THE BAT CAVE

TRANSISTOR RADIO

I was twelve years old when I first started listening to popular music. I had a little transistor radio that I would listen to in bed at night. The late night show was called "The Bat Cave" and the DJ played the latest hits like "The Green Door" a 1956 popular song. During Prohibition, many restaurants painted their doors green to indicate the presence of a speakeasy.

We lived in Old Town, Maine. My dad was an ROTC professor at the University of Maine a few miles away in Orono. I bought my first record, "Get A Job" a song by the Silhouettes released in November 1957. I was 13. It reached the number one spot on the Billboard pop and R&B singles charts in February 1958. I was hooked.

"When I was in the service in the early 1950s and didn't come home and go to work, my mother said 'get a job' and basically that's where the song came from," said tenor Richard Lewis, who wrote the lyrics. The four members of the group shared the credit, jointly creating the "sha na na" and "dip dip dip dip" hooks later imitated by other doo-wop groups. In early 1958, the Silhouettes performed "Get a Job" several times on American Bandstand and once on The Dick Clark Show. Those appearances contributed to the song's success by exposing it to a large audience. Ultimately the single sold more than a million copies.

It was then too that I began my love of Elvis' music. He was young and raw and I loved his music, especially his early recordings. His hit song "Don't Be Cruel" was the number one selling record in 1956.

In Old Town my Dad taught me a valuable lesson. He had asked me to wash the windows on our closed-in porch. There were about eight of them. I was in a hurry because I wanted to go play football with some of my friends. When I finished he took a look and much to my dismay told me to do them again. He said, "there is never enough time to do it right. But there is always enough time to do it over." Lesson learned. This from July 1960.

Two other things about Old Town stand out in my mind: the swimming contest and squatting behind the school bus. First, the swimming contest.

I was big for my age and a good swimmer. I was also quite competitive and when the staff at the public pool up the street decided to have a contest, I entered. Well, I won every event they came up with in my age group: under water, free style, back stroke, etc. Finally, they thought they had come up with an event I couldn't win. Slow swimming. What they didn't know was that I could swim backwards using my feet to keep me afloat and my arms to push me back. If I got ahead of anyone I just swam backwards until they were in front of me. I won that event too. I guess I was too young to be a good sport. Bobby Freeman from 1964.

Secondly, I would "disobey orders" from the school staff and hitch a ride on the back of the buses as they pulled away. This was only possible after it had snowed and the streets were icy and snow covered. I would run out as the bus started to pull out and squat behind it grasping the back bumper. I slid along about 50 feet and let go.

I did it about 4 times just to say I could. Thank goodness I wasn't hurt or punished.

This song is from 1970.

I publish weekly on Friday. I want you to be transported to a different time and to enjoy what you read. I want to tell you about my life and my love of music. I want music that evokes memories. I want you to escape today's worries for a few minutes.

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