Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
Wanna again welcome you to The 04:05 Coffee Break. Guys, get you a cup of coffee. You know the routine. Glass iced tea, bottled water, beverage of your choice. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $5.82 a bushel. Nothing to write home about. But a 550lb steer calf, guys. $4.97 all the way up to $5.05 per pound. I kid you not. Dependent on quality. Butcher hog in Iowa 59ยข a pound, and a 100lb lamb that's fat in Billings will fetch you $2.40 a pound. But guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. Okay. Today, I have the hankering to tell you about the summer of my junior year in Malta High School. That'd be the summer of 1974. And guys, do you remember 1974? We had Richard Milhouse Nixon resign from his presidential office, and we had Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's home run record. Oh, yeah.
OK Solberg:PS, It's also the year the Rubik's cube came out. You gotta know that. Now many have heard and many of you know the facts that I couldn't go to movies and I couldn't go to dances because of my mother's rules. Now we won't get into that right now. Just understand it was a fact.
OK Solberg:Now I did slink off during a basketball game to watch Jory, Bobby Benson, in 1973, but I missed the conclusion so I wouldn't be late for my ride from the gym. Oh, yeah. And Tim Bruckner and I snuck out to watch Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford in that summer also. Interestingly, it doesn't need mentioning, but the next night Tim and I also went to the show house, Villa Theater, Malta, Montana, and we saw Shaft in Africa, but that one doesn't count. So you know what they they say.
OK Solberg:You know what they say. If you want your kids to brush their teeth, well, outlaw toothbrushes. They'll be up on the roof in the middle of the night brushing like crazy. So the summer of 1974, I had only been to 3 movies. And Jory, I didn't get to see the ending because I was checking my watch so often so I wouldn't get caught and didn't wanna miss my ride. I didn't enjoy that.
OK Solberg:So Jory "partley", then Jeremiah Johnson, and Shaft in Africa which was a dud. So really I'd only seen 1 good movie in my entire life by that time. Well, anyway, fall of 1974, the VOAG department at Malta High School had a plan to take a bunch of us students on a trip around the state of Montana looking at VOTEC facilities. This by far was the greatest advantage the school offered me in my total 12 years of schooling.
OK Solberg:Now, as I remember back, there must have been a lady chaperone as well because I do remember there was a girl or two that went along, but I don't remember who the lady chaperone was. But the male chaperone was our own Jim Carver, still in Malta today, and Mr. Carver was also the bus driver. Well, we had looked at the facilities in Helena. And as great as it sounds, and it was great, we also got to go on a boat tour, guys. We toured the gates of the mountains.
OK Solberg:Just imagine the experience. This is big. This is really big like Barney says. Oh, yeah, guys. Playing cards on the bus with your friends, going on a boat tour, no parents, Brent Waters, Ronnie Tuma, Ross Olsen, Alan Crowder, just to name a few.
OK Solberg:And check it out, even an underclassman, Gary Knudsen. It was fantabulous. Well, that evening, we went to a movie shown in Helena and it was titled Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Well, I hope to shout and call the doctor. That was a movie I will never forget.
OK Solberg:I even remember guys, I remember it was rated R. You had to be a certain age. But guess what? Brent Waters was my guardian so I got in. Here's a movie that had just been filmed in Montana.
OK Solberg:And in the movie, Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges had a boat scene in the movie, and they used the exact boat that we had ridden on that day. If you thought I was excited to stay at Eddie Swartz's house in 3rd grade, well, this was even better. And I'm telling you, the highlight of my trip. Sure, I identified Billings Votek School to attend next fall for welding, but don't tell anyone. I pretty much had that decided before we went on the trip around the state.
OK Solberg:So to a boy who wasn't wasn't allowed to go to movies, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was like winning a bar of gold that I could keep forever. It was filmed in Montana. It was a tough guy movie. It was thrilling. And I know lots of people think we're too old to express our exuberance, but that ain't me.
OK Solberg:I remember that trip and that movie like it was a gift from the gods. Oh, yeah. Next Night in Great Falls. Guess what movie we saw? Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles. Now since it was only the 5th movie I had ever seen, I didn't care for that movie at all. It was too dumb. But I learned in my old age that you have to mature to appreciate Mel Brooks' humor.
OK Solberg:Let me close with this verse that I like so well. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you your elders and they will tell you. Deuteronomy 32:7
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.