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Remembering Valerie Valerie dancing at my wedding W hile looking through a box of old photographs I came across a couple of postcards that were sent to me in December of 1979. I had recently been transferred to Sacramento. One postcard was from Louanne and the other from Valerie, two members of the Barrington Gang that had moved from Eugene to San Francisco around the same time I did. Louanne's post card had a picture of a reenactment of the assassination of President Kennedy. Now a postcard of the assassination would be weird enough but a postcard of a reenactment of it? Who thinks something like that is post card worthy? That is just too funny. I've always appreciated Louanne's sense of humor. The picture on the card from Valerie was of a vintage Christmas card which in it's own way was very Valerie. The cards asked about how I was finding Sacramento, informed me they'd be in San Francisco for Christmas, and asked if I might be there as well. ...

My First Record Album I liked listening to music when I was very young but the music I was hearing was the music of my parents or my Aunt. It was around 1957 when Rock-n-Roll began to enter my life. I was maybe 8 when I started hearing a few Rock-n-Roll songs. Rock 'n' Roll wasn't played at my house and the radio stations my parents listened to never played it. My initial exposure to Rock-n-Roll came through the courtesy of others, namely, my friends older siblings who were sometimes listening to it while I was there. The first Rock-n-Roll songs I remember hearing were Danny and the Juniors' “At The Hop”, Elvis' “Hound Dog” and “Heartbreak Hotel”, and Bobby Darrin's “Splish Splash”. I'm sure there must have been others but I specifically remember those. I also remember hearing David Seville's “Witch Doctor” and Sheb Wooley's “Purple People Eater” but those were more cutesy pop songs rather than real Rock-n-Roll. I heard all these songs at oth...