Enchanting Evening at the Supper Club

The blond-haired girl I picked up for my date that evening was the only girl I'd ever taken to eat at a fancy restaurant. I had dined with Ann once at Gus and Tony's Pizza and Steak House which was rather intimate and special even if we simply shared a pizza. And I suppose sharing a plate of nachos with Diane at Taco Bill's late one evening was pleasant. 

I'd went to the Black Angus in Prairie du Chien one evening with some other FFA members and had a steak. I went to The Barn Restaurant (also in Prairie du Chien) the fall of my senior year with some of the Homecoming Court and ate fish in the big dining room of a converted barn with a nice view. I'd dined on fried clams with my family at the Cliff House Resort Motel and Restaurant. In my younger days, I'd even dined with my buddy Chris and his parents at the Heidelberg. 

But I'd never really taken a date out for an evening of fine dining. Haute cuisine was not in my vocabulary. In my world, a so-called supper club was about as close to fine dining as I was going to get. 

Jane was the only girl I'd ever taken to Livingood's Supper Club. I'm calling her Jane because she looked like Jayne Mansfield. Well, perhaps she looked more like Marilyn Monroe. But you get the idea. Jane and I had some history together. She was free and I was free, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Gus and Tony's may have been a safer choice. They had a number of items to choose from. Mabe's Pizza would have been a sound choice as well. Everyone seemed to love Mabe's Pizza. But how could those establishments ever match the ambience of Livingood's? The aura of this venue was going to thoroughly charm my date (HYPERBOLE). 

Jane and I had dressed up a bit for this special date. That is to say, we didn't wear blue jeans. When we arrived, a waitress in a dark uniform seated us. I held Jane's chair like a proper gentleman (well not really but I should have). Our waitress asked us if we wanted anything from the bar as was the custom.

"Can I start you off with something from the bar?"

"I'll have a Jack and Coke, please. And my lady friend will have a glass of chardonnay."

Just kidding. We asked for a couple of sodas, and she gave us our menus. We decided to have their famous fried fish served family style. 

I liked the character of Livingood's. The restaurant was dimly lit which accented the candles on each table. The walls were scarlet with some sort of black pattern on them which I believe is called damask. The table linens may have been similar. The most interesting feature for me was the faux fireplace. Even though it was fake, I enjoyed the fire glowing in the fireplace.

I'd been to Livingood's several times with my parents and sisters. I can remember the street of the small town being lined with cars on busy Saturday nights. At one time, I believe the cocktail napkins at Livingood's featured an image of the restaurant as well as an image of the local cheese factory on the edge of town. I guess they were proud of their small town. 

When I was a little boy, I enjoyed drinking my pop out of a Collins glass and pretending it was a cocktail. I liked the big bowl of crackers they had to choose from at the salad bar. I liked the ones that were like small bread sticks so I could pretend I was smoking a cigar. I liked the carrot sticks and I enjoyed trying blue cheese dressing. I even ate the pickled herring. When I was served shrimp with a side of cocktail sauce, I had to ask my parents what the red sauce that looked like ketchup in the paper cup was. Livingood's often garnished one's plate with a sprig of parsley. I had to ask my parents about that as well. I believe I was told that it was edible but mainly for decoration. 

Livingood's was also unique because its patrons were served a small loaf of fresh bread with their meal. I simply preferred the standard dinner rolls most restaurants served but the small loaves of bread were certainly distinctive. Livingood's was also novel by serving something called Boston baked potatoes (a baked potato thickly sliced and then deep fried). They also served french fries and baked potatoes, but the Boston baked were special. 

A lot of restaurants used the term "supper club" in their names back then. For example:

Valhalla Supper Club

Nob Hill Supper Club

Wagon Wheel Supper Club 

Heidelberg Supper Club (aka Heidelberg Gardens)

Food Ranch Supper Club 

White House Supper Club

White Springs Supper Club

Pink Elephant Supper Club 

I believe that my father once took his date (his future wife and my future mother) to Blue Heaven Supper Club for a nice meal. Blue Heaven!

Many interesting restaurants existed back then including the Red Lantern, Humphry Cafe, Fireplace Restaurant, Branding Iron, Red Vest, Pirate's Den, Riv Aire, and Pirillo's Sportsmen Club. In my college days, I would learn of places like Carvers and the Brown Bottle. One could find a lot of supper clubs and inns like the State Line Inn, Stone Hearth Inn, Fireman's Inn, and Ox Yoke Inn. Some restaurants used both names like the Highlander Inn and Supper Club. Some establishments were known as Such-and-Such Restaurant & Lounge. I even found an ad for Stone Hearth Inn Restaurant & Lounge. I knew of names like Nordic Lounge, Friar Tuck's Lounge, Fireplace Lounge, Horseshoe Lounge, and Spare Room Lounge. You may have guessed the Spare Room Lounge was in a bowling alley. I guess a lounge is basically a bar although it may serve food and have a more extensive drink menu seeming more upscale than a mere bar or pub. 

A lot of steaks, seafood, and fried food were served back then. Promises of Alaskan King Crab Legs and prime rib. I learned that 1/4 chicken meant two pieces and that 1/2 chicken meant four pieces. You would have been hard pressed to find a boneless, skinless chicken breast in a restaurant back then. Many places advertised having a buffet or smorgasbord. Don't forget your choice of potato and of course the salad bar is included. All you can eat!

Unfortunately, the older I got the less I liked Livingood's. It wasn't their fault. True to their name they were a supper club. They focused on a limited menu and doing certain things very well. They didn't serve burgers expect perhaps on the kid's menu. They didn't serve spaghetti, lasagna, or pizza. They didn't serve diner specials like meatloaf, chicken fried steak, chicken pot pie, or hot beef sandwiches. I'm sure their steaks were great, but I didn't care for steaks. So, it seemed like I was limited to fish or chicken which I became tired of. Perhaps I should have gone there during the Lenten season when they served their Lenten Seafood Platter including their famous fish, delicious scallops, jumbo fried frog legs, and Louisiana style peeled shrimp with choice of potatoes and all you can eat salad bar. That would have been interesting.

A new proprietor came along at some point. He had a special oven installed to perfectly cook prime rib although that may have been after I went off to college. One other significant change he made was the addition of a Sunday brunch which was quite delicious and popular. But he kept the famous fish and the popular name everyone was familiar with - Livingood's.

Although it had lost its charm for me, Livingood's always had that air of a classy place. And I knew I had to take at least one date to such a nice place. Back in the 1970s a couple may have spent the entire evening at a supper club. They may have had a few drinks and a nice meal followed by some live music by a group like the Blue Flames. Perhaps they might even share the supper club staple called the Grasshopper Cocktail. 

To make a grasshopper the Midwest supper club way you blend lightly 1 shot of creme de menthe, 1 shot of creme de cacao, and 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Top with whipped cream. 

What would Jane and I do after dinner? Even though Frankville may have been a small town (village, hamlet) or even dismissed by some as just a "spot in the road" we could drive to the edge of town and sit in a small park with a playground and ball diamond and perhaps listen to Z-93 on the car radio. A 15-minute drive could get us to Moe Park on Old Stage Road where we could steam up the windows if you know what I mean. Maybe we could catch a movie in Decorah or hang out at Phelps Park or Palisades Park. Perhaps some dance hall or ballroom like Matter's, Dreamland, Lakeside, or the Inwood was having a teen dance. Maybe The Toe Tappers were playing somewhere or better yet the rock band Gemini. Maybe rock station Z-93 featuring disc jockey Brad Dinsmore was playing somewhere. But for now, I was just happy to be with this beautiful young woman in a classy restaurant. 

Jane and I enjoyed our fish and Boston baked potatoes. We, of course, got to take a trip to the salad bar as part of our meal. She cut some slices from our small loaf of bread. I did not pretend my Collins glass of 7-Up was a cocktail nor did I pretend my breadstick cracker was a cigar. But I did feel quite grown up sitting across from this beautiful young lady in the candlelight with a faux fire burning in the fireplace nearby. I was right about the ambience. It was an enchanting evening. 

C'est La Vie or Surviving My College Freshman Year

The summer before I left for college, I remember the music video for "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC and Aerosmith being in heavy rotation on MTV. I watched the video a couple of times at the house of a young lady I'd met at the county fair that summer. I also saw the movies Top Gun and Ferris Bueller's Day Off with her before heading off for my freshman year of college. 

I'd spent the summer lifting weights religiously three days a week. I believe in late May or early June I bought a mail-order bodybuilding course and kept at it all summer. I looked lean and muscular when I went off to school. 

I had just turned 19 that summer and the legal drinking age was being changed to 21 in September. However, since I had turned the legal drinking age of 19 just prior to that, a so-called grandfather clause allowed me to be treated as a 21-year-old for liquor law purposes. Consequently, I knew I'd be able to go to the college bar or any other bar I cared to give my patronage. Also, I could buy alcohol anywhere I chose. I'm not suggesting I planned on drinking copious amounts of alcohol or being a party animal, but I did appreciate the advantageous position I found myself in. 

My sister was a junior already attending the small, liberal arts college I'd now also be attending. Some other students from our high school were also on campus. I'd visited her plenty of times and liked the campus. I was looking forward to college. The problem, however, was that I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. I guess I thought I'd go to college and figure out my life's path as I went. If I could have found a good paying job right out of high school, I probably wouldn't have gone to college.

I'd only been an average high school student, graduating with about a 2.6 grade point average. My ACT score had been decent, and the college had accepted me, so I decided to give it a shot. The wrestling coach had called me over the summer because I'd been fairly successful in that sport during high school. I told him I wasn't sure if I wanted to wrestle in college and we left it at that. 

The Dorm 

My roommate had contacted me over the summer to say "hello" and discuss what we might need for our room. He was impressed to find that I had qualified for the state tournament in wrestling. He was a basketball player and would be joining the college team. He seemed like a nice guy over the phone.

Mark was about the best roommate I could have hoped for. He had also attended a small high school in Iowa. We were both athletes. We were both interested in dating the opposite sex. 

We lived on the first floor of our dorm - 1 South. My older sister lived in the same dorm but on the third floor I believe.

A lounge with cable television, vending machines, and a kitchen area was located on the ground level. A small gathering of people appeared around 10:30 each evening to watch M*A*S*H reruns. 

Initiation for 1 South involved a lot of running, push-ups, and shaving cream. Thankfully, we had no alcohol forced upon us, but we did have a floor party toward the end of the year at a nearby park. 

Each freshman guy on the floor had to locate at least one freshman female student to introduce to the upperclassmen on the floor. Fortunately, I found three young ladies to help me out. One of the young ladies was named Angie. She was a cute blond that I ended up having some classes with. 

Our neighbors next door had a sign posted on their door for a while. 

Position available for beautiful, young female. Acquire within. 

I'm sure they meant to write "inquire within" but I understood what their aim was.

A few years later I would see a funny sign on someone else's door. 

Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire.

The guys on the floor were all friendly. I was still a quiet, introverted person then. So, some of the guys I got to know well while others I didn't talk to at all. Three guys shared a room across the hall from us. Andy, the big one was nicknamed Hoss. The smaller guy with a mustache and beard was nicknamed Wolf. And the tall basketball player went by the moniker Ditch. I watched a VHS copy of The Breakfast Club with Wolf one day. 

Orientation

Orientation took place for a few days before classes began. I met a cute girl named Mary in my orientation group. Her mother worked in the Controller's Office on campus, so I believe she and her older sister received free tuition.

I visited Mary one day after lunch and she was just getting up for the day. She had just gotten out of bed and yet decided to have a beer. She offered me one as well, but I demurred as I had just finished eating lunch. However, she insisted so I acquiesced and had one. Mary and I explored campus a bit before classes began trying to acquaint ourselves with the buildings we'd be having our classes in. When looking through an old campus newspaper, I realized both Mary and I were absent from our orientation picture? What were we doing at the time?

I recall taking part in some sort of orientation games one evening I was told would be fun. Of course, it wasn't. Nonetheless, I believe that Playfair still bills itself as "The Most Popular Campus Attraction For New Student Orientation." I've also read, "Playfair is the most popular campus attraction in history for new student orientation programs."

To be fair I am a quiet, introverted person. So, it wasn't really a good fit for me. As I recall, I found myself being asked to have a fake argument with a freshman girl I didn't know. I have a feeling she was on the quiet side as well so that activity didn't go too well. I seem to recall all of the freshmen being asked to throw our shoes into a big pile toward the end of the night. Then we were tasked with locating our shoes out of hundreds of pairs of shoes. I truly thought I was never going to find my shoes that night. I wanted to share a few choice words with the Orientation Group Leader who had promised us a fun evening. 

I think before we began classes a dance was held on the so-called campus mall near Old Main. I was standing on the sidewalk alongside Mark overlooking the throng of students dancing when a girl asked me to dance. I joined her on the lawn to dance. It turned out that she knew my older sister and that she also lived in the same dorm as Mark and me. 

When the dance was over, I walked her to our dorm. We approached some double doors leading to a staircase. 

"Should we part here? Or do you want to walk me up to my room?" she asked. I, of course, walked her to her room. 

Alex (not her real name) and I became kind of close for a while. We drank and danced at the college bar. She'd visit Mark and me in our room sometimes. We both worked in the cafeteria. I think we attended a screening of West Side Story one evening in a small auditorium on campus. And some evenings we'd watch reruns of M*A*S*H at 10:30 PM in the basement lounge with some other students. She made it clear that she thought of me as more than a friend. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to a serious relationship. 

I tried to keep working out with weights as I had over the summer. One day I asked some guy nearby how to adjust the pins on the squat rack. He kindly showed me what to do. 

"Are you a bodybuilder or a powerlifter?" I asked. 

"Power - pure power," he replied. "My diet's not good enough to be a bodybuilder," he added.

I got to know Mike a bit and saw him working out religiously in the weight room. He could have simply been working out to stay in shape or for sports conditioning. Perhaps my question had seemed odd to him. But my instincts must have been right because a couple years later The Trumpet had an article about how he'd just won the Drug-Free Powerlifting Midwest Regional in Chicago. 

Settling In and Campus Life

Being an introvert, I found it hard to get used to having a roommate and the claustrophobic feeling being surrounded by all the students on campus. I relished the times my roommate wasn't around, and I had the room to myself. I also learned to take long walks off campus and to find somewhat private spots in the library. 

I would sometimes visit the Pamida discount department store in College Towne Plaza which also had a popular pharmacy and a few other stores. I would mainly visit Pamida to buy a tablet of paper. If the weather was bitterly cold or I was short on time, I would just buy a tablet of paper in the college bookstore. I felt a little guilty buying a tablet of paper there knowing I was paying a lot more to have a tablet of paper with the name of the college emblazoned on it. 

I was pretty stressed out that first year of college. I hadn't cared about grades in college but now I did. I thought my very fate might depend on those grades and I did make the Dean's List a few times. I didn't care much for working in the cafeteria at first but eventually got used to it. I was so used to my old routine of school, farm chores, family dinners, TV, church, and social life that college took some getting used to. 

I eventually developed a routine for classes, studying, work, recreation, and leisure. 

The college had a daily newsletter called The Page. The weekly newspaper was The Trumpet. The Page had reminders for study sessions, club meetings, chapel and bible study schedules, and recreation and athletic events. 

For example:

STUDY SESSION for Introduction to Philosophy will meet tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. in Luther Hall 308. 

Or:

PORNOGRAPHY and the first amendment is the title of this week's convocation address. Convocation is held tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in Neumann Auditorium. Caution: slides will be shown - some of which may be offensive to some persons. 

The Trumpet showed up in my mailbox each week with columns, sports news, and sometimes coupons. 

Alex had reached the point where she insisted on settling whether we were going to be a couple or not. I told her I was too stressed out and too concerned about academics to be in a relationship. 

After Christmas break, I was asked to join the wrestling team. They needed a 126 pounder. I joined but wasn't much help. I was kind of small to be at 126. Plus, my heart just wasn't in it any more like it had been in high school. 

The best part of wrestling was becoming with friends with Jeff. His nickname was Banjo and some girls thought he looked like Scott Baio. I spent a fair amount of time drinking with him and some other friendly guys in Banjo's room. Banjo liked to save the cap off every beer bottle he opened to keep track of how many he drank. One evening a couple of girls were in the room and one was trying to convince the other one to have a beer.

"Come on! Beer doesn't have any calories!" she insisted. 

I would spend some time with Banjo even after leaving the wrestling team. One night I asked to speak with him in the bathroom before leaving a party. 

"You need a condom?" he asked. I laughed and said I did. I guess he'd noticed things developing between me and a co-ed at the party and knew what I needed. 

Banjo would go on to become a very successful high school wrestling coach. 

The cafeteria didn't serve an evening meal on Sunday. So, I usually ended up walking to Hardees with some of the guys on the floor. 

Classes

One of the first things I did was switch my major to "undeclared". I realized majoring in business wasn't for me. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Yet here I was on this college campus hoping I'd figure it out and that all would turn out okay in the end. 

I ended up signing up for Human Expression, Introduction to Sociology, Psychology 101, and Math 107. Most of these classes fulfilled some requirement I would need to graduate from that particular college. 

For some classes, my classmates and I were informed that we needed to purchase a "blue book" from the college bookstore to be able to complete the essay questions on our exam. I'd never heard of a so-called blue book. 

A blue book is a paper booklet with lined pages that college, graduate, and sometimes high school students use to answer test questions. It has a blue paper cover. Hence, its name. I believe it may have cost ten cents for one at the time. 

I thought the blue book was kind of silly. In high school we would have simply used a sheet or two of notebook paper to answer essay questions. Perhaps a blue book is a more secure and standardized way of handling essay questions for exams I suppose. 

Human Expression class involved a lot of reading. I wasn't too interested in reading Plato, Sophocles, Goethe, Dante, or Machiavelli though. I guess Homer's Odyssey was reasonably interesting. We discussed the ancient Greeks a lot and I learned about post-and-lintel architecture. We had to memorize some classical music and artworks as well. The Birth of Venus by Botticelli is beautiful. The Cellini Salt Cellar is beautiful and intriguing. And not only did Michaelangelo create his masterpiece sculpture David, but Donatello also created a famous bronze statue entitled David as well. Our professor surprised us one morning by showing us a Bugs Bunny cartoon that featured classical music. 

Psychology 101 was interesting, and our professor tried to make it fun by playing rock and pop songs to emphasize his point. 

I felt fortunate that I'd taken typing classes in high school. I wasn't a good typist by any means, but I could do better than simply hunt and peck for keys. I knew the so-called home keys. I could type while looking at my text instead of the keys to some extent. I knew about margins, tab settings, and centering titles. 

I went off to college with a brand-new typewriter (Sears - The Electronic Scholar) and my folder of typing knowledge, guidance, and tips from typing class. I typed a lot of papers during my college years. If my ink cartridge ran out, I'd sometimes use an old electronic typewriter in the library to get by. 

The philosophy professor I had during my sophomore year required us to type one of our papers using a computer. I guess he thought the computer age was upon us so we might as well learn to use one. I knew a few people in college who owned their own Apple Macintosh personal computer though that was rare. Most of us had to wait our turn in the computer lab. Fortunately, I had a buddy who was majoring in computer science so showing me how do a little bit of word processing before hitting PRINT was no big deal. 

For my last two years of college, I had access to something called a CD-ROM database in the library. I could use the Social Sciences Index to look for journal articles that might help me when writing a paper. No more having to look for articles in big heavy books. 

Another new item during my college years was a highlighter marker used to highlight important sections of text in textbooks in, say, a fluorescent yellow. 

In 1978, a company in California named Avery Dennison bought the rights to the HI-LITER. This company was the first to use the fluorescent colors that we’ve come to associate with highlighters today.

The problem with a highlighter was that I sometimes found myself highlighting damn near everything I read.

Halfway Through

After Christmas break, I came back for a semester of new classes. I was enrolled in Person and Society, English Composition, Introduction to Literature, and a leisure services class. I also had to take a physical education/health class that was only worth a half credit. I wasn't too happy about the time involved for only a half credit, but it was required so I decided to just get it over with. 

We were required to write daily in a journal for English Composition which for me was fairly easy. The professor advised us to attend the college Artist Series seeing as we were paying an "activity fee" anyway. So, I attended a string quartet performance and A Chorus Line. I wrote about the performances in my journal. My English professor liked my writing and suggested I might want to consider looking into a field called technical writing. I had to do more writing for Intro to Lit as well.

Leisure services wasn't for me. In fact, I tried to drop the class, but the professor talked me into sticking with it. I learned a lot and I even taught some dance steps for an activity. A fellow student taught us some rudimentary breakdancing skills. I didn't know it at the time, but he would eventually become my closest college friend. 

I got through the physical education class just fine. 

Person and Society was probably the most interesting class. My roommate Mark gave me his P & S reader in trade for my Human Ex texts. We discussed a number of subjects in class like authoritarianism, gender roles, poverty, and world hunger. 

We had an article in our reader about androgyny which was a new concept to me.

From the article:

"In American society, men are supposed to be masculine, women are supposed to be feminine, and neither sex is supposed to be much like the other. If men are independent, tough and assertive, women should be dependent, sweet and retiring. A womanly woman may be tender and nurturant, but no manly man may be so.

For years we have taken these polar opposites as evidence of psychological health. Even our psychological tests of masculinity and femininity reflect this bias: a person scores as either masculine or feminine, but the tests do not allow a person to say that he or she is both.

Androgyny, in contrast, allows an individual to be both independent and tender, assertive and yielding, masculine and feminine. Thus, androgyny greatly expands the range of behavior open to everyone, permitting people to cope more effectively with diverse situations. As such, I hope that androgyny will someday come to define a new and more human standard of psychological health."

Food

To help pay my tuition costs, I participated in something called work study. For some reason, fate would find me working for the college food service, specifically in the cafeteria. Not every food service employee worked in the cafeteria. Some only worked special events. And others worked in the small restaurant on campus called the Den. 

I tried some new foods I'd never had before like turkey cheese croissants, cheddarwurst,  chimichangas, chicken Kiev, and manicotti. I was afraid to try a gyro because I didn't know how to pronounce it, know what it was, or know how to eat it. A gyro is meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread, along with other ingredients. I believe it might be pronounced yee-roh. Sometimes my buddy Mark would nuke a "za" (microwave a small frozen pizza). Eventually the cafeteria would add a deli, grill, omelet bar, and waffle machines. They would also cater in pizza and sub sandwiches from restaurants occasionally.  

I had received as a gift a small appliance called a Hot Pot prior to going off to college. I had visions of myself making hot chocolate, soup, mac 'n' cheese, and ramen. Then I carefully read the directions which read:

The plastic hot pot with automatic temperature control is designed for heating water only. Do not use it to cook or heat foods as it does not get hot enough.

Thus, I don't think I ever used it once. Yes, I realize I could have bought a big heat-resistant bowl of some sort and probably still made ramen and soup. Cleary I could have still made hot chocolate or tea. But, at the time I felt I had been misled and figured I could just as easily use the microwave in the lounge in the basement for my heating needs. 

I believe some hot pots could be used for heating milk, soup, and liquid-based foods. I once saw a friend's hot pot encrusted with the remnants of mac 'n' cheese one day - the vestiges of some late-night carbohydrate binge. Either he'd neglected to read the instructions on his hot pot or just didn't care. 

Hardees was a close walk from campus as was Kentucky Fried Chicken. Another place called The Other Place (aka the OP) was also nearby. McDonald's was my preference but was located out at Willow Lawn Mall. Mark called it Mac Shack. We went there occasionally when I got the car keys from my older sister. Mark, Steve, and I ate at Godfather's Pizza in Willow Lawn Mall one evening as well. 

One day when Mark and I were shopping for groceries at the supermarket, he was searching for picante sauce. Salsa hadn't become the number one condiment in America yet. I don't think we'd even heard of salsa yet. However, since 1992, salsa has consistently outsold ketchup every year in the United States. 

I guess picante sauce is technically a thin salsa. I just wasn't familiar with it because my family had never eaten that product. At any rate, Mark found a supermarket employee who directed him to the picante sauce. 

I think the first time I had chips and salsa may have been at a Chi Chi's restaurant in 1988 or 1989 while visiting my older sister. At Chi Chi's, diners could have all the chips and salsa they desired. Chi Chi's even sold their salsa in supermarkets. Technically, Hormel Foods acquired the rights to produce and market Chi-Chi's branded salsa and related products in the United States. 

Microwaveable popcorn was another new snack around the same time salsa was gaining popularity.  In 1984, Act II, a shelf-stable microwave popcorn was released, becoming the first mass-marketed microwave popcorn.

Wine coolers exploded on the market in the early 1980s with California Cooler debuting in 1981. Wine coolers combined white wine and fruit juice to create a light and refreshing drink. The popular Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler line premiered in 1985. And Seagram introduced Seagram's Golden Wine Cooler in 1986 being pitched in TV commercials by popular actor Bruce Willis. 

My roommate Mark asked me and another friend to accompany him on a trip to Iowa State University during the first semester to visit some high school friends. We brought along a two-liter bottle of Sun Country Wine Cooler as a refreshment. Mark almost tricked his mother into buying a two-liter bottle of wine cooler at the supermarket until she realized it contained alcohol.  

Fun Time

I went to Joe's some Wednesday nights. That was the night to party in our college town. It was kind of a midweek break from things, I guess. Movies were often shown in Neumann Auditorium on campus on Friday evenings and only cost $1.00. They usually showed a cartoon before the film. Renting VHS tapes was becoming quite popular when I entered college and a number of places rented them. One evening my floor went to a minor league hockey game. Sometimes dances were held in Buhr Lounge and cost very little to attend. 

The Oprah Winfrey Show premiered that fall as did the sitcom ALF.

I watched four sitcoms with my roommate one evening on the TV we had in our room and felt guilty for not studying. He assured me it was good to take time off to relax once in a while. 

Sometimes I liked to go to the college library to simply read periodicals in the loft area where the newer magazines were kept. I could read magazines I wasn't used to reading like Esquire or The New Yorker. And, where else could I read Amateur Wrestling News or the National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal.

Valentine's Day brought flowers for me. The card was simply signed by a secret admirer.

May Term

May Term involved taking only one class that met every day. May Term was no joke as I had been led to believe. I took a class called Techniques of Teaching Sports Skills and May Term wasn't much fun at all. 

My floor had a party in a nearby park toward the end of the year. One of the upperclassmen thought the freshmen should still have some kind of initiation involving drinking. My roommate Mark told him we were almost sophomores now so he could forget it! At the park, some of the guys drank beer. Some of us drank alcoholic punch. One of the upperclassman's parents owned a restaurant so he had access to a commercial beverage dispensing machine which he was serving the punch from. 

Although I was rather drunk at the party, some girls showed up and I think I discovered who'd sent me the flowers for Valentine's Day. 

The next morning, I was a bit sick and a bit sticky from the punch. 

Finished and Going Home 

C'est La Vie by Robbie Nevil was high on the pop charts in 1986 and was still on the charts for a bit in 1987.

Some lyrics: 

C'est la vie, c'est la vie

That's just the way it goes (that's life)

Oh yeah

C'est la vie, c'est la vie

That's just the way it goes (that's life)

This phrase borrowed from the French and used as an idiom by English speakers means literally "that's life." It's used to indicate resigned acceptance of something that one dislikes but cannot change.

I was stressed out at college and didn't have a clue what to do with my life but tried to accept the situation and relax. I didn't like it but "that's life."

I didn't mention earlier that in English Composition class we had paired up with other students and interviewed each other. I mentioned to the young woman interviewing me that wished I was through with college. She thought that was odd coming from a freshman. I told her I didn't want to deal with the stress. 

I guess she saw college as an adventure, a journey. Students would learn new things, meet new people, experience amazing things, prepare for their purpose in life, and perhaps even find love. 

Well, I did eventually have a lot of that occur. I did meet amazing people including students and professors. I had some interesting summer jobs. I have a lot of knowledge about vast subjects. I found out I could be an A student. Yes, I even found love. 

Nevertheless, when my freshman year of college was over, I wasn't elated. I was simply relieved. 

The Secret of My Success starring Michael J. Fox came out in April 1987. 

Brantley Foster (Fox) is a recent graduate of Kansas State University who moves to New York City, where he has accepted an entry-level job as a financier. Upon arriving, he discovers that the company for which he is supposed to work has been taken over by a rival corporation. As a result, Brantley is laid off before even starting work.

Can Brantley still find success? Can he conquer New York City? Can he find love as well? Of course!

But here I was just finishing up my freshman year and wondering if I could carry on. 

The Berlin Wall Speech was delivered by United States President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987. The speech is commonly known by a key line from the middle part: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Reagan called for the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had encircled West Berlin since 1961.

Yes, the wall would come down a couple years later while I was still attending college. 

I checked my mailbox one last time before leaving college and heading home for the summer. Angie, the cute blond who'd helped me out during freshman initiation had left me a letter. I think she just wrote that it had been great getting to know me that year and that she hoped I would have a great summer. 

Cariño Means Sweetheart

My new co-worker. Young and beautiful. I didn't say a word to you for a month at the thrift store we worked at because I was too scared to even introduce myself. I thought perhaps you were cool and conceited. You were a beautiful Hispanic woman. I might say something stupid. But finally, one day I said hello and we introduced ourselves. Right away I knew you were special. Once I got to know you, I tried learning some Spanish to impress you.

"Yo soy un hombre hermoso," I said suggesting that I was a beautiful man.

You laughed and said, "Yes you are! It took a lot of confidence for you to say that! Good for you."

One day I said, "Te extrañé mucho." I was trying to tell you I had missed you very much. I must have said it correctly because you smiled and put your hand to your heart and said you had missed me as well.

Estoy cansado y triste means I am tired and sad. "Why are you sad?" you wondered. I may have said life was hard or something to that effect and you nodded knowingly.

I told you my mother sometimes made meatballs for Christmas dinner. You told me your mother made a meatball soup called albondigas. We bonded over meatballs! I asked you about mole sauce and you were impressed when I said I thought it had chocolate in it. I asked you and Edwin about menudo. Edwin liked it a lot, but you didn't.

One day I asked, "Have you ever had chile relleno?" You laughed and said your mother made it all the time and that it was one of your favorites. You mentioned tamales and I mentioned them being steamed in corn husks which I think impressed you. I'd seen it on a TV show one time. But the only tamales I really knew about came in a can which I didn't mention. Your mother had made tamales and pozole for Thanksgiving. I even asked if your mother had ever used nopales (cactus) in her cooking. You said, "I can tell you have been doing your research."

"Do you like hot wings?" I asked one day.

You laughed and said, "Of course. I'm Mexican. I love spicy food. It wouldn't be right if I didn't. It's like a rule. If you're Mexican, you have to love spicy food."

The only hot wings I'd ever had were "mild" and even those were too hot for me. You even like to snack on Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I told you we couldn't be together. We could never eat the same food.

At least I didn't say something like, "You're Mexican so you must like tacos and tequila."

You're not like the others of your generation. You don't care about smartphones or social media. You'd rather read a book or play a board game. You like to hang out with your dogs.

One day at work I handed you a handheld Space Invaders game and you started playing it right away. I was impressed you were somehow familiar with this arcade game from the late 1970s.

You assigned me "homework" to complete. I watched a bunch of Disney movies and other animated movies just so I could tell you what I thought of them. But you also knew who Clint Eastwood and John Wayne were which impressed me. I told you that in one John Wayne film (i.e. The Alamo), that a Mexican woman went by the name of Flaca. "It means skinny, right?" I asked. John Wayne's character thought it was funny that a curvaceous woman had grown up being called skinny.

I was surprised when you mentioned loving martial arts films with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. You didn't just mention kung fu or karate. You specifically mentioned the art of Wing Chun and even mentioned Wing Chun master Ip Man. Who are you? I too have seen all of the Ip Man movies.

I'm not sure you were all that impressed with my wrestling background. I tried not to brag about being a champion.

You like elephants and Winnie-the-Pooh. One day I found a tiny elephant with a magnet on the back. I brought it up front where you were cashiering and handed it to you and saw your face light up. Another day I found a book called Your Pet Elephant that someone had donated. I brought it to you while you were cashiering once again. You leafed through it right away. You said you'd hang onto it a while. You brought it back to donations later that day before going home. You were sad to part with the book. Why do you like elephants? I guess I should ask.

Elephant traits include patience, wisdom, strength, loyalty, and strong familial bonds. They can also be a symbol of good luck.

When I told you I liked chipmunks you thought it was amusing. I like watching chipmunks run around.

I've learned they represent a balance between thinking, action, instincts and mere luck, which is something every living creature needs to survive. Saying that, we could also see chipmunks as symbols of survival.

Chipmunks know life requires tactics and organization. It seems as if they just randomly do things; however, chipmunks are pretty organized and thoughtful of their future.

They do not want to come into a situation where they lack basic resources for survival; that is why they carefully store lots of food before winter comes.

I do think I'm an observant person who is fond of planning and preparation. But I also like to have fun.

I wonder if you have heard the 1975 song "Paloma Blanca."

Una paloma blanca

I'm just a bird in the sky

Una paloma blanca

Over the mountains I fly

No one can take my freedom away

I wonder if you've heard the song "Vaya Con Dios."

Now the hacienda's dark, the town is sleeping

Now the time has come to part, the time for weeping

Vaya con Dios, my darling

Vaya con Dios, my love

Now the village mission bells are softly ringing

If you listen with your heart you'll hear them singing

Vaya con dios, my darling

Vaya con dios, my love

Wherever you may be, I'll be beside you

Although you're many million dreams away

Each night I'll say a prayer, a prayer to guide you

To hasten every lonely hour of every lonely day

Now the dawn is breaking through a gray tomorrow

But the memories we share are there to borrow

Vaya con dios, my darling

Vaya con dios, my love

Vaya con dios, my darling

Vaya con dios, my love

One day my hair was messed up from the wind. How was I going to look guapo I wondered. You asked me who I wanted to look guapo (handsome) for.

"Does cariño mean sweetheart?" I asked one day. You laughed and said, "Yes."

You didn't ask me why I wanted to know. I guess you already knew why I was asking. But don't fall for me. Find a nice, young man who will share an amazing life with you that you deserve.

Bonita

Just one look and I felt something 

A raven-haired beauty from afar 

One glance and already succumbing 

To your beauty and your sweet charm 

Overwhelmed by you so I said nothing

Infatuation with you felt a bit bizarre 

You had my dormant heart jumping 

You glittered like the brightest star 

Concentrated for years on numbing 

Lived my life as though in a jar 

When it came to love there was no such thing 

But like it or not you were now on my radar 

Enchanted by your beauty

But I'm afraid to approach 

You exceed any diamond or ruby 

Into your sphere I dare not to encroach

Learning Spanish phrases, trying to impress

You find it somewhat charming

But my feelings I dare not profess

For you might find my feelings a bit disarming

Yearning for the youth I once possessed

But I'm too sick and too old

You brought out feelings so long suppressed

But these silly feelings I must withhold

New adventures and happiness await you

So, my silly feelings I'm discarding

When it comes to affections I can't construe

Let me just say, "Vaya con Dios my darling."

ER Visit

My phone rang and I let the machine answer.  I had just gotten home.  My doctor was calling.  I'd just seen her a couple hours earlier.  When I'd had my appointment earlier, she'd ordered some blood labs and also had me undergo a simple abdominal x-ray. 

I picked up the phone when she said she had some results she was reluctant to give me over the telephone.  She said my abdominal x-ray had shown I had a dilated colon.  She was concerned about what might be causing this and suggested that I go to the emergency room immediately and get a CT scan of my abdomen.  She was concerned something life-threatening may be a possibility.  I almost asked, "Won't I be sitting in the ER for hours?"

But I simply said, "Okay." 

I was a little bit scared.  What if something really is wrong?  My stomach had been hurting more than usual lately.  I tried to find my neighbor's number that I'd written on a slip of paper in case they admitted me.  I couldn't find it.  So, off I went.

I was kind of disappointed because I just wanted to relax and watch a movie.  Couldn't I just get an x-ray later?  I didn't really have a life-threatening condition, did I?  I'm always the guy who goes to the doctor complaining of pain and finds out he's just fine. 

When I walked in, I had to talk to security first.  Then I checked in at the front desk.  I'd never been in an ER in my entire life.  But, it looked like I expected.  The room was filled with a lot of people.  I walked toward the back and found a seat.  

Some people to my right were using sign language to communicate.  Some people were in wheelchairs.  One woman was pacing the length of the room back and forth.  Some people were talking.  A lot of people were using their smartphones to make calls, listen to music, or do other tasks.  What did people do before smartphones?  Did they bring a book to the ER?  

I got called over fairly quickly.  But it was misleading.  They were simply checking my vitals and asking me what was wrong.  Is this called triage?  Well, I'm guessing they decided my condition was not severe.  The nurse told me I could return to the waiting room.  

I have a friend who had been a paramedic in the military.  She told me that military triage differed from civilian triage.  The goals of combat medicine are to return the greatest number of soldiers to combat, and then to preserve life.  Historically, military triage placed the highest value on soldiers who could be returned quickly to the battle lines, so the highest priority wounded were those who could be patched up and returned to duty. 

I returned to my seat figuring I was in for a long night.  I heard others complaining about the wait.  Some gave up and went home of their own volition.  Some had been waiting for hours and I had just arrived so I knew I was going to be there for hours.  I too thought of leaving but decided to wait for at least a little while.  

A man was soon wheeled next to my seat.  He had infection in a foot he'd injured previously.  He was tired, hungry, and in pain.  His ride had left so he was hoping to be admitted otherwise he wasn't sure how he'd get home.  A little later he found out he'd be admitted but it might take a while before a bed was available.  So, he had to sit and wait.  

An elderly woman was also waiting for a bed to become available.  She was tired and in tears at times.  She had her daughter with her for a while.  But her daughter finally left because she had to work in the morning and it was getting late.  Another woman was having eye hemorrhages which sounded really scary but might not be as bad as it sounds.  She may have had other issues like high blood pressure as well.  I think both of these woman were former employees of the hospital but they still had to wait like everyone else. 

Two daughters had been waiting with their father for hours.  He was in a wheelchair and was getting uncomfortable.  Eventually the daughters got some blankets from an aide and tried to get some sleep.  

A heavy-set gentleman was in a wheelchair.  I think he'd arrived by ambulance much earlier.  I think he called a relative or friend and asked for a ride, but they declined to help him.  He was afraid there would be no taxis available when he was allowed to go home.  A pretty young woman recognized him and said hello.  He had driven a taxicab years earlier it seems and she remembered him.  I think it brightened his day a bit to be remembered and acknowledged by someone. 

An elderly woman with chest pains eventually left.  She was tired of waiting.  A young man rested his head on his girlfriend's shoulder.  People would walk to the desk at times to complain or ask where they were on the list.  Occasionally the nurses or aides were confronted.  I simply accepted the fact that there were only a finite number of doctors and beds available.  

The young man and his girlfriend finally gave up and left.  He declared he'd rather die than come back to that hospital.  I don't believe he or his girlfriend had insurance although I think she was going to have insurance in the near future.  She asked for a referral of some sort for her boyfriend before they left.  Obviously, she didn't want to see him die although she understood his frustration with waiting so long.  

I too got frustrated.  I even got angry seeing ambulances pulling up figuring that would make my wait time even longer.  Then I'd feel guilty about such mean thoughts and say a prayer. 

Eventually they called me back.  I was escorted to a small room and a curtain was pulled after I was seated.  I could hear the nurses chatting about their work schedules and personal problems.  I was right there behind the curtain.  Surely, they knew I could hear them.  I wasn't bothered by their talking.  I found it interesting.  They were working in this chaotic place of life and death and yet seemed to be taking it all in stride.  They were chatting away just like employees do in most work situations.  I found it kind of amusing actually.  I guess doctors and nurses are people too.  

Eventually the curtain was pulled back and a beautiful brunette woman dressed in black scrubs walked in and sat next to me.  She had compassion in her green eyes and in her voice.  She told me she was a physician assistant and would be helping me.  She apologized for my long wait and asked me what had brought me in.  I told her about my doctor's visit the prior day and the phone call I'd received.  

"Are you in pain?"  she asked.

"No," I answered feeling like an Idiot.  Why AM I here?

She asked if she could feel my abdomen.  I gave my permission, and she gingerly touched my abdomen and asked if I had any pain or tenderness.  I again told her I felt fine.  I wasn't in pain.  I wasn't experiencing nausea.  We discussed bowel movements and laxatives.  I enjoy talking to beautiful female doctors about my bowel movements.  😊  I told her I had a history involving anorexia.  I told her they actually use a fairly liberal amount of laxatives on the eating disorder unit though that might seem strange.  

I was about to blurt out, "Okay, I get it.  My young general practitioner jumped the gun and got overzealous.  I have wasted my time being here and now I'm wasting yours.  I'll just be going now."  

I think she explained that she was questioning me so that if a CT scan was done she'd know what to be looking for.  She soon left my side.  I think she went to look at my abdominal x-ray from the previous day. 

One of my father's cousins had to visit the ER once because he fell on a beer bottle at a party leading to a lacerated rear end.  He went to the ER and a doctor looked at the cut in his butt crack and said they needed to call in a specialist.  Greg was lying down on his stomach when a beautiful female doctor looking like the actress Nicole Kidman walked into the room. 

Greg looked up and in a defeated tone said, "Oh God!  Do you want to look at my butt too?" 

"I sure do," she said. 

I, however, continued to wait. 

Soon a male doctor appeared.  What happened to the beautiful female?  You might think I am sounding sexist.  I'm sorry but she was pretty, and I wasn't dead.  Yes, she was definitely intelligent, talented, and professional.  This man was evidently a staff doctor and mentioned he'd spoken with the green-eyed beauty about my situation.  Well, he referred to her by her name, but you know what I mean.  He asked me the same questions she had and also felt my abdomen.  They both may have asked me about certain bowel ailments which I assured them I did not have diagnoses for. 

"Well, your doctor was concerned that you might have an obstruction in your colon.  But I really doubt that is the case here," he said.

I thought he was going to suggest I simply go home but he said, "Well, let's do the CT scan just to be sure." 

A nurse came in and said she was going to insert an IV into my arm.

"Why do I need an IV?" I asked.  I was kind of scared they planned on putting me out for the procedure.  

"The IV is so a contrast agent can be injected into you which helps the x-ray show up better," she replied.  I got the feeling that she got tired of answering questions from guys like me all day. 

I knew what contrast material was.  I'd had contrast used in an MRI x-ray many years earlier.  I still didn't like the idea of contrast material being put in my body.  But I didn't feel like I was in a position to back out now.  

The x-ray technician came and escorted me to the x-ray area.  He told me how to position myself.  The x-ray itself was really simple and not frightening or painful at all.  It was done quickly.  When he spoke to me over a speaker telling me to hold my breath and then later that I could breathe again it was a bit strange.  I recently heard a comedian comment on how we're told x-rays are safe and yet the technician always leaves the room and hides and sometimes they shield you with a lead apron.  Ha!  I'm glad the technician warned me that I might experience a reaction from the contrast agent like feeling a warmth from head to toe and feeling like going to the bathroom.  That's exactly what happened although the sensation passed quickly. 

As he was walking me back to the waiting room, he asked me where I was from.  I told him how I'd originally grown up in northeast Iowa.  It turned out he had as well.  Small world as the saying goes. 

My waiting, of course, was still not over.  I had to wait for the physicians to look at the x-ray results and consult with me one last time.  By this time I think it was around 4:00 AM.  The ER was basically deserted.  One patient other than myself may have been in the waiting room.  Security personal were still around.  One security officer was rounding up stray wheelchairs.  Two housekeeping people had arrived and were emptying trash cans and sweeping.  

I was standing a lot at this point because I was tired of sitting and wanted to go home.  I stood and watched the news on one of the two televisions in the waiting room.  There was a story about actor Fred Savage being fired from a show for misconduct.  And an escaped inmate and a corrections officer who had been missing were apprehended by police. 

Finally, a nurse called my name again.  She took me to an area where I sat on a small couch or loveseat of some sort.  The green-eyed physician assistant came over and sat beside me.  She told me the good news was that there was no bowel obstruction or anything seriously wrong.  That should have made me happy, but it only convinced me all the more that I'd wasted my time and theirs by coming to the ER.  

She did tell me that I had something called an ileus.  When your colon can't move to push food and waste out of your body, it's called ileus.  She said that it would take care of itself and was nothing to be concerned about.  Ileus can become serious at times and most often occurs after abdominal surgery.  Nonetheless, she said I would be fine.  She said I should cut back on laxatives even though I was clearly constipated.  She said I should follow-up with a colonoscopy in the near future because of this situation although mainly because of my age.  I'm not exactly a young man anymore. 

"Come back here if you feel nauseous, vomit, can't eat or can't have bowel movements," she said. 

"Come back here to the ER?" I asked as I motioned to the room we were in.  I was thinking I will never go to the ER again unless I'm in an ambulance. 

We exchanged "goodbyes" and I headed to the check-out area.  I was concerned about my car which I'd left in a parking ramp because I wasn't sure about parking when I'd arrived.  A nice young man at the desk told me not to worry and handed me a parking voucher.  I went to my car and used the voucher and thanked God when the gate lifted and I drove out of the parking ramp.

When I got home, I took some medication and ate a quick bite and climbed into to bed around 5:30 AM.  I went to work later that afternoon.

Well, I've now had the experience of visiting the emergency room.  Yes, I understand the importance of emergency rooms.  Due to the unplanned nature of patient attendance, the department must provide initial treatment for a broad spectrum of illnesses and injuries, some of which may be life-threatening and require immediate attention.  In some countries, emergency departments have become important entry points for those without other means of access to medical care.

I had a lot of time to observe people in pain and a lot of time to think while waiting in the ER.  I now believe we should have universal healthcare.  Not that I was ever really against it.  How do we as a country pay for it?  I don't know.  But, I have a better appreciation of the need for healthcare.  If someone's only option is to visit the ER and it involves waiting for hours then they might simply walk out and take their chances. 

Cable TV and VCRs

The headline read, "Local Cable TV Hooks Postville Tube Watchers."   In 1984, the small Iowa town where I attended school offered cable TV to its residents for the first time.  The citizens were provided with 13 basic channels for $9.00 a month.  Two premium channels, HBO and Cinemax, were available for an additional $9.00 a piece per month.  However, if one opted to get both movie channels the second one was only $7.00 a month.  So, if one were to get all 15 channels it would come to $25.00 a month. 

When cable TV arrived in Postville, I was becoming close to a blond-haired coed.  Blondie and I had been talking and flirting during the school day.  I was a sophomore, and she was a freshman.  The arrival of cable TV offered her an easy way of asking me to come over and hang out. 

"You should come to my house.  We can watch cable," she'd say. 

Perhaps if I'd grown up during an earlier era, she would've invited me over to listen to the radio or records played on her phonograph.  

I lived on a farm a few miles from town so, of course, we didn't have cable.  One of our neighbors had a big satellite dish but that was rare in the 1980s.  At our house the television reception wasn't the best even with an aerial antenna.  We had clear reception for ABC and NBC.  But the reception for CBS was poor if it came in at all.  PBS had poor to no reception as well.  But, for the most part, I was content with only two channels.  Sometimes on a Saturday morning we'd put up with the snowy, poor-quality picture reception on CBS so we could watch Looney Tunes cartoons.  If we wanted to watch the Iowa State High School Wrestling Championships on Iowa Public Television, we'd go to one of my grandparents' houses where there was better reception. 

I did go to Blondie's house a few times under the pretext of watching cable TV.  I found the so-called cable box compelling.  Instead of a handheld remote, a cable box covered with a fake wood veneer was hardwired to the television.  Blondie's cable box was connected to the television with a cable.  One selected a desired channel by simply moving a horizontal slider from channel to channel. 

One evening we happened upon a movie in which a couple was having sex.  The man was on top of the woman sweating and making a lot of noise.  Blondie started laughing nervously.  We continued to watch the movie though.  When the couple was finished having sex the man was upset with the woman because to his dismay she is never able to have an orgasm with him.  Of course, the mention of orgasm made Blondie even more embarrassed.  It was kind of funny but awkward that two teenagers watching cable happened upon a sex scene. 

When I was in college, I came upon some racy material on cable one evening as well.  I was hanging out with my buddy Curtis late one evening flipping through the channels on cable.  I came upon a scene where a maid was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor.  She realized that her male employer was watching her so she scrubbed vigorously being sure to move her rear end a lot.  She found it amusing that she almost gave her master a heart attack by teasing him.  I found out years later the film involved three stories and was entitled The Secrets of Love: Three Rakish Tales.  The film was an anthology of three films consisting of screen adaptations of three erotic stories by pre-20th-century French authors and was originally produced for French television.  Thank God for cable TV!

I didn't watch much cable TV during college.  I was too busy studying.  Just kidding.  I rarely seemed to be able to sit down at the television in the lounge without other people showing up which would make me uncomfortable, and I would leave.  I am an introvert and shy and was always concerned they wouldn't like what I was watching.  

I do recall watching A Little Romance late one evening when no one else was around.  The movie involves two teenagers living in Paris who fall in love and travel to Venice because of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever. 

I also seem to recall watching Snorks on the USA Cartoon Express on USA Network early some mornings.  Cartoon Express was the first structured animation block on cable television, predating Nickelodeon's Nicktoons and Cartoon Network by a decade.

I wasn't into MTV in college.  I did like music videos.  I was a fan of Friday Night Videos on NBC.  Friday Night Videos took advantage of the fact that many areas in the early 1980s were still not serviced by cable television and that not all cable television providers offered MTV at first.  But, when I was finally able to watch MTV in college I was unmoved.  A channel that played music videos all day long was a bit much.  

During my last year of college, I "discovered" Iowa Public Television on the little black and white television I had in my room.  I continued to watch IPTV after graduation.  I found shows devoted to carpentry, cooking, gardening, home improvement, painting, sewing, and travel.  PBS also showed British comedies like Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearances.  

Of course, now cable and satellite TV offer entire networks devoted to all of these categories and more.  For example, one can watch Food Network, Home & Garden Television, and Travel Channel.

My parents signed up to receive DIRECTV in the mid 1990s.  It only required a small dish and a receiver.  The dish was small compared to the old C-Band satellite dishes.  It was interesting having access to all of those networks like USA, TBS, TNT, MTV, VH1, and so on.  I enjoyed the History Channel, Turner Classic Movies, and the Cartoon Network.  It was even possible to rent movies right through the television.  I believe the service was called Direct Ticket back then.  None of this would've seemed possible during my high school days.  

A photo of the back side of an old C-band satellite dish by Bmag32 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54600115

Another new technology introduced to my generation was the videocassette recorder (VCR).  Even with cable television, consumers were still limited to watching a show when it aired or missing it entirely.  The VCR allowed people to record TV shows to watch when they pleased.  The VHS format became dominant.  The VCR and VHS tapes exploded in popularity throughout the 1980s and ’90s.  Blockbuster was established in 1985, allowing people to rent movies and shows for the first time to watch at their convenience.

I went on a road trip with a buddy during my senior year of high school to see a concert.  We stayed overnight at his brother's place the night before the concert.  We rented a VCR from a grocery store or perhaps it was a convenience store.  That's right.  You could rent a VCR back in those days as well as the movies you wished to watch.  The VCR was in a briefcase or suitcase of sorts so you could transport it easily.  I believe we watched The Wanderers from 1979.  As I recall, someone had also loaned us a pornographic movie on a VHS tape that for some reason played back too quickly.  We didn't want to watch pornography that appeared to be in fast forward so we just gave up in despair.  I did watch a pornographic VHS in college for the first with some floormates.

Some people claim that we have the VCR to thank for the "on demand" experience some of us take for granted now of watching what we want when we want.  Netflix and other streaming services allow us to do just that.  

Perhaps if I was coming of age now, Blondie would not invite me over to watch cable but instead to watch Netflix and chill.