The Glory Of Being A Teenager (Part 1 of 12)

“Vera, it’s almost on.”
“Oh good, I wanted to vote against ‘Seasons in the Sun.’”
“You can’t do that. That song has been number one for week and weeks.”
It was 9:30 on a school night and the KCPX radio station was about to have its nightly phone-in-and-vote competition between two popular songs of the day. It was the Battle of the Records. In Salt Lake, in the early 1970s where Vera and I found ourselves, any teenager who wanted to be cool, had to listen to the radio station, KCPX. Soon the gentle strains of “We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun” were heard on the radio. It had been the number one song on 1320 KCPX for over sixty days, longer than any other song on the Battle of the Records. When it was over, they played the challenger song. Vera listened to it, but didn’t really care what it was, she just wanted to vote against the one that was so popular. She really had nothing against Seasons In The Sun, just that they had played it so much that it was on every body’s nerves. Everyones accept mine. I could listen to it a thousand more times and then some.
Vera stepped out of my room for a moment. She picked up our gold color rotary wall phone and dialed the number. I rushed out of the room and tried to stop her, but she screamed something about having her free agency and told me to get away. Then someone at KCPX answered the phone, and Vera said, “Yes, I’d like to vote for ‘The Night Chicago Died.’”
Vera hung up. I was stunned. I had never even called in to vote before and here was my own sister voting against Seasons In The Sun. In a few minutes they announced that The Night Chicago Died was the new champion for the Battle of the Records.