Musical History - The Real Journey Begins

During that last summer (1965), I had spent a long weekend in Sarasota doing some "aptitude testing" in preparation for returning to FSU after receiving my AA from Edison. Coincidental to that scheduling, I found out that Ian & Sylvia, my favorite group at the time, was playing locally and I arranged to "sneak" out of the dorms after dinner and catch their show at what was like a local clubhouse for a planned community. It was a great opportunity to meet them and get to actually spend some time with them. At the same event I met other folkies from the area who told me about a local club in St. Petersburg called "Beaux Arts". They said it was a funky but lively club that welcomed visiting artists and made set time available, when possible. Well, that settled what I would be doing the following night...

Saturday night I executed my stealth escape again and journeyed into St. Petersburg to find the folk club. It was indeed funk and was run by a very vivacious and gay man in his late 50's who indeed welcomed me to the club. After talking for several minutes he agreed to let me do a set after the next act was done so I returned to the car (MGA coupe) and retrieved my Guild 12-string" and tuned-up. That set was the first time I had played for a totally "new" audience and it was magical. All of the old, set "patter" worked well and they were not familiar with many of the tunes in my somewhat shortened set. Apparently the proprietor enjoyed it too as he called me back to do a couple more tunes for an encore (the next act was probably late in arriving). Anyway, it was one of those memorable nights and I sang all the way back to the counselling dorms.

The following day they went over my test results with me where they planned out my college degree in Physics/Mathematics in three years followed by my Masters in another year or two and then, if I wanted to, I could start work on my doctorite. There was one small inconsistency in my test results that bothered them as it did not mesh with the "typical" technical results I otherwise displayed... it seems the tests showed I liked being around other people! They assured me it was probably just an abnormality in the weighting of the answers, shook my hand and sent me on my way. I could have told them what it meant, but I didn't...

By mid-September I had returned to FSU and was well on my way to forming my next group.

*8o)