Regularly referring to myself as a life-long Minnesotan, I overlook the fact that my family lived in Oklahoma for a couple years when I was young. In fact, my public education began while we lived in Tulsa. I started kindergarten the week after we arrived in 1972 and completed first grade shortly before we left […]

In the spring of 1979 I was in 6th grade. This was my final year of elementary school, and my last year of riding the bus. Being the oldest kids in school had its privileges, one of which was that my friends and I always sat in the coveted seats at the back of the […]

Herb Alpert is my all-time favorite musician, and this goes back all the way to my earliest years. I LOVED listening to Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (TJB), even when I was just four years old. Their songs were short, catchy, and fun. Especially Tijuana Taxi: And Spanish Flea: The silly trumpet parts would […]

For the most part, nighttime was a positive experience for me as child. I’m sure it helped that I always fell asleep quickly and slept soundly through the night. On a rare occasion I would startle awake with fragments of a scary dream lingering my head, and my imagination would run wild until I fell […]

Every Sunday night in the late 70’s, I would do my best to stay awake long enough to hear Casey Kasem count down the hits on American Top 40. The show started at 8pm, which just happened to be my bedtime. So after my mom hit the lights and closed my bedroom door, I would […]