My back story!
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I never gave much thought about becoming a professional musician. I always loved music and admired my older brother Skip and his bands, and playing at beach parties and with the Kingsmen was totally cool. Once I found out I was 4F and ineligible for military service though I did not know what would come next!
In December 1964, Peter Davey and I had just come home from spending 4 months riding around Europe on motorcycles. We had a blast of a time, met some great new friends and went places most tourists never go!
Starting in January 1965 I was enrolled in the Spring semester at the new Southampton College in the hills overlooking Shinnecock Bay on the south fork of Long Island. In our trip around Europe, Peter and I came across an incredible adventure where we got to see up close and personal the race cars in action that would soon put the Ford Motor Company at the pinnacle of auto racing success. That event sort of cemented in my mind the decision to go back to school and get my engineering degree in Automobile Design. That would not mean I had to give up playing in a band but the thought of joining up with other musicians to start a band with the sole goal of getting a hit record became further and further from my plans for the future. My brother Skip and Joe Butler my bandmates from the Kingsmen had started a new band and moved into New York City and were playing in Greenwich Village. I would not be able to join them and go to college at the same time. I had a great steady girlfriend Lynn Bishop who lived in Westhampton Beach and some local friends that I could join up with on occasion to play some local gigs out in the East End and I could still go to college. So that was my plan as I headed into New York City to pick up my motorcycle that had been shipped back from Spain just before Christmas 1964. I got to New York on a cold rainy day and didn't go back out to Westhampton for 3 years. Oh I went back to collect my belongings and tell the college that I wouldn't be attending that spring but in the space of about 3 or 4 days my whole world changed and it would never again be the same. It would be the summer of 1967 before I could take the time to rent a little beach house in E. Quogue, LI and spend more than a weekend there and a designer of race cars I would never be!
Starting in January 1965 I was enrolled in the Spring semester at the new Southampton College in the hills overlooking Shinnecock Bay on the south fork of Long Island. In our trip around Europe, Peter and I came across an incredible adventure where we got to see up close and personal the race cars in action that would soon put the Ford Motor Company at the pinnacle of auto racing success. That event sort of cemented in my mind the decision to go back to school and get my engineering degree in Automobile Design. That would not mean I had to give up playing in a band but the thought of joining up with other musicians to start a band with the sole goal of getting a hit record became further and further from my plans for the future. My brother Skip and Joe Butler my bandmates from the Kingsmen had started a new band and moved into New York City and were playing in Greenwich Village. I would not be able to join them and go to college at the same time. I had a great steady girlfriend Lynn Bishop who lived in Westhampton Beach and some local friends that I could join up with on occasion to play some local gigs out in the East End and I could still go to college. So that was my plan as I headed into New York City to pick up my motorcycle that had been shipped back from Spain just before Christmas 1964. I got to New York on a cold rainy day and didn't go back out to Westhampton for 3 years. Oh I went back to collect my belongings and tell the college that I wouldn't be attending that spring but in the space of about 3 or 4 days my whole world changed and it would never again be the same. It would be the summer of 1967 before I could take the time to rent a little beach house in E. Quogue, LI and spend more than a weekend there and a designer of race cars I would never be!
Click on these photos to read the captions. It's obvious that this is what came next for me but it is just the beginning. Up to the point in time that these pictures were taken all was real good in my world. Soon however that axis would tilt a bit and start to wobble. To be continued!
Check in with my blog. It is under the Friction Zone page and I am going to try and have a fresh subject posted regularly, I encourage feedback both about the blog subjects and the site in general.
Check in with my blog. It is under the Friction Zone page and I am going to try and have a fresh subject posted regularly, I encourage feedback both about the blog subjects and the site in general.