This is the continuation of a series of posts – select Category LIFE AS A BAND MEMBER to read in sequence.

Before anything more happened with the LEAF we all graduated from high school and off we went to college.  I went to Mississippi, Dennis went to the University of Texas in Austin Texas and Bill took off for West Texas and Texas Tech.  Howard was still in high school and drummer Bill found other opportunities, probably as a guitarist since that was his main instrument. That was the end of LEAF.  

While at the University of Southern Mississippi, I completely stopped playing guitar.  I left all my music making equipment in Texas and immersed myself into school and enjoying college life as a freshman.  Thanks to two summers working at a Mo Ranch, a Texas Hill Country Presbyterian resort, I initially had no concerns being away from home.  I never felt homesick.  That was until I came home for one week during November for Thanksgiving and I met this red haired girl who lived across the cul-de-sac.  For that story I made a video for my kids to tell them how I met their mother. Go watch this to understand what happened there.

During that week of Thanksgiving, I also got back in touch with Dennis and Howard.  Dennis was home for Thanksgiving as well and was not doing very well in his college studies.  He was failing.  It seems being away from the strict hand of his parents, he became undisciplined and unfocused.  He didn’t really want to go to college, he wanted music.  Like all of us kids with military parents, he went off to college because it was expected of us.  Like it or not.  You were preached to choose a major, go to college, graduate nd get a job and your own life.  Dennis basically quit going to classes. 

Dennis was home for the holidays and was not planning on going back to the University of Texas.  So we talked about getting a band together.  Howard was in his senior year of high school and had no issues getting the band back together. So, with plans for a band and the introduction to the red haired girl across the cul-de-sac, that was all it took to make me not want to return to school.  I grudgingly returned to Mississippi to finish out the semester but I begged my parents to let me come home and take classes at a local community college.  They agreed and I couldn’t wait to take my semester finals and pack up and come home.

I said goodbye to my dorm roommate, packed my sparse belongings in boxes and headed home to Texas.  My Dad came and got me.  I was now home and enrolled in a local college with plans for a new band in the works.  I started dating that red haired girl who would, 5 years later, become my wife.  But that is another story altogether.  Go watch the video.  

Dennis and I picked up where we left off with learning songs on the guitar we and started planning our next band.  The story continues next week.