My family life is nowhere near positive. Growing up a gay guy who went on to grad school I was the black sheep in the family. I was raised with 2 brothers and a sister, but due to an accident my parents passed away way too soon 18 years ago. That broke apart a long coming schism in which my older brother no is isolated from the rest of us, and basically it is me and my brother against the world.
But way back in the 70s things were a lot different. we grew up in a metro Detroit suburb, in a middle class neighborhood. I am the youngest in the family, closest in age by 1 and ½ years to my close brother, and then there is a 10 and 12 year age difference between me and my other siblings.
I bring up the sibling thing since it is relative to the story. This happened in April of 76 I think, during a great ice storm that crushed the midwest. Power lines were out everywhere, people were huddled together. My brother and sister were off at school so it was just the 4 of us. We had no power and due to crashing items outside and storms we slept in an unfinished basement in which my brother who was away at college had a corner bedroom. It is had to describe but there, from outside, was a big hole outside in front of the one window, which you had to step up or down into once you opened up the windiw to get outside,. I always thought that sleeping in my brother’s room was a mini-adventure.
Anyway we had no power so we survived on whatever the radio was playing. Off course back in the 70s there were actual local stations as opposed to today which has shows based in major cities that get played to a localized market for a price. Anyway the point being that the announcers and everyone else were going thru what we, the audience were.
One of the most vivid memories I have from my whole childhood comes from this, my dad holding on to the radio and all of a sudden Sammy Davis Jr, came on and sang…
I have no idea why this memory is so clear.
Do you have any song memories from growing up?