Rant #2,537: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?

 Against my own wishes, I am going to do something today that I have not done in ages.
 
I am going to shill for myself.
 
Heck, why not?
 
As you probably know, I run a few Facebook group sites—follow-ups and successors to sites that I once ran on Yahoo Groups--which would be of varying degrees of interest for my readers here.

 
I run two group sites dedicated to the neighborhood that I grew up in, Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, New York, certainly one of the most interesting places anybody could grow up in.

 
Of course, most of the people who join those two groups—Rochdale Village Reconnection and Rochdale Village South—are people who also grew up in the same neighborhood, so the reach of these sites are somewhat limited.
 
However, each site as hundreds of members, so there is genuine interest in both of these groups.
 
And they are the two groups that I post my daily Rant every weekday, which cuts down on the traffic that I get at the blog site, but also expands the reach of the blog on Facebook. People would prefer to not click onto an address and be redirected rather than to read what I have to say right there, so it has worked out to a certain degree.
 
Then I have two groups that have a larger reach, more for the general Facebook population than the other two sites.
 
One of the groups is simply called 45s, and the subject matter is 45 RPM singles.

Myself and other members put up our latest finds, our latest purchases, literally everything and anything from (A)BBA to (Z)Z Top, and it is fun to see what others have in their collections, and their responses to what you have.
 
Again, this site has several hundred members, and at one time it was my most popular group site.
 
Then we have what has become my most popular group site, called Where the Action Is—Yesterday and Today, a site that has well over 1,000 members.

 
This is actually the sequel group to one that I had a few years back, a group that I wasn’t very happy with its setup or my own personal upkeep of.
 
Anyway, this newer site focuses on one of the great lost variety shows of all time, which was directed squarely at kids my age, “Where the Action Is,” and ABC-TV show created by Dick Clark as a companion to “American Bandstand,” showcasing numerous top rock and roll acts of its day, from 1965 to 1967.
 
This show ran in the afternoon, perfectly positioned right after school for us young’uns, and it made stars out of its house band, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and made Mark Lindsay one of the all-time great teen idols.
 
The show was shot around the country at various sites, and the acts on the show lip-synced their current records.
 
Although actually hosted by singers Linda Scott and Steve Alaimo, the show was literally taken over by the antics of the Raiders—with their Revolutionary War attire in tow—an act which went on to have many hit records and LPs during their heyday, 1965 to about 1972 or so.
 
But focusing on “Where the Action Is” at the group site, I try to give as much equal time to the other acts which called WTAI home, including Keith Allison and Tina Mason and the Action Kids, and it is a fun site to recall a show that has kind of fallen by the wayside, due to its lack of availability on video.
 
Lately, I have also branched out at the group site to an examination of the follow-up shows to WTAI, including the “Happening” shows that also featured Paul Revere and the Raiders, and yes, these shows have also become a faded memory for most group members for the same reason, lack of availability.
 
The discussion is fun and upbeat, and quite frankly, the 45s and Where the Action Is sites feature absolutely no political talk and are 100 percent family friendly.
 
The Rochdale sites are 100 percent family friendly but do, on occasion, include political talk.
 
And beyond these groups that I run, as most of you know, I am all over Facebook, and I put up a daily look at my 45 RPM record collection separate and apart from my 45s site, where I put up a picture sleeve of the day and elicit comments from others about the act, the song, or whatever.
 
It is all fun, and I can rightly say that while the overall Facebook experience can be annoying at times, my four groups and some of the other things that I put up are a lot of fun.
 
Here are the addresses if you are interested in any of them:
 
Rochdale Village Reconnection:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/264933322680/
 
Rochdale Village South:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/371701752961486/
 
45s:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/45RPMSingles/
 
Where the Action Is—Yesterday and Today:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/598790963991601/
 
 
So there you have it. I shilled, I tooted my own horn.
 
I made it through all of this with flying colors.
 
And I did it against my better judgment.
 
But with everything going on today in this fractured world, these sites give others, as well as myself, some comfort, places to tell everyone your memories, and hopefully to relax.
 
In a time where every word spoken out of our mouths or written from our fingers can be misconstrued as vitriol, these sites are generally fun, and little more (although the Rochdale sites can go off the deep end sometimes).
 
So if you are interested in some fun, please check out my groups.
 
I shill … err … shall be every grateful to you.
 
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.