Craig had a deep, life-long love of music. My earliest memories include singing and — yes, composing — songs.
Like many families of the 1960s, our evenings were spent in front of the TV set. Family fare — sitcoms and variety shows — were our favorites. And every show had a catchy theme song.
Some of them had words for us to sing along with — like “
But many were simply instrumental — “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Andy Griffith,” “My Three Sons
So we made up our own words to sing along with. They didn’t always make a lot of sense, but we really enjoyed those songs.
Long about 3rd grade (I’m just guesstimating) Craig took on a substitute position with Ron Sides as a carrier for the “Norton Daily Telegram” and later he also got a morning route for “The Topeka Capital.”
My sainted grandmother Lee Ward told the story of how one of her friends expressed sympathy that a boy as young as Craig had to wear a hearing aid. LIttle did she know that Craig would walk his route with his new treasure — a transistor radio in his shirt pocket and an earphone in his ear. He loved to keep up with the top of the pops on AM radio. After all — it was the 60s, and it was the Golden Age of Rock and Roll.
By the time he was in 6th grade, Craig was ready to form a band. He didn’t know how to play an instrument but he had it all planned out that his buddies would be his band mates. I’m not sure any of them knew how to play anything either.
He named the band “The Flipsides,” and drew a logo. I’m sure many bands got by on less. I never heard them rehearse any songs, and I don’t know that
A year or two later my parents bought an acoustic guitar and hired Dwayne Winder to come to our house to give Craig lessons. But as soon as Mr. Winder told Craig to pick up his guitar for the first lesson, he noticed something was wrong.
Craig was left-handed. His guitar was right-handed. And Winder said that there was no way Craig would ever be a guitar player. Sad day.
Of course, Craig went on to play the bass — right-handed — and even learned enough guitar chords to be a fair right-handed guitarist. But much of that story is told in the section of pages about The Bunkhouse Boys. So until the next episode (tomorrow), you can go there and read about Craig and his success at the goal of being a musician.
Hasta la vista and adios!