Today, as fuel prices continue to escalate, more car buyers are contemplating on getting small passenger cars instead of bigger vehicles such as those top-selling trucks and SUVs from Ford, giving up what they really need and want for the sake of saving more on fuel expenses. What would be part of the celebration? Well there would be music for dancing from the Big Band which is sponsored by ITT Conglomerates. Of course, there would be food, party favors, and a chance to meet and greet other car lovers (and even lonely souls who had nowhere to go on New Year's eve).

Not only were the fads up in the air in the seventies, so were the headline news. In 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed allowing a U.S. citizen to be able to vote at age 18. In 1974, President Nixon resigned from office as the Watergate scandal unfolds. In 1975, President Ford announces war in Vietnam was finished as far as the U.S. was concerned. And Space became the "New Frontier". In 1972, Pioneer 10 lifted off to journey past Jupiter. In 1973, Skylab was launched by NASA. And in 1976, the Viking I landed on Mars. Boy, times were changing fast, just as Bob Dylan had predicted. http://www.infoplease.com/ipka/A0883578.html&rct=j&q=&esrc=s It's no secret that Jay Leno beat out David Letterman when it was time for NBC to replace the retiring Johnny Carson in 1992. But, did you know since the six foot tall comedian started hosting "The Tonight Show" that he rarely takes a day off? One of his many cars can most always be seen parked in his reserved "#1" parking place at the NBC Studio in Burbank. And, on top of doing the show, Jay Leno still manages to perform more than 150 standup comedy gigs a year. See RSR Motorsports aim for their first Daytona victory on Friday, Jan. 25. The 2.5-hour race will kick off the GRAND-AM season, with the green flag scheduled to wave at 1:45 p.m. EST. I had just started on another beer when someone dropped a few coins in the juke box. The music was bad country. To my utter disgust the first song that played was that "I want to stick a boot up your butt" super-patriotic, ultra-jingoist thing by the guy in the buy kodiak truck commercials. The people around me began to sing along loudly. I'd never been in a fraternity in college and only had one brother, so I never had to prove much in my lifetime. No initiation rights, crazy acts of bravado. Not even tested in war or proven to be a man. Sure, I've had some success in business, but sitting in that truck with a man like Harvey just brought all those male hormones to the front burner. Hot or mild. Just what kind of chile man was I to become? A couple of guys that had graduated from high school with me picked me up at the end of my afternoon shift, and we went drinking in Lorain. We ended up in Hannah's Bar on North Broadway just a couple of blocks south of Lake Erie. A little later I waved my hand around in front of my face to clear some of the smoke and give myself a line of sight. I drained my beer and told Murphy that I had to bail. He slapped me on the back and headed toward the old scarred pool table. As I walked out into the sunlight I was thinking that I'd never have to see the inside of that place again.