01 | March | 2012 | Russ & Gary's "The Best Years of Music"

Gary: “What a year of ‘Change’ this would be for me! I would change jobs (still sales), joining Barshaw Office Systems from Montreal. They represented the giant German chemical company BASF, who invented magnetic media, which would be my immediate future, being computer tapes and what we called disk packs.

I would say good-bye to the “what-if” girl I was romantically involved with from West Virginia (Nancy) early in the year and I would meet a new girl in the spring (Charlene).

Gary and Charlene

I would get engaged (again) to Charlene and we would get married the following year.

Looking Back

Toronto

1966

My car purchasing had slowed down (but it would accelerate again over the next 4 years: 1967 Chev Impala; 1968 Olds Cutlass Supreme 350 4-barrel; and 1970 Pontiac Lemans Sport Big Block 400 with a 4 barrel).

I would actually get engaged (at 27), get married and get very career minded. This marriage would not last forever, but if you look back at my record (20 years, 3 girls and 6 grandchildren) that’s pretty good; sad, but pretty good.

Gary and Charlene at Toronto’s Club Kingsway

My new job, representing BASF would take me into bigger and better things. I moved up the ladder for customers, management wise, and the numbers expected would rise, but as all sales people will attest to, if you work hard and sell a lot you can make a really decent living – but it is not for the faint of heart and there are compromises (my marriage).

What do I remember about 1966?

- not a lot; I was too involved with women, but here goes…

Frank Sinatra marries Mia Farrow, really

Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow

Fashion Model “Twiggy” popularizes the miniskirt, YES!

H Bomb Lost and found -
An H-Bomb was lost in the Mediterranean after a B-52 bomber had made impact with a KC-135 jet. Two other bombs were dropped near Palomores, a small town in Spain. The hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a B-52 bomber when it collided with a KC-135 refueling jet over the Mediterranean Sea was located by a U.S. midget submarine off the coast of Spain, it is recovered from the sea floor in April of the same year from a depth of 2,500 feet.

Canda Introduces the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which gives you a Pension at age 65, which is 25% of the last five years of contributing.

For the first time, warnings appear on cigarette packages

My favourite TV Show, “Shindig” is no more and then later Hullabaloo is also cancelled.

Sports:

NFL: Green Bay beats Dallas 34-27

AFL: Kansas City beats Buffalo 31-7

Super Bowl 1: Green Bay Beats Kansas City 35-10

Baltimore wins World Series over LA

NHL: Montreal beats Detroit, wins Stanley Cup

On the big screen in 1966:

Best Actor: Paul Scofield / A Man for All Seasons

Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor / Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf

Best Picture: A Man for all Seasons

Movies that I enjoyed in 1966:

Georgy Girl /

Lynn Redgrave, Alan Bates

Born Free

The Sand Pebbles (loved this one)

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming

Fantastic Voyage

New on the small Screen:

Batman

Family Affair

Hollywood Squares

Mission Impossible

The Monkees

Unfortunately we lost Davy Jones February 29, 2012!

Star Trek

The Cars I liked in 1966:

Dodge Charger

The race was on “Muscle Cars” ruled. Chrysler under rated it’s 426 Hemi cid with two huge 4 barrel carbs, to only 425 bhp, not even close.

Mustang got involved with Carrol Shelby and the GT-350 is born, the 289 cranked 306 bhp in a small car

Corvette Stingray got a 427 cid option

Oldsmobile 4-4-2 (they used my favourite engine 400 cid with 3 duals 360bhp (underrated)

Pontiac GTO

Pontiac Bonneville

But if you did not have a lot of money, this is what you bought and you could shut anyone down.

Plymount Belvedere with a 426 option

.

Music for 1966:

Not a bad year, the tape cartridge or cassette invented in 1954 is brought to market commercially.

But, we would loose, under a lot of suspicion (to this day) and controversy Bobby Fuller (I still believe he was murdered and so do a lot of other people).