DISCOVERING FRANK SINATRA: THE COUSIN KENNY CHRONICLES (VOL .2 )

I first discovered Frank Sinatra when I was 19...I was getting ready to board an army plane to Germany...I had my walkman, but had forgot to bring any cassettes...There was this makeshift PX at the airfield that had some cassettes in one of those rotating wire shelves...New Kids on the Block, Toni Tony Tone, Cinderella...and other various selections of the day...and then there was this tape of Frank's Greatest Hits...except it really wasn't his greatest hits...it was just the songs that whoever made the cassette could get a license for...real old stuff...and while all the other soldiers put their money down on the New Kids on the Block, I bought the Sinatra tape...and a MAD magazine...and some toothpaste and shower shoes...and some Dippity Do because, at that time, I was really into keeping my flattop tight...for the ladies

I listened to that tape non-stop across the Atlantic...conscience and sleeping...and thought to myself..."I like this...but I wonder which one of these other goomers on the plane is going to call me a fag for listening to it"....Well, as it turns out, nearly all of them called me a fag for listening to it...even the old lifers....having that memory, I wish they were here now...so I could ask them...out of faux curiosity..."Are you still a New Kids on the Block fan?"

Cousin Kenny