New Year's Eve - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

New Year's Eve

Over the years, it’s been fun to celebrate New Year's Eve in many eventful ways. Back in the early 70’s, the members of our softball team decided to go to the Rooster Tail Ballroom in Detroit. The place is on the riverfront at the site where the hydroplanes race in the summer, thus the origin of the name. It so happened the lead singer of the band playing that night was Vincent Furnier, and the band’s name was Alice Cooper. Eventually Furnier took up that name for himself, but even back then he was dressed in his customary shock rock look. See the above photo from that evening of the old rocker who’s now enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I consider him old because he was born two days before me!

Upon arrival, we were each given a fifth of whiskey that was included in the price of admission, but unbeknownst to us, food was not served, except for some nibbles on each table. So our group of softball players and our wives nibbled, drank and danced all night long to AC songs like “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out”. Well sometime during the evening, a pair of ladies underwear ended up in a chandelier above the ballroom, and once they were noticed by the partygoers, suddenly ladies undergarments of all kinds were being tossed up and hanging on every chandelier in the place, which led to even more pandemonium! For the record, my wife kept her’s on! Plus she drove us home as the whiskey on an empty stomach had put this beer drinking softball player totally out of commission.

The worse New Year’s Eve memory occurred during college when a fraternity brother invited me to his home in Gibbon, Nebraska and I was set up with his sister to celebrate New Years Eve at the local American Legion Hall. She was three years older and about 30 pounds heavier than me! That didn’t go so well, but the highlight was the trip itself in his brand new Pontiac GTO as we listened to an eight track tape of our favorite band, Credence Clearwater Revival, that I had gotten for Christmas (CCR is also in the RR HOF). After hours of continuous play, the tape started skipping and finally got scrambled pretty much like the photo below just as we were about to arrive back at the frat house.

Happy New Year, Fish Report readers.