In 1972, my family was flooded out of our Kingston home by Hurricane Agnes. I spent the summer living with my best friend and his family. John and I worked at the only car wash in Wilkes-Barre. Needless to say, we were busy all the time as flood victims came to wash the thick cruddy mud left behind by the Susquehanna River from their cars. To pass the time of day we listened to 8-track tapes, including one called FM-AM by George Carlin. That album contained the "seven dirty words you can't say on TV." We loved it.
One day my friend's father asked to see the tape case. Panic! He knew we had the Carlin tape. We never did figure out how he knew. Tickling the different tapes, he found what he was looking for. He promptly removed the tape, placd it on the ground and smashed it to smithereens. He said nothing more. Neither did we.
After he pulled away, we removed the "Steppenwolf," tape from the case and placed it in the 8-track player and we listened to, "George Carlin, FM and AM." You see we knew this would happen and we had switched the contents of the two catridges. We listened to George Carlin day and night. I even memorized most of the routines and used to get invited to perform them. I even did a Carlin performance at a high school. Carlin was a genius. Enough said. RIP.
1 comment:
Kevin: Your George Carlin story was a classic. Only a kid with "planning skills" like you could prevent a parental invasion of Carlin's AM/FM. It is a story he would have enjoyed hearing. And likely one he might have used in a set.
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