Childhood memories

A friend asked me to come up with some memories of my childhood and then suggested I post them on my blog.

My childhood

I was born in 1946 and grew up in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.

We got our first TV in 1950, a Dumont with a 5-inch screen when I was four years old.

After the morning news, the stations would go off the air until the evening news and then continue until midnight, when they would sign off until early morning. A test pattern would appear while the station was off the air.

I remember the AM radio (AM was all there was), which played the top tunes of the day. My dad liked to listen to classical music in his car and while reading after dinner. I learned early on that my ear was extremely attentive to music of any kind.

There were lots of obnoxious commercial jingles on radio and TV, which (as you know) I have always detested. I remember one for Double-Mint Gum, another for Pepsodent (“Brush your teeth with Pepsodent, and you’ll wonder where the yellow went” ), which of course as boys we would substitute “flush” for “brush” and direct the jingle toward another bathroom activity. There was the “Brusha-Brusha-Brusha” commercial for Ipana toothpaste featuring Bucky Beaver.

Then there was the invisible shield of Colgate Dental Cream. God, they go on and on!

Songs I remember from the 1950s:
Mona Lisa – Nat “King” Cole
Tennessee Waltz – Patti Page
How Much is That Doggie in the Window (flip side of TN Waltz) – Patti Page
Be-Bop-a-Lula – Gene Vincent
Blueberry Hill – Fats Domino
Mr. Sandman

TV shows I remember:
Howdy Doody

Lassie
Superman
Hoppity Skippity (local DC show – I got to be in the studio audience “Peanut gallery”)

Captain Video

The Milt Grant Show (local DC teen dance show like American Bandstand)
Ed Sullivan
Red Skelton
The Pinky Lee Show

Captain Tugg
Pick Temple

Toys I remember:
Hula Hoop
Silly Putty
Erector Set

My stuffed doggie, which I still have (missing one eye)

I was sick a lot as a child until I had my tonsils out at age ten. I nearly had to repeat third grade because I had been out of school so much. My mom would allow me to bring the radio/record player into my bedroom while I was sick. During these long times alone, I enjoyed listening to the old radio dramas (“Gunsmoke,” “Fibber Magee & Molly,” “Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club” and others) and went through my parents’ collection of classical music, during which I developed a love for Tchiakovsky and Grieg. I can remember drawing a portrait of Tchiakovsky in the water condensation on my bedroom window. I can also remember keeping a box score while listening to the Washington Senators on the radio. My dad took me to a game at the old Griffith Stadium in DC. which was the predecessor to RFK stadium, which has since been replaced by the new stadium north of the city. The times they are a-changing.

I mostly played outside as a child. Inside was boring. When the TV started broadcasting during the day, it offered only soap operas and other stuff that was uninteresting to me. I much preferred exploring the real world beyond my front door with friends. We would often stray beyond the boundaries set by my parents, for which I received more than one hard spanking from my dad. I remember climbing trees and exploring creeks and woods more than anything else. Once as a four year-old I wandered down to a railroad embankment with some older friends, where we stripped down to our underpants and swam in the deep water around the bridge abutments. I vowed never to tell my parents about this excursion, fearing certain death.

I rode my tricycle all over the neighborhood, once venturing so far that my mom drove her car around until she discovered me far from home (probably a block away). I explained to her that my imagination had run away with me (hence my blog name runawayimagination). Later when I was old enough for a two-wheeler, my adventures could take me farther still.

Some of my best friends were the neighborhood dogs, who I followed around, and who followed me around. In fact, the family members to which I felt closest were my dog and cat.

I’ve always had just a few close friends, usually loners like myself. I didn’t travel with the gangs of bigger boys, who liked to terrorize the younger kids like me.

When I was 6 to 9 years old, I built a wooden car with a neighbor friend. We got it to roll down the hill, but the lack of effective steering and brakes caused us to bail out before it ran into the ditch. Later on when I was in my early teens, another neighbor friend and I built a go-kart powered by a lawnmower engine that we drove around the neighborhood.

One sport I remember playing is baseball (not softball). I had a pretty good left arm and was often assigned to left field, because I could throw the ball farther than anyone else on the team. I used to enjoy hitting the spiny fruit of sweet gum trees over the roofs of houses.

Beginning at about age 12, I began to discover the wonders of my parents’ extensive library of books. I loved reading Michner and also enjoyed perusing my mom’s 1918 “Our Wonder World.”

Existential crisis?

Who the Hell am I, and what the Hell am I doing here?

What is my life, anyway?

Is my life about showering, dressing, eating, drinking, driving to work, logging on & logging off, reading & writing stuff?

Is it?

Or is my life about the children I brought into this world?

Is it about the friends I made? The friends I lost?

Is my life about trying to keep body and soul together? Purchasing products and services, then trying to figure out how to pay for them?

Is my life about loving my wife?

Is my life about nothing? Everything?

Is my life about whatever I want it to be about?

Are there any guidelines, and would I even follow them if they existed?

Is my life about the myriad responsibilities I take on?

I see fellow travelers every day.
Some old, some young,
Some injured, some healthy,
Some living, some dying.

Thoughts tumble through my head,
cascading one after another,
Sometimes like angry bees swarming around my head,
sometimes like snakes slithering through the underbrush, following other snakes that are following other snakes and so on.
Most thoughts never reach my consciousness, and most of those that do never find expression through my lips or my fingertips.

I wonder.

I just wonder.

So maybe that’s what my life is about.

Wondering about my life.

Late winter snow Mar. 8

I took these pictures about 11:30 a.m. on March 8. We had received about six inches of snow overnight, so considerable melting had already taken place.

Where I'm From

I am from the old piano,










the AM radio

and the record player.













I am from the creek in which I discovered frogs, toads and salamanders,













from the azaleas,












dogwoods,












redbuds











and the tall oaks under whose canopy I discovered the world of Nature.









I am from the Frozen Dairy Bar whose creamy goodness delighted me











and from the 7-11 where I got cigarettes to smoke with my friends in the woods











and lighter fluid to set the creek on fire.

















I am from Granddad Bill the railroad man,














Grandaddy Peacock the Knower of All Things and Nanny the southern grandma.

I am from, "Do you have a grain of sense?", my mom's spaghetti sauce












and the library stocked with books that enlightened and incited a lifetime of learning about the world.

Indiana winter scenes

I took these pictures one winter morning from front yard of our friends who live in the country west of Kokomo, IN

Lunar eclipse

I took some pictures of the lunar eclipse, my first attempt at night photography with my digital camera (Canon Powershot A95). It was in the mid 20s, and I was freezing. I used my rather light aluminum tripod - yes I know the pictures would be better with a heavier tripod. And they would also be better with a telephoto lens. But I did get some interesting results.

I was using at 15-second exposure, the maximum for my camera. The moon pictures came out okay, but this one was plain lucky. Notice the dashed line below the moon - that was a plane passing through the picture with its red light flashing, which created a dashed line in the picture.

















This picture captured the ambient light reflecting off the Japanese Cherry tree in our front yard. You can see the redness on the blossoms signaling the coming of spring.




















This was another interesting result, not of the moon but of the stars against a tall oak tree in the yard.

Chad Graham & The Echoes, 1964

I recently downloaded a 45 rpm record that I cut with a high school rock band Chad Graham & The Echoes during my Senior year (1963-64) at JEB Stuart High in Falls Church, VA.

After installing Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 and connecting the line output from my turntable to the microphone input on my laptop, I was easily able to digitize the songs.

Click the links below to hear the songs.

I Want To Do It

Do It Any Way You Want

Looking into the past

This weekend I began downloading some old analog camcorder tapes.

My mother-in-law Betty is nearing her Final Passage,
and I want to make a DVD for her,
to remind her of the good times,
when her husband and daughter were still with us,
happy and full of energy and wit.

Now they are both gone,
and Betty lingers in her nursing home,
unable to walk due to a hip injury,
awaiting her time.

Leukemia took Nancy in the spring of 2003,
and John passed in October 2006.

I first met Nancy's parents and friends in 1994
on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary in Kokomo, IN.
I carried my camcorder around all weekend
to record my first meeting with all these people
whom I knew would become part of my new family.

Later I recorded John's 80th birthday,
and in 1997 I interviewed him about his life.

It is remarkable to see these old images
and also to view myself at an earlier time,
before I had left behind a long career and a lifetime of friends
to start a new life in Tennessee.

I hear my voice and see my face in these old tapes
and wonder how I have changed.
I see the ponytail and the earring,
the slender and taut features
and compare them with the older man
who now stares back at me from the mirror.

I remember how I felt old then,
maybe a little too old (48) to be changing my life
in such fundamental ways.

But I plunged ahead anyway,
following a new life path
that has brought me to this day.

Ambushed by sorrow

Tonight as I was packing for a trip, I poked around in the closet.
I noticed a little wooden box in the back of an upper shelf










and decided to see what was in it.
The top was brightly decorated.









Then I recalled its origin.
Nancy and I bought it in 1994 during a honeymoon vacation in Jamaica.

I opened it,
and inside
I had placed
the contents
of her wallet

after leukemia took her in 2003.

In the bottom were our wedding rings.









Sorrow had ambushed me.

Tears did not flow,
but their wells were stirred.

These thoughts do not trouble me constantly,
but sometimes,
and when least expected,
sorrow will alight
if only for a moment.

As I age,
I find that life
finds more ways
to remind me
of its brevity.

My interesting life

I have lived a very interesting and full life.
Actually several lives.

My first life began with a normal childhood.

Born February 1946 at the leading edge of the Baby Boom.
Raised in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.

Graduated from William & Mary in 1968 with a BA in Psychology.

Married my high school sweetheart the day before college graduation.

Short Navy career, then 29 years with the Telephone Company. (This is my mom telling me how to run the company)

Raised two wonderful children

Who are each raising two wonderful children of their own.

Took piano lessons from age six to 16.

Thus began a parallel life,
That of a musician.

Here I am with The Cavaliers, JEB Stuart High School's stage band.

Began playing in bands at age 15.

Played lots of private parties in high school.

Here's the first page from the song book of "The Redlighters, my first high school rock band.

Here I am (2nd from left) with The Shades, featured in The Washington Star Weekender in 1964, my senior year of high school.

Played through college at frat parties, earning spending money.

Here I am with The Strangers at our first paying gig during our Freshman year at William & Mary.

And here I am playing our last job.

Played in “Inner Light,” a highly successful agency band from 1973-77
Including one year of Fridays and Saturdays at the Olney Inn from 8:30 to midnight,
Then a contract with Washington Talent the following year
Lots of weddings, bar-mitzvahs, bat-mitzvahs and country club parties.

All tuxedo gigs.

Yes, ruffled shirts and all.
My trademark was a leather top hat.

Here I am in action with guitarist Jerry Kozelsky looking on in amusement.

We played Jimmy Carter’s Election Night celebration at the Statler-Hilton in Washington, DC before 3,000 people and two national TV networks . With less than a week’s notice, we managed to learn the Jimmy Carter theme song and perform it together perfectly the first time on stage.

Eleven fallow years from 1977-88.

Passion was rekindled in 1988 after sitting in with the house band while on vacation at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Auditioned for a classic rock band immediately after returning from the beach.

Became the leader.

The band became “Mirage.”

Mirage played clubs in Northern Virginia for 3 ½ years,
Putting my daughter through two years of
college.

In 1992 I got to play the blues with future FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein at Blues Week in Elkins, WV.

First marriage fell apart in 1994 after 26 years.

New marriage to Nancy in 1995;

New life began in 1998.

Retired from my white collar job after 29 years,
Sold my parents’ estate,

Stuck a pin in a map and decided to move to Nashville

to invent a new life
Away from the shadow of my first life.

By the spring of 1999 I was on tour

With the best band I had ever played with, “Ashley & Alexia.”
The dream I had nourished for decades had been realized.

But art won’t pay the bills,
So after nine months of searching,

In June 2000 I landed a white collar job in state government.

Leukemia claimed Nancy.
It started on her birthday in 2002
And ended one year later.
And so also ended that life of mine.

Suzanne ushered in yet another new life.
We met via an Internet dating service,
She had also lost two spouses as had I.
The first to divorce,
The second to death.

We’ve made our new lives together since then.

And yes, I still play in bands.
Here I am in 2003 (2nd from right) with Ben Byler & The Rest, a classic rock band.

What lessons have I learned?

Exercise, eat right, make love and play music as often as possible,
Because life is short,
And it’s our job to enjoy it while it lasts.

And for my interesting life I am thankful this Thanksgiving.