Gun it coming off of the line

1979 starts with the Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII, 35–31.

It's the last half of my fifth grade year. Once a week I have saxophone lessons with Mr. Scharff whom I frustrate greatly with my better than average ability to sight read music but my lower than average effort to ever practice. I usually walk to Grandma D's house after practice by heading northeast from school, through the park, over the railroad tracks (smashing pennies on occasion), past Danya's aunt's house, through the Beebe's back yard (always saying 'hi' to Mr. and Mrs. Beebe), and on to Grandma's house. I opened her garage door by standing on my sax case and hitting the hidden button at the top of the garage door frame.

Long standing tradition is turned upside down when New Orleans cancels Mardi Gras due to a police strike. And, Iran falls to religious extremists.

The Space Shuttle Columbia arrives in Florida. A cheap 8-track to cassette converter eats several of my Columbia House tapes. The Philips company later unveils a thing called a "compact disc."

The day before my eleventh birthday there is an "incident" at a nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania - a bit of unfortunate timing since the preposterous film The China Syndrome debuted a week earlier (not to be confused with The Pepsi Syndrome which tracked much closer to actual events at TMI).

Michigan State beats Indiana State 75-64 in the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Championship. The 'Clones are back below .500 and finish with an 11-16 record.

The family and I move to the hills outside Mondamin. We are now walking distance from Grandpa and Grandma Maule. Though 10 miles further from the elementary school in Modale, the bus ride still takes the same amount of time (about an hour).

Great Britain elects a real leader, Margaret Thatcher. President Jimmy Carter is nearly taken down by a rabid swamp bunny.

Disco comes to a dubious end when 90,000 music lovers show up at a baseball game at Comiskey Park to bring their unwanted disco records to be "blown up" (though I'm not a fan of the genre I personally don't believe in the wanton destruction of artistic works). The White Sox end up forfeiting the game to the Tigers. Disco and techno pop still dominate the charts. Later in the year the Pirates (led by Wilver Stargell) beat the Orioles four games to three to win the World Series.

I'm playing Cub B baseball now with guys from both Modale and Mondamin. I think this is the year that I take the Beast (the 74 Chevy Blazer) and drive half the team from Modale to Woodbine and back for a baseball game. No one asks how we got to the game.

The Dukes of Hazzard, Real People, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century are all new shows on the tv. Yawn. Australian Rules Football enthusiasts are elated when the Entertainment Sports Programming Network takes to the cablewaves. Da da daa, da da daaa.

Eleven people are trampled to death at The Who concert in Cincinnati. Hostages are taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. McDonalds starts offering a new meal combo aimed at children called the Happy Meal. I have attended several concerts that had general admission seating but I can't recall ever having a Happy Meal.

I start sixth grade in the Modale campus. Most of the girls in the class no longer have cooties.

It's a space movie year with Alien, Moonraker, Star Trek: The Motion Picture coming out. We stood in line at the Indian Hills theater in Omaha to see ST:TMP. I was underwhelmed by the story.

The 70's are closed out with the Iowa State football team having a dreadful year under coach Donnie Duncan ending the year with a 3-8 record.

1979 was at best a fair year.

This post's title is from the song "My Sharona" by the Knack which reached number one in 1979 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Be safe