The Steel Guitar Forum

The response to the 45 yrs. ago was so interesting that I thought I'd up the ante.

To start off, 60 years ago I was being carried around by my mother, who had to travel into town on a tram/streetcar and do the shopping for the family. Nowadays I can't imagine half a dozen bags of shopping and a baby on public transit !

i was 37 years in the future!

I was in the 5th grade at JV Beach elementary school in Portland, OR. I was chief operator of the school's entire visual aid department and also appeared over Portland's Radio KBPS, at Benson Polytechnic High School. I was a Sgt. on the Safety Patrol.
This was the year I first laid eyes on the love of my life who later became #1 and the mother of our 4 children.
Late at night, my mother and I would spend listening to the powerful country music station in Del Rio, Texas; and a like station in Seattle, WA.
On weekends, we'd listen to Hawaii Calls. I most likely had my Gibson lap steel with matching amp by this time. Roy Wiggens was my first steel attraction and who played a prominent steel guitar with Eddy Arnold.

I was not even thought of yet. My parents liked 2 years getting married. I was born in January 1960 which means I was 13 years in the future. This should be an interesting topic.

I was most likely in my crib or in mama's arms, in Conway, SC where I was born.

In my crib, behaving myself. But then what else does a seven week old do?

Flat on my back in an 'Iron Lung' in the Birmingham Children's Hospital suffering with Poliomyelitis. I was to stay there for a further 5 years.

Thanks Alan for continuing this on. I agree that its an interesting thread as it makes you think back to hopefully good memories. I was 4 years old living in Picher, Oklahoma and my Dad was working in the lead & zinc mines. Now 60 years later, they're trying to close the entire town down because of lead contamination. My older brother & sisters & I were playing on chat piles that were as big as mountains. Now the chat piles are mostly gone and nothing left but cave-ins and shafts. We were known as "chat rats" As a side note: Picher, Ok. is the home town of Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts and his Dad & Mom still live there. Not my style of music but he is a good guitar player.

Third grade in Mobile, AL. A-Bomb still big news. WW2 over and things starting to boom. All those rationed items such as sugar, tires, new cars, coffee, etc. begining to be available and for a kid things like Baby Ruth candy also available again.

Tony

After WWII and Discharge from the Army in 1945. Here is where I was 60 years ago, in Cleveland ,Ohio, playing my D8 Vega and hoping to get a pedal guitar like Alvino Rey had. and I did get one the next year..lucky me. See my picture....al.

Lets see. 60 years ago on Jan 10 I was 11 days away from my 5th birthday.

Now after all that time has passed, I'm still 11 days away from my birthday. Hows' that work anyway?

At this time, 60-yrs. ago I was about a month from my 10th. birthday, so; I was probably watching Arthur Godfrey on TV and following his Uke~Instructions on a Sears/Roebuck Uke! Still about another year from my first Steel-Guitar, but; I did have 3½-yrs. of Piano-Instruction behind me! So, I was already well on my way to this ‘No–Man's–Land’ that I'm in today!

A senior in Tyler High School in Tyler,Tx. and had been playing steel 2 years. Jody.

60 years ago...Well, I auditioned my Hawaiian show at local radio station CKUA when I was 18 years old. The show stayed on the air (weekly) for 4 years until Elvis changed musical tastes forever. Those were the days when radio stations actually promoted live talent. I joined the AFM a few years earlier and of course, am now a Life Member.

I was on Guam,5th service depot FMF USMC .Just got my 1st stripe.Wishin to hell I was home.Missin Mom's biscuits and home made bread.Mostly missin the girl accross the street.
Gettin drunk and playin my reso guitar{that I bought for $7.00 at a Hollywood hock shop}with my buddies.Wish I was 17 again.
Wish I would have brought that guitar home with me.Oh well, ya know the sayin,wish in one hand and.................PJ

1946 huh ??? Hmmmm in the third grade in a one room country school in N.E. Missouri. Maybe 10 or 12 kids there total. Rode a horse in the winter, bycycle in the summer, 4 months off in the spring and summer to help farm. Some things about those times wern't too bad !!!.

60 years ago, I was 9 and had just got an Oahu D-6 lap steel and trying to learn how or what to tune it.

I was 14 years old, not that smart in school, being raised on a working ranch, trying to learn how to make C, F, and G chords on a beat up Stella guitar, and little realizing how lucky I was. Little did I know that the next year, 1948, would bring me in touch with one of the best Western Swing bands in Texas, Hoyle Nix and the West Texas Cowboys. Wow, what a learning curve, thanks to many folks here in this town. My beginnings in the music world.


Phred

well 60 yrs back i was at a small town called norphlet arkansas . we had a farm i was in the 8TH grade i won a consert show at school . a lots rembere

60 years ago I started taking lessons to play steel guitar using an acoustic guitar with a raised bridge and a flat slide bar. What a trip. Took lessons from the Hawaiian Conservatory of Music in Oakland, CA. After about a year of that I got me a high class Supro 6 string electric. Ah, memories.

I was 17 in Jan. enlisted and hit 1st Cav in Japan 3 14 46. On to Hiroshima Mil Gov until 1950 and moved on. Played in various Japan bands. cc

60 years ago , I was 12 yrs old and had my first electric steel which was a 6 string Rickenbacher and my amp was a little 2 or 3 tube Regal, i believe. I played with the Oklahoma Hillbillies and remember that a $5.00 gig was pretty good and a 10- to 15 dollar gig was Dang good!!! "Take it away, Leon" Mcauliffe with Bob Wills was my inspiration and idol. He gave me a signed record of "Faded Love" which i still have , framed, and hangin on the wall.
Wouldn't take a million for all the memmories and experiences!!!

Jack Ritter
Enid, Okla.

Wow, sixty years ago. Let me see. Probably cooling my butt in a pail of cool water after mom wailed away at me for doing something stupid again. I do know that I had my first Marine Band hormonica by then (I was 7 by then). Dad was still healing from his wounds from WWII Holland.

We still made our own butter, bread and had our own chickens.

That was a long time ago and in a completley different world..

Sixty years ago? I was in the second grade in El Centro, California and wasn't pickin' anything yet, just peddling around on my little bicycle every chance I got. Dang, I didn't realize how much of an "old dude" I was..........JH in Va.

Riding my first two wheeler, scared to death of the first grade, developing a life long love of cowboys, thanks to Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Fred Scott, Tex Ritter, Ray Corrigan, Dusty King, and, so many, many more. Never thinking in 1947 about 2007, because it was light years away.
Jay Y.