Water Well Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/767379
I am a product of the 1960s, but primarily the 1970s. When we entered 1970, I was a 12-year-old boy more concerned with my batting and basketball scoring averages and the won-loss records of my teams than girls or anything else. However, by the end of this same 10-year span, I had al- ready been married two years to my soulmate, had a steady job, and my wife and I were looking forward to the birth of our first child. Wow, how time flies! Beyond all the monumental changes in my life, many of my memories are also filled with the music of this same gen- eration. Groups like The Who, Led Zeppelin, Carpenters, Heart, and Boston and solo artists like James Taylor, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, and Carole King would regularly release songs we'd all listen to, think about, and sing along with on our radios. "Do You Feel the Way I Do?" (with apologies to Peter Frampton) that all of this music has a connection to the water well industry? Music Hath Charm to Soothe the Savage Beast What do you think of when you hear the words "music from the 1970s"? Is it the plethora of pop music artists con- stantly introducing their new singles on AM radio? Perhaps it's one of the groups with the long-playing albums which filled the airwaves on FM radio? For many in the immediate generations preceding mine and coming to age during the 1940s through the 1960s, it could be the massive change we observed from the relatively easy listening artists such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Patti Page during the 40s and 50s to the early to mid-60s singers such as the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, all the way to the counter-culture singers such as Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Jimi Hendrix during the later 60s. In any event, these variances in musical styles led to the brief 10-year stopover of what popularly became known as "the music of the 70s." Perhaps, some of my affinity for this musical style, rhythm, and beat can be attributed to my ac- companying rite of passage from an adolescent to grown man. But I tend to believe the music of the 1970s—yes, including disco—grew from our mutual desire and burning need to for- get, or at the least, temporarily ignore many of the problems we as a nation endured during the 1960s. Those of you who are as old as I am remember, right? There were seemingly never-ending reminders of the wars, riots, assassinations, demonstrations, and racial strife often filling our daily lives during those years. Music, along with the revolution it started, not only provided an all too brief respite from having to deal with many of the solvable con- cerns of the day, but also provided a way to cope with the problems in our lives that had no apparent solution. On a personal basis, beginning in 1968, my family had undergone the stigma and effects from our parents' divorce and subsequent remarriages to different people, along with our relocation to new and strange homes. So, how did I use music to help me deal with everyday problems? What Is a Blaupunkt? As many of you who have read my column on a regular basis know, I began working full time in the water well and pump business in June of 1974—a turning point in politics, my life, and American music. In politics, this was the year President Richard Nixon was being chased out of the White House. Like many others at the time, I was fascinated with watching the daily Watergate hear- ings being televised. But this was also an important year for me. This was when I moved from my mother's home in Albany, Oregon 30 miles up the road to my father's home in Salem, Oregon to begin my permanent career and training in the well pump business. This was also when I found and bought my Blaupunkt. I had previously worked a few summers with my father and had learned a great deal about technical aspects of the business—such as the proper way to dig a trench and install offset pipe and wire, install a typical submersible well pump, and make an underwater drop cable splice. To my knowledge I've never known one of my splices to fail. Remember, this was in the day when all splices were taped over crimped butt connectors as they all were before we had access to heat- shrink tubing! Being new to Salem and freshly split from my former girl- friend in Albany, I no longer had a girlfriend at the time. This turned out to be a blessing, as I was able to use my spare time ED BUTTS, PE, CPI ENGINEERING YOUR BUSINESS MEMORIES OF DAYS— AND SONGS—GONE BY Music ties memories and emotions to people and job sites forever. My Blaupunkt played flawlessly in virtually every environment where it was called on to perform. waterwelljournal.com 44 January 2017 WWJ