[Elspode]

And now, the promised elaboration. The event pictured was back in September. It was ostensibly a combo birthday party for myself (9-25) and my lovely blonde friend and bandmate sitting at my left, Jill (9-16). We were the second and third youngest members of our graduating class, respectively (class of '74, Grandview High School).

The high school part is especially relevant because the combo birthday party was also a band party. Unfortunately, we don't see everyone's face in this pic, but all here are significant. Moving toward the camera from Jill, you see only the lovely hair of the lovely Kathie, wife of my lifelong friend and bandmate, Rich (also GHS '74), ridiculously talented guitarist, who is in the blue shirt with hands folded 'neath his chin. Apart from being his current bandmate, I have also had the honor of having been his Best Man, not once, but twice. His wife Kathie (his second wife, BTW) was the girl in my "cake" at my bachelor party the first time I got married (the cake was a cardboard refrigerator box with the work "CAKE" scrawled on it in magic marker). I think she was 17 at the time, when she emerged in a yellow bikini while pulling the cork on a bottle of Cold Duck, which exploded all over both of us. That was in 1978. We then proceeded to lie on the floor and watch Super 8 porn videos featuring John Holmes. We both nearly puked when the money shot occurred. One of the most remarkable memories I have of Kathie is the fact that, when I first met her, she drove a Ford Maverick that had a complete formal dining room set done in doll furniture on the rear window deck above the backseat...as in table, chairs for eight, sideboard, china cabinet, hutch, serving cart, candelabra on the table and a carpet. She retains an acute decorator's sense to this day. Beyond all reason...

Sitting directly across the table from me, in the blue top, is yet another bandmate, also named Kathy. I first met this Kathy about ten years ago when she responded to an ad placed in the UMKC student newspaper by Selene, seeking a musician to join the band configuration we were in together at that time. Kathy is a recovering lawyer, now a Masters level law librarian at UMKC, and is working on becoming an ordained minister. Next to her is her husband Jim, also a lawyer, who has recently bought into a small practice in Southern Missouri (Branson, basically). They live apart five days a week and commute back and forth to see each other. Yow. Kathy plays the shit out of hammered dulcimer and guitar. She's an old hippie/folkie, and one of the smartest, kindest, neatest people I know.

Moving again towards the camera from Jim is Sherri Becker, aka as Senorita Becker. Why is she known as such? Because she was my high school Spanish teacher, and that's what we called her then. She and Jill were very close during high school, to the extent that Jill's minor in college was Spanish. Their friendship has remained constant over these 30+ years, even while Sherri married a Venezuelan national and moved to that turbulent country, eventually divorced, and returned to the States. Sherri was my first hour teacher in my Senior year, and it was a rare morning that I didn't walk into her class stoned out of my mind from copious quantities of 7:00 AM ganja, only to have her force me to converse in Spanish, sometimes in front of the entire class, usually in the most challenging possible way. I asked her the night this picture was taken if she was aware that I had, upon occasion, been in an altered state of consciousness while being educated by her, and whether or not she deliberately took advantage of this possibility. She just smiled.

To Sherri's left is Karyl. Karyl was a GHS grad in '75. She dated one of my other musician friends in those days, a crazed stoner drummer/multiinstrumentalist named Mark. He is now a Church of God minister. Karyl is a Special Ed teacher. By pure coincidence, she and Jill worked together in the late 70's in the Johnson County Kansas Special Services department (read: working with retarded people). In the 80's, Karyl came to a party at Rich and Kathie's house where an old bandmate of Rich's, Lynn, was keeping his studio following his messy divorce from a Guatamalan National who was eventually deported after they broke up due to her being busted for selling coke. Karyl and Lynn hit it off, and have been married for about 20 years now. In the 90's, when she wasn't patient enough to work with special needs clients for awhile, Karyl was my office assistant at a roofing company. It was never boring. Karyl is emotionally dynamic to say the least, but she is one of my best friends, someone with whom I can mercilessly throw pointed barbs of nasty humor, and get as good as I give. She belches like a sailor, cusses like a longshoreman, and sings like an angel. Karyl plays flute and recorder in our band, and sings her heart out. We used to have "Western Day" when we worked together, wherein I would play endless mp3's of Frankie Laine, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers and other such antique fare, all to irritate our boss. Karyl's husband Lynn's thinning dome is center and front of this pic.

The nexxus of this motley crew is the lady to Karyl's left, Lane. It is sort of difficult to explain Lane in any brief way. I first met Lane when she walked into my Sophomore English class, a transfer student from Baton Rouge, with straight blonde hair down to her ass, clad in a miniskirt, knee high suede boots, and a striped, form fitting knit top. I was immediately stricken to my core, and have never really gotten over it.

Continued below....