Among our family, my wife Margaret, and my daughter Joy, this is a disputed event. I am sure that it happened after one of our long summer vacation journeys. It could have been as early as 1983 or as late as 1988. I am not sure. As we came home from our trip, I found that the garage door was ajar. It would not open or close, so I could not use my garage door opener. I finally went inside and got it to open from inside the garage. A few things in the garage were not in the right place. Margaret felt that somebody had been in house as she said that the bedroom was all messed up. We looked around to see if anything was missing. As far as we could tell, nothing was missing. I did not file a police report. However, my daughter Joy remembers that I was very upset. Someone had broken into our house. We thought that it might have been a neighbor boy who did it. However, I am not sure. I was upset, but still happy that nothing was stolen or destroyed. I had to call somebody out to fix the garage door. That was upsetting also. Thus, this was one of the times that I did get upset and angry. I liked things to be in order with no great exceptions. Has anyone ever broken into your house or garage?
Category: memories
1989 – I turned 50
In 1989 I turned 50. I was half a century old. My life was more than half over. A lot of things happened in the 1980s, where my memory cannot pin down a specific date. I decided to put them all here into 1989, as I say goodbye to the 1980s. I remember the 1940s as my childhood in Carteret, New Jersey. My optimistic teenage years were the 1950s in junior high and high school between Carteret and Perth Amboy, New Jersey. I spent most of the 1960s in Europe as a Servite studying in Ireland, Belgium, and Germany. I got married and had a child in the 1970s, as I became a suburban family man in Matteson, Illinois. I was a little adventurous in the late 1970s. However, I returned to Montgomery Ward in the 1980s, but a lot of other stuff happened in my life besides some wonderful summer vacations. Thus, a lot of these events that I am going to talk about are undated and unrelated. I have a vague memory about them, but the exact time frame is not clear. I do not have much documentation about most of them, since most of these events got me upset, but I got over them. I am generally a mild-mannered-man, but not always. Have you ever got mad about something and then tried to forget it?
TV in 1988
1988 was a significant year in television, marked by the debut of iconic shows and notable events that shaped the industry. Both the Summer Olympics (NBC) in Seoul, South Korea, and the Winter Olympics (ABC for the last time) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, were broadcasted extensively in the USA. CBS won the broadcasting rights to the 1992 Winter Olympics after bidding around $243 million. NBC won the rights to the 1992 Summer Olympics from Barcelona, Spain, bidding over $401 million. NBC broadcast the Rose Bowl Game for the final time, ending a 37-year partnership, as ABC Sports picked up the rights to broadcast the game the following year. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game was broadcast on ABC (1976-1989), for the last time, until 1995. CBS paid MLB $1.8 billion for exclusive rights for four years, beginning in 1990, as each team MLB team got $10 million a year. Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Detroit Pistons on CBS had a 21.2 rating, the highest-rated NBA game in the 17 years that CBS broadcast the NBA (1973-1990). The Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins was broadcast on ESPN for the last time also. TNT, the fourth cable network owned by Turner Broadcasting, commenced programming with a broadcast of the movie Gone with the Wind. The Disney Channel celebrated its fifth anniversary. CBN’s name became the CBN Family Channel. Mickey Mouse’s 60th Birthday, was a TV special on NBC. Many new TV shows appeared, “The Wonder Years,” “Roseanne,” “48 Hours,” “America’s Most Wanted,” “The Capital Gang,” “Murphy Brown,” and “China Beach.” Wrestlers Hulk Hogan and André the Giant competed on “The Main Event” on NBC, marking the return of professional wrestling to network prime-time for the first time since 1955. CBS fired Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, involved with a sex scandal, admitted to being with prostitutes and temporarily ended his television ministry. “Magnum, P.I.” broadcast its 2-hour series finale on CBS. The series finale of “The Facts of Life” aired on NBC. In the season finale of the CBS drama “Dallas,” Sue Ellen was so enraged that she fired three shots at J. R. Ewing. The CBS soap opera “The Young and the Restless” toped the daytime ratings, deposing longtime winner “General Hospital” that still exists after 36 years. Dick Clark hosted his final episode of the game show “Pyramid,” ending his 15-year run as host of the program. WABC’s “The Morning Show” made its national syndication debut under its new title “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.” Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen participated in the 1988 vice presidential debate with the line “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” becoming popular. CBS aired a highly anticipated college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes, colloquially known as “Catholics vs. Convicts.” Back to the Future made its broadcast network television premiere on NBC. “Roots: The Gift,” the third installment of the Roots series was broadcast on ABC. “A Very Brady Christmas” aired on CBS with a 25.1 rating, becoming the second highest rated TV film of the year. This was the last year for the “The Gong Show,” “9 to 5,” “Truth or Consequences,” “Spenser: For Hire,” “Cagney and Lacey”, and “St. Elsewhere.” What was your favorite TV show in 1988?
Music in 1988
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony inducted The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, Bob Dylan, and The Supremes. The 30th Annual Grammy Awards for 1987 was hosted by Billy Crystal. U2’s The Joshua Tree won Album of the Year, Paul Simon’s “Graceland” won Record of the Year, and Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram’s “Somewhere Out There” won Song of the Year. Jody Watley won Best New Artist. Michael Jackson performed a live, extended version of the song “Man in the Mirror.” Former rock and roll singer Sonny Bono became the Mayor of Palm Springs, California. The Eurovision Song Contest, held in Dublin, was won by French-Canadian singer Celine Dion, representing Switzerland. Atlantic Records staged a concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating its Fortieth birthday with performances by many of the label’s greatest acts of the past. Motown Records was sold to MCA for $61 million. Michael Jackson with his fifth single from the album Bad, “Dirty Diana,” broke the record with five consecutive charting singles from the same album at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, the first artist and only male in history to achieve this. Elton John auctioned off many items from his personal collection, at Sotheby’s for a total of $8.5 million. U2’s Rattle and Hum hit the Number One spot on the USA charts, the first double album to do so since Bruce Springsteen’s The River in 1980. “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” experienced a surge in popularity in the USA sparked by television commercials. Some of the number one hits of 1988 included, Phil Collins, “A Groovy Kind of Love”; Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry Be Happy;” U2, “Desire”; Billy Ocean, “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car”; Guns ‘N Roses, “Sweet Child o’ Mine”; George Michael, “Faith”; Madonna, “You Can Dance”; Michael Jackson, “ Bad”; and Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine, “1-2-3.” The 17th annual “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” special aired on ABC, with appearances by Natalie Cole, Taylor Dayne, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Richard Marx, Reba McEntire and Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Did you have a favorite song in 1988?
Movies in 1988
The 60th Academy Awards ceremony, took place on April 11, 1988, for the best movies of 1987, as actor Chevy Chase hosted the show for the second consecutive year. The Last Emperor won all nine awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director. For their performances in Moonstruck, Cher and Olympia Dukakis won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Michael Douglas won Best Actor for his role in Wall Street. Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables, with a telecast of 42.2 million USA viewers. I liked a lot of the movies in 1988. I liked Bruce Willis in the original Die Hard. Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman were wonderful in Rain Man. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was an interesting use of cartoon characters and real people. Tom Hanks was fabulous in Big, especially his playing the giant piano with his feet. Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban, Priscilla Presley, O.J. Simpson, Reggie Jackson, and Nancy Marchand were unique in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! the first of the funny Naked Gun series. John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin were great in A Fish Called Wanda. Eddie Murphy was okay in Coming to America. Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman were great as FBI guys in Mississippi Burning. Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin were great in Midnight Run. Steve Martin and Michael Caine were good crooks in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon were terrific in the minor league baseball move Bull Durham. Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Dermot Mulroney, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Casey Siemaszko were okay in Young Guns. Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith were interesting in Working Girl. Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis were intense in The Accused. I liked Oliver & Company with Bette Midler, Cheech Marin, Roscoe Lee Browne, Billy Joel, Joey Lawrence, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Richard Mulligan. I also liked John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, D.B. Sweeney, Don Harvey, James Read, Perry Lang, and Michael Rooker in the baseball movie about the 1919 White Sox scandal in Eight Men Out. Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey was great in Gorillas in the Mist. Dan Aykroyd and John Candy were funny in The Great Outdoors. One of my favorite movies was Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey in Beaches, with the wonderful song, “You are the Wind Beneath my Wings.” Another great film that I really liked was Stand and Deliver about Jaime Escalante, a high school math teacher in LA with Edward James Olmos, and Lou Diamond Phillips. I did not see The Last Temptation of Christ. What was your favorite movie of 1988?
Sports in 1988
From February 13–28, the 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. From September 17–October 2, the 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea. The USSR won the most medals (132) and gold medals (29), and the most medals (29) and gold medals (11) at both the Summer and the Winter Olympics. In Olympic volleyball, the USA won the men’s gold medal, while the USSR won the woman’s gold metal. The Los Angeles Dodgers won 4 games to 1 in the 1988 World Series against the Oakland Athletics, with the Series MVP LA pitcher Orel Hershiser. Kirk Gibson hit his now iconic pinch-hit walk-off home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of this World Series. Former Pirates slugger Willie Stargell was the only player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The first night game ever at Wrigley Field was played on August 8, 1988, after an attempt the previous night was rained out, as the Cubs defeated the New York Mets 6–4. In Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins won 42–10 over the Denver Broncos with the MVP Redskins QB Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl. Jamie Morris of the Redskins set an NFL single game record for rushing attempts at 45, in a 20–17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. In the January 1, 1988, Orange Bowl, the Miami Hurricanes won 20-14 over the Oklahoma Sooners to win the national championship. In NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Kansas won 83–79 over Oklahoma, as Danny Manning was the MVP. In the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers won 4 games to 3 over the Detroit Pistons, led by James Worthy as the MVP, as each team had four HOF players. In boxing, Iran Barkley knocked out Thomas Hearns in the 3rd round to win the WBC Middleweight Title. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks in Atlantic City, New Jersey and defended the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World. In Las Vegas, Sugar Ray Leonard knocked out Donnie LaLonde. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Champion was Susan Butcher again. In World Figure Skating Championships, the men’s champion was Brian Boitano, USA, and the ladies’ champion was Katarina Witt, East Germany, while the USSR won the pair skating and ice dancing championships. In the golf grand slam there were four different winners, with the PGA Tour money leader, Curtis Strange with $1,147,644. The Senior PGA Tour money leader was Bob Charles with $533,929, and the LPGA Tour money leader Sherri Turner with $350,851. In Horse racing, Risen Star won two of the three races, but not the Kentucky Derby. In the NHL, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins was the leading scorer and the MVP, but in the Stanley Cup, the Edmonton Oilers won 4 games to 0 over the Boston Bruins, as Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. On December 31, 1988, in a game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils, Mario Lemieux scored five goals, becoming the only player in NHL history to score a goal in all five possible game situations in the same game. In the Grand Slam of tennis, Mats Wilander won three of the four, but did not win Wimbledon. However, Steffi Graf won all four of the Gram Slam events. AP Male Athlete of the Year was Orel Hershiser, LA pitcher, and the AP Female Athlete of the Year was Florence Griffith Joyner, in Track and field. What was your favorite sporting event of 1988?
Famous people who died in 1988
The following celebrities died in 1988: Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter (1936–1988); Andy Gibb, British-Australian singer (1958–1988); Chet Baker, American jazz musician (1929–1988); Ella Raines, American actress (1920–1988); Jean Michel Basquiat, American artist (1960–1988); George Estregan, Filipino film actor (1928-1999); Angela Aames, actress (1956-1988); Judith Barsi, Child actress (1978–1988); Brook Benton, American musician (1931–1988); Monte Kay, Record producer (1924–1988); Heather O’Rourke, American child actress (1975–1988); Colleen Moore, American actress (1899–1988); Jeff Donnell, American actor (1921–1988); Christina Onassis, American born Greek businesswoman (1950–1988); Bonita Granville, American actress (1923-1988); Timothy Patrick Murphy, American actor (1959–1988); Tucker Smith, American actor, dancer, singer (1936-1988); Leonard Frey, American actor (1938–1988); Anthony Forwood, English actor (1915–1988); Divine, American actor, and singer (1945–1988); Victoria Shaw, Australian actress (1935–1988); Lois Wilson, American actress (1894–1988); Irene Rich, American actress (1891–1988); Anne Ramsey, American actress (1929–1988); Ralph Meeker, actor (1920–1988); Greta Nissen, Norwegian actress (1906–1988); Dorothy Jordan, American actress (1906-1988); Christopher Connelly, American actor (1941–1988); Charles Farrell, Irish actor (1900–1988); John Carradine, American actor (1906-1988); Cynthia Stone, American actress (1926–1988); Csaba Kesjár, Hungarian racing driver (1962-1988); Blanche Barrow, Member of “Bonnie and Clyde” gang (1911–1988); Pistol Pete Maravich, American basketball player (1947–1988); John Sylvester White, American actor (1919-1988); Kay Sutton American actress (1915-1988); Valerie Solanas, American radical feminist and author (1936-1988); Max Robinson, television journalist and artist (1939-1988); Pauline Lafont, actress (1963-1988); Barbara Laage, French actress (1920–1988); Louis L’Amour, American novelist and short story writer (1908–1988); Julanne Johnston, American actress (1900-1988); Wayland Flowers, American puppeteer (1939-1988); Gabriel Dell, American actor (1919-1988); Charles Addams, American cartoonist (1912–1988); Charles Hawtrey, English film actor (1914-1988); Anthony Holland, American actor (1928-1988); Andrew Duggan, actor (1923–1988); William Cagney, American film producer (1905–1988); Wera Engels, German actress (1905–1988); Sheilah Graham, American gossip columnist (1904–1988); Roy Kinnear, British actor (1934–1988); Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (1926–1988); Bob Steele, American actor (1907–1988); Alan Napier, English actor (1903–1988); Richard S. Castellano, American actor (1933-1988); Billy Daniels, American singer (1915–1988); Mary Morris, British actress (1915–1988); Christine Norden, British actress (1924–1988); Trinidad Silva, Actor (1950–1988); John Houseman, British actor (1902–1988); Raj Kapoor, Indian actor (1924–1988); Trevor Howard, English actor (1913–1988); Richard Feynman, American physicist (1918–1988); Renato Salvatori, Italian actor (1933–1988); John Loder, British-American actor (1892-1988); Florence Eldridge, American actress (1901–1988); Art Rooney, American football player, and owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers (1901–1988); Ron Kershaw, American television journalist (1943–1988); Sandy Campbell, American actor and writer (1922-1988); Umashankar Joshi, Indian writer (1911–1988); Kay Baxter, American woman bodybuilder (1945–1988); and Amar Singh Chamkila, Indian singer (1960–1988). Do you know anyone who died in 1988?
Disasters in 1988
The oil platform Piper Alpha exploded and collapsed in the North Sea, killing 165 workers. The cargo ship Khian Sea deposited 4,000 tons of toxic waste in Haiti after wandering around the Atlantic for sixteen months. 70 people were killed and 346 injured in one of the worst air show disasters in history at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base, when three jets from the Italian air demonstration team collided, sending one of the aircraft crashing into the crowd of spectators. Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by a missile launched from the USS Vincennes, killing a total of 290 people on board. A bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103, causing the plane to crash down on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashed into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border, killing 143 people. Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the USA ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, were among those killed when a plane crashed and exploded near Bahawalpur. The Nepal earthquake shook the Nepal–India border leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured. An earthquake in Armenia killed between 25,000 and 50,000 people. A cyclone in Bangladesh left 5 million homeless and over a thousand dead. In Soviet Armenia, the Spitak earthquake killed nearly 25,000, injuring 31,000 and left 400,000 homeless. The 1988 Lancang–Gengma earthquake killed at least 938 people when it struck the China–Myanmar border region in Yunnan. Hurricane Gilbert devastated Jamaica, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage. A bomb exploded outside the First National Bank in Oshakati, Namibia, killing 27 and injuring 70. The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar, led by students, protested the Burma Socialist Program Party left probably 10,000 dead. A genocidal counterinsurgency operation within the Iran–Iraq War carried out by Ba’athist Iraqi forces led by Ali Hassan al-Majid on the orders of President Saddam Hussein killed between 50,000 and 182,000 Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. Bolivian anti-narcotics police killed 9-12 and injured over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants. What is the worst thing that happened to you in 1988?
Great events in 1988
The Moscow Summit meeting between USA President Ronald Reagan and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev took place, where the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was finalized. Australia celebrated its Bicentennial on January 26, 1988. In the Geneva Accords, the Soviet Union committed itself to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, after more than 8 years of fighting, but this was not completed until the following year. Vice-president Lee Teng-hui took over as President of the Republic of China and Chairman, following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo. The Candle demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia, was the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the socialist government in Czechoslovakia. François Mitterrand was re-elected President of France for 7 years. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet lost a national plebiscite on his rule, so that he relinquished power in 1990. An independent State of Palestine was proclaimed at the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253–46. The Somali National Movement launched a major offensive against Somali government forces in a war of Independence. A ceasefire effectively ended the Iran–Iraq War, with an estimated one million lives lost. Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state. The first extrasolar planet, Gamma Cephei Ab, was detected this year. The World Health Organization began its mission to eradicate polio. In the USA, the First Republic Bank of Texas failed and entered FDIC receivership, the largest FDIC assisted bank failure in USA history. The first McDonald’s restaurant in a country run by a Communist party opened in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, followed by one in Budapest, Hungry, Moscow, Russia, and Shenzhen, China. The world’s longest skyjacking came to an end when the remaining passengers of Kuwait Airways Flight 422 were released by their captors. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 safely landed after losing its roof in midair, killing a flight attendant, and injuring 65 people. The Poole explosion of 1988 caused 3,500 people to be evacuated out of the town center in the biggest peacetime evacuation the UK since World War II. NASA climate scientist James Hansen testified to the USA Senate that human-made global warming had begun, becoming one of the first environmentalists to warn of the global climate problem. Conservative Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in Switzerland, for his apostolate, but without a papal mandate. A meeting of the Islamic Jihadi leaders, including Osama bin Laden, took place, leading to the founding of Al-Qaeda. NASA resumed Space Shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster, with Space Shuttle Discovery. TAT-8, the first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fibers, was completed. The first World AIDS Day was held. The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna. The Nobel Prize for Peace was given to the United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces. What do you remember about 1988?
Another great National Championship Band
In the fall of 1988, I was more prepared for the fall marching band season at Marian Catholic High School. The results were pretty much the same as the year before. We went to Whitewater, Wisconsin, for the summer national championship, that Marian won. I was less surprised this year. Margaret went to all the competitions as a band mom chaperone. Marian won at the Illinois state championships at Illinois St. University. Then, they won at the Regional Championship. Once again, it was on to the National Championship at the Pontiac Dome in Michigan. The results were the same, Marian won the Grand National Championship. I was not as meticulous as the year before. I do not have a program, but we bought the tapes of the National Championships. We have them for all the four years that Joy was at Marian HS. We got to hear a lot of the Phantom of the Opera music from these other marching bands. Once again, the main question was who would be second to Marian? How much would Marian win by? Marian won first place in the preliminaries, and of course first in the finals, as they beat out Lake Park, another Illinois HS band, by a score of 95.8-90.2. We got to know some of the other band parents who were there all the time. Margaret was more involved than I was with the band. I guess that I never appreciated how hard it was to win back-to-back titles in anything. If you are good, things look so easy. However, without all those practice times, it would not have been possible. It was just a pleasure to know that Joy and Marian were so good as this marching band stuff. Excellence in anything is worth admiring. The football half time shows were just a little side show for the home folks. This was a great historic marching band. Do you know anyone who has won back-to-back titles?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 