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That '83 christmas was an epic. Going to school in Madison and drove back to GB with my wife.  Just past Sun Prairie we see a disabled car. Cracked engine block. It's my brother and his wife, who live in the same aaprtment complex. We pack them and their gifts into our little Mazda and get to Green Bay. Staying at my inlaws, with a heated attached garage. Next morning the Mazda won't start. FIL scoffs at me for owning a Jap piece of crap (he wasn't wrong). His Chrysler aircraft carrier won't start either.

I was a 10 year old idiot (my mom told us so) outside in a tee shirt jumping around bare footed after the Ice bowl victory but I don't remember anything as cold as the winter of 1983.

Cows make excellent space heaters but those big old barns let most of the heat rise into the hay mow. One uncle had a single story milking parlor in the UP with an attached pole building for hay. You could milk in a tee shirt in the dead of winter.

Fandame posted:

Did you have those big, ol' milk cans?

Oh yeah. Still have a few of them in the milk house. 

MICHIGANPACKER - Slacker . My dad got up at 4:30 and in the barn by 4:45. I had to do the milking (20 cows) with my mom when he went up north to help my brother. We were first on the route and the "milkman" came at 7:00. Small locally owned cheese factory - brick cheese. I was still in high school so those were some long days.

We need an "old geezers reminisce" forum. 

QuietOne posted:
Fandame posted:

Did you have those big, ol' milk cans?

Oh yeah. Still have a few of them in the milk house. 

MICHIGANPACKER - Slacker . My dad got up at 4:30 and in the barn by 4:45. I had to do the milking (20 cows) with my mom when he went up north to help my brother. We were first on the route and the "milkman" came at 7:00. Small locally owned cheese factory - brick cheese. I was still in high school so those were some long days.

We need an "old geezers reminisce" forum. 

I ended up going to graduate school and run a research lab. Wisconsin sports are my main tie back to my farm days in Wisconsin. When I started in graduate school my grandfather asked me what my typical day was and I described it to him (I typically worked about 11 hours a day, 6 days a week). His response was that didn't sound like work at all. To him, it seemed like I wasn't working enough hours and sitting and doing experiments didn't sound like real work.

QuietOne posted:
Fandame posted:

Did you have those big, ol' milk cans?

Oh yeah. Still have a few of them in the milk house. 

MICHIGANPACKER - Slacker . My dad got up at 4:30 and in the barn by 4:45. I had to do the milking (20 cows) with my mom when he went up north to help my brother. We were first on the route and the "milkman" came at 7:00. Small locally owned cheese factory - brick cheese. I was still in high school so those were some long days.

We need an "old geezers reminisce" forum. 

Milk cows, go to school, milk cows, fix what was broke, homework, bed.  Rinse and repeat.  And that was just in Winter.  Add in field work for the other 3 seasons.  Started with 60 head, ended with 200.  

Henry posted:
QuietOne posted:
Fandame posted:

Did you have those big, ol' milk cans?

Oh yeah. Still have a few of them in the milk house. 

MICHIGANPACKER - Slacker . My dad got up at 4:30 and in the barn by 4:45. I had to do the milking (20 cows) with my mom when he went up north to help my brother. We were first on the route and the "milkman" came at 7:00. Small locally owned cheese factory - brick cheese. I was still in high school so those were some long days.

We need an "old geezers reminisce" forum. 

Milk cows, go to school, milk cows, fix what was broke, homework, bed.  Rinse and repeat.  And that was just in Winter.  Add in field work for the other 3 seasons.  Started with 60 head, ended with 200.  

Feed calves and feed to cows hay starting when you are about 4 years old. Then you get to graduate to cleaning out calf pens a few years later. Then you get to milk cows a few years later.

The most work though was sitting at the top of a hay mow on a 95 degree day and stacking bales for about 10 hours (with a few short breaks between wagon loads) to beat the rain.

I am amazed at how this discussion morphed but I thoroughly enjoyed reading every post.  Fandame's comment about the warm barn really created a lot of interest and the comment about the winter of 83 led to this comment from my wife (We were stationed in Stuttgart Germany) and it was a very cold winter but a storm from the east moved in and it got so cold about half the cars in the city had frozen batteries (mine included) when I went outside to see what could be done I opened the hood and not only was the battery frozen solid but there was a rat that crawled up in to try and get warm and he was a rodent- sickle.   So after my wife gets done screaming I am off to the store to buy the most expensive battery they sell at a 200% markup because I was slowest to the store that day..  It was more than a car payment so I am sure I will never that winter of 83

I think that was the same winter where I was home and it was so cold and the wind so strong that the heavy-duty plastic on the outside of my parents' windows cracked and snapped like gunshots. Once loose, those frozen flags were snapping through the air like razors. It's a wonder they didn't actually break the windows.

Doing hay on a 95-degree day was when I had my first taste of beer -- I think I was 10. Later, when I was able to have my own, I discovered there's nothing like an ice-cold beer after pitching hay bales for 10 hours in the summer heat and humidity. 

Yup a 1/4 barrel of People's after haying or threshing with all the uncles and neighboring farmers is one of my favorite memories.  My grandpa had a team of horses,  Nancy and Sluggo pulling the combine.  Grandma and the aunts would cook up a storm for everyone.....cold cuts at noon and a big meal at supper.  Much like Fandame this was the start of my long lived beer drinking career.  Having a Full Sail Pilsner as I type.

Sweet!

So tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Ice Bowl.

I check the tube to see if anybody is running a documentary or Greatest Games Ever Played flick about it in the next few days. Nope.

Our broadcast media is just so bad these days. I get that it's bowl season and week 18 but still. Maybe we'll get something in the SB run-up.

So I just replayed the America's Game done by NFLN on the 1967 Packers (available On Demand via NFLN). Outstanding. The Sabols producing, Tom Selleck narrating, Jerry Kramer, Dave Robinson and Chuck Mercein reminiscing, Bart amazing and Vince everywhere. The Ice Bowl segment is about 10 minutes and is perfectly done given the time constraints.

Whenever I watch or listen to those clips I'm an 11 year-old again jumping up and down with my parents and sibs looking out over our frozen lake and thinking that life is so good. And it was.

 

Last edited by ilcuqui

Been following this twitter account the past 3 years. Jeff Ash's project. Good stuff.

packers656667





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I recently saw the documentary โ€˜The Timeline - The Ice Bowlโ€™ done by Michael Meredith (Dandy Donโ€™s son).  He did a marvelous job interviewing players from both teams who played in the game. I came away with a new appreciation for players, fans, and all involved that day.  Numerous players did not think they would play because of the weather. I believe itโ€™s available via NFL films. 

Last edited by PA green & gold
Slobknocker posted:

https://youtu.be/IbKKNo6-69o

Came across this on Youtube, the guy who did this should be thanked. The full game with the radio calls, pregame, and postgame stuff is included

This is great stuff.  If you catch the lockeroom interview with Starr, you get a glimpse of what wouldn't fly in today's pc world (Brookshier asking Starr about playoff money and what the wives would get) and also the absolute class and humility of Bart Starr....taking blame for his sacks, saluting his oline, and praising his opponent.  Nobody like him today. 

I recently saw the documentary โ€˜The Timeline - The Ice Bowlโ€™ done by Michael Meredith (Dandy Donโ€™s son).  He did a marvelous job interviewing players from both teams who played in the game. I came away with a new appreciation for players, fans, and all involved that day.  Numerous players did not think they would play because of the weather. I believe itโ€™s available via NFL films.

This documentary is being rebroadcast at 4:00pm EST today on the NFL Network.

@Pakrz posted:

Watched the Ice Bowl documentary earlier today. Amazing how that loss fucked up the Meredith family. ๐Ÿ˜‚ The mom is still pissed.

Never heard so much whining in my life than from the DallAss player's commentaries.
"The game shouldn't have been played/should've been postponed"...
"We couldn't play our style of offense because of field conditions"...
Blah, blah, blah.
Meredith. The Packers whooped your ass. Period.

@Packiderm posted:

Good old 3 channel days. Giants, Bills market here. Vaguely remember the Bills winning the AFL Championship in 65. NFL game in Dallas against the Pack is the first game I remember watching anything of. B & W TV, Vertical hold. Prell commercials with the pearl and Josi the plumber hocking Comet cleanser.  Good times!

Our market was the Duluth-Superior market. Our three channels were KDAL, WDSM and WDIO. WDSM switched call letters to KBJR, at some point, probably due to new ownership??? Later, a public broadcasting channel, WDSE, was added. Julia Child became a part of our lives, when that happened. My Dad sold TVs and appliances, so we had a rotary antenna we could play with. During overcast days, we could pick up a TV station from Pocatello, Idaho, due to the atmospheric bounce of their broadcast signal. Cheap fun!

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