Really, 2020, REALLY?!?

First a 100 year Pandemic, then killer hornets and now Tropical Storm Arthur is going to threaten the North Carolina Coast! And we are still two weeks from Hurricane Season! I just knew that I should have liked and forwarded that Facebook Message that I got in January!

I mean, what’s up with 2020 anyway? I’m ready to ask for a refund on this bad boy already. I picked a great time to retire from my IT gig last December. In two days it will have been five months since I turned in my keyfob and parking pass. I still don’t have any idea what retired life is like. And if this is it! I’m going to look for a job! I didn’t sign up for stir crazy. Just plain crazy is ok but cabin fever is not cutting it.

I know, I don’t have any reason to complain. A lot of folks out there have it much worse than I do. I don’t have to worry about not working and having to pay the mortgage. The house is paid for and the monthly retirements checks are coming in like clockwork. But still, I feel cheated out of my retirement.

I had envisioned weeks filled with my radio shows, lunches with friends, maybe walks along the river and trips to places that I have been postponing for the last few busy years.

Radio has been the saving grace so far this retirement. Two big changes one positive and one negative have occurred.

The negative one is that it has been 10 weeks since I did my last live show on WUSC-FM on March 9th the first week of Spring Break. I was already to come in and do a show the following week on the 16th despite the fact that the UofSC extended spring break in order to keep a live voice on the air. But the university made the decision to move to on-line courses for the remainder of the semester and closed down campus for a deep cleaning. So I temporarily moved the show to my online station Our Generation Radio. My listeners who are on Facebook have made the move with me. But there are a number of regular listeners on WUSC-FM who are not on Facebook who have not discovered our temporary home.

The positive change; is picking up a new gig on KLYC-AM Crusin’ 1260 in McMinnville Oregon. I didn’t have time to do a full time five day per week show there, so I have become their weekend help with shows on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The station’s other jocks are a wild and crazy bunch and the camaraderie with them almost makes up for the one with the other jocks at WUSC-FM which has been moved to online instead of face to face. I still miss those in-studio handoffs, though!

One of the fun things about doing these remote shows on distant stations is to become part of the communities in which they are located. McMinnville is in Yamhill County, a mainly rural setting south of Portland north northwest of the State Capital of Salem. I’m getting to know my way around the area which includes a stretch of I-5 the western most major interstate, that is the analog of I-95 on the east coast. Like South Carolina, place names have unique pronunciations; my favorite so far is Wilamina. That rhymes with Myna as in Myna Birds not “mee nah” like most women who have the name pronounce it. The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum is a big local attraction there at the McMinnville Airport. Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” is housed there.

KLYC is dedicated to being a positive force in the community life of Yamhill County, much like many of the old stations that we all grew up with back in the day. They even have a gardening and agriculture show which airs just prior to my Saturday morning show there. I really enjoy hearing them talk about the growing seasons and when it is time to plant and fertilize. I can tell you that the timing of the seasons is really different than here in SC. Every time I listen to the end of the “To The Root Of It” show I am reminded of the old “Bob Bailey” agricultural show that we aired on WIS-TV at 6:45 AM each weekday morning back in the 60s and 70s. I have kidded with the managers and other DJs there that we need a “Swap and Shop” show. I wonder if Dottie Lloyd is still available.

One of the other things that interesting to me is the different approaches to the pandemic. Every community where my shows air has initiated “stay at home” orders and all but one are beginning to relax them now. But it is hard to track the differences with all of them. So on many of my shows, I don’t really get into the lockdowns; instead I concentrate on the music and feel good things that are happening.

The future may be uncertain, but the main constant in my shows is the oldies. For my audiences and for me, they represent happier times filled with sock hops, crusin’ and hamburgers, fries and shakes at the local drive in restaurant. Why am I all of a sudden craving a vanilla root beer float from A&W? Oh MY!