Gifts to Valley Historians

From the vaults.

In the spirit of the season, let me give you a few jewels from deep within the catacombs of my legendary archives.

First let's unwrap this program from an appearance by the Grateful Dead at the Springfield Civic Center on June 30, 1974, which also happens to be the first time I saw the Dead. Here is the front cover.

 



Here is the first inside pages. The capsule review of the Dead's career to that point is quite good. 

Notice in the top left corner advertisement there is a Loggins and Messina concert coming up with a little known band opening for them called The Doobie Brothers. Loggins and Messina would soon break-up and fade away but the Doobies would become enduring superstars. 

Notice the price of the albums. 

This is the back of the program.

Here is a 1993 program guide for WNNZ when I had a Sunday radio show. (click to enlarge)

At one point this was a promotional contest WNNZ ran. 

Before he actually announced he was running for mayor of Springfield in 1995, Mike Albano told this first of many lies.

Pine Point's Doyle the Twig Painter did this portrait of me in 1992.

For a long time activist Eamon O'Sullivan had a nasty feud going with Springfield Newspapers editor Larry McDermott. that got quite personal at times, as the letters below show. Eamon apparently accused the paper of not being able to cover Springfield adequately because so many of their top personnel lived in Longmeadow. McDermott responds by calling Eamon "a deeply bitter and beaten man." 

Eamon in turn responds with an intimidating attack of Latin phrases. 

Someday, somebody (me?) will write the modern history of our Valley, and it will be better than any soap opera there ever was.