That old summer treat: A salute to the slush

Long before the “slushee” was used as an instrument of torture and bullying on “Glee”, there was the simple slush.

There was nothing like it on a hot summer day in Coaldale. It quenched the thirst, cooled the temperature, and always seemed to hit just the right spot. Just don’t drink it too fast because it would freeze your brain.

Most of us call it a Slurpee, but that’s actually the trade-marked 7-11 version of the drink.

Slush machines are everywhere now, but once upon a time back in the 1980s they weren’t prevalent, and there were a few different kinds. Thankfully, the current slush won out, going on to satisfy the thirst of millions over the decades and into the next century.

The "Slush Cat" logo.

One of those "Slush Puppie" cups.

Fighting like dogs and cats: The original slushes

The first slush I ever had was called the “Slush Puppy”. It was soft ice poured into a cup with flavouring squirted on top, kind of like a mushier version of the snow cones we used to have at the fair or the circus. They had “Slush Puppies” at the Club Cigar Store in Lethbridge, where we used to stop to buy magazines (that store still has the best selection in the city) and at the Red Rooster in Coaldale.

Once, I went to visit my cousin Carl in Lethbridge, and we'd walked over to the 7-11 where they had this drink called a "Slurpee".

Then, one day in the summer, my neighbour Mike came over raving about a “Slush Cat” he had at this relatively new store in Coaldale. It was called Mac’s and, sadly, that Mac’s no longer exists in my hometown. So, the next time we went to Coaldale, I got my parents to stop at Mac’s so I could have a slush. It turns out, it was like the slushes I had had at the 7-11 in Lethbridge while visiting my cousin Carl.

The name “Slush Cat” was part of the brand that was Mac’s back in the ‘80s. The colours were like a brown and gold with some red thrown in, and the official logo was a big cat that I think was giving us all a wink. The staff wore these brown smocks with gold trim too.

Beyond that, slush puppies and cats were all behind the counter, poured by store staff members. A far cry from all self-serve, all the time now.

The Boston Bruins' collector's slush cup I sought for months.

Collector’s cups

Not much later, Mac’s introduced a set of collector’s cups. If you ordered a medium slush, you got a cup with a logo from an NHL hockey team. There were 21, but they were all mixed together. The cups sat in stacks on top of the slush machine and you just got the next one they chose. If you could see one you liked, you could ask for it, but the guy would not go digging through the pile to find a particular one.

I was – and still am – a huge Boston Bruins fan, so every time we went to town I convinced my dad to go to Mac’s. He had to buy his smokes somewhere, right? I really wanted that Bruins cup – and I eventually got it. But I am also a collector, and a completionist, so I wanted the rest of the set. Eventually I got that too. Like so many other fads in my life, they would sit in a corer in the house until we moved off the farm in 1991.

The modern slush and beyond

Eventually the “Slush Puppy” faded away, or melted away I guess, and the slush we all know became the norm at every convenience store – Mac’s, Red Rooster, 7-11, or whatever.

It was still a treat, because I rarely got to town more than once or twice a week. I remember one weekend when my brother was visiting with his new wife. They were going to town for a slush, and I jokingly asked if they could bring me back one. I figured it would never survive the ride home. But, sure enough, my sister-in-law was sipping on one, then produced one for me. It not only had survived, but it sure hit the spot on a really hot summer day on the farm.

When I got to junior high, we walked over to the high school once a week for shop class. That meant cruising downtown to get lunch or at the very least a slush. They were always really cheap too. Beyond that, at St. Joe’s we were not allowed to leave the school grounds ever, even at noon hour. When I got to high school, we could go wherever we wanted at noon. Like anything, the novelty wore off, and I rarely went uptown.

One spring, when I signed up to play soccer, our coach Jim Franz took us to Red Rooster after a couple games and treated us all to slushes. It was a nice thing to do for a man who really didn't know many of us personally, and didn't have a son or daughter on the team either.

The slush took on a more sinister tone in high school too, not for me but for many others. They started using it as mix and a cover, dumping vodka or rye into a slush, then walking into high school with it.

By the time I got to university, we had kind of a convenience store in res called the “Mini Mart” then later “The Marina”. It had its own slush machine. They hit the spot every so often, but I had moved on. Not only had the novelty worn off, but something had changed. Slushes, when drunk too fast, gave me a headache. By the summer of 1987, I had progressed to something else: the Coolossal Cooler from Mac’s, and its cousin the “Big Gulp” at 7-11. They were just big cups of pop and ice, but ended up being more refreshing than the heavier, colder slush.

I had moved on.

Parting thoughts

When the 1980s opened, the only really cool drink was pop. Then along came the slush. It was cool, long-lasting, and refreshing. As long as you didn’t drink it too fast and give yourself a headache. As time went on though, it was more than that. It was a social experience.

“You want to go for a slush?” was not just an invitation to get a drink, but to hang out, gossip, and socialize.

It was as much a part of life as going to the movies, playing video games, shooting hoops in the driveway.

I haven’t had one for years, mostly because they are sugar bombs after all, but whenever I do have one, I think about Red Rooster in 1983 or Mac’s in 1987.

I’d go for one right now, just to reminisce, but I gave up pop for one of my new year’s resolutions. But it isn’t really pop…

Remembering Rubik's Cube

The scrambled Rubik's Cube

The solved Rubik's Cube

It was one of the most frustrating things I ever encountered – and I did it for fun – yet it kept me coming back. And it was a belly-button toy – everyone had one. After years of watching others do it, I never could. I still can’t. It’s been 40 years since the Rubik’s Cube came along and it remains one of those things synonymous with the ‘80s.

A new plaything

I first recall seeing it on TV. It was this six-sided cube, and each side had its own colour. What made it so confounding was that each side was made up of nine squares. Each row of three, whether a horizontal or vertical row, would rotate. Only the centre square of the nine on each side would never move. The goal, once it was all mixed up, was to solve the cube by restoring each side to nine squares of the same colour. (It’s harder to explain than to just demonstrate). It sure looked easy, but no matter how many hours I spent working on it in front of the TV, I never could muster it.

A belly-button toy

I was a purist, so I bought an actual brand name “Rubik’s Cube”, this after cheap knock-offs appeared everywhere. That’s how it became a belly-button toy. A few weeks later, after I bought my brand name cube (and in pretty much every other aspect of life I have never much cared for brand names), my mom even bought one for a couple bucks at the SAAN Store in downtown Coaldale. It was a cheap knock-off.

A phenomenon

Once it caught on, the Rubik’s Cube had become a pop culture phenomenon. Pretty soon the cube appeared on various TV shows, whether the news or elsewhere. There was a United States championship and it was featured on the magazine “That’s Incredible”. The champion, a teenager named Minh Thai, later appeared on the show “Real People” as well. He would go on to win the first world championship in Budapest in 1982. I also remember one of the people Minh Thai beat was a fellow named Jeff Varasano. Wikipedia revealed Varasano set the U.S. record later in 1981 for solving the cube.

By any means necessary

Other things also appeared. I saw one piece on TV of some people solving the cube in their own unique way – they took it apart and put it back together in the right order. I was a little reluctant to do that until a junior high classmate, a guy named Tracey, actually did it while I was watching during recess.

Another piece I saw focused on the frustration people felt trying to solve the cube. Consequently, someone invented a flat-faced mallet, with a graphic of a Rubik’s Cube on the face of it, to hit and smash the cube to bits. You could even send them the broken pieces in the mail.

At one point, I even bought one of the many books available at the time that explained how to solve the cube. Yet, as a purist, I never could bring myself to read it, because that felt like cheating to me. I needed to do it on my own.

The solvers

Personally, I knew a few people who could solve the Rubik’s Cube – for real. At the top of the list were two sisters, Mary and Katie, who were our neighbours on the farm. They were the most unlikely of people, because they were older than me, and they never played with toys on the bus or during recess at school. However, the cube was invented in Hungary and that’s where their family happened to be from. If memory serves, they learned how to solve the cube on a family trip to the old country.

Parting thoughts

The Rubik’s Cube is one of the cultural touchstones of the 1980s. At one time, there was even a Saturday morning cartoon called, “Rubik, The Amazing Cube”, although it never aired on peasant vision.

I bet you could ask anyone randomly, and they not only would admit to owning one, but having a story to go with it. For me, it fed my addictive personality. Although I never solved it, I came close, within two squares actually. If I’d had a camera back then, as teenagers do now, I would have taken a picture of that. It symbolized the frustration, as well as the endless possibility that anyone, even I, could solve the cube.

It was a great diversion, and a wonderful toy, especially while I watched endless hours of TV at night on the farm during long, dark winters.

It has had staying power too. There are still world championships and more than 350 million cubes have been sold. As it celebrates its 40^th birthday, there is a giant, inflatable cube floating on a barge in the Hudson River beneath the Statue of Liberty to commemorate the occasion.

Check it out for yourself at:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/giant-rubiks-cube-floating-on-hudson-river-to-mark-40th-anniversary-of-puzzle-9600934.html

So, to an old adversary, friend, and comfort – happy birthday Rubik. Can I call you Rubik, or would you prefer Mr. Cube? After all you are 40 now.

Chuck Noll: Who was a better NFL coach?

Legendary Pittsburgh Steeler coach Chuck Noll, winner of four Super Bowl championships in six years.

Recently, I heard about the passing of Chuck Noll, and it brought back a flood of memories. Through

the years I have come to really consider him one of the best coaches in NFL history but, like his peer and rival John Madden, he was always underrated. It was as if the teams coached themselves because they were so full of talent. Well, I don’t believe that was the case.

In fact, Chuck Noll has to be considered one of the best coaches in NFL history based solely on the fact he won four Super Bowls – and it was in a span of six years. Then, more than a decade later, with a team that no one could say was full of talent, he won coach of the year.

What more can you say?

The first time

When I first encountered him, he was the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that I never really liked at the time, but came to respect as the years went by. The first ever Super Bowl I watched featured the Steelers against the Dallas Cowboys. I took an instant liking to Dallas' quarterback, Roger Staubach, and the Steelers stood in his way. Worse, due in part to a dropped pass in the endzone by Dallas, Pittsburgh won that Super Bowl. I had bet my dad $5, and losing that made me dislike the Steelers even more.

The next year, the Los Angeles Rams upset the Cowboys in the NFC en route to the Super Bowl and faced Noll and the Steelers. I had started to cheer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who LA beat in the NFC championship game, so I was somewhat ambivalent about who won the Super Bowl. Yet again though, Pittsburgh triumphed. And even then, I really didn’t like teams who won too much.

And then the Steelers kind of faded from view.

Stopping Elway

The next time I really took notice of the Steelers was in 1985. They were not a super-talented team, but qualified for the playoffs. Awaiting them was the Denver Broncos led by phenom John Elway. I really had no time for Elway after he blackmailed the Baltimore Colts into trading him to Denver. He threatened to play baseball instead, remain unsigned, and re-enter the draft the following year. That would leave the Colts with nothing for the first overall pick. I was not a Colts fan at that point, but Elway’s antics undermined the draft. It was designed to help bad teams get better by giving them first crack at the best young players. Elway threatened to destroy that. I have never liked anyone who considered themselves bigger than, or above, the game.

So, as the Steelers got ready to face the Broncos, I found myself cheering for Pittsburgh. By then, there was not much left from those Super Bowl teams besides receiver John Stallworth. They were an under dog now, and I always liked the under dog.

And they were still coached by Chuck Noll.

They had returned to the playoffs the previous year, finishing first in the AFC Central before being eliminated by my L.A. Raiders, who went on to win the Super Bowl. In 1984, they repeated as champions of the AFC Central, facing the Broncos, champions of the AFC West, in one of the AFC Divisional playoff games.

The Steelers were led by a good defence, as always, and quarterback Mark Malone, talented receiver Louis Lipps, and runningback Frank Pollard.

The teams met in Mile High Stadium in Denver. Before the game, broadcasters Merlin Olsen and Dick Enberg talked about Elway being injured. I distinctly remember Olsen emphasizing that without Elway’s mobility, the Bronco offence became “very ordinary”. Well, the Denver quarterback trotted out with his thigh wrapped tightly, so he likely was hampered a bit by injury.

The game went back and forth, with Denver leading 17-10 in the third quarter when Malone hit Lipps for a touchdown to tie the game at 17 with 15 minutes to play.

It looked very much like overtime loomed until, with about three minutes left, Steeler safety Eric Williams intercepted a pass and returned it deep into Denver territory. Pollard would go on to punch it in, giving the Steelrs the improbable 24-17 win.

The next week, Pittsburgh went into Miami for the AFC Championship Game. That was the first time I heard Steeler receiver John Stallworth talk about “One for the thumb”. There were still players on the team from those dynasty years who had four Super Bowl rings and were looking for an unprecedented fifth – one for the thumb.

It was not to be. Miami quarterback Dan Marino had set all kinds of passing records and, although Malone threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns, along with three interceptions, Marino passed for 421 yards and four touchdowns, both AFC Championship records, to cruise to a 45-28 win. The joy was short-lived as Marino was harried, harassed, and harangued by the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl. Marino would never play in another Super Bowl after that either.

Individual glory – at last

The 1989 season did not hold much promise. The Steelers had finished 5-11 in 1988, and there was not much hope for any improvement when they opened the 1989 season with a 51-0 loss at home to Cleveland, the worst defeat in franchise history. That was followed the next week by a 41-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, who were defending AFC champions.

However, the Steelers managed to rally, finishing with a 9-7 record, good enough for third in the AFC Central, and clinching a Wildcard berth in the last week of the season. Awaiting them in the AFC Wildcard game was the Houston Oilers who beat the Steelers in both regular season meetings, 27-0 and 23-16.

The Steelers would have the last laugh, shocking the Oilers in the Houston Astrodome, as Gary Anderson kicked a field goal in overtime for the 26-23 win.

Again, the clock struck midnight for Cinderella the following week, as the Steelers put up an amazing fight in the AFC Divisional Playoff Game, but fell 24-23 to Elway and the Broncos. Denver, however, would suffer the same fate as Miami five years earlier, advancing all the way to the Super Bowl before being blown out by those same San Francisco 49ers.

Later that year Chuck Noll, winner of four Super Bowls, finally was named coach of the year. What a way to end the 1980s.

Parting thoughts

Chuck Noll may well be the greatest coach in the Super Bowl era of NFL history, but he will seldom if ever even be in the conversation. No other coach in league history has won four Super Bowls. None of the Bills – Walsh, Parcells, or Belichick. Not Vince Lombardi, John Madden, or Joe Gibbs. And Noll did it in six years.

Yet, pundits chalk that success up to the talent. They never acknowledge the fact he spent countless hours on the road scouting that talent. Or that he coached the fundamentals and moulded that raw talent into all-stars and champions. Or that, had they not won all those Super Bowls, he would have been blamed for not getting his team ready.

If football is about results, no one achieved better results – and in a shorter period of time – than Chuck Noll. Add to that the fact that, more than a decade later, he took a team that had finished 5-11, and made them into a playoff team and a contender.

He was one of the best ever, without a doubt.

Tony Gwynn: A testament to loyalty, class, and performance

Tony Gwynn with that classic batting stance for the San Diego Padres.

He may have been the greatest pure hitter of his generation, but beyond that he was a gentleman, a class act, and a testament to loyalty. Sadly, Tony Gwynn died recently, far too young, the victim of cancer. He was 54.

Loyalty

Tony Gwynn played 20 major league seasons, from 1982 to 2001, earned eight National League batting titles, and did so much more. What struck me though was, in an era of open free agency, he played his entire career with one team – the San Diego Padres. He could easily have jumped to teams with better chances of winning the World Series, but he never did. Instead, he played in both World Series the Padres played in their history, 14 years apart. Unfortunately, both times San Diego ran into immensely talented juggernauts and never really stood much of a chance. But it never turned him off the Padres or motivated him to seek greener pastures.

Moreover, he played in an era where players began to use performance-enhancing drugs. As they grew stronger and their play stayed at an artificially-high level, Gwynn grew heavier as men who age naturally will do. Yet, he stayed at a high level, eschewing the need to use any drug to improve his performance. The fact he stayed clean, and still put up those numbers against peers who were cheating, makes his career even more remarkable.

By the numbers

For sure, he was the greatest Padre in franchise history, but his numbers make him one of the greatest players too. In addition to his eight batting titles, tied for the second most in major league history, he was a 15-time all-star, won five Gold Gloves as an outfielder, seven Silver Slugger awards, had 3,141 career hits and a career batting average of .338.

Tony Gwynn, speaking at his induction to the
Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

He finished in the top 10 in batting for 15 consecutive seasons; led the league in hits seven times; hit above .300 in a National League record 19 straight seasons; hit above .350 for five consecutive seasons; won four consecutive batting titles; won four batting titles in each of two separate decades; had four of the top 14 best season averages since Ted Williams was the last player to bat .400 in a season in 1941; and he led the league in batting average and hits in the same year six times.

His son, Tony Gwynn Junior, would also make the major leagues, and currently plays for the Philadelphia Phillies.

He was inducted into the hall of fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility and just six years after retirement.

Parting thoughts

In the 1980s, there was nowhere near the amount of baseball coverage as we see today. I never saw Tony Gwynn play a lot, but once I saw him play, I immediately respected him for his behaviour and class. He was an ambassador of the game and, by never leaving the Padres, he put loyalty and team ahead of winning.

We don’t see a lot of that anymore.

Tony Gwynn had turned his attention to managing and teaching young players the game. It is sad he died so young, because he could have taught so much more to the next generation of players – about hitting and about life.

Thank you Tony.

* This video is of Tony Gwynn Junior's first game back
after his father's death. It is a truly touching moment.

Casey Kasem: Pioneering the charts

Casey Kasem with his wife Jean.

Casey Kasem, pioneer of the top 40 countdown.

Although I started listening to music in 1984 at the
beginning of Grade 10, I really got into it the next year when Grade 11 started. About that time every Saturday that I could, I listened to two
countdown shows. I’m pretty sure both were on CKXL 1140 in Calgary. One was a local show, the other was the legendary, “American Top 40” hosted by the iconic Casey Kasem.

I hadn’t thought much about that until recently, when I heard Casey Kasem had passed away.

America’s Top 40

There was something comforting about the voice. More than how he said it, Kasem added value to the countdown with a great turn of phrase and information on the songs and artists he was counting down. I listened to it in the living room on mom’s stereo, then at work when I started working for Gergeley’s Greenhouse. The jingle, “Casey’s Coast to Coast” became as familiar as the songs he was playing.

Jean Kasem and Dan Hedaya as Nick and Loretta, "The Tortellis".
Here they stumble into Cheers before getting their own show.

The wife

In the second season of “Cheers”, 1983-1984, Carla Tortelli, played by Rhea Perlman, is visited by her ex-husband Nick. He is getting married to a beautiful but dumb blonde bombshell named Loretta. Eventually, in January of 1987, Nick and Loretta got their own show, “The Tortellis”, which lasted 13 episodes.

Loretta was played by Jean Kasem, Casey’s second wife, who was married to him until the day he died. There was a fight in the last part of Casey’s life over custody of him between Jean and his children by his first wife.

Parting thoughts

The last time I heard Casey Kasem was in the summer of 1996. He was hosting a different program, but the voice and the style were still unmistakable. I was working for the Edmonton Oilers setting up “Breakout '96” and the semi trucks that hauled in all the equipment were blasting the radio. There he was, counting down the hits of 1996. I did not recognize a lot of them, as I had paid no attention to pop music the previous three years or so, but I got to know all about them thanks to Casey. I kept thinking, I hadn’t heard him in years, but the style was still the same.

There was something comforting and reassuring about the fact the countdown was the same, week in and week out, while so much else changed. It made perfect sense, because Casey Kasem pioneered the whole concept of the countdown show, back in 1970.

Thanks for everything you taught me about music as a historian and disc jockey. Now rest in peace – you deserve it.

* This video is the perfect countdown. It is for the week of Feb. 15, 1986. That was a pivotal week in my music-listening life. It was three days before my 16th birthday, and a couple weeks before I started working at the greenhouse. Plus, it better demonstrates what Casey Kasem was than anything I could write. I likely listened to it live.

Meeting Dan Matheson: Going on national TV

I was interviewed by Dan Matheson of CTV News Channel on June 18, one of the days of the flooding here in Claresholm. Me and Dan Matheson go way back. I started watching him when he did sports on "Canada AM" back in the 1980s.

He actually did a lot of sports for CTV, who were really trying to get in the game as a major sports broadcaster. He hosted the 1984-1985 and 1985-1986 National Hockey League broadcasts. They were mostly Friday night games, with some on Sunday afternoons, and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Matheson was the host, while Dan Kelly did the play-by-play and for awhile Brad Park did the colour commentary. However, he left mid-season to become coach of the Detroit Red Wings.

Matheson was also host of the 1987 Canada Cup, which to my mind was the best hockey tournament ever.

So, really, it was kind of surreal to be interviewed by someone who I have watched on TV since I was a kid. Here's the clip:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=384114&binId=1.810401&playlistPageNum=184114&binId=1.810401&playlistPageNum=1

Jim Keegstra: A class project forges a friendship

Jim Keegstra was fired from his job as a social studies
teacher in Eckville, Alberta for telling his students the Holocaust didn't happen.

It was the first time in my life I really thought about freedom of speech, what limits should be put on it, and what promoting hatred was. In the process I met my best friend.

This past week the death of Jim Keegstra brought a stream of memories cascading back from life in Grade 10, particularly Social 10 in second semester, spring of 1985.

Shattered trust

The story made national headlines. Jim Keegstra, a social studies teacher in Eckville, Alberta, had been fired for teaching his students the Holocaust never happened. Ultimately he was charged with wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group and convicted.

Meanwhile in Toronto, Ernst Zundel, was also in court for denying the Holocaust happened, after publishing a pamphlet questioning whether six million people died.

These cases were inextricably linked because Keegstra and Zundel were represented by the same man, lawyer Doug Christie.

I was in Grade 9 when all this stuff began to come out. Even back then I thought Keegstra had abused his power as a social teacher. We talked a lot about politics and current events in our house, but I knew not all families were like ours.

Pretty soon I would get a chance to learn more about all this, and put my views to the test.

Class project

I first met Chris Vining at the beginning of Grade 10, when our lockers were next to each other and we began to chat. When second semester came, we were actually in a few classes together.

One was Social Studies 10, with Miss Val Cooper. It covered a broad range of material, mostly about Canada. Throughout the year, we had to do two class projects. They were pretty involved, including a researched written report and, for the second one, an oral presentation.

Miss Cooper assigned partners alphabetically for the first one and, low and behold, Vining was assigned to me (I just laughed out loud because I realized I met my best friend because our names followed each other in the alphabet). Anyway, that first project was about Canadian foreign policy and the country’s role in the Strategic Defence Initiative, or Star Wars defence policy as it was called, being put forth by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. We did a written report on that, primarily during class time, but also at lunch hours.

A few months later, we had another project and could choose any partner we liked. By then, Vining and I had been bench partners in Biology 10 for a few months (also assigned alphabetically), and began talking frequently on the phone.

So we chose each other, and were actually assigned the topic of Keegstra and Zundel by Miss Cooper. The next few weeks, as melodramatic as it sounds, changed the course of my life forever.

The report

Miss Cooper had some material, which we ran through pretty quickly, then we hit the school library. Mr. Dick Kanashiro, the school librarian, helped us find some more in newspapers, magazines, and what was called “the vertical file”. I also had a personal interest in the Holocaust, and the various concentration camps in particular.

We had tons of class time to do this, but we realized it would not be enough, and we would have to get together outside of school. The problem was it was not real easy for me to get to town. It was the story of my life.

Ultimately, we arranged for my dad to drop me off at Chris’ house after church on Sunday. It was the first time I had ever been to his house, and we worked quite a bit. We also procrastinated, talking about sports, and school.

Later that week, on a Wednesday night, I arranged to stay after school and we worked late. The report was done, but we still had the oral presentation to do. I was the better writer, and wrote a good chunk of the report, while Chris was already a much better public speaker than me, so he agreed to do the talking. I would be there to answer questions.

I remember my mom saying they would pick me up at like 9 p.m., and we were scrambling to get everything done. We were still writing when I saw my parents pull up to the house.

What I remember was a show I had stared watching, “Double Dare” starring Billy Dee Williams and Ken Wahl, was just starting when we left Vining’s house in Coaldale, and it aired Wednesday nights.

Oral presentation

The crux of our presentation was that Keegstra and Zundel were promoting hatred. There was undeniable evidence the Holocaust had happened, and what they were doing was an “abuse of our cultural mosaic”. Me and Vining were both pretty proud of that phrase. We were supposed to offer solutions as well, and one I recall was a random sampling of unaddressed junk mail to screen for hate literature.

After we were done, I remember one of our classmates named John, asking a simple question, “What if it’s true?”

I was trying to be funny, as insecure teenagers can be, and responded, “What the hell do you mean?”

The whole class laughed, while Miss Cooper covered her ears at the use of the word “hell”. That brought more laughter.

In retrospect, John hit at the heart of all these types of cases: truth is a defence for slander, libel, and defamation. At the time, I smiled and told him in this case there were millions of witnesses to the events of the Holocaust, and they all couldn’t be lying. Moreover, the stories from camps like Dachau and Buchenwald were too similar for survivors to make them out. It would have to have been a mass conspiracy for thousands and thousands of survivors to get their story straight if they had made it up.

It was an energetic and lively discussion, which is why it still sticks out in my mind.

And we got a killer mark in the end.

A year later, Chris and I were standing in the hall and a Grade 10er who Chris knew came up to him. He had been assigned the same topic and not only had the same materials we did, but a copy of our presentation. He said the teacher said it was one of the best, so he wanted some pointers. By then, both of us had moved on so far beyond that point, we had very little recollection of the whole project.

Parting thoughts

The benefit of time, age, and experience show Jim Keegstra was out of bounds in teaching his students the Holocaust never happened. Yet, doing that report was the first time I began to realize that freedom of speech was not a black and white issue, which I guess was the whole point Miss Cooper was trying to teach us.

What is a reasonable limit on that freedom? Given what I do for a living, I still contemplate that issue every day.

Along the way, I also met the best friend I would have in high school. We went on to be roommates in university, I would stand by him at his first wedding, and we shared countless experiences and memories.

What more could you ask for?

“Chicago 18”, “Chicago 19”, et “Cetera”: Life after Peter

The album cover for
"Chicago 18", released in 1986

The album cover for
"Chicago 19", released in 1988

Sometimes it’s hard for a band to rebound after their front man leaves. Often he, or she, was not only the ace but the leader and creative core of the band.

I thought for sure when I heard in the summer of 1985 that Peter Cetera was leaving Chicago, the band would never recover. Cetera certainly went on to achieve unprecedented solo success on the charts.

Much to my surprise, Chicago was not dead and buried, but ended the 1980s with two hit albums and some pretty solid chart success of their own.

Chicago 18

It was another case of hearing not quite what I expected. This great song came on the radio one afternoon, and I did not recognize the singer. Once the deejay came back, he said it was the latest song by Chicago. I could not believe my ears, but in fact it was true.

The song was called, “Will You Still Love Me,” and it came near the end of 1986. It would reach number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Chicago’s first top ten single post-Peter Cetera. They would have one more single do reasonably well off that album: “If She Would Have Been Faithful…” which peaked at number 17.

They had a new lead singer to replace Cetera, named Jason Scheff, and with him Chicago sounded more to me like Toto than old Chicago.

“Chicago 18” also marked the last time David Foster would produce an album for the band, following the success of “Chicago 16” and “Chicago 17”.

The album did reach gold status, but marked a change in Chicago from being a band that sold a lot of albums, to being more of a singles band.

Chicago 19

By the time “Chicago 19” was released in 1988, I was not listening to music as keenly as I had been before. I had nowhere near the level of understanding I had before then.

The first single, “I Don’t Want to Live Without Your Love”, came out that summer, and I recall hearing it when I moved up to Edmonton for my second year of university in late August. We stopped by Airdrie to take a break and I was listening to the countdown on one of the radio stations. The deejay said it was the first time in history there were two songs in the top 20 that started, “I Don’t Want to…” One was “I Don’t Want to Live Without Your Love” by Chicago, the other was, “I Don’t Wan’t to go on With You Like That” by Elton John. Chicago’s single would peak at number three, setting the stage for something bigger.

Late in 1988, Chicago released “Look Away”. It moved up the charts, peaking at number one for two weeks in December. It also ended up the number one song in the Billboard Hot 100 year-end rankings for 1989.

Ending the 1980s

Chicago ended the decade with a compilation called, “Greatest Hits: 1982-1989”. It had some original material, including a slightly remixed version of, “What Kind of Man Would I Be”. The single peaked in late 1989 at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, after first appearing on “Chicago 19” a year earlier.

Parting thoughts

Overall, it was probably a saw off whether Peter Cetera or Chicago without him was more successful. Cetera had two number-one singles right off the bat, but Chicago ended up with the number one song of an entire year, and three other top five hits.

But success, if it really matters, goes beyond that. The truth is, Chicago was a different band with a different sound after Peter Cetera left. It was somewhat similar, due to the influence of producer David Foster, but that even ended after “Chicago 18”. They still put out great songs that obviously resonated with listeners.

And in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Peter Cetera: Life after Chicago

Peter Cetera's 1986 solo effort "Solitude/Solitaire". My good friend
Mat bought this album when he joined Columbia House and I had the
privilege of listening to it. It was worth the time. "Glory of Love" and
"Next Time I Fall" were the best singles, but the title track was not bad.

Often when singers leave bands to go solo, they never experience anywhere near the same success. That wasn’t the case for Peter Cetera. After he left Chicago, he went on to considerable success as a solo artist, almost eclipsing the band itself.

The departure

By the mid-80s, Peter Cetera had become the face of the band Chicago, although they had several band members sing various songs. The arrival of David Foster as the band’s producer in 1981, and the subsequent release of “Chicago 16”, coincided with the dawn of music videos. Since Cetera sang all the singles Chicago released, he was the centre of each music video. (For the uninitiated, he is he blonde singer in “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”; “Stay the Night”; “Hard Habit to Break”; “You’re the Inspiration”; and “Along Comes a Woman”)

In the summer of 1985, CBC’s “Good Rockin’ Tonite” had Foster and Cetera appear as their guests. It was the first time I had ever known that was the name of the singer.

Host Terry David Mulligan asked a variety of questions. The one I recall best, was when he asked Cetera if he heard any emerging summer hits. Cetera said it was pretty early, but if he had to hazard a guess, it was “Some Like it Hot”, a song by The Power Station.

The interview had been taped. When it faded out to Mulligan alone on set, he said shortly after that interview was taped, Peter Cetera announced he was leaving Chicago.

What would become of Peter Cetera? It did not take long to find out.

Summer of ‘86

The voice sounded familiar, but it was hard to tell for sure in the setting I was in. My buddy and neighbour Mat was working on a nearby egg farm. They were cleaning out a barn, and needed a bunch of people to do the work. So Mat rounded up a bunch of us – me, my best fried Chris Vining, a guy named Mike, and some others. Mat flipped on a ghetto blaster he had to help pass the time.

Suddenly, it came on. It sounded like Chicago, but I wasn’t sure. I’d been concentrating pretty intently, so I only clued in part way through. Of course, as always seemed to be the case back then, when the song finished the deejay didn’t bother saying who sang it. I waited for the song to come back on, and I think it did, but I couldn’t make out much.

That night, I flipped on the same station we had been listening to at the egg farm. It was AM 1060, but curiously it marketed itself as AM 106, maybe to make it sound more like an FM station. They had two shows Mat listened to that he told me about: “The Top Six at Six” and “The Top Ten at Ten”. They were the most requested songs of the day. I got home after six, so at 10 p.m. I tuned in. Adding to the mystery was that after around 10 p.m., the signal began to weaken, and there was a lot more static. Conceivably, I might not hear the song if there was some ill-timed interference or static.

And that almost happened – but it didn’t.

“The Glory of Love”

Instead, I discovered the song was called “The Glory of Love”, and sure enough it was by Peter Cetera. What really peaked my interest was the song was off the soundtrack for the soon-to-be-released sequel to “The Karate Kid”.

“The Glory of Love” bolted up the charts all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for two weeks in August of 1986, before being displaced by Madonna and “Papa Don’t Preach”. The song would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for best original song, losing to “Take My Breath Away” from “Top Gun” and performed by Berlin. Cetera would also be nominated for best pop vocal performance by a male artist, losing out to Steve Winwood and “Higher Love”.

“Next Time I Fall”

“The Glory of Love” was released as part of Cetera’s solo album, “Solitude/Solitaire”. A few months later, Cetera was back on top of the charts with another number one single. This time it was a duet with Christian singer Amy Grant called “Next Time I Fall”. I always recall the video, set in a dance studio, shifting back and forth between the dancer, Grant, and Cetera. “Next time I Fall” displaced “You Give Love A Bad Name,” Bon Jovi’s first number one single, in early December of 1986, then after a week on top was displaced by “The Way It Is”, Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s first number one single.

Cetera and Grant would be nominated for a Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals, losing to "Dionne and Friends" for “That’s What Friends Are For”.

Perhaps the best accolade Cetera received was not an award, but the satisfaction that his first post-Chicago solo album sold more copies than Chicago’s next album – “Chicago 18”.

Parting Thoughts

To be honest, Peter Cetera always was Chicago for me. Some of their other songs grew on me over time, and I really like them, but I enjoyed his lead vocals the most. The audience seems to agree. Although Chicago may have sold as many or more records than any other group in the 1970s, their only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 was “If You Leave Me Now” – sung by Peter Cetera. Once David Foster came aboard, and began to emphasize all those great ballads, it was a lock – Peter Cetera was Chicago.

So when he went solo in 1986, it was pretty much a certainty it would be good  – and it was. I may have grown a little tired of “Glory of Love”, but that was due to vinyl fatigue – it always seemed to be on the radio, but “Next Time I Fall” has remained one of my all-time favourite songs. It is a testament to the power of Peter Cetera’s voice as a balladeer.