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Our poster shot had us all dressed in our
most seductive manner - me in the only dress we could find that fit, and a
loosely-stuffed bra, the stuffing of which I had to hold up with my arm
(below, although the picture's a bit too dark to tell). Since posting a
couple of hundred of these posters, I'd been asked by many people who the
attractive brunette in the back was, since most people had not seen her
before. Several guys had cast her as their vote for best-looking babe in the
band.
During our one and only performance, I was told a story by a friend of mine on the floor. His fraternity brother bragged that he'd had me the night before. "Dude," my friend replied in shock, "that's a guy!" This brother of his was not to be swayed, and insisted that it was me he'd "had". Men.
I don't pretend to understand any of this, I just figure most people get
a kick out of these relatively incriminating photos. Dennis Rodman, eat
your heart out.
Two years later, while still heavily involved in the Festival Jazz Ensemble, "Z" and I re-formed with a few other talented people to become "Da Nasty", a real blues/funk band with horn section and all. This was a much better testament to our playing abilities, even though two years and a demo tape only gave us two gigs. Little wonder we're all still in our day jobs. (Well, except for "Z", who managed to start or work at not one, but two companies that were sold for big money, and is now a multi-bazillionaire. It's always those one-lettered women, ya know.)
After college, I pulled the kit out to do some messing around with a few different sets of friends, but at some point, work just took over, as it usually does, and there wasn't enough time to do much serious playing. This gets complicated by the fact that for me to go to a jam session requires 20 minutes of loading equipment into my car, 15 minutes schlepping it out, 20 minutes to set it up; another 10 to break it down, another 15 to schlep it to the car again, etc.
So after all these years of playing drums/percussion, I think there are many things I've learned, but none so much as this: If I should have children one day, and I happen to receive one of those letters from my child's school, like my mother did, I intend to offer a better suggestion when my child wants to take the easy route.
Harmonica.