Brandon Coale Notes

I grew up in a small town like John Mellencamp did, and the Hoosiers movie from 1986 is one of the best movies about small town basketball in the mid 20th century.

Hoosiers takes place in the 1950s, and 10 years later all throughout the 1960s, my dad and his 3 brothers played basketball in the small Michigan town that they grew up in. I picture their life playing basketball in the 1960s was probably much like what was portrayed in Hoosiers. My dad later became a basketball coach for that school in the 1980s, so that is cool also. Back in the 1960s, my dad and uncles played junior varsity and varsity, and I’m guessing back then they also had 7th and 8th graders playing basketball in the small school, but I may be wrong that 7th and 8th graders had official games at the school.

They played basketball in their back yard with the basketball hoop attached to their garage. There is a scene in the movie where Jimmy is practicing at his home on dirt ground, and like Jimmy they didn’t have cement to play on at home.

I was remembering that back in the late 1980s and early 1990s McDonalds actually sold VHS tapes of classic movies. There is an article on the Letterboxd website that has a list of tapes that McDonalds sold, and one of the movies on the list is Mr. Mom. My parents had bought the VHS of Mr. Mom from McDonalds, and I didn’t see it on the Letterboxd list, but my parents also had the VHS of Hoosiers, which I believe they also purchased from McDonalds. It was cool that McDonalds was able to sell classic movies at very good prices compared to what you would have paid regular retail back then. Someone who must be interested in history like I am thoughtfully uploaded a commercial from McDonalds promoting VHS tapes to YouTube, which I have included below.

McDonalds also sold audio CDs from time to time. In the fall of 1994, my dad had learned that McDonalds was selling the CD of Tina Turner’s Greatest Hits for a good price, and he asked me to pick up a copy of the CD for him. There is an article at https://www.the-world-of-tina.com/greatest-hits—album.html that mentions this, and I’ve seen this 1994 CD for sale on ebay.