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M M good.

Well, our very clever M made her way through my spider-webby memories and cracked the code for Lori’s Childhood Trivia, Round 2. Here were the clues (which I had just modified because even my sisters — who shared a childhood with me — even they were stumped):

Clue #1: Michigan* (or San Francico or Tampa)
Clue #2: Weekend evening

Now, before I give the winning answer, here are the other clues I had lined up:

Clue #3: Skates or curlers
Clue #4: Tartan

To kill time while your back-brain works on this, I’ll tell you that there is an unexpected art to putting together these clues. You want to set people on the right track but not be too obvious too quickly. You want to play on both the sound and the meaning of the words. You want to pull together geographic, semantic, cultural, and sensory clues. The meting out needs to be evenly paced and ready for either a sprint or a marathon contest.

So. Try it. Please think of your own childhood memory and lead backwards a trail of bread crumbs to that memory. Let me know you’re doing it and I’ll announce your trivia contest here.

Ready for Round #2’s answer?

Bay City Rollers.

My sister and I had a love/hate relationship with this pre-boy-band boy band. Sure, they were cute and their songs were catchy. But even with our tween-age eyes we could see that they were so packaged.

We had our own name for them. It’s not very PC, though. At that stage in our development, everything was about butts. She was a butt, I was a butt, our little sister was a butt. Often our parents were butts (although we never dared say that to their faces).

So we called this very perky group the Butt City Buttocks, our pre-teen way of expressing both fascination and contempt for the Bay City Roller phenomenon.

For those of you who may have missed them the first time around, here are the Butt City Buttocks Bay City Rollers singing Saturday Night.

* According to Wikipedia: [Originally called the Saxons] the band, seeking a less English-sounding moniker, they chose a new name allegedly by throwing a dart at a map of the United States. The dart landed on the map in the state of Arkansas, but since “Arkansas Rollers” did not sound quite right, and might also lead to problems with pronunciation, they tried again and this time the dart landed near the community of Bay City, Michigan.

16 Responses

  1. Well here’s the one suckage about Google Reader–it doesn’t tell you when a post has been updated. Though I don’t know if I would have gotten the band even with the clues. I…um…don’t really know the Bay City Rollers. I know the name, but I don’t know if I really know any of their songs (Saturday Night sounds familiar). We were very much a Beatles/Queen house. As in Beatles or Queen all the time. And a lot of jazz. My dad was a side man before I was born.

  2. Well here’s the one suckage about Google Reader–it doesn’t tell you when a post has been updated. Though I don’t know if I would have gotten the band even with the clues. I…um…don’t really know the Bay City Rollers. I know the name, but I don’t know if I really know any of their songs (Saturday Night sounds familiar). We were very much a Beatles/Queen house. As in Beatles or Queen all the time. And a lot of jazz. My dad was a side man before I was born.

  3. I’m with Nancy on this one. Would have had it on clue #3. I roller skated to that song a lot on S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. night at “Roller City”. Usually between games of Asteroids or Defender.

  4. Ooooo! I totally would have gotten it with clue #3. Although had no idea there was a Bay City Michigan. I always assumed Bay City would of been SF. Clue #2 totally stumped me though. I spent a lot of time looking through ‘bands of the 70s’ the past few days! (is that cheating?)

  5. No fair. I was thinking it was actually an act FROM Michigan. Did you know I live within 30 miles from Bay City?

  6. I’m with Nancy on this one. Would have had it on clue #3. I roller skated to that song a lot on S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. night at “Roller City”. Usually between games of Asteroids or Defender.

  7. Ooooo! I totally would have gotten it with clue #3. Although had no idea there was a Bay City Michigan. I always assumed Bay City would of been SF. Clue #2 totally stumped me though. I spent a lot of time looking through ‘bands of the 70s’ the past few days! (is that cheating?)

  8. No fair. I was thinking it was actually an act FROM Michigan. Did you know I live within 30 miles from Bay City?

  9. Mel — don’t click on the YouTube clip. You’ll have the song in your head all day.Tracy — are these Scottish boys memorialized in Bay City at all?Nancy — not cheating… just resourceful.Kami — you never heard “Saturday Night” or “I Only Want to Be with You.”MM — I think we skated around the rink once. You tried to hold my hand. Fresh!

  10. Mel — don’t click on the YouTube clip. You’ll have the song in your head all day.Tracy — are these Scottish boys memorialized in Bay City at all?Nancy — not cheating… just resourceful.Kami — you never heard “Saturday Night” or “I Only Want to Be with You.”MM — I think we skated around the rink once. You tried to hold my hand. Fresh!

  11. dagnabbit! I was laying in bed thinking about nothing and all of a sudden I thought, “Bay City Rollers!” but I couldn’t remember if they were in Wisconsin (Green Bay) or Michigan. Next time I’ll just risk embarrassment.

  12. dagnabbit! I was laying in bed thinking about nothing and all of a sudden I thought, “Bay City Rollers!” but I couldn’t remember if they were in Wisconsin (Green Bay) or Michigan. Next time I’ll just risk embarrassment.

  13. Now how did I miss this one?? My sister & I were HUGE BCR fans. I was going to marry Woody, the bassist (who was infamous for posing for a British fan magazine wearing a very long tartan scarf… and nothing else.) They were the very first band I ever saw in concert, when I was 15. We were in the 15th row — tickets cost $5.50. What memories!! : ) I can’t believe so few of you know who they were. I must be showing my age. :p

  14. Now how did I miss this one?? My sister & I were HUGE BCR fans. I was going to marry Woody, the bassist (who was infamous for posing for a British fan magazine wearing a very long tartan scarf… and nothing else.) They were the very first band I ever saw in concert, when I was 15. We were in the 15th row — tickets cost $5.50. What memories!! : ) I can’t believe so few of you know who they were. I must be showing my age. :p

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