Randy

October 2007

Current mood:melancholy

My best friend Randy and I tried to enlist in the Army in 1967. The recruiter said he didn't want either of us because we would probably just get in a lot of trouble.

He suggested instead we might volunteer for the draft, which we did, being in a highly suggestible state at the time. The draft board was more than happy to accept our applications and we were both drafted soon thereafter.

Our parents were pretty upset with us, what with the war in Viet Nam and all, but you know, we were eighteen years old and fairly invincible.

After a couple of months of Infantry training in the humidity that is Louisiana it started to dawn on me that I had made a horrible mistake. When the drill sergeant announced that there was an opening for trombone players in the the 60th Army Band I asked for and got an audition. After basic training I joined the band and remained in Louisiana until I was transferred to the 3d Infantry Division Band in Würzburg, Germany.

While I was there I got a letter from Randy. He had managed to get himself a job playing trumpet in the 24th Infantry Division Band in Augsburg. Man, this was reason enough to celebrate!

I went down to the company commander's desk and forged a three day pass and headed for Augsburg to visit Randy. As soon as his sergeant saw that Randy had a visitor he assigned him to KP duty.

Well we weren't about to let a little thing like that stop our reunion. Randy climbed out the mess hall window and we were soon on a train to Munich.

We had a great adventure in Munich evidenced by the fact that I don't remember much of it. The fact that that happened almost fourty years ago may have something to bear on my failure to recollect but as they say, "If you remember the sixties....."

I visited with Randy a couple of months ago at his home in Folsom. He told me he wanted his tapes back, tapes of one of our many rock bands that I had duplicated. I put them in my suitcase this week so I wouldn't forget them when I went to California this Christmas.

Randy's sister Marlene called me this morning.

Randy died yesterday.

I loved him with all my heart.