip creations that were so boldly different...at that time...
In a matter of seconds, they grabbed ahold of each others hands and zooooom...out they would fly, out the door. This little ritual would repeat itself over & over, night after night, sister after sister...In a blink of an eye, they all quickly hopped in their classic cars of those olden days and sped off into the night...
It was a timeless, happy & joyful era for my 5 sisters and their 5 boyfriends they would someday marry. These were the most care-free moments of their lives...They had their whole lives ahead of them together, yet at that moment, they were just out to create as much fun and wreak as much havoc as possible, within the time frame my father had established, for each one of them...
It was the 60's...A very, very uproarious, adventurous time in our history where the Vietnam War was in full stride...all kinds of cultural upheavals, assassinations, wild music and wild times seemed to wait around every corner...America was on top of the world and this generation saw their future as bright and hopeful, despite some of the negative overtones that crept in, once in awhile...
Let's look back at these guys...as I first recalled getting to know them, some 40 years ago.
First up, Charlie Gries...He was probably 17-19 when he came calling for my sister Maureen, probably heading out, to some dance or social event at DePaul University where they both attended...He had known my sister from growing up in the neighborhood and after they met up again in college, sparks flied...Charlie had a bunch of younger brothers so he liked to play tricks on me like taking me by the collar of my shirt and lifting me off of the ground and sticking me onto a door-knob, where I would helplessly dangle my feet, unable to touch the ground...leaving me, calling out for help...I would later get even with him, one night up in Knollwood, as he left a full 16 ounce beer on a table and left the room...I ran up and guzzled most of it down....laughing hysterically as Charlie and my sister came back to find his beer almost gone...I was only 5 or 6 at the time...Charlie always had an uncanny, wry sense of humor and we always got along great...Maureen and Charlie may not have ever got together if it hadn't been for DePaul...yet they seemed destined to be with one another...from the word go...
Next up, was Ed Haggerty, who, at the time, wore these thick black-rimmed glasses and had more of a clean-cut image about him...but at heart, he was just as wild, if not more so, than all of my other brother-in-laws...I remember Ed coming home from a carnival with my sister Kathy, after winning her a giant stuffed animal in some type of carnival game...Well, that night happened to be my birthday, and as both of them arrived late that night, carrying in this huge, giant stuffed Saint Bernard Dog, I ran up and grabbed it out of Kathy's arms, thinking it was a birthday present for me because I had about 20 other stuffed animals...I think Ed just stood there helplessly, shocked, as Kathy just patted his arm, and didn't let on that it was actually a special keepsake of hers from Ed...Ed was from the other side of the neighborhood but once he set eyes on my sister Kathy...there was no doubt...he had every intention of keeping her by his side...for a lifetime...
Next up, Joe Howard..."Howie" was a riot who really was always fun to see come thru our doors. Whether he would show up to give me a few packs of baseball cards or going down to the basement to play hockey with me...My sister Patsy, would almost have to pull him away because I'd be having so much fun...I can even remember Howie showing up, right after school and watching THE THREE STOOGES with me, instead of studying with Patsy as they had intended. I think one of the first times I went to McDonalds was with Joe & Patsy, where I feasted on their delicious french frys which tasted alot better back then...much better then now...Howie always was and always will be a sports junkie...whether we would be playing tag/run-in-bases or tossing around a frisbee...essentially...Howie was always up for throwing a ball around...And he and my sister Patsy would grow inseperable as the months to months and years to years would fly by...
Next up, John Martin...."Teeny" had the coolest car, a Chevy Chevelle Supersport 494 convertible...It had that "WOW" factor as he pulled up to our curb out front on 86th Street. He had the most wild persona about him, with his long side-burns and long curly brown hair...My sister Joan never knew what to expect with a wild night out with "Teeny"...He came from a big family, too, and his father was a Chicago cop, who was good friends with my father...But that didn't mean my Dad was gonna cut Teeny any slack...Especially riding around in that hot car and sometimes showing up a little past curfew...Teeny had a reputation of hanging out with a wild crowd and sometimes I wonder if he wasn't the wildest of the bunch of them...John Martin was your classic Tommy More guy who always had a wisdom all his own and a very funny, contagious laugh...that would pop up out of the blue somwtimes...And Joan was drawn to his outragous spirit...that always kept her on her toes...
Next up, Pete Fitzpatrick...Pete was pretty darn young, when he first showed up to pick up my sister Karen...He had the long side-burns too...and he drove his father's luxurious Bonneville convertible...As sleek and smooth a car could ever be...Pete was from Saint Barnabas parish and he would haul off my sister Karen to his stomping grounds along Western Avenue like Jansen's, a fast food joint that was a mega-hang-out for teens back then...I always got a kick out of Pete because I think he tried to emulate a coolness of a 20 year old while only being 16 or 17...I remember Pete taking us to old Comiskey Park for a White Sox game early on...I had brought my new baseball glove, hoping to catch a foul ball...Well, we got up and found better seats closer to the field but left the glove behind...Pete went back and someone was sitting on my glove. He told the joker to get up and give me back my glove...It was pretty funny stuff...I wonder if the Sox won that game...???...All I can remember is the ridiculous clown sitting on my glove, pretending like there was nothing there...Pete always exuded a smooth charm along with a kenetic nervous energy that will always make him truly unique...It's no wonder Karen and Pete would become childhood sweethearts who never would lose their incredible attraction to one and other...as time would only tell...
There you have it...a little bit of insight into the humble begininngs of the romance and remnants of 5 young teenage boys who would set the world on fire...back in their time...For all these guys now, I know going back that far seems so long ago...yet, really they haven't lost that spark or enthususiasm one bit...I think it is the testament that their destinies have brought them way beyond their wild expectations...and the lives they live today...are a reflection of the immense pride they have in finding themselves to be so fortunate to meeting that special O'Leary girl who would join them on a miraculous journey...
All in all, I hope you got a kick out of looking back at the late 60's and the emergence of my brother-in-laws before they had become responsible, law-abiding, older adults who were an incredible force of energy to reckon with...at that point in time...in their middle to late teens...I know it is hard to imagine that, especially now as they all are now doting grandfathers, hovering around 60 years old...But, believe me, each of them...had the most fun, they could of possibly had at that young age...and me and my sisters were all very lucky to have them emerge as future long-life spouses and relatives...who would become very important parts of of all of our lives...In so many ways...my brothers-in-laws...are equally & uniquely special...and the good times we have had throughout the years have made a huge dent of fun memories for me also, and I'll always recall those moments of hijinx and humor with quite a bit of tremendous laughter...
Each of them quite different but all part of a young generation...that was quite ahead of their time...They would be driving the coolest cars ever to be made...The cars of the 60's were incredibly huge and they had enormous power...all style-ized, spacious, dazzling, souped up---the ultimate vehicles for teenagers to go to wild extremes...in every which way...
Here these young guys would pull up to our house on 86th Street, with probably a 12-pack of Schlitz Beer hidden in a paper sack, in the back seat...trying to contain their excitement of meeting up with my sisters for the evening...
Of course, they had my Dad...famously called Papa Joe, by them, under their breath...to contend with some times...It was the wild card they had to deal with...
Who would answer the front door when they rang the door bell? Would it be me...Jimmy???-The frenetic little bugger who was always full of fun. My mother...who would always try to be as gracious as possible and almost embarrass these guys with her harmless little inquisitive banter or would it be...Uh ohhh...Ohhh noo, Papa Joe!!!
If it was the wild card and it was Papa Joe...all that swagger and confidence went out the window for these young guys as they would face the firing squad...of blustery warnings of dating his young daughters and exactly the time he expected them to arrive home that night...It must have seemed like an endless 5 minutes as they tried to initiate a conversation with my father who pretty much knew exactly what was going down for the evening, so he was going to lay down the law and put a little damper on their unbridled excitement...
Finally, my sisters would emerge, all bright & bubbly...It seemed as though, girls back then had to expend quite a bit of fuss getting all pretty & perfect for their boyfriends...probably using a whole can of hair spray or conforming to the hip creations that were so boldly different...at that time...
In a matter of seconds, they grabbed ahold of each others hands and zooooom...out they would fly, out the door. This little ritual would repeat itself over & over, night after night, sister after sister...In a blink of an eye, they all quickly hopped in their classic cars of those olden days and sped off into the night...
It was a timeless, happy & joyful era for my 5 sisters and their 5 boyfriends they would someday marry. These were the most care-free moments of their lives...They had their whole lives ahead of them together, yet at that moment, they were just out to create as much fun and wreak as much havoc as possible, within the time frame my father had established, for each one of them...
It was the 60's...A very, very uproarious, adventurous time in our history where the Vietnam War was in full stride...all kinds of cultural upheavals, assassinations, wild music and wild times seemed to wait around every corner...America was on top of the world and this generation saw their future as bright and hopeful, despite some of the negative overtones that crept in, once in awhile...
Let's look back at these guys...as I first recalled getting to know them, some 40 years ago.
First up, Charlie Gries...He was probably 17-19 when he came calling for my sister Maureen, probably heading out, to some dance or social event at DePaul University where they both attended...He had known my sister from growing up in the neighborhood and after they met up again in college, sparks flied...Charlie had a bunch of younger brothers so he liked to play tricks on me like taking me by the collar of my shirt and lifting me off of the ground and sticking me onto a door-knob, where I would helplessly dangle my feet, unable to touch the ground...leaving me, calling out for help...I would later get even with him, one night up in Knollwood, as he left a full 16 ounce beer on a table and left the room...I ran up and guzzled most of it down....laughing hysterically as Charlie and my sister came back to find his beer almost gone...I was only 5 or 6 at the time...Charlie always had an uncanny, wry sense of humor and we always got along great...Maureen and Charlie may not have ever got together if it hadn't been for DePaul...yet they seemed destined to be with one another...from the word go...
Next up, was Ed Haggerty, who, at the time, wore these thick black-rimmed glasses and had more of a clean-cut image about him...but at heart, he was just as wild, if not more so, than all of my other brother-in-laws...I remember Ed coming home from a carnival with my sister Kathy, after winning her a giant stuffed animal in some type of carnival game...Well, that night happened to be my birthday, and as both of them arrived late that night, carrying in this huge, giant stuffed Saint Bernard Dog, I ran up and grabbed it out of Kathy's arms, thinking it was a birthday present for me because I had about 20 other stuffed animals...I think Ed just stood there helplessly, shocked, as Kathy just patted his arm, and didn't let on that it was actually a special keepsake of hers from Ed...Ed was from the other side of the neighborhood but once he set eyes on my sister Kathy...there was no doubt...he had every intention of keeping her by his side...for a lifetime...
Next up, Joe Howard..."Howie" was a riot who really was always fun to see come thru our doors. Whether he would show up to give me a few packs of baseball cards or going down to the basement to play hockey with me...My sister Patsy, would almost have to pull him away because I'd be having so much fun...I can even remember Howie showing up, right after school and watching THE THREE STOOGES with me, instead of studying with Patsy as they had intended. I think one of the first times I went to McDonalds was with Joe & Patsy, where I feasted on their delicious french frys which tasted alot better back then...much better then now...Howie always was and always will be a sports junkie...whether we would be playing tag/run-in-bases or tossing around a frisbee...essentially...Howie was always up for throwing a ball around...And he and my sister Patsy would grow inseperable as the months to months and years to years would fly by...
Next up, John Martin...."Teeny" had the coolest car, a Chevy Chevelle Supersport 494 convertible...It had that "WOW" factor as he pulled up to our curb out front on 86th Street. He had the most wild persona about him, with his long side-burns and long curly brown hair...My sister Joan never knew what to expect with a wild night out with "Teeny"...He came from a big family, too, and his father was a Chicago cop, who was good friends with my father...But that didn't mean my Dad was gonna cut Teeny any slack...Especially riding around in that hot car and sometimes showing up a little past curfew...Teeny had a reputation of hanging out with a wild crowd and sometimes I wonder if he wasn't the wildest of the bunch of them...John Martin was your classic Tommy More guy who always had a wisdom all his own and a very funny, contagious laugh...that would pop up out of the blue somwtimes...And Joan was drawn to his outragous spirit...that always kept her on her toes...
Next up, Pete Fitzpatrick...Pete was pretty darn young, when he first showed up to pick up my sister Karen...He had the long side-burns too...and he drove his father's luxurious Bonneville convertible...As sleek and smooth a car could ever be...Pete was from Saint Barnabas parish and he would haul off my sister Karen to his stomping grounds along Western Avenue like Jansen's, a fast food joint that was a mega-hang-out for teens back then...I always got a kick out of Pete because I think he tried to emulate a coolness of a 20 year old while only being 16 or 17...I remember Pete taking us to old Comiskey Park for a White Sox game early on...I had brought my new baseball glove, hoping to catch a foul ball...Well, we got up and found better seats closer to the field but left the glove behind...Pete went back and someone was sitting on my glove. He told the joker to get up and give me back my glove...It was pretty funny stuff...I wonder if the Sox won that game...???...All I can remember is the ridiculous clown sitting on my glove, pretending like there was nothing there...Pete always exuded a smooth charm along with a kenetic nervous energy that will always make him truly unique...It's no wonder Karen and Pete would become childhood sweethearts who never would lose their incredible attraction to one and other...as time would only tell...
There you have it...a little bit of insight into the humble begininngs of the romance and remnants of 5 young teenage boys who would set the world on fire...back in their time...For all these guys now, I know going back that far seems so long ago...yet, really they haven't lost that spark or enthususiasm one bit...I think it is the testament that their destinies have brought them way beyond their wild expectations...and the lives they live today...are a reflection of the immense pride they have in finding themselves to be so fortunate to meeting that special O'Leary girl who would join them on a miraculous journey...
All in all, I hope you got a kick out of looking back at the late 60's and the emergence of my brother-in-laws before they had become responsible, law-abiding, older adults who were an incredible force of energy to reckon with...at that point in time...in their middle to late teens...I know it is hard to imagine that, especially now as they all are now doting grandfathers, hovering around 60 years old...But, believe me, each of them...had the most fun, they could of possibly had at that young age...and me and my sisters were all very lucky to have them emerge as future long-life spouses and relatives...who would become very important parts of of all of our lives...In so many ways...my brothers-in-laws...are equally & uniquely special...and the good times we have had throughout the years have made a huge dent of fun memories for me also, and I'll always recall those moments of hijinx and humor with quite a bit of tremendous laughter...
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