It all began at our Cub Scout Pack meeting shows. The first one I remember was a Christmas show where we painted up the bottoms of our new red socks like little Santa Claus characters. We would then lay down in a line on the Taper Avenue school stage and put our feet through holes in painted up cardboard boxes and wiggle them to the sound of Christmas carols……We were a huge success! Those pack meetings must have pulled in at least 75 people once a month. All we had to do was wiggle our feet to get a big laugh? …..Ah yes, showbiz at 10 years old. Den 4 consistently blew out the competition and won many awards. As we got older, my mom got serious. Straw hats and bamboo canes. We eventually did full on barbershop chorus line routines with steps, twirls and kicks to classic standards like "Be a Clown" and "Shine on Harvest Moon". Then along came the Beatles.

When Chuck joined the band he also became our lead singer. He was 6 ft tall, surfer blonde with a fender Mustang and a Gibson amp with reverb. We became "The Blue Diamonds". Chuck was an only child whose dad was 50 years older than him. He had a sister, but she was 25 years older than him……..So we became his brothers. By the end of the summer the word was out. The Taper Avenue School  Principal, Mr. Kamholtz, also our former Boy Scout troop master booked us through Mom the manager at the upcoming Labor Day festival down the street.

As summer vacation came to and end, it was time for us to get ready for Dodson Jr. High.

As with all kids, that big step up from one teacher to 6 teachers is a frightening experience. One day your OK with your 30 to 40 friends. The next thing you know your social contacts have blown to 6 times what they had been. I was a shy little nerd. I was what was termed "excelerated" and all the tough kids really let me have it. Music became our way to get popular and stay alive.

Mom got involved at Dodson too. One of the most well orchestrated shows I think I ever did was a talent show which the whole school was invited to take part in. I was in the stagecraft class and we built tall psychedelic flats with doors out on front just like TVs "Laugh-in". The drama students did a whole variety comedy and musical act based from beginning to end on Martin & Rowan's new hit show. The Blue Diamonds were set up on the floor about 20 rows back. We were the orchestra. How it was all put together I cant remember but I know we were allowed two featured instrumental numbers. One of the songs that my Mom made us play was "Never on a Sunday" which was her all time favorite. In exchange for playing it, we got to play one rock song of our own choice. It was our first behind the scenes deal……a compromise with the PTA. Our main job for the show was to play short musical sound blasts. In today's terminology they would be called sound bites. We learned the exact licks from the TV show and arranged them to fit the script. Mom had cue cards made up and she would flash them to us from her seat near us in the audience. She was surrounded by the head honchos of the PTA who were quite impressed. We had about 15 different blast versions that we had practiced real hard the night before, The cue cards Mom flashed per the script read "Short blast", or.... "Long Blast 2" or "A lick 3". It all came off perfectly. Our friends told us that they didn't even watch the stage show because we were the best thing to watch. We stood around quietly clowning like we were The Beatles in A Hard Days Night until a new cue was flashed. Then Dennis would count quietly and BLAST…..a cool lick from nowhere. By the end of the show we were getting cocky. We even inserted a few blasts that weren't in the script. At our new school, once again were stars.

That night, about a third of the way through the evening program of speeches and award presentations, our band was announced. We were the only type of combo entertainment of the night or on any other previous night for that matter and I'm sure they had NO IDEA what we would play but I don't think anyone from the school even asked.  They trusted us and probably thought it would be some cute little instrumental surfer tune. So.....our stuff was all set up and ready to go…..and we didn't need our own PA because of the huge outdoor system that was loud enough for any volume we could crank out. Try and Imagine the opening notes to Jimi Hendrix’s "Purple Haze" in your head…….bomp…..bamp..…bomp….bamp……bomp……bamp…..now the intro guitar lick………..We were groovin………Vocals…..begin…………….PURPLE HAZZZZEEEE all in my brain……..No problem….We couldn't really hear Chuck singing out of the PA, but we didn't need to. We knew the song inside and out. We just played as hard as we could and when we were finished, it felt like we had just conquered the world, or at the very least, Dodson Junior High.

Les and Johnny lived half way down Sandwood. Johnny's dad was a semi famous lounge singer at the time who eventually was black balled from the Vegas Club circuit by Frank Sinatra for some unknown personal reason. They lived in a "Pink" House with white shag carpet and a huge white grand piano in the living room. Leslie was very shy, probably due to the fact that there were only two black families in the whole tract. He once told me that before he walked up the street to Bardale Ave. he had been a drummer. After hearing our three guitar twang, he decided to switch to guitar. Johnny had been his guitar player but I suppose because Les was older he just made Johnny switch to drums. Ill never forget the day Les had a freshly spray painted Fender Mustang hanging from his open garage door one afternoon. I walked in ask asked what he was doing to that guitar body up in the air? Les was so proud of his work that he pulled it down to show me up close and set it on some newspaper. Unfortunately it was still wet and the newspaper stuck to it like glue. We tried to peel it off but had no luck. He ended up having to sand it down and start all over again. That's how I became good friends with Les, who today is a master musician on every level.

A few times that summer we were visited by the police. We we not playing very loud by today's standards but one particular neighbor in the next Culdesac believed we were criminals. We didn't grasp the concept that we were doing anything wrong and ignored the orders to turn it down. One night, after the police drove away, we started practicing again, right where we left off. The cops had parked around the corner and were back in the driveway in a split second. My parents ended up having to go to court and pay a fine. We begged our parents to tell us which family was turning us in but they weren't stupid. We figured it out on our own and eventually those neighbors moved away. I really can't say if we had anything to do with it but...........I can only state that kids can be cruel...

Les learned the guitar very fast. He could play any Hendrix solo note for note or play the songs in his own way. That particular year the soundtrack from Woodstock was released and Les of course learned Jimi’s version of the Star Spangled Banner. We all thought he was a truly patriotic guy.