The
2008 monthly columns center on music, a powerful key to recalling
long-past personal experiences, feelings, and events. Any subject with
a musical tie that is remotely related to our 1956-1960 John R. Rogers
High School tenure is fair game for an article.
Indeed,
2008 is an exact 50 years after our 1958 sophomore year. That
year, AM station, KNEW, on 790, featured DJ personalities including the
four Bobs and Frantic Frank. Recordings were mechanical grooves in
vinyl, often rotating at 45 RPM. We could purchase these at the Music
Box in the Paulsen Building. Some top-ten songs dealt with teen-aged
deaths, but most were love songs. Almost all popular music targeted
teens. Sometimes this music was considered to be garbage by some
adults, but it is easily found on the air today.
Mr.
Bob Foster directed the Rogers Band. We also had a chorus, an
orchestra, and a choir. There are other kinds of musical tie-ins to our
generation. Look them in two new MusicMems
articles, monthly, at http://rogers60.com,
through December, 2008.