Category: Good friends

Sandy Sieg

Bettendorf, IA

This takes me back to Les and Em’s drive-in in Guttenberg. I worked there four years in high school, first in the back putting condiments on the burgers and then making ice cream and finally outside as a car hop. There was a jukebox and it was always rocking pop songs including Stairway to Heaven

I spent my graduation money on a stereo. It was the kind with speakers and I took it to Luther. i played Uriah Heep.

Nights in White Satin was a song memory from high school. My prom dress was yellow with lace and it was so pretty!!

Back then, my friends went to Lakeside very Saturday. It’s just what we did, and we found a little bit of freedom. We danced to early Chicago hits, like 25 or 6 to 4. I still go to Chicago hits on Spotify.

Music was a huge part of my life as I was in choir, band and jazz band. The Carpenters were big and I remember one of their medleys from Jazz Band.

Nights in White Satin

Liz Piccone Bryde

Cedarburg, WI

It’s vivd. I was standing near the seawall on Long Island Sound with my sister Mary. We were in summer dresses and the song is Hummingbird by Seals and Croft.

We were probably 16 or 17 and headed to a beach party.

My music history is wrapped up in family as I had older siblings. We were a Burt Bacharach family, really raised on him. Some of his songs still bring me to tears, including A House is not a Home.

Another memory is the group America and the song Horse with no Name. We were living in the Manor house. On my birthday, my brother Steve was playing it on the guitar…he knew I loved the song and he also knew that I was going to receive the 45 as one of my presents from my parents.

I was a big Carol King fan especially Tapestry. I sang that song a lot to my children when they were growing up as well as now for my three grandchildren. My son, TJ surprised me when he chose Tapestry for our mother-son dance at his wedding.

This 70s songbook project is special as my sister Catherine also turns 70 on November 29th.

My older 2 sisters were 70s girls and introduced me to Crosby Stills Nash and Young. The Harvest album was golden.

Hummingbird

Connie Dawson

Altoona, IA

There isn’t a dominant single song memory; but I had a VW bug in high school. We had lots of fun tooling around between Frederika and Tripoli, Waverly and Sumner; and I let my Fred Town girlfriends drive it. It was a stick.

They listened to favorites like The Beatles and the Doobie Brothers.

We went to concerts together including Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, and Elton John.

We even wrote a 70s show parody for our town’s July 4th celebration and practiced Thanks for Being a Friend by Randy Newman.

“How wonderful life is while you are in the world” is a lyric we share from the heart.

Your Song

Deb Edwards Landau

Cedar Falls, IA

I went to Tripoli for high school and graduated with the class of 1972.

I mostly remember songs from prom. Color my World first comes to mind. All the Chicago songs really.

Color my World

Donna Borcherding

Boulder CO

Norb and I would play oldies that took us back to the 70s and our time in Garnavillo. Lots of Johnny Cash like Ring of Fire. He loved music.

Those were the best songs and the best memories.

Ring of Fire

Ranae Wittenburg Schult

Waverly, IA

We listened to The Monkeys records at home. I grew up in Tripoli and remember all the Beatles songs from making homecoming floats in Tony Magnall’s garage, Paperback Writer, Money Can’t Buy me Love, I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

I was in The Occasional Singers in high school. I sang Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce at weddings.

I remember one time my Dad slipped into the back of the church during the ceremony just to hear me sing. I can still see him. He always told me to be humble and kind.

Time in a Bottle

Carolyn Hoffmann

Guttenberg IA

We had records at home. My sister & I are only 14 months in age, and my dad would just shake his head when we had the music playing. 😊 Herman’s Hermits, Paul Revere, The Beatles. We played them on a hi-fi stereo.

Later it was Barry Manilow’s Mandy. Six or severn of us from my PT class (only 20 in the class) went to his concert in St. Louis. None of us had much money, but we splurged and had a great time moving and singing along to his music. 🎶 

You Light up my Life was sung by a dear sorority sister at our wedding. 

Linda Ronstadt was a long-time favorite, Heat Wave, Your’e No Good, When Will I be Loved?

Mandy

Lynda Akers

Guttenberg, IA

The first memory that comes to me is Cat Steven’s Oh Very Young.

The song summed up how I was feeling when my sister, Loretta, passed away from pancreatic cancer. She was 20 years younger than me. We are all only here a short time.

Oh Very Young

“Oh very young, what will you leave us this time
You’re only dancin’ on this earth for a short while
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like your dads best jeans
Denim blue, faded up to the sky
And though you want them to last forever
You know they never will”

Sue Osterhaus

Guttenberg, IA

I remember singing Joy to the World on the bus. 

My brother had Herman’s Hermits records and my sister listened to The Monkeys. We played music while doing our Saturday chores. That is where I go back to, those songs making our house work fun.

Joy to the World

Darla Dwyer

Parker, CO

I have memories of the Fred Tap and Dad playing Hank Williams songs on his steel guitar.

Your Cheatin Heart was one.

He and I played duets at home and we had a Hank Willians song book. I took piano lessons from Esther Backhaus with Carol Havercamp Zander.

I remember tunes from high school dances and listening to The Beatles while building floats for homecoming. We also listened to 70s tunes at our class reunions sending us back to our teens and all the fond memories of growing up in a small town. I was just remembering the song “You’ve Got A Friend” as it reminds me of when MJ went to college. I knew that everything would be changing except that we were friends no matter what ❤️.

Your Cheatin’ Heart