rsmith
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Messages
- 6,322
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 50' CONV -Series I (1966 - 1969)
Wrote this for another site but people on here that remember the old Lauderdale might appreciate it. My dad bought the Endless Summer June 76 in Lauderdale almost 50 years and 20,000 hours later I still have her.
Its been almost half a century, and if there was a better summer than 1976 I'll eat my Jethro Tull tour shirt. We had it all; the Bicentennial, Tall Ships in Newport, the Olympcs in Montreal when Bruce Jenner won the Decathalon, The Ramones began their trip into Punk Rock glory with their first albulm, Zeppelin was still together, you could buy an ounce of "gold" for forty bucks and every girl wore her hair long, went barefoot and wore jean shorts and not much else.
Boston and Peter Frampton dominated the airwaves, and everybody was on board - the jocks, the brains and the burnouts. Nobody wanted to kill anybody, we just wanted to live as if every minute of that summer held a special kind magic, enough to last a half a century in an old man's mind, and make him roll down the windows and turn the radio up all the way when Cheap Trick comes on and blast it like it was coming from a Pioneer Supertuner with a power booster and Jensens in the back...
The Endless Summer was finally ours and docked at Pier 66. Pier 66 changed the outside lights and was red white and blue. I put an 8 track on the bridge with Jensen coaxials (no one could afford triaxials) and had 3 tapes Boston Frampton comes alive and ELO. I think I bought Foghat at Peaches records and tape which is a porn shop now. WSHE was the go to music station in the greater Ft Lauderdale Miami area and the DJ’s had that bass monotone delivery. Afternoons started at Uncle Phil’s prop club. A little bar by the swimming hall of fame. Airplane propellers on the walls and a giant parachute hanging from the ceiling. 3:30-4 all the charter captains would start coming in and I’d pick their brains for fishing updates. Bartender was a 27yo braless beauty. First time I was told “my eyes are up here” From there I’d wander over to the Button on the beach. The Lauderdale art institute was on the second floor and by 5 the classes would let out and the girls would start filling up the bar. As Tom Cruise said it was a target rich environment. You could sit at the bar and had a panoramic view of the ocean. I remember remember sitting there one thanksgiving after a front came through watching the breaking waves offshore listening to Gordon Lightfoot sing about the gales of November
I guess it really was magic, because I remember it like yesterday.
Its been almost half a century, and if there was a better summer than 1976 I'll eat my Jethro Tull tour shirt. We had it all; the Bicentennial, Tall Ships in Newport, the Olympcs in Montreal when Bruce Jenner won the Decathalon, The Ramones began their trip into Punk Rock glory with their first albulm, Zeppelin was still together, you could buy an ounce of "gold" for forty bucks and every girl wore her hair long, went barefoot and wore jean shorts and not much else.
Boston and Peter Frampton dominated the airwaves, and everybody was on board - the jocks, the brains and the burnouts. Nobody wanted to kill anybody, we just wanted to live as if every minute of that summer held a special kind magic, enough to last a half a century in an old man's mind, and make him roll down the windows and turn the radio up all the way when Cheap Trick comes on and blast it like it was coming from a Pioneer Supertuner with a power booster and Jensens in the back...
The Endless Summer was finally ours and docked at Pier 66. Pier 66 changed the outside lights and was red white and blue. I put an 8 track on the bridge with Jensen coaxials (no one could afford triaxials) and had 3 tapes Boston Frampton comes alive and ELO. I think I bought Foghat at Peaches records and tape which is a porn shop now. WSHE was the go to music station in the greater Ft Lauderdale Miami area and the DJ’s had that bass monotone delivery. Afternoons started at Uncle Phil’s prop club. A little bar by the swimming hall of fame. Airplane propellers on the walls and a giant parachute hanging from the ceiling. 3:30-4 all the charter captains would start coming in and I’d pick their brains for fishing updates. Bartender was a 27yo braless beauty. First time I was told “my eyes are up here” From there I’d wander over to the Button on the beach. The Lauderdale art institute was on the second floor and by 5 the classes would let out and the girls would start filling up the bar. As Tom Cruise said it was a target rich environment. You could sit at the bar and had a panoramic view of the ocean. I remember remember sitting there one thanksgiving after a front came through watching the breaking waves offshore listening to Gordon Lightfoot sing about the gales of November
I guess it really was magic, because I remember it like yesterday.
