4) Fourth Through Sixth Grades

When school started back, it may not be the same students in one's classroom that there was the previous year because there were three separate classes in the school for each grade. For the first time, I took what was known as the Iowa Tests for aptitude in various things that were given to students across the U.S. early every autumn. We were to read the question and then fill in one of several dots in the multiple choice answers.

Religion was not permitted to be taught in school by this time, but there was a once-a-week activity known as church school. Late in the day, Catholic students walked from 60th Street School to another nearby school for religious instruction and Protestant students went to a nearby church. We did, however, have both a holy scene during the Christmas play. I went once, but I went to the Catholic school by mistake. It was confusing and I didn't go again. I really did not understand the difference between the two or the concepts of religion.

There were large department stores where we would go shopping. The most popular two were K-Mart and Twin Fair. There was also another such store called Grant's. One day, I noticed a hand axe in the hardward section of Twin Fair that I decided I wanted. My father bought it for me and I had a new prized possession.

I ventured into the large field near our home and cut down a small tree. I stripped the bark off it and put tape around one end so that it was like a staff that I could carry around. I got the knack of how to cut a tree down and went and cut another one down. This one took me much less time than the first one.

My next big interest was cars. Once again, it was a matter of accessibility. All I could do with space was read about it and look up into the sky. There was an airport in town and planes were much more accessible than space, but still all I could do was look at or in a plane occasionally. Cars, in contrast, were right in front of me. I was not old enough to drive, but there was our car right outside in the driveway.

My father bought one of several Volkswagens that he had owned at Amendola Volkswagen down by the airport. I looked through the brochures of the different types of car available, the Beetle (or Bug), the Karmann Ghia and, the Minibus. If you asked a boy around this time what kind of car he wanted when he was old enough, the answer would most likely be a Chevy Corvette or a Ford Mustang.

I was nowhere near old enough to drive but I did find a go-kart one day and I brought it home and kept it in the basement. It did not have a motor or anything and I noticed later that it was actually the bottom half of a shopping cart without the basket. But it was my junior version of a car.

I was always interested in how the physics of things work. What would happen if a car happened to run into a fence? It would crash right through, a fence cannot stop a speeding car. But if the car hits a sizable tree, it will demolish the car.

I came to appreciate the structure of those high steel towers used to support high-tension electric transmission lines. There were three sets of them running along 56th Street not far from home. I was also interested in the set-up of the wooden telephone poles that held the wires which delivered electricity and phone service.

There was another open field with a pond nearby. It was not as big as the other one but it had a hill that kids could play and slide on. The hill was actually a pile of dirt used in construction. It was referred to simply as the "Dirt Hill", over by 59th Street. Across 59th Street from the Dirt Hill was a deep trench in the ground.

There was the inevitable mischief. An older boy had gotten hold of a pack of True brand cigarettes and gave one out to any of the younger kids who wanted to try smoking.

Of course, there was new music on the radio. In the autumn of 1969, The Beatles had "Revolution", "Obla Di Obla Da" and "Lady Madonna".

A band called Three Dog Night appeared with "Eli's Coming".

There was "Time Of The Season" by the Zombies

"Venus" by Shocking Blue

"Shiloh" by Neil Diamond

"Suite Judy Blue Eyes" by a band we would hear much more from called Crosby, Stills, Nash and, Young.

One of the most charming songs of the rock era was a one-hit wonder band called The Flying Machine singing "Smile A Little Smile For Me".

I first heard of a band called The Grass Roots. This would become of my favorite bands ever and one that I feel was very underrated. Their autumn 1969 hit was "Midnight Confessions".

There were new shows on television that I had not yet seen, as well as music. A new cartoon had been introduced, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. There was My Three Sons and I Dream Of Jeannie. There was the movie Snow White and Charlie Brown's Halloween. A show with contestants called Truth Or Consequences seemed to be on nearly all the time.

Astronauts went back to the moon again in November 1969. It seemed only a matter of time before space flight became routine. Closer to home, a dam was built to shut off the water to the American Falls in order to determine how the cliff face of the falls might be preserved. The Mets won baseball's World Series and a prominent new name in football on our local Buffal Bills was O.J. Simpson.

As far as food goes, there were two more fast food restaurants around, Henry's and Carolls. All had the usual hamburgers, french fries, soda and, milk shakes. The weight concerns that I should have had were put aside. There were delicious candy bars like Three Muskateers, Mars and, Milky Way. There was a Texaco filling station nearby that installed a vending machine selling hot chocolate.

There were many attractive houses around our area. I liked ranch-style houses but also ones with shutters on the windows and trees in the yard.

I suddenly became concerned with being cool. My parents bought me a pair of purple bell-bottom pants. This was the psychedelic era of tye-dyed shirts, peace signs and, bright colors.

There was soon more music. There was the Everly Brothers with "Dream", although this was an older song, it was often on the radio.

There was also "All Right Now" by Free

"No Time" and "American Woman" by the Guess Who

"Let It Be" by the Beatles.

A new band was introduced, The Jackson 5. Their first hits were "I Want You Back", "The Love You Save", "Mama's Pearl" and "ABC".

I first heard a song that would become one of my favorites years later, "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" by Edison Lighthouse.

On television, there were several family shows such as The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch and, Ozzie And Harriet. There were childrens comedies, most notably The Three Stooges, who were certainly geniuses at acting ridiculous. There was also Abbott And Costello, but I watched that much less than The Three Stooges.

We were offered movies in the school gym after school and there was the famed detective show, The FBI, on TV at home. My father took us to the movies to see "The Battle Of Britain" when it was released.

There was more news. The environmental holiday, Earth Day, was established. By that time, nearby Lake Erie had actually been declared as dead due to pollution.

In our town, a massive reconstrucion of the downtown area began, known as Urban Renewal. It was to focus on the building of a new modern convention center. There was a high-profile campaign for the mayor of our city, one candidate was named Lackey and the other Ingrasci.

But one event happened that was to overshadow everything else. In the spring of 1970, the decision was made to widen the Vietnam War by sending troops into neighboring Cambodia to root out Communist supply networks. College campuses across America were in an uproar with protests against the war. It culminated in four student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio being shot to death when the U.S. National Guard opened fire on them.

As always, there was still more music. The Beatles had "Come Together".

There was a band called Marmalade with "Reflections Of My Life".

Eric Burdon sang a bizarre song called "Spill The Wine".

Simon And Garfunkel were there with "Cecilia".

There were also "Hitching A Ride" by Vanity Fair

"In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

"Come And Get It" by Badfinger

"Love Or Let Me Be Lonely" by The Friends Of Distinction.

I never decided what my all-time favorite song was. But if I had to choose, I just might pick "Cry Me A River" by Joe Cocker. This rocking song was a hit around this time.

Before we knew it, Play Day had arrived at school. For our end-of-year field trip, we went to Tussaud's Wax Museum across the border in Canada. And then, it was out of school for the summer.

During the summers, the roads around Niagara Falls would be filled with cars having out-of-state license plates that were here on vacation to see the falls. During the summer of 1970, I became really fascinated with the view from the observation towers on the Canadian side of the falls and I got my parents to take me up the Skylon or what was then called the Seagram's or Minolta Tower as many times as I could. I can see now how looking at the view from high up helped me to develop a way of big-picture thinking.

There were also museums that I wanted to see, aside from the one that was near the Canadian end of the Rainbow Bridge and had things from ancient Egypt, as well as barrels that had went over the falls and all kinds of other artifacts, there were museums on Clifton Hill, including Tussauds, and the Burning Spring Wax Museum, which was on the high ground right above the falls. A wax museum simply means that it features images of people carved from wax. In the pavilion at the base of the Skylon Tower, there was a museum of elaborate wood carvings by an artist named Potvin.

I had a collection of all of those free brochures offered about all of the tourist attractions in the area. There was always construction and changes going on. A new hotel, which was to be called Michael's Inn was being built around this time at the bottom of Hiram Street, where we had first stayed in Niagara Falls.

The falls were still of interest to us, even after having lived in the Niagara area for five years, and we would often go there. The upper Niagara River was interesting to look at, as well as the falls. Cars could park at the water intakes, where water was pulled in from the river to generate hydroelectricity, and from where a good view of the upper river was offered. We took a tour on the river from Chippawa, around Navy Island and back, on a tour boat called The Niagara Belle. This remains the only time that I have been out on the Niagara River.

Swimming was a prominent part of childhood and I would often go, in the pool at the motel across the street from us, or to Chippawa. I got a new shiny black bike to replace the one that I had brought from the Canadian side. This one was an adult bike, without angel bars or a banana seat. It had hand brakes and a three-speed gear shift.

But I was still having too much in the way of calories in food. There was several brands of soda in the store to choose from; Fanta, Faygo and, Shasta. There was an ice cream van that went around neighborhoods and stopping periodically so that people could order ice cream or milkshakes. We started going to Kentucky Fried Chicken, as well as the other fast food restaurants.

Finally, in the summer of 1970, a new fast-food restaurant was built that would become a favorite. The Burger King that is still at the corner of Niagara Falls Boulevard and 74th Street. I watched it's construction and waited for it to open. It was closer to our house than McDonald's or the Red Barn.

If there was ever a best summer for music, it may have been that of 1970. There was no end to the awesome new songs that were on the radio. Some songs were more easy listening.

There was "Snowbird" by Canada's Ann Murray

"Fire And Rain" by James Taylor

"What The World Needs Now" by Jackie DeShannon

The Carpenters had "Close To You" and "We've Only Just Begun".

There was a song, "Joanne" by Michael Nesmith, who had been one of the Monkees. It was about a really sweet girl who lived in the countryside.

Other songs of the summer of 1970 were more rocking. There was "Hand Me Down World" by the Guess Who

"I Can See For Miles" by The Who. This may have been an earlier song but this is when I remember it from.

A group called Badfinger hit with "No Matter What", one of my favorites.

There was "Vehicle", sung by the Ides Of March.

Some songs had a political or sociological message. There was "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell. It was about the destruction of nature by development. About "Take paradise and put up a parking lot" and "Take all the trees, put them in a tree museum and, charge the people a dollar and a half just to see them".

There was the signature anti-war song, "War" , by Edwin Starr. It had the refrain "War can't give life, it can only take it away".

There was "Mama Told Me Not To Come" by Three Dog Night. It was about a guy who ignored his parents' advice not to go to a party, and then found that the people there were doing drugs.

The ultimate political rock song was probably "Ohio" from 1970. It was by Crosby, Stills, Nash and, Young and was about the shootings at Kent State University in Ohio, that had happened a few months previously.

There was also "Question" by the Moody Blues, a song that would always remind me of the time of the Vietnam War. The local Air Base held an open house to help public relations and showed the airplanes stationed there.

But there were far more memorable songs during this summer that did not fit into any of the above categories. There was a song about a fugitive, "Indiana Wants Me", by R. Dean Taylor.

There was a song about an poor orphan boy left to provide for his family, "Patches" by Clarence Carter.

There was "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder.

There was two older songs that I first noticed at this time, "Well-Respected Man" by The Kinks and "House of The Rising Sun" by the Animals.

The Chairmen of The Board had "Give Me Just A Little More Time".

Freda Payne did "Band Of Gold"

Eric Clapton had "After Midnight", which is one of the best rock songs.

I first heard the band Chicago. The song "Beginnings" almost always seemed to be on the radio.

The song "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago is about a songwriter who is suffering from writer's block while up in the middle of the night trying to write a song. He looks at the clock and sees that it is just past 3:30 in the morning, it is 25 or 6 to 4 (which would be 3:34 or 3:35).

Around Niagara Falls, we were reading and hearing more and more about the Urban Renewal that was getting under way. It was to be the complete reconstruction of the downtown area of the city.

I learned of another project that I thought would be a disaster for me. Right in the middle of my beloved field nearby, a Chevrolet car dealership was to be built. It would not take up the entire field, only about 1/3 of it. The pond in the field would be reduced in size and changed in shape by the construction, but it would still be there. Plans were also made to take up a part of the field behind our house with an Exxon gasoline station.

In the summer of 1970 I first played both basketball and baseball, which are two all-American sports. There was a basketball rivalry between Niagara University and St. Bonaventure University, some distance away. The boy across the street was really into basketball and had a basketball net set up. I first heard of famous basketball players, both from Niagara University and national, such as Calvin Murphy, Wilt Chamberlain, Ed Street and, Bob Lanier.

I joined a Little League Baseball team. I was on a team called the Yankees. We wore black shirts and were sponsored by a store called Baio Appliance. Each team in the league wore a shirt of a different color and was sponsored by a different business.

It was a summer of baseball diamonds. I thought that we were better than the Red Sox, which we played twice. The Cubs were better than we were, but were not as good as the Orioles. The best team of all in the league was probably the Senators.

We had a big tournament at a school called LaSalle Junior High School, which had several baseball diamonds. This was the first I saw of the big old brick school where I would be going myself in a couple of years. Although we the could see the tall smokestack of the school from the east windows of 60th Street School.

Baseball season finished for the summer with a big picnic at Oppenheim Park, just outside Niagara Falls, beyond the airport.

Fifth grade began in September 1970, with a teachers' strike. Some of the teachers of our school were walking a picket line outside the school. My class was in the same second-floor classroom that third grade had been in, when I had first landed in the U.S. and started at this school.

During this school year, a favorite activity would be drawing designs of the rocketships that we might someday build. My father wanted me to start learning a foreign language and would take me to weekly French classes that were then being offered at what was then the high school downtown.

I would first begin to be interested in my English heritage. I had a world atlas with a map of Britain. My father would pick out a town in England, give me the map and I would see if I could find it. I was interested in the maps of the rest of the world as well.

The crime show taking place in England's countryside, the Avengers, was popular at this time and I first went to Fort Niagara, which had been held by British forces in the colonial era. Our social studies at school for this year focused on early American history, including Britain's involvement in it.

I also began learning about what had actually happened in the Second World War, which was on television in movies constantly. Some movies about the war which had ended fifteen years before I was born were The Longest Day, The Dirty Dozen, Anzio, Operation Crossbow and, The Battle Of The Bulge. There was The Bridge Over The River Kwai, which was about the Pacific Theater of the war.

My father had been through the war on an RAF Sterling bomber plane. He was actually assigned to fly with a crew of New Zealanders instead of fellow Britons. There were any number of books about the war in our home. In school, I took out the How And Why Wonder Book Of World War One, which was yet another world war before that one. Boys often played guns or with toy soldiers.

My fitness was poor. In gym class tests, I was unable to do one push-up properly. Still, there was a Neisner's Store in the Pine Plaza that served delicious chocolate milkshakes and I got one whenever we went there. I watched the large Chevrolet building being constructed in the nearby field.

I had my first experience with death when our Irish setter, Rusty, was killed by a car on the nearby highway. The police called us on New Years Day, 1971, to tell us that both Rusty and another dog had been killed and I went with my father to pick up his collar.

On television, there was The Partridge Family, Hawaii Five-0 and, Mary Tyler Moore. There was Redd Foxx, starring in a serial as Fred Sanford. There was the comedian Flip Wilson and a new serial that was supposed to be scary called The Addams Family.

There was a very interesting show every weekend about wild animals, Wild Kingdom, sponsored by the insurance company, Mutual of Omaha. There were horror movies on Friday night that many kids stayed up to watch and the surreal serial, The Twilight Zone. The most memorable movie, other than the war movies, was Airport.

And, of course, there was music. I was given a record player for Christmas 1970 that made it much easier to listen to music than with just a radio.

There was "Carolina In My Mind" by James Taylor

"Let's Work Together" by Canned Heat

"Jingle Jangle" by The Archies.

The Osmonds had "Sweet And Innocent" and "One Bad Apple".

The Beatles did "Isn't It A Pity" and "My Sweet Lord".

Joan Baez sang a song about the U.S. Civil War, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

Sugarloaf had "Green-Eyed Lady".

There was "Montego Bay" by Bobby Bloom

Melanie with "Brand New Key"

"Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond

"Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum

"Joy To The World" by Three Dog Night

"Our House" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and, Young

"Fresh As A Daisy" by Emmett Rhodes

"Sweet Mary" by Wadsworth Mansion

"Westbound Number Nine" by Flaming Ember.

The first record that I bought was "Tears Of A Clown" by Smokey Robinson.

The possibility arose that we would move to Williamsville, a suburb of Buffalo. We went to look at a house there that was offered to us but it was an old two-story house and we liked our own home better. But the trip was significant because I heard two new songs on the radio on the drive back home; "Lonely Days" by The Bee Gees and "Candles In The Rain" by Melanie.

For some reason, there were several songs about rain around this time. There was "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again" by the Fortunes, "Rainy Days And Mondays" by the Carpenters and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas.

Before we knew it, Play Day was here again and then school was finished for the summer.

The summer of 1971 was another idyllic summer of riding my bike, swimming, roaming around the nearby field and sometimes building a fort. The construction of the Chevrolet dealership in part of the field had left some new hills of excavated dirt for kids to play on.

At the pond in the field, it was fun to throw bottles or cans into the pond and then sink them by throwing rocks at them. Around this time, aluminum soda cans were introduced. They were easy to sink, I sunk one and then when the pond later dried up in the heat of summer, I noticed the can and saw that my rock had gone right in one side of the can and out the other side.

Some kids down on Stephenson Avenue, just across The Tracks, had built a really impressive tree house, maybe the best one I have ever seen. They had even dug holes around the tree as traps for any unauthorized person who might try to access the treehouse, as if it were a medieval castle or Fort Niagara.

I had my first real encounter with crime when my bike was stolen from beside our house. But I was given a new one to replace it, this time a gold-colored ten speed.

Sometimes we would go bowling at a local bowling alley, but I was not a regular bowler like some kids and I never had my own bowling ball or bowling shoes.

The falls were still of interest to us, as well as the museums around the falls. There were many museums, particularly on the Canadian side of the falls. Tussauds was the best known but it was only the beginning. There was the Movieland Museum on Clifton Hill, as well as the House of Frankenstein with all kinds of features about the creations of Boris Karloff.

I ran into a new scientific interest in the summer of 1971 between fifth and sixth grades. I was given a book The How And Why Wonder Book Of Atomic Energy. I gained an understanding of how atoms are structured as well as how nuclear reactors and bombs worked.

A new soap simply called Lava was introduced. It was supposedly based on lava from a volcano and was more effective than ordinary soap. I was given a bar of it.

There was some tourists from Pennsylvania staying at the motel across the street. I and the boy whose parents operated the motel guided them all around the falls area and the Welland Canal.

Of course, there was too much junk food during this summer. Sometimes we would ride our bikes to Kentucky Fried Chicken or Burger King. There was delicious Shasta brand root beer and Faygo introduced a berry-flavored drink called redpop. Two rival cereals appeared on store shelves, Frankenberry and Count Chocula, but it turns out that they were both actually manufactured by the same company.

One strange thing happened around this time. I and two other boys rode our bikes to the grounds at 60th Street School, which was out for the summer. Suddenly, three teenagers with dazed looks walked over to the school grounds. They walked right past us and did not seem to even notice us. One of them fell down to the ground and started pounding on the ground with his fists, as if he was in the middle of a terrible nightmare. One of the others watched him with a vacant expression on his face while the other one simply stared into space.

I suppose that they must have been using drugs.

On television, a show called Family Affair always seemed to be on. It was about a family in a New York City apartment with a butler called Mr. French. There was Mission Impossible, Room 222 and, The Partridge Family. There was the detective and law shows Cannon, Ironside and, of course, The Andy Griffith Show. The thing that I remember best about television that summer was the Batman movie where the bad guys; The Riddler, The Joker, The Penguin and, Catwoman get together and obtain a submarine.

I just want to state one thing about children being celebrities. A child is not supposed to be a celebrity, a child is supposed to be a child. Nothing can replace an idyllic childhood with ample time spent wandering around empty fields, throwing stones at bottles in ponds, riding bikes and, building treehouses. This is what childhood should be, being a celebrity can come later.

But the most important thing in the summer of 1971 was probably music. Possibly the most memorable song of the summer was "Beginnings" by Chicago. Or maybe "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart.

"It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr, a former Beatle, dominated the airwaves.

Possibly the song that I have listened to the most in my life was "Let Your Love Go" by Bread.

Simon and Garfunkel had a major hit with "Mother And Child Reunion". The song was supposedly based on a dinner of chicken and eggs that one of them was having. Since chicken lay eggs, it was a mother and child reunion.

A band called Yes appeared with "All Good People" one of my favorite songs would be another hit of theirs, "Starship Trooper".

I first heard of another singer named Carly Simon with "The Way I've Always Heard it Should Be".

Some songs of summer 1971 were easier listening like "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens

"Precious And Few" by Climax

"How Do You Mend A Broken Heart" by the Bee Gees

"Me And You And A Dog Named Boo" by Lobo

"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers.

There was a song that I really liked, "Timothy", by The Buoys. I did not pay much attention to the lyrics, something about a mine that had caved in and a lost miner named Timothy. It turns out that the song was about cannibalism. Three miners had survived the cave-in, but when the rescuers arrived, there was only two. The two surviving miners had cannibalized Timothy to stay alive.

There was a real rocking song which I remember from that summer. "One Fine Morning" was by a band called Lighthouse.

Then there was the Grass Roots, which as I have stated previously was one of the most underrated bands ever. They had two magnificent songs with "Temptation Eyes" and "Sooner Or Later". I felt as if I could listen to these songs forever and never get tired of them.

Just before school started back for sixth grade, there were three more memorable songs; "Funky Nassau" by The Beginning Of The End

"Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth

And a really big hit, "Signs" by The Five Man Electrical Band out of Ottawa.

What a summer this had been for music.

Sixth grade was a little bit different from the previous grades. There was more camaraderie between the students. Sixth grade was the final year of elementary school. The following year, we would be going on to Junior High School. At least in terms of elementary school, we had made it to the top together.

Almost as soon as sixth grade began, I plunged into a marvellous new interest. In social studies, we began studying the ancient history of the Middle East. I thought the pyramids were awesome but I also enthusiastically studied the Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Phoenecians and, Sumerians.

I dug out that book on ancient history that had been bought for me at Steinbergs, on the Canadian side, several years before and it now became my most important possession. I wondered what it might be like to be an archeologist some day. Later, I took a book out of the school library with European archeology also included such as the Minoans and the Etruscans.

An interest in ancient history provided another expansion of perspective for me. In third grade, I struggled to grasp the astronomical distances that I read about. Distances to planets were measured in millions of miles to the nearer planets and hundreds of millions of miles to the outer planets. Later, looking down from the observation towers on the Canadian side of the falls gave me a look at big picture thinking because the entire city could be seen at the same time. Now, looking back several thousand years gave me the same expansion of perspective in terms of time.

At home, I tried building a fort underground. I covered it over with dirt so that only a hole in the ground could be seen. Everything went fine until a good rainstorm came along and filled it with water.

Near the beginning of each school year, we were timed in running the fifty-yard dash during gym class. I was not proficient in athletics, but I was timed at 8.7 seconds. In fifth grade, the year before, I did 10.2 seconds. 8.7 seconds still was not very good, but this gave me a sense that improvement was definitely possible.

In the news at this time was the prison riot at Attica. I had never been there but it was not that far away from us. This was the main story on the news night after night. Prisoners had taken over part of the prison, demanding better treatment. Eventually, the prison was retaken.

This autumn, I took an interest in football. In one of the first games of the season, our local Buffalo Bills defeated the Detroit Lions. I decided that my favorite team was the Kansas City Chiefs, but I liked the shiny helmets of the Denver Broncos. These were the days when the Colts were in Baltimore, the Cardinals were in St. Louis and, the rams were in Los Angeles. There were no professional teams from Tennessee, Arizona, Seattle, the Carolinas, Jacksonville or, Tampa Bay. The team from Houston was called the Oilers.

Despite the ongoing protests against the war in Vietnam, it was in style to wear an army jacket and I managed to get hold of one. I thought that plastic palm trees looked really cool and modern. I talked my parents into getting one to put in our hallway.

I went through an interest in ships and watched construction projects that were going on along my walk home from school, the apartment buildings on Girard Avenue across from the school and the houses behind us on 61st Street.

Along came more music. Badfinger had a hit with "Day After Day".

The Stylistics had "What You See Is What You Get".

But my favorite song in the autumn of 1971 was "Two Divided By Love" by The Grass Roots.

We still only had our old black and white television. It could only receive what was known as VHF channels and not UHF. The favorite channel of most kids at school as Channel 29, but that was a UHF channel which we could not get at home.

I really wanted a color TV and I especially wanted to be able to watch Channel 29. This got me interested in how broadcasting and electronics and things like that operated. The number one show of the time was supposed to be All In The Family and another major news event was the chess matches between Fischer and Spassky.

Finally, we got a color television that could get all of the UHF, as well as VHF channels. I was delighted.

There was more music. Not only was there more music, but I was given a round plastic transistor radio. It was a bright red color and looked very space-age. I valued this radio almost as much as our new television.

"Heart Of Gold" was a big hit by Toronto's own Neil Young.

There was, of course, "Bang A Gong" by T-Rex.

Don McLean was on the radio all the time with "American Pie" and "Starry, Starry Night".

Three Dog Night hit with "Never Been To Spain" and "Old Fashioned Love Song".

There was the instrumental "Joy" by Apollo 100,

"Yo-Yo" by The Osmonds

"Horse With No Name" by America

The unique instrumentals of "Riders On The Storm" by The Doors

"Rocking Robin" by the Jackson 5.

There was an older song called "Itchykoo Park" by The Small Faces, but it was on the radio at this time.

A band called Tony Orlando And Dawn sang "Candida" and "Knock Three Times".

There was a song called "My Baby Loves Loving" by White Plains. I did not have the record but it was on the radio at a certain time every night and I would wait up just to hear it.

During sixth grade, I read more about that great war that had happened before I was born. I actually knew a lot more about what had happened during World War Two than I did about what was happening in the Vietnam War, which was going on at the time. It was a different type of war in which there were no real front lines that we could follow on a map.

I had a book about the Battle of the Bulge. I also read for the first time about the Soviet role in the war. The most horrific battle that the world has yet seen is probably Stalingrad. I read the story of a German Stuka dive bomber pilot and the diary of a Polish girl in Warsaw as that city passed from Nazi to Soviet Communist control.

On the news, there was suddenly another war. The war between India and Pakistan in late 1971 seemed to focus on a place called Dacca (or Dhaka). There was video of jets dropping bombs night after night on the news. When it was over, there was a new name of a country that I had never heard of before, Bangladesh.

One evening, two salesmen knocked on our door at home. They were selling Bibles that were really well-made with large print and had extensive photos and artwork included. My parents declined the offer. But after a few minutes, my father decided to find them and he bought one and brought it home.

We were not religious. However, my father had known a man from our native England who would denounce the idea of religion to anyone who would listen. I think he made my father a little bit uncomfortable and my father reacted by going in the opposite direction and buying the Bible.

I had some skepticism about God but I was interested in ancient history. There was a photo of a stone wall in the Middle East and I built such a wall along the end of our yard, where there was no fence at the time. At the time, I did not really give God a lot of thought myself but picked up the ideas that were around me.

I had done well in those standardized tests that students took every year and I was informed that I could study a language next year in Junior High School. My father chose French for me. We were studying the eastern hemisphere in social studies that year, starting with ancient times, and I also developed a fascination with anything Dutch.

1972 was an election year in the U.S. and the primaries got underway in the spring. Ultimately, Richard Nixon would win re-election. This was also the year that he really opened relations with China and Russia by visiting both.

In school, we had our own election for class president. There were two boys and one girl running for president. Women's Liberation (usually referred to simply as Women's Lib) was an issue at the time. Indeed the Women's Lib anthem "I Am Woman" was popular. There was talk in school that all of the girls would vote for the girl candidate in the name of Women's Lib. Whether or not that occurred, she won the election.

One evening in May, 1972, it was warm and we were out in the back yard. I looked up and saw a puzzling orange glow in my bedroom window. There was still the transparent plastic sheet that my father had installed over the window to conserve heat in the winter. There was also the smell of smoke. Our house was burning.

My father rushed to get the garden hose to try to put out the fire. But the flow of water had not yet been turned on in the basement. He sent me to a neighbor to call the fire department and then tried to get our new television set out safely. I saw that on the other side of the house, flames were pouring out of the window. It was not long before I could hear the sirens of the fire trucks. A crowd gathered around outside.

The fire did not take long to put out. The smoke did more damage than the fire actually did. I slept at a nearby friend's house. Some neighbors donated clothing to us but I had lost the beloved blue plastic motorcycle and the policeman's hat that I had brought over from England.

I did not miss any school due to the fire. It was near the end of the school year. One day, we were given a tour of the Public Safety Building, the police station. On another day, the class went for a long walk to LaSalle Junior High School, where we would be going in September. Our field trip was to the Buffalo Zoo and, of course, there was our final Play Day.

Around the time that school was letting out of 6th grade to begin the summer of 1972, there was a real rocking song, "Could Have Been A Lady" by a Canadian band named April Wine.

There was also "Immigration Man" by a portion of Crosby, Stills, Nash and, Young. This was one of my favorite songs ever, but I never owned the record.

"Doctor My Eyes" by Jackson Browne

"Me And Julio" by Simon And Garfunkel

"I'm Going To Make You Love Me" by the Supremes and The Temptations

"Last Night I Didn't Get To Sleep At All" by Marilyn McCoo.

ATTENTION: BLOGSPOT WILL ONLY HOLD SO MUCH DATA IN A CONTINUOUS BLOG. THERE ARE ANOTHER TEN CHAPTERS TO READ. GO BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG AT THE RIGHT UNDER "PREVIOUS POSTS" AND SELECT 5) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. THEN, THE REMAINDER OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY WILL BE DISPLAYED FOR SELECTION.