Message Forum

Oh snap John Bliss!

I will say this about music in the late 60s and 70s... it was the best and most diverse ever. I remember the first 33 I ever owned was a gift from my 7th grade bestie (Jackie Miyake), The 5th Dimension, "Wedding Bell Blues" and the first I ever bought for myself was Crosby Stills & Nash "Marrekesh Express" and "Helplessly Hoping".

Last week I toured the Class of '73 through Lane for their 50th reunion. They were the last all-male class and I went to their prom. Like many kids in the day, after the prom, we went to the London House and heard Ramsey Lewis. That was a real epiphany for me and began a life-long love of jazz... but I still like me some Monkees and Hermans Hermits every once in a while!

I remember Chris Pagano running into Division with an album in his hands saying, "You have to listen to this... it's this song called 'Daniel' from this new guy named Elton John".

Rock, soul, funk, jazz, glam, punk... we had it all!

10/07/23 11:21 AM

#1716

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was an LP I practically wore out. Along with my copy of Inna Gadda Da Vida!

10/07/23 11:23 AM

#1717

Janet Peterson (Ingraffia)

And no John. I was never a dork. That's what I tell my kids every day, when they see my old pictures. Yes kids, bellbottoms and platform shoes were cool!

10/08/23 06:43 PM

#1718

Ok, true confessions here. I was never one of the cool kids in high school. Big surprise, I know. My 14 year old mind was madly in love with Michael Cole from the Mod Squad. Any magazine that had large pictures of him, like the one Michelle posted, got bought and proudly hung up on my bedroom wall. His eyes were the last ones I wanted to see before I drifted off to sleep. A couple years ago for Christmas, my wonderful hubby, Pete, bought me a multi season DVD set of the Mod Squad. Well we watched some episodes until we couldn't suffer anymore! I don't know how I watched them back then and even looked forward to them.

As far as music, we still have an old stereo system that plays cassettes and albums. Yellow Brick Road is one of only about 50 albums that we still have and listen to from time to time. Pete and I had duplicates of so many albums so we did a major purge before moving to Florida. I think I'll have to pull out a few and listen again.

Love the wonderful memories this page stirs up! Thanks to all!

10/09/23 08:32 AM

#1719

Peter Ingraffia

Definitely enjoying this walk down memory lane. Like many, going to concerts was the thing we did in those years. Great memories of some great concerts. Camped out overnight at the stadium waiting for Who tickets to go on sale while my parents were out of town. Good times. Here's a fraction of the ticket stubs I still have from back then. Hard to believe that groups like the Stones, Who, Elton John, etc only cost $6 or $7. The most expensive concert was Pink Floyd at Soldier Field. Those were way expensive at $10!

10/10/23 09:47 AM

#1720

One time, when I started a new job, at a team meeting the manager asked an icebreaker... "Name the first concert you ever went to and the most recent."

My answers... "Three Dog Night and One Direction." Now, THAT raised some eyebrows from the young folks in the room! Three Dog Night was for me. And, I had recently spent Fathers Day taking my teen daughter to a One Direction concert. Me and 14,000 screaming teen girls! I put in my earlplugs, read my paperback novel and tried to ignore the whole thing.

Oh, and I was at that Soldier Field Pink Floyd Concert, too. Also saw ELP at Soldier Field as the headliner in an all-day rock festival. HUGE crowd. Shoulder-to-shoulder all day.

Spent years chasing Grateful Dead around. My son may be one of the few kids his age who can say he's actually BEEN to a Dead concert. When he was 18-months old I took him here in Indianapolis. Didn't care about the music, but loved the drum circles and twirly dancing! And... the Deadheads loved him! "Come here and dance with me little dude!"

10/13/23 10:27 AM

#1721

John Bliss

For Bob Cole: These are some album covers (mostly recreations) I used for a play I directed which takes place in the early 80s.

10/14/23 10:20 AM

#1722

John... Herman's Hermits, Zappa & Captain Beefheart in the same post. WTF?

10/14/23 09:34 PM

#1723

John Simmers

Bob Cole -- your posts always seem to stir up something for me to share. This one is that -- I've gotten high just one-time in my life, and that happened on July 1, 1982 -- with Jerry Garcia.

10/15/23 04:13 PM

#1724

Edward Mc Carthy

This is all very nostalgic. And albums are coming back! LP's, 45's. Anyway, I'm waiting for the proliferator of prose....aka....Mr. Ortiz to weigh in here. I imagine his grand babies jamming to the Bay City Rollers, falling asleep to Bread, Chicago and Simon and Garfunkel.

As I watch the Bears game, It is better to look away and reply to email and texts rather than accept what I am seeing on the field. Bears vs. Vikings. We are up in the nose bleed seats.....SE side....section 429! Any higher up and we would need oxygen. Nice view of the city though.

Be well all. Can you believe it, post pandemic and 2023 nearly done. I still recall all the brew hah ha like it was yesterday when we hit the year 2000! Oh, to go back 20+ years..

10/15/23 07:26 PM

#1725

For all our esoteric rock fans out there. I was just contacted by a writer doing a biography for one of the founding fathers of American Folk and Rock looking for some background. Bob Dylan's manager, Inventor of Peter, Paul & Mary, Janis Joplin's manager, the Band, Todd Rundgren, Woodstock, Co-Founder of the Newport Folk Festival and much more. Albert Grossman, Lane Tech, Class of 1944! He's the guy in the white shirt sitting in the back of the studio looking bored at the recording of a little anthem called, "Like a Rolling Stone".

And with Janis...

10/18/23 06:40 AM

#1726

Maja Wiesinger (Ramirez)

Belated thanks to Andrew and all for Medicare tips'n'clues...

10/19/23 01:21 PM

#1727

You're welcome Maja. I registered online for Medicare and spoke to our insurance rep and am waiting for further notice from Medicare/SSA. It was relatively easy I must say and got a confirmation email almost immediately after signing up. Once I here back from them on approval, the next step is to call our insurance rep back to set up the supplemental insurance.

10/19/23 01:35 PM

#1728

Thanks for enlightening us esoteric folk. We thrive on useful, useless information. Mindboggling to think that a Lane grad was a key player in the midst of some of the most influential rockstars of a generation but then again not. In reading more on his bio, it appears that he was a pretty ruthless, shrewd guy who made his mark on the music industry while seemingly not well liked.

10/20/23 12:47 AM

#1729

Some habits are hard to break. Got tired of the computer and decided go old school this week.

10/20/23 12:51 AM

#1730

Attention all Lane Hockey Alumni. There will be a Lane Hockey reunion at Moretti's in Edison Park on Friday November 24th @ 12 noon. $30 per person. We're looking to get at least 25 guys together so we can get our own room upstairs. Come out and have some pizza, pasta and salad. Open bar.

10/30/23 12:58 AM

#1731

Edward Mc Carthy

Congratulations to the girls of Lane Tech's flag football team. They won the state championship today. Well done ladies!

Now, can ya help..... da Bears?

10/30/23 10:56 AM

#1732

Da Bears are playing girls flag football, aren't they?

10/30/23 08:00 PM

#1733

Hmmm... lots of women from '76 were the "first" on teams and other school activities, so having these young athletes pioneer a new sport, (it was just introduced last year), go undefeated, win CIty and then win State (in the first official year of competition), continues a legacy we started. The fact that they won State at Halas Hall is where any comparison to the Bears should end. Pulleeeease!

On a serious note... got word today that Lori Johnson '77 passed away on Friday. Don't know any details but here's the obit:

Lori Johnson Obituary (tributearchive.com)

11/20/23 07:59 PM

#1734

Ride on Randy!

We've lost another Bicentennial. Sad to report that Randy Raven passed away on November 14th from a heart attack in Pinellas Park, Florida. Many of us remember him as a classmate and fellow art major. RIP friend.

11/21/23 01:35 PM

#1735

Oh my God. This is horrible news. Randy, was a real nice guy and human being. He was always a positive person to be around. From my memory, he was a pretty talented fellow artist. Does anyone know if he was involved in art and design after his days at Lane?

11/21/23 02:03 PM

#1736

From Danny Hartnett Class of '73, founding member of the Lane Tech Hockey Club. Thanks to Danny. Being a part of the club changed my life forever!

Hi, guys.

I confirmed our reunion event with Moretti’s this afternoon. Moretti’s is located in Edison Park at 6727 N. Olmsted Avenue. (773) 631-1223.

The event begins at 12pm on Friday, November 24th. We’re in a private room with lots of big screen TV’s to watch the Blackhawks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at 1pm. We have a pizza, pasta and appetizer buffet from 12:30p -4:00p. Cost per person is $30 for room / food. Cash bar.

Michelle Weiner from the Lane Tech Alumni Association has also provided copies of all hockey photos from Lane Tech yearbooks from 1972 - 1980 and we’ll hope to have those streaming on one of the many TV’s. If you have other photos or memorabilia you’d like to bring, please do. And thanks to Michelle for helping us get the work out by posting a note in the LTAA newsletter about this event.

If you know that you will be attending and haven’t already done so (and would like to do me a big favor so I don’t have to chase you down at the reunion), you can send $30 via Zelle to my email address (dangabby@comcast.net). Or you can pay me in person at Moretti’s.

As of right now, the following distinguished Lane Tech hockey alumni have confirmed they will be attending:

Larry Hattori (1972)

Ken Hermer (1972)

Marty Sissman (1972)

Dan Hartnett (1973)

Randy Krieger (1974)

Jeff Parks (1975)

Andy Flor (1976)

Scott Silz (1977)

Nick Koclanis (1977)

Danny Huber (1977)

Gary Parks (1978)

Tom Akers (1978)

Joe Rill (1978)

Bob Sorenson (1978)

John Morici (1979)

Rick Damerjian (1979)

Also hoping the following guys who we contacted are going to be able to join us:

Nick Woznyj (1973)

Jimmy Lucas (1978)

Gary Garner (1976)

Stan Dubicki (1981)

I was also able to contact the following guys who unfortunately will be out of town and unable to attend (next time, boys!):

Jim Nicpon (1972)

Bruce Tokarz (1973)

Vic Giampietro (1973)

Bob Ciessau (1976)

Russ Cannizzo (1977)

Other confirmed Lane alumni, friends and guests so far: Nadine Huber, Chris Nelson, Bruce Turner and Gary Burgardt.

If you know anybody else who would like to attend, please let me know ASAP.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Dan Hartnett

(630) 254-1911

12/02/23 10:12 PM

#1737