Go West young man

January 1 1964

We left Holdenville early on that morning.   We were driving Gary’s 1957 Chevy. Four door.  Due to budget constraints he had downsized from the beautiful 1962 pontiac. I had a 1954 Ford 2dr hard top we knew it wouldn’t make the trip.  1963 wasn’t a very good year financially but we were young we were gonna be alright. We were pulling the equipment trailer but the only thing in it was Gary’s organ and amplifier. I had sold my instruments because I was out of the business and needed the money.  We made good time til after dark that night when we started up the mountains of colarado.  Our route ,US highway 50 took us straight up and over Monarch pass. Which is a little old Mountain about 15000 feet high.  It was dark and snowy as we started the climb.   We had no tire chains no snow tires and no emergency equipment whatsoever .  We crossed a small railroad crossing and a tire blew out on the right rear.  We jumped out and started trying to jack up the car.  We almost had it high enough to begin taking the tire off and the car slid off the jack.  We knew right off this wasn’t gonna work.  About half a mile up the hill we could see one of those little store gas station places but it was closed. We loaded up and limped up the hill on the flat and parked in their drive way.   We knew it was dangerous to sleep in a car with it running but it was about 60 degrees below comfortable out side. We did have some blankets and our coats so one  took the front and one in back and we went to sleep.  We were awakened by the owner beating on the side window telling us we were blocking his drive and he needed to plow off the snow.  He sold us a tire and put it on and we were off again.  It had snowed several inches and the road Was treacherous.  We slipped and slid all over that road but somehow made it over.  We thought when we got over the mountains we would be outta the snow but it snowed on us all the way to Idaho.  I don’t remember how long it took us to get there I think about three days. Jim and Leon had a small duplex rented.  We bunked with them the night we got there.  We were exhausted.   The first night we were there we went to the club where they were working.   We parked right in front near the entrance. Someone broke into our car and cleaned us out.   Stole clothes and anything else they could find including my silver dollar which was in my wallet in the glove box. Welcome to Idaho.  We went to the club the next day to get Gary all set up to start with the band.   I was in the audience that night even though I was only 19 years old. I got away with it for a couple weeks and then someone ratted me out so they banned me.  Boring.     I remember while all this was happening was when I first heard of the Beatles .  The first song I heard was “I saw her standing there. “

I don’t know what it is about Boise Idaho but man they had some wild women.   They would come in the club hit on the band, swear they were single you go out with them and a couple nights later here comes a mad husband.  That happened over and over. Even to me and I was only a hanger on.  This club had a Sunday afternoon session.  One Sunday afternoon these two guys came in  and headed straight to the band stand.  The drummer, Gary Nieland thought he was bad.  Not sure how bad he was but he dang sure wasn’t scared.  He literally jumped over his drums and tackled this guy that was going for Leon.  Meanwhile Leon was backing up.  He later told us he was backing up to the organ to gain some leverage.  I was in the crowd thinking what the heck’s going on.  It was mad husbands.   A couple nights later two guys followed Gary and I home and when Gary started  to put his key in the door the guy blindsided him. It was raining and things were a mess in that front yard but we finally got them gone.  It was like that all the time we were there.  Thank goodness they were only there a little over two weeks after we got there then it was on to Yakima Washington.

Next time.   Baptism by fire my first night as a professional musician