A New Year’s Story

 

One New Year’s Eve when I was a freshman, my friend Randy Smith stayed over at my house. I believe his parents had gone out of town for a Bowl game. Randy’s dad was the sales manager of WTRF-TV and travelled quite a bit.

Randy and I had been to a New Year’s Eve party somewhere. I remember that my sister Helen was home from Duke for the holidays. She was our designated driver. Neither of us had a driver’s license. So, she picked Randy and me up at our party. My Mother and Father had gone to a big soiree at the Pine Room at Oglebay. It was around one a.m., as I remember, when everyone simultaneously arrived at our house. My sister, and Mom and Dad all headed for their bedrooms, and within fifteen minutes or so, I could hear my Dad snoring away raucously.

Randy and I, still pumped from our partying, decided to listen to some music. The stereo was in the dining room which unfortunately was right beneath my parent’s bedroom. So we had to keep the volume really low. I got out my 45’s and opened up the stereo. There on the spindle was an LP by a group I had never heard of, somebody named Doug Clark. Upon further inspection the label said his group was called “The Hot Nuts”. They were from Chapel Hill, NC. OK, my sister had brought home an album from college. Innocently, I placed the needle on the record. The first song was “My Ding-a-ling”. As we listened to the lyrics, it took only a minute to realize that this album was a DIRTY ALBUM!!! Not by today’s standards you must understand, but by 1960 standards, it was considered “dirty”. So Randy and I were glued to the speaker. We fell asleep as we played that album over and over giggling at what we heard.

The record was still turning when my sister came downstairs New Year’s Day morning. I stirred as she turned off the record player. She removed the record and put it back into its sleeve. She said quietly, “This will be our little secret”. I nodded and went back to sleep. I swore Randy to secrecy, and Doug Clark was mentioned no more, until….

I was in my 2nd year at UVA. A group of us decided to go to Durham two days after New Year’s for the opening of the ACC regular basketball season against Duke. We lost the game; however, at UVA our motto was “Never let the game get in the way of a good party.” It was a little after 10 pm, so we headed into Durham to find a place to drown our sorrows. We came upon a place called “The Cave”. As we entered, the band was playing a tune that sounded vaguely familiar. A song I had heard before, but a long time ago. As we settled in at the bar to get a beer, the refrain “My Ding-A Ling” roared from the stage and the people on the dance floor. I looked at the band, and there on the bass drum were the words “Doug Clark and The Hot Nuts. I immediately reflected back to those two boys with their ears pressed to the front of the stereo console blushing and giggling to this forbidden tune. So here I was witnessing the infamous Doug Clark “live”. The songs were all familiar, and much more graphic. I was not surprised. In no time I was singing along with the crowd at the top of my voice as if it were important to be heard. I never saw Doug Clark again, until…

While helping my sister Helen clean out the house last spring, I opened a box with some old albums, AND THERE IT WAS! “Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts”. Believe it or not, I felt myself blushing a bit.  I thought, “Now, where is that old record player?

Footnote: Doug Clark died in 2002.