I Thought About My Past Today

    What can I say?

I didn't take the fork in the road which would have taken me down the path of fame

and fortune.

   Before I go any further,

let me just say,

I am very happy with the life I've had. 

Still having!

Knock on wood.

    I have seven wonderful children

and thirteen beautiful grandchildren.

That,

in itself,

is all the riches I'll ever need.

    I never believed,

that in my life,

I would get married,

being a thirty-five year old bachelor.

And for the life of me,

I never imagined having that many children too!

    What I'm trying to say here is,

we all have forks in the road

and the decisions we make at those intersections,

is never a wrong one.

    Regret is the evil speed bump in our road.

It eats away at any happiness you could have if you don't let yourself be content with where you are at anytime in life.

    In my life I believe I had at least three good chances at getting involved in the music industry.

    Probably not becoming a star

or anything like that,

but making a living at it.

 The first time.

I was involved,

like most people starting out,

playing in a band locally around my hometown.

The four best musicians in our area were playing at a local venue

and I went to go see them.

    The singer of the band didn't show up so about thirty minutes after they were supposed to start they asked if I would sing for them.

My choices came down to this.

If I had sung with them

and done well my reputation locally would have grown in stature.

I would have had better opportunities to play with the best people around.

If I had failed,

sung miserably,

I thought I could never have gotten through the humiliation.

I chose not to do it.

If I had,

I could have learned so much more about music

and I wouldn't have wasted so much time getting to the point where I could become a professional.

Second chance.

I was asked to become a roadie for the band

Cheap Trick

by their road crew manager,

through a friend of mine.

This time,

I had a full time job,

a girl friend,

and a popular local band.

I chose the safest

and secure way.

Staying put.

I kept the routine I knew best

and didn't take the roadie job.

The problem is,

nothing ever last

or stays the same in life.

Soon afterwards my girl friend left me,

the company I worked at went on strike,

the band I was in broke up,

and I totaled my Cadillac Eldorado Convertible.

All in a two week period.

If I had a dog during that time it probably would have died!

Third.

Before the band broke up,

we decided that we were going to cut a professional demo cassette recording.

Maybe press some vinyl.

I know its hard to understand by today's standards,

but MP3s

or even CDs hadn't come out yet. 

Well,

we cut the demo and the local
College Radio
was playing it pretty often.

After hearing it,

a local

Talent Agent,

asked if we were interested in signing up with him!

With momentum moving our way,

we decided to record about forty five more minutes of music.

I took the master recordings home,

told the other members to think about signing with the

Agent,

and waited to hear back from my mates.

I don't know if they were scared of change,

or what it was,

but we were at the next cusp in our journey as a band,

and when the verdict came in by the other members,

they wanted everything to stay the same.

So we disbanded.

I tried for a few more years playing music back in my old hometown,

eventually giving up

and hightailing it out to California.

And I would do it all over again,

the same way,

because of

Henrico,

Monchito,

Beverly,

Danielle,

Jamie,

Maryallan,

and

James Jr.

My kids.

This is,

I Thought About My Past Today While On My Daily Walk,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
- Winston S. Churchill -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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