LOCAL BANDS
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
ELKIN
Back in the late 60's and early 70's a lot of garage bands came out of our local area. We did music like Midnite Hour, Knock On Wood, My Girl, and much more from that era. Today they call it beach music or oldies. We called it Soul Music because much of it came from black vocal groups of that time. We had a local Battle of the Bands in ELKIN. My brother's band won the year they entered, The 13th Floor, and my brother played in my band also, and we came in second the year we played. Some of the bands at that time were The Nomads from My Airy, The Turks from Elkin, Our Band The Caboose Show & Dance Band, The Soul Society, The Mixed Emotions who also had reunited lately with some of its original members, Brief Encounter from Wilkesboro, NC, and many others. We have been classfied now as Garage Bands. We would set up our band in our neighbors garage, which his sons were in our band, and do all of our practicing there. We also practiced in a tobacco packhouse, and an insurance office when it was closed. We would practice anywhere that people would let us that was undisturbing to the parents and neighbors. One night we were practicing at our friends parents weekend house and the police came over and said we could do one more song but had to quit because the neighbors called in and it was 4 in the morning. Must I say again a lot of good musicians came out of this area of about 3 or 4 counties.
Back in the late 60's and early 70's a lot of garage bands came out of our local area. We did music like Midnite Hour, Knock On Wood, My Girl, and much more from that era. Today they call it beach music or oldies. We called it Soul Music because much of it came from black vocal groups of that time. We had a local Battle of the Bands in ELKIN. My brother's band won the year they entered, The 13th Floor, and my brother played in my band also, and we came in second the year we played. Some of the bands at that time were The Nomads from My Airy, The Turks from Elkin, Our Band The Caboose Show & Dance Band, The Soul Society, The Mixed Emotions who also had reunited lately with some of its original members, Brief Encounter from Wilkesboro, NC, and many others. We have been classfied now as Garage Bands. We would set up our band in our neighbors garage, which his sons were in our band, and do all of our practicing there. We also practiced in a tobacco packhouse, and an insurance office when it was closed. We would practice anywhere that people would let us that was undisturbing to the parents and neighbors. One night we were practicing at our friends parents weekend house and the police came over and said we could do one more song but had to quit because the neighbors called in and it was 4 in the morning. Must I say again a lot of good musicians came out of this area of about 3 or 4 counties.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
CRUISING
This was our favorite pastime when I was sixteen. My dad and my grandfather both had Ford Falcon station wagons, and this is what I have to drive. I installed an 8 track tape player in ours and hooked up a set of 12" PA speakers from a Lafayette pa system we had used in our band. Young people today had nothing on me with their big stereos. For FM I used an Audiovox FM Convertor which converted your AM radio to FM. Cars back then only had AM radios by the way. We would cruise around the circle of town in one direction, and then turn around and cruise the other direction to see who we didn't see the first time. We met a lot of girls cruising, and for a young lad that was the whole purpose of being there. For some however it was to show off their muscle car. My dad later bought me a 1973 Chevrolet Vega. My friends had Volkswagon Vans, Volkswagon beetles, Karman Ghias, Ford Econoline Vans since we were musicians. We would cruise sometimes until 4 am until we were the only ones left before we went home. There is a place we would go to use the bathroom which is called the Speedy Chef. It is still there now. Cruising is now illegal in Elkin, NC now. It became real popular even after I was a little bit older, however the Elkin Rescue squad was right in the middle of town and the rescue trucks couldn't get out while people were cruising so they passed a law that you would receive a ticket if yor were believed to be cruising. There is no cruising here anymore. There is no place to hang out for the young people. Those good old days are all gone.
This was our favorite pastime when I was sixteen. My dad and my grandfather both had Ford Falcon station wagons, and this is what I have to drive. I installed an 8 track tape player in ours and hooked up a set of 12" PA speakers from a Lafayette pa system we had used in our band. Young people today had nothing on me with their big stereos. For FM I used an Audiovox FM Convertor which converted your AM radio to FM. Cars back then only had AM radios by the way. We would cruise around the circle of town in one direction, and then turn around and cruise the other direction to see who we didn't see the first time. We met a lot of girls cruising, and for a young lad that was the whole purpose of being there. For some however it was to show off their muscle car. My dad later bought me a 1973 Chevrolet Vega. My friends had Volkswagon Vans, Volkswagon beetles, Karman Ghias, Ford Econoline Vans since we were musicians. We would cruise sometimes until 4 am until we were the only ones left before we went home. There is a place we would go to use the bathroom which is called the Speedy Chef. It is still there now. Cruising is now illegal in Elkin, NC now. It became real popular even after I was a little bit older, however the Elkin Rescue squad was right in the middle of town and the rescue trucks couldn't get out while people were cruising so they passed a law that you would receive a ticket if yor were believed to be cruising. There is no cruising here anymore. There is no place to hang out for the young people. Those good old days are all gone.
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