Changes in Lattitude..changes in attitude more cool stuff!

Since graduating from high school in 1975 I have only made 3 major moves. I have never been able to travel as much as so many others I have met. Yet I have dreamed of so much and did the best to bloom where I was planted. Yet each time I have moved I believe it was yet to be a chapter in the story of the life God was writing for me. I have told my children over and over when their way gets tuff and they are uncertain of the road ahead that the master piece of their life was yet to written and their symphony yet to be composed. This time will pass and someday the world will hear their song and rejoice in their story. I believe we all have a story, some are grand, full of high adventure most are simple but play a part of the story from the blue world third in line from the sun. And all are precious. I have included a story of my arrival to Alaska in 1964. that was a change in latitude for sure.

Tonight Allison and I caught two shows on the local cable channel. The first was documentary on the news history of NOLA and the development of modern creole cooking. It was absolutely fascinating the history of a cuisine that dates back almost 300 years. They showed one of the earliest creole cook books ever written(up to then all recipes were passed on orally)talked about the early restaurants and people like Paul Prudhomme who was to creole cooking what Julia Childs was to french. Very cool show.They interviewed a local chef who stated the best cooks were not in the restaurants but in the homes. Allison and I had heard that,and the saying is if you ever get invited to eat at someones home be prepared for the best meal of your life!(hope that happens to us someday) The next was a local show called "Stepping Out" You can tell this is a low budget show, but they had a food writer,a music reviewer and a guy who covers the theatre scene. A show like this would last, at the top maybe two weeks back in Fairbanks...one, they would run out of restaurants after two shows and reviewing the latest jam band cd would grow old...theatre?..might might keep them busy and there is a decent university classical scene...but NOT LIKE HERE...the food writer described the new restaurants including John Besh's new one at the Roosevelt. This had a 6,000.00 pizza oven and like Couchon they cure all their own meats. What kills me is I now live in a smallish community where these guys I have been watching on TV for years are neighbors(so to speak)..the music reviewer reviewed no less than Branson Marsellis new cd. folks...I'M NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE!!!.

There is a tradition here in NOLA,every New Years eve they burn bonfires on all the levies. In Mid-City where we settled they had a tradition of setting bonfires from week old Christmas trees. This year the city did away with that due to "insurance"reasons..hence all the fireworks. Turns out there was a block party! Had known about that we would have gone...maybe next year. Here is another excerpt from "Me and My Guitar"

"Little Drummer Boy"

On Good Friday 1964 Alaska was hit by the strongest earthquake in the history of the west coast,causing mass devastation, and the loss of 103 souls.

My Dad, being in construction got a call to come to Anchorage to work. We followed not long afterward. I had never even heard of Alaska and only seen snow once in my life. When we arrived my young impression was "It's COLD"!

By this time the family consisted of Ellen,Glenn, me, and two little sisters Daphne and Cindy.

Coming from California, Alaska was truly the last frontier..TV with only 2 channels,my favorite shows ran 2 weeks behind anything else. My first winter was brutal. All I remember was I was forever cold and wet. One thing though,I found the kids and teachers at school to be really friendly,there were no bullies picking fights with me,we never had to lock the doors at night. Even at 8 years old I could sense a difference here.

Dad took us on a drive all around Anchorage and the area soon after we arrived. I saw first hand what an earthquake could do. We drove thru Turnigan Arms and saw homes flipped upside down,twisted sideways. Streets mangled with pieces of asphalt tossed about like dominoes. Lots of "For Sale" signs. They have since turned that area into "Earthquake Park" We drove down the Seward Highway where the sea tsunami had literally wiped out the town of Portage. I remember seeing nothing but gray mud for miles. Dad took us around Anchorage where on 4th ave we could still see how the street had slid 25 feet into the bay. There was a building downtown that had x cracks all the way from the ground floor to the roof.It was quite a tour.

We settled in a house that had a basement where Glenn and I would hang out. That Christmas Glenn got a plastic guitar/book and play along LP called"Play along with the Ventures" yes, SURF MUSIC had arrived to the frozen north!!! Glenn promptly went out and got a real guitar and amp(I think it was a Silvertone with a matching amp) surf heaven!

One day I hear this from the basement "Steve come down here" so I crawl out of bed and wander downstairs to see sitting in the middle of the room a homemade drum set. Granted it wasn't one of those swirly colored Ludwigs I had seen on TV but it was a drum-set. Glenn being so naturally talented with his hands had taken an old oil barrel and stretched viz queen across both sides and rigged a drum peddle out of a discarded door hinge and old spring.

The floor tom was an old trash can with more viz queen. the two top toms were old coffee cans with the plastic tops still on. Cymbals were the coffee can lids the snare was a smaller trash can. Glenn even made "drum sticks" out coat hangers. A drum set from discarded junk...my brother was amazing...next thing you know we are playing "Walk don't Run,Pipeline and Louie Louie" having the time of our lives and driving my red neck Dad and Irish mom nuts.

Glenn and I would go exploring downtown Anchorage. We usually wound up in either a pawn shop or music store. I was so taken by the look and feel of Gretch, Vox ,Rickenbacker guitars. They were just the coolest looking things. things.Sometime after we moved to Anchorage the Beatles actually had a stay over on their way to a tour. They stayed at the Anchorage Westward and as you imagine caused mass pandemonium. The hotel actually sold off one inch squares of the sheets they slept on after they had left(wish I had bought a few). My Dad used to hang out in this tavern that had a huge collection of guns behind the Bar. Being Irish we grew up in places like that sitting on a stool on a Saturday eating beer nuts and drinking sodas while Mon and Dad had cocktails, fed the juke box quarters and listened to Patsy Cline,Buck Owens and Johnny Cash.

We moved to another part of Anchorage a year or so after coming to Alaska.Into a large house with an upper level and carpeted stairs that mom used to slip and fall down on a semi-regular basis. We were beginning to see small telltale signs of the disease my two older aunts had. But none of us wanted to admit it. Prior to moving I had to go thru second grade twice due in no small part to having moved around so much in my earlier life. Prior to coming to Alaska we seemed to move constantly and as a result I was perpetually the "new kid on the block" and my education suffered as did any sense of stability. Having to repeat a grade helped neither my education nor self-esteem. I would struggle the rest of my life feeling less than smart and behind the curve. At this time my brother had a surf band that for a time used to practice in our living room. The drummer was always late so I would sit in till he got there. I was barely big enough to sit behind the kit but I did manage to keep a beat and actually could nail "Wipe Out " beat for beat.

The house we moved into was right next to an ex-military housing unit. It was now low cost housing with play grounds and lots of places to explore beneath the apartments. One day a friend and I were coming out of the "catacombs" when I heard a cry from up above. I looked up to see this little girl hanging out of a window on the second floor. I asked my friend if he knew what apartment that was. He said yes, so I told him to run up there and bang on the door. Meanwhile without thinking I went to stand under the widow thinking I'd catch her if she fell. Let's do some math, She's about 50-70 lbs I'm maybe 110 soaking wet. She's hanging 30-40 feet up. If she hit me dead on I'd pancake! Just as I'm standing there some kid shouts"what are going to do" I look over and reply "I'm gonna catch her!" Just then she comes tumbling down and her arms hit my outstretched arms falling between them. The laws of physics working in my favor I effectively "broke" her fall. She getting only a skinned knee and me walking away none the worst for wear. She was crying so I reached down to see if she was OK when her mom hollered at me from the window not to touch her. This spooked me so my friend and I took off. A bit later there was a large crowd that had gathered because the Fire Truck showed up along with the local police. I'm standing in the crowd trying to look invisible when my buddy yanks me forward and declares me the catcher. What followed was a whole lot of hoopla. A write up in the local Newspaper,mention on the local TV news and an interview on the radio...When thew DJ asked what I wanted to be when I grew up....I didn't say a Fireman,Astronaut Super Hero ......I wanted to be a ROCK AND ROLL DRUMMER!!!!

Eventually I had to give up the drums for health reasons.(it gets painful when every-time you beat on a drum your Irish mom beats on you!)I guess I shouldn't have tried to play along with the Animals while mom was taking a nap!!.....

Live well,eat well...live long and prosper!!!!