Names & Games

Let us take a ride down memory lane and play the name game, join in any time you like, see if there are names you remember and why you remember the names:

The Turbans, Johnny & Joe, Hank Ballard, Lloyd Price, Johnny Maestro, Hy Lit, The Geator, The Jive Five, The Elegants, Clyde McPhatter.. Anything familiar yet? Well this is another time, another decade, another lifetime, would you like to continue? Sam the Sham, Gary US Bonds, The Kingsmen, The Fleetwoods, Little Jimmy Charles, isn't it a strange sense that this was so long ago and so far away.. I can remember the "Labor Lyceum", the "Legion", the "Chavous", "Saint Alice".. If you have not figured out the game it is some 55 years ago, it is a summer of sweltering heat, a summer of music that they said was inspired by the Devil, a summer that will always be remembered in Philadelphia as the time Rock and Roll began on the street corners with the acapella groups singing under the street lights and under the "El" train. It was a time when all we lived for was the music, the lyrics, and the sounds of Rock and Roll. The Days of American Bandstand with Bob Horn(before they rode him out of town on a rail), the days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night dances everywhere there was a hall available. The riding in your car cruising for chicks on the main drag of the town where you lived. The time of "Hoods" and "Cliques", the time of "Cuban Heels", Slow Dancing so close you could feel her breath in your ear. The times of parking in the woods or a place called "Lover's Lane", every town and city had one, many a baby was conceived in one, many a marriage was made in one. Are you remembering yet? Remember these: The Watusi, The Stroll, The Slop, The Mash Potatoes", The Grind, and of course do you remember the Priest or Nuns separating you when you were too close?? There were Soda fountains then, places to hang out, hanging on the corner with the boys, playing "Chicken" in your car, drinking beer and hiding from the law. House parties where all the bedrooms were taken, pool parties in the buff, Making out, Leather Jackets, Rumbles. Have I struck a familiar note yet? We had hangouts called "BABES", and "LOUS", and SHAMROCKS", mostly they were bookie joints that served as sandwich shops and soda fountains. Care to continue the journey? Doo Wop is the rage now, but back then it was Taboo, played only on the Black Radio Stations like WDAS, and WHAT in Philly, Jerry Blavat(The Geator with the Heater), made his bones in Philly playing Doo Wop for the White teens on a black station. I happen to live in an area where everyone is over 55 and remember all of this as if it was yesterday, but we have all grown up and try not to remember those days because they were times when we were rebels and not the Yuppie Conservatives we have become. Maybe the time to remember is now, and to begin to look fondly on the days of our outrageous youth and the trials that led to the Men and Women we are today. Anytime you think you can remember these days another time or another day, I will warn you that I had friends who felt the same way, please not I used the word "Had". There may be some very astute insight in another song long since forgotten and not from our early youth: "Try to remember the kind of September, when grass was green and grain was yellow" Try to remember and if you remember then follow, follow, follow" Maybe we all need to remember and to enjoy those days of our youth, to relish in the joy they once created for us, to remember all the names and faces of years gone by, remember all the friends and acquaintences, both long lost and some long gone. As you age, you begin to remember all the times good and bad with a much keener sense of what it was like, maybe we do this because we want to go back and do it again, well, let me say that you can never go back, but you can do it again if you really have the desire. Lastly, allow me to give one last shout out to those that have disappeared over the years in both my memory and in my life:

Barbara from Airy Street
Matty Raimo
Gussie Catanzaro
Sonny Raimo
Charlotte Heaton
Nick Gabrielle
Carol Johnson
Betsy Howard
Barbara Baker
The Crazy Sisters
Gerry Corrao
Joe Dimino
Tony deGrazio
Sonny Satterwhite
Harold
Jackie Abney
Franny Martin
Marty Baker
Arty Martin
Gerry Organtini
Ronnie Pascucci
Gerry Volpe
Medio Marchozzi
Linda
Joan Zelinski
Bobby Johnson
Bobby Marchozzi
Terry Livelsberger
Sonny Termine
Marie Filandino
Tulio Fierro
Milton Hathaway
Frankie Fierro
John from Conshy
Of course I have missed a large number of people, but let's attribute that to old age and a loss of memory, but to all those I have forgotten, it is only but a moment lapse and I will remember you all always and forever.
It is time to return to the world of today, and not digress any further into the past for this time, however, stay tuned for more journeys and remebrances from years gone by.



Good night all those gone but not forgotten.