Disco (still) Sucks!

30 years is a long time.....
but it is funny how it only seems like a few weeks ago.

This is what I vividly remember as a lad of only 16 years.......
30 years ago today!

• Waking up early (never happened again that summer) and going to the J.C. Penney's record dept in Ford City Mall, by myself....to buy a "disco" 45-record. (Yes kiddies....Penney's was THE place at the time to pick up singles)
• Admission into Comiskey Park that night was only .98 cents.....(Steve Dahl/WLUP 97.9 and Mike Veeck promo) but you had to bring a disco record to get that price....since I owned none....I had to go up and buy one.
• "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer was "huge" that summer....and she was going to be my sacrifice.....but to my surprise.....it was sold-out when I got to Penney's.
• I remember being helped by a 65-year old sales clerk, (who was on loan from the Drapery Dept) who wore cat-woman glasses on a silver chain around her head.....to find another disco record.....both of us were clueless...but we came up with one.
• "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward (she assured me that it was Disco) was my purchase and back home I went. I remember being worrried that if it wasn't a "true" Disco record....I wouldn't be able to get in.....yeah....like the Andy Frain Ushers were going to listen to it at the front door before letting me in?!?!
• Took 2 buses with the usual suspects to get down there.....and arrived early.
• Surprised to see about 50,000 kids at the park around 4pm.....2 hours before game time.
• Estimates put the number at 75,000+ people total....and almost no one there to "really" see baseball.
• Dan Ryan Expressway exits to 31st and 35th Streets were blocked by the CPD.
• Still several thousand left outside without a ticket....trying to figure out a way in.
• I remember a Cub Scout troop of about 20 sitting a few rows up......ooops....wrong night!
• Had seats in right field....all the way up to the back wall lower deck arches that overlooked the Dan Ryan parking lot.....as free wheelin' as I was at 16.....I remember feeling a little uneasy towards the end of the first game.
• Marijuana was THE "Smell of the Day".....not the usual great "Comiskey Smells" like old urine in the troughs.....onions on the Polish....gunpowder from the fireworks or the usual B.O. on the Andy Frains....No sir...it was MaryJane, from the 1st pitch until the SWAT team crashed the field.
• Parking lots around the park were filled with nothing but teenage clunkers....bad 60's Conversion vans...and lots of motorcycles. There wasn't a car built in the 70's anywhere close to 35th & Shields.
• During all of the first game against Detroit......45-records that the ushers did not collect upon entering, were being flung like Frisbees and exploding upon impact. The Detroit dugout was the main target of the 70,000+ flingers.....Sparky Anderson was one pissed off hombre....and he came out (suicide) several times to complain to the umps. No surprise that Sparky and gang did not come out for Game 2. Even if there wasn't a bonfire in center field....Sparky was out of there!
• Between Games 1 & 2....Steve Dahl came out in a jeep completely dressed in combat fatigues and an old Army helmet....saw him in the Dan Ryan parking lot at the end of the first game getting ready with about 4 other people and the jeep driver.....I wish I took a picture of that.....I don't think he had any idea what he was driving into. It seemed so peaceful and quiet in the outside parking lot compared to the riot that was awaiting inside.
• A passionate couple having a "private moment" on 2nd base.....they didn't seem to be bothered by the 15,000 crazed fans running over them.....nor by the remaining 55,000 in the stands cheering them on.
• Foul Pole climbers (obviously on the hooch) going from the lower deck to the upper with amazing ease and grace.....I think that this should be a new White Sox between-inning promotion....kind of like the Connie's Pizza Races!
• With 45's crashing all around us.....we finally decided it was time to get the hell out of there.
• Chicago's finest arrived initially with a small contingent with billy clubs.....but were severely outnumbered .....30 minutes later.....about 50 cops on horseback...appeared behind homeplate and formed a wedge. They continued driving every black, Loop T-shirt wearing burnout, towards the outfield walls until all was cleared.
• Several of these "Loopers" dove through the chicken wire windows separating the Picnic area from Left Field.....good thing because those cops and horses meant business.
• As we got to the 35th Street bus stop.....we found about half of the park waiting for the same bus. The CTA was unprepared, as they were expecting a rush after Game #2 that never happen.
• We (and several thousand others) proceeded to walk down a closed down 35th Street to Archer Ave for miles until we hit Pulaski....then we were able to grab the Pulaski bus home.
• My mom stayed up that night worried until I got home....(before cell phones and texting)
• I didn't know that it made the 10:00 news....or for that matter....the Nationwide press.
• From what I remember.....nobody was hurt or killed.....kind of hard to believe looking back.
• Click on link below to see some pics of that night.....(Check out the infamous Sox-O-Gram in picture #14)
• Notice the dress code back then....guys never wore shorts or flip-flops.....just the simple jeans and a t-shirt.....even if it was the middle of July.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-090708-disco-demo-pictures,0,1105299.photogallery

Enjoy "Ring my Bell"........

Marty