Do what you feel to be right
Say what you think to be true
And leave with faith and patience
The consequences to God

Ricky and I planned to be out of the apartment and into a house within 25 more days. That last break-in had caused us to become extremely concerned about the lack of security at our apartment. We were also tired of being at the mercy of people in the upstairs apartment when it came to getting sleep. During the week it worked out because they were at work while we were sleeping. I'm not sure if it ever worked out for the other people thought. Ricky and I were very considerate about coming in quietly late at night, but we couldn't always control our late-night guests. Paul Simon summed up apartment living best when he wrote; "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." 

Since buying the piano for mom, I found myself getting into learning the basics of how to play. She wasn't really interested in studying the books I'd bought for her, so I ended up with course after course of "How to Play Piano." Mike (B'Wana), from the club, lost his dad. A local band, Cobalt, opened for us at Savvy's on January 1st through 3rd. On January 8th and 9th we played the Agora with Voyager. They opened for us on Friday and we returned the favor for them on Saturday. On the 10th, the Dallas Cowboys played the SF 49'ers for the NFC Championship. I watched it on the giant screen TV at the Agora. The Cowboys lost 27 to 28.  Mel loaned me his Aerosmith tour jacket to wear on stage at the Agora. Alan Kaye was there that night. 

It was a cold, cold month -- 9 degrees below zero for the 3rd day in a row!  I'd tried to get the people from McBrayer's (where I bought mom's piano) to go over and tune it for her. It sounded pretty bad. Some of the low octave notes were broken in the move. I was starting to feel like I'd gotten a bad deal on that piano. Coincidentally, I was feeling left out at the apartment, too. Ricky and Laurie cooked steak dinners - for TWO - two nights in a row! They'd included me a time or two in the past and had completely spoiled me. It was hard to know they were dining on T-bones while I was eating a TV dinner in my room.  It was like the old rule about never feeding table scraps to a dog because he won't eat dog food again. But once my belly was full of Hungry Man meatloaf, I got over it. [Of course this was written in jest. Those steaks sure smelled good thought!]

After the gig on January 20th, I went to breakfast at Denny's with Lori and Colleen. Then on the following Monday (the 24th) we all went to the Silver River Club to see Lee Pickens' new group, The Arm Band. It was made up of a bunch of our really good friends; Rusty Boden (keys), Bobby Albin (vocals), Terry Salyer (drums), Charlie Stevens (bass), and Lee Pickens (guitar). We ate popcorn and played video games. From there the girls went home and I met up with Tony, Ricky, Hud, Big Mike, and Lynn at Baby Dolls. We won a pitcher of beer for "raising the most hell" -- mostly thanks to Big Mike's ability to shout "Hell Yeah!" and make is sound like a sonic boom.  The following Sunday night I went to Mark Myamoto's party. 

Items in the news at the time were; The Thunderbirds crashed, we had a new mayor, there was a jet airliner crash in Washington, a member of the American Embassy was shot, Albert King shot himself, an Oklahoma school blew up, and Scotty was back on General Hospital. I bought an electric typewriter from Stacie's mom, and Ricky bought a truck. The band worked up "Abacab" -- which became known as "The Taco Bell Song" because it was so long that people at the club knew they had time to make a run up the street to Taco Bell and be back by the time the song was over!

My pal Lori pulled a stunt that left me upset for a while. I went over to visit one night and nobody would answer the door. I knew someone was home because cars were there, lights were on, and I could hear voices through the door. I'd been welcome there at any time of day or night for the past year, so I couldn't understand why I was being kept out. I would later find out from Lori's friend, Kim, that a guy named Eric (a La Bare dancer) had been there that night. Lori had every right to date whoever she wanted, but I wouldn't be wise enough to figure that out for another, oh, 7 years or so. I was being overly dramatic about the whole thing, and in a monumental act of stupidity, I wrote a really dumb letter to her. It talked about  how horrible of a person she was for not being there for me when I needed her. Wah wah wah! When we finally talked again, she swore nothing happened with him. They were just friends. And I was Paul McCartney's bowling buddy! The bottom line was that Lori and I were basically more friends than anything else, and I was just being a jealous fool.

Charles Stewart, owner of Pantego Studios, finally confirmed that his MIT (Made In Texas) label was official, and our album would be the first to be released on it. We'd known it was in the works for months but now it was a done deal. We just had to have our tapes mastered. The tentative release date was set for April 1st, 1982. While at the studio discussing the MIT label, I picked up a Hit Parader Magazine and was thumbing through it when I noticed a feature on Rusty Burns.

I saw Julie C. at Savvy's. She had been Rick Myrick's girlfriend, but they'd broken up. Since he was my friend, all I could do when they came out to the club together before was secretly drool. I couldn't let on that to me, she was a GODDESS! Not a WOMAN! Julie was tall, beautiful, had long, long hair, and worked at Blossom's on Camp Bowie.. She'd been to my various apartments with Rick Myrick over the past two years or so, and I'd seen her at several of Rick's gigs when we'd go see him play. I'd always been on my best behavior when they were together, but now she was finally a free agent! 

Hud and Judy Hall are on the left. That's Rick
Myrick and Julie C. walking away to the right.
They made a great couple while they were 
together, but when they broke up I was as 
happy to get to know her as Rick had been to
meet Lilly when I moved out of her house. 
It was all just rock-and-roll anyway...

She came in on a Sunday night. We struck up a conversation and went to Jo Jo's for breakfast to continue our talk. That talk ended up lasting hours. Then we went to her friend Pam's house for a while. From there we were the first customers at the Ft. Worth Zoo when they opened on Monday morning. We had lunch at El Fenix in Ridgmar Mall, and finally ran out of energy late Monday afternoon. I dropped her off at her apartment and hated to leave. I'd had a fantastic time with her. I knew we'd meet again soon. 

Ricky and I were looking for houses every chance we got. McBrayer finally fixed mom's piano. I grew a moustache, but had to shave it as soon as it had grown in to do a Ronald gig.  Before January was up, besides playing with Cobalt and Voyager, we also played with Fugitives, Diamond, and Easter Island. 

In early February, Ricky found a house on Lester St. in the Lake Arlington area. It was perfect for us. I had to borrow $100 from Ricky to cover move in costs - which was a change. The house needed a little bit of work, but I was into it. I manicured the landscaping around the house, getting rid of weeds with my old Boy Scout shovel until my hands were bleeding. I fixed the dishwasher, the leaky faucets, cleaned the garage, and got the place in tip top shape in record time. But we were short on furnishings. It had been a lot easier to furnish an apartment. Thanks to Ricky's friends, Jeff and Bob, we were able to furnish the entire house for practically nothing. They even threw in a king sized mattress to replace the waterbed I'd been sleeping on for the past three years. I kept the big wooden headboard though.  

My Volare' parked in the driveway of our new home on 
Lester in Arlington.

We were completely moved into the new house on Lester in time to have my birthday party there. (I turned 27.) Someone at that party stole my new Savvy jacket. It was just one of the silk screened ones - not my embroidered one. Ricky wrote a ballad called "Hold Me Tight" and it was recorded at the studio. I was completely left out of those sessions. He doubled all the vocals himself. The garbage disposal screwed up and we had to call a cosmic plumber. He just made it worse. I worked things out with the sisters, Lori and Colleen. We were buddies again. 

Ricky and Laurie in the living room of the house on Lester.

Drew Pierce came over and we recorded a parody of Mutiny on the Bounty. Bobby Albin asked Ricky if he would mind us keeping his dog (and new puppies) in our garage for a while. His dog was a huge Pit Bull named Kitty. We all loved Kitty because she could climb trees and talk. Well, at least it sounded like Bobby could get her to say, "I want one!" Kitty, by herself, was probably a wonderful dog. But as the mother of a bunch of pups she was a tornado! We set up a place in the garage for Kitty and the pups, but she pretty much destroyed everything out there. We were happy to be able to help Bobby, but we were thrilled to see the last of the litter drive off into the sunset so Bobby could take Kitty back home with him again. I think Nigel was about ready for them to go too.

A strange thing happened on my way driving to my parent's house one day. As I was crossing over the railroad tracks between Rosedale and Lancaster, I passed Stacie. We were both driving slow over the tracks and had time to lock eyes for a few seconds. I felt like electricity was shooting through me. It was completely unexpected and brought back a lot of feelings and emotions. We kept driving in opposite directions. That night I ran into Stacie's friends, April and Holly. April said she'd read the letters I'd sent to Stacie, and thought they were sweet. I couldn't figure out why I still wanted to see her so badly again. 

Our gig at the Blackstone Hotel for a TCU frat party on February 12th went great. Sherry Horn from Houston called and said she was coming to visit. RJ still hadn't replaced the speakers he'd "borrowed" from me - and destroyed. Then on Valentine's Day night, after the gig at Savvy's I came across a girl in the parking lot sitting in her car crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she'd had too much to drink and had to get the car home or she'd be in big trouble from her room mate. I asked how I could help and she said if I could drive her home in her car, she would have her friend drive me back to get my car. I agreed to help. 

On the way, she began violently throwing up all over the inside of the car, and then she blacked out. I knew the general direction to her apartment complex, but had no idea which building or apartment she lived in. I needed her awake to guide us there, but she was OUT! She would come-to every few minutes, long enough for me to ask her a direction question, and she would answer, but she didn't know what she was saying and we went in circles for over an hour. We finally found her apartment and I got her inside. But as we walked in, her friend (who I found out had been babysitting for her) left in an angry huff because she'd come home so late, leaving me stuck there!  The girl stumbled into the bedroom and I heard a clunk, and then a baby started to cry. I went in to check on them and she'd passed out on the bed. The baby was standing up in his baby bed, and was howling. I was in hell. I'd never been around babies and didn't have a clue what to do. I picked the baby up and carried him into the living room and played with him for a while until he got sleepy. Then I put him to bed and tried to tip toe out, but he started crying again. I was afraid to leave him there alone with the mom out of it like that. Not knowing what else to do, I made a palette in the living room floor and crashed with the child there for a while. That was fine until I started getting allergic from their cat. Finally, another girl - a room mate showed up and I was free to go. She'd been dropped off so I was still stuck without a ride. Out of desperation, I decided to walk home. I got about three miles down the road, but still had about 10 to go. I was carrying my guitar with me so I decided to call a cab to take me the rest of the way home. I found a pay phone in a Laundromat, but didn't have a quarter! I'd learned as a kid that there are fortunes to be found underneath the machines at a Laundromat, and so I crawled around on my hands and knees until I found a quarter. I only had to wait about another hour for the cab to arrive. I got home at 7:30am to find Ricky crashed on the couch. A friend of his from Longview was asleep in his room. I stumbled on into my room and fell into my bed. I was almost asleep when the phone company showed up to install our telephones. I quietly thanked God that it was Monday and we didn't have to play that night!

CHAPTER 33:  SWING YOUR PARTNER ROUND AND ROUND!

SAVVY STORY INDEX

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