1978

19 years old.

This year I finally got some new glasses and bought a new acoustic classical guitar from George's sister. I started jamming with Patrick and Joe Ramsey, and made up some of the songs that we would play in my first band, Jambox.

I dated Jill Elkins for a little while, but for some reason she made me uncomfortable because she liked me so much.

I was in love in with Linda McDirty by now. She let me move in with her with her other roommate, Candy Sue, this really gorgeous country girl in an apartment a block over from George's house.

Candy Sue and her family were from some small rural Missouri town where they claimed they had the entire county terrorized by their lawless criminal behavior. They were indeed a scary bunch, and from them I learned my lesson that poor white trash is the the scariest of all types to watch out for in this world.

Candy Sue's brother Mickey and his l'il blue-eyed girlfriend were amazing to watch as he treated her like dirt and how simply she took it. I'd never seen such treatment in my life, having grown up with a divorced, feminist mom who always stood up for herself and was independent to a fault.

Candy Sue's Mama and her scary boyfriend who drifted back and forth from the country were even worse. He was rumored to have killed a truck full of State police with a six of dynamite, and she was the mastermind of the whole family, directing criminal activities that I was never privy to, thank god.

Linda had sex with me once or twice before I started to get on her nerves, and she turned her affections to her big Hoosier boyfriend Dean who went out, got drunk, and stole cars for amusement.

Once a curly-haired trucker friend of theirs took me to a Massage Parlor to wait for him on our way to a drug deal. It was the first and last time I'd ever been to a massage parlor and, sitting there, penniless and a little scared, I didn't think much of it, to tell the truth.

Linda and I moved into another apartment a block further away and saw a lot less of them. It was strange, living with this gorgeous girl I was in love with and never getting any action from her.

Then one night, after a party where Earwacks played in our living room,we went out to get some fast food for dinner and when we got back the Earwacks PA was stolen, probably by the curly haired trucker.

Danny was hanging around with the Funk Mob, as we called ourselves, and we were still into Funkadelic Music. One of our favorite pastimes, from the old days when I used to go to East St. Louis with George in High School, was to climb up on the roof of the car and ride across the MacArthur Bridge on the roof going as fast as possible, holding on for dear life. This year we stopped doing that forever when Danny Stefacek was riding this way on top of Patrick's VW Bug and it rolled over on top of him. It was a miracle, but he survived, with a pretty massive ugly scar up his arm and side.

My "Come hither type look"