Summer of '63

High school was just barely behind me in the summer of '63, and I was on my own for the first time in my life.  My buddy Danny and I packed a tent and some sleeping bags and headed for our favorite stomping grounds, Yosemite.  We lived only 90 miles away and spent most of our warm weather weekends there anyway.  But, this time it was for real.  We had graduated, and now were expected to find our way in a bigger, for real world. 

Yosemite was the logical place to start.  We set up the tent and then went over to the employment office of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company.  "You've got to be at least 18 years old to work here," the guy behind the desk told us, "but right now we're full up.  Don't need anybody.  Check back later." 

Well, that dashed Danny's hopes.  He would not turn 18 until the middle of summer - but, having turned 18 in March of that year, I was good to go.  I spent the first week and a half on the steps leading to the employment office, Danny spent the time on the beach by Stoneman Bridge, which spanned the Merced River.  One day, the "Guy Who Hires" came back outside about an hour after he had greeted me while opening the office for the day, and told me there was an opening. 

I was reminded of this because PBS was running the John Sebastian hosted Folk Song send-us-your-money show tonight.  I know every one of the songs they were airing, and picked up my dusty guitar and started playing along as my heroes of that era sang.  It brought back memories of nightly campfires by Steamboat Rock where several dozen of us would gather.  My fingers would massage the guitar and cause it to produce all the songs being aired again tonight, 48 years later.  Everyone else would sing to the rhythms I strummed.

The world was so much simpler back then.  We were going to save it by singing.  Lori Bercy.  Susie Michaels - that was her stage name, the real one was Susan White.  Karen Lipski.  Gary Frye.  We played and sang well together, along with a host of different folks who came and went as the summer wore on.

Gary and I were in the only authorized park band.  That means we were the only ones allowed to rent auditoriums and charge admission on the National Park grounds that summer.  There were four of us in the band, but I remember only Gary.  We hung out together for several years.

The summer of 1963.  Folk was still king, but the future was on it's way.  The Four Seasons came along with "Sherry"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myIG9PEwXZw and the direction of the music changed.  We still sang on the beach that summer, and my world changed.  I transitioned from the almost shunned dufus I was in high school to the "guitar man" everyone wanted for a friend.  Tonight, my fingers remembered the songs, and I played them note for note as they were presented on my TV.

A young man lives, and an old man remembers.  But what memories those old songs stir!  I grew up that summer.