This worked ok for practicing but I needed a real amplifier if I wanted to play in a band, and I did. In the mean time my cousin Kurt and his family visited us from California. Kurt was in a band and had been playing for a few years already. Right away he showed me how to play Pipe Line & walk Don't Run by The Ventures. I still love playing those songs to this day. Talk about raw guitar playing, they were the real deal back in those days and still are today. I use to go up to Hal Morris Music in lansing, Illinois everyday and drool over the guitars and amps. One of my favorites was to plug a Ventures Mosrite into a Fender Vibrolux Reverb. Wow, what a great sound would come out of that rig. My guitar teacher Bruce Bolin would come upstairs from the teaching rooms and I would ask him to show me a song. He would just about light the thing on fire with his playing. I would just set there drop jawed in awe, then spend weeks trying to figure out what he was doing. To this day I can't do what he could do then.... but I'm still trying and having a ball doing it. Hal Morris Music had a great collection of guitars and amplifiers. Every great collectible you could name they had and I got to play. Hal's dad ran the shop, I guess because he was busy playing as a professional musician. Mr. Morris really liked me and would let me play any thing I wanted to. He would always encourage me also by telling me when something sounded good or bad. What a great time to grow up in.

In 1966 I met Fritz Gericke in high school who played guitar and asked if I was interested in playing with a band. Well how could a young aspiring guitarist turn that down? He introduced me to Roger Hassman and Rich Gleim and it was a done deal! Roger sang and sounded like Eric Burdon and Rich played drums. That was the beginning of the WeeMen. After a couple of battle of the bands and being beat by bands that had a bass player, we decided we needed another member. Ya, believe it or not we didn't have a bass player. Roger tried to learn to play bass but his singing suffered because of it. Also Roger was a great showman. He would go out into the audience singing , dancing, rolling around the floor, what ever it took to rev the crowd up, and it did. After asking around we found Vick Maslanka who played bass guitar. Vick was too cool, always wearing sunglasses a black leather vest and his hair slicked back. Now that we were complete we changed out name to The Movin' Violations. We ended up being a pretty popular group in the area and started playing a lot. We played the battle of the bands, tennis court dances, High School home coming dances, prom, etc. Life was good, we were a band! We didn't have much for equipment because none of us had money. Fritz had a real Gibson ES335 and I had my first guitar still, a knock off Fender. We put our money together and bought a Shure Column PA and a Paris guitar amplifier and a Shure Microphone. from the Exports (Music Lab Owner Tom Barnhart), a local recording band who got play time on WLS radio in 1964 with a hit song called "Car Hop". Fritz and I both plugged into the Paris and Vick had his own Ampeg bass amp.. It wasn't much but we were rockin!

Fritz's dad was really strict, as most dads in those days. He made Fritz wear wing tip shoes and baggy pants. This was a good clean look but not the look for the band, Fritz didn't care for it much either. We would go downtown Hammond Indiana to S&H clothing and get the coolest Beatle's jackets and tight fitting slacks to match for about$30.00. The guy who owned the place was a scream. He would always have a tape measure around his neck and talked with a Jewish accent. He would custom fit the clothes for us for another $2.00. Then we would walk down the street to Hardy Brothers Shoes and get Beatle boots for $9.99, ya thats right, $9.99. Then we went to the shoemaker and and had him put on horseshoe cleats so we didn't wear down the heals too fast, they sounded cool too. The total for the outfit was about $46.00 if I remember right. Those were the days....... Like I said Fritz's dad wouldn't let him wear the stuff, so he kept it at my house. Sometimes on the way to school Fritz would stop by my house first to change into his cool clothes. We kept them in my garage behind the oil tank in a bag. One day he got in trouble at school while wearing the cool clothes and they called his dad to come and get him. That was the last time Fritz wore the clothes and the last day with the band also. His dad said we were bad influences and made him quit. Not only was it sad to lose Fritz but, we lost our lead guitar. Fritz was the best player, hands down.

After trying to get along with just one guitar player for awhile we realized we needed two if we were going to ever sound good again. I asked a friend of mine named Dean Groom if he would be interested in joining the band and he was. So now we were back in full Movin' Violation force! We continued for the next year or so and then one at a time we started getting draft notices and broke up. Roger went first, then Fritz, then Me, then Dean. I think Rich was also in the Navy. As far as I know everybody is still walking around except Roger, he passed away in about 2000 or the late 90's. Dean and I played an acoustic tribute of Knocking At Heavens Door at his wake, what a sad day.

While I was serving in the U.S. Navy I payed coffee houses in Boston and Road Island. I continued playing acoustic and harmonica by myself for a few years after my discharge. Still as broke as I ever was, I longed for an electric guitar. So I saved my money and bought an Ibanez Mosrite knock off. Man I wish I would have saved a little more and got one of those 60's strats for $300.00 that were everywhere. During the 80’s I was in several different groups and playing all different kinds of music. In 1981 Larry Sterns and I left Max the band and form a very tight and well known local New Wave band called Paris Landing. The founding members were Larry Sterns, Paul Nuebauer, Bill Ludwa and myself. Bill ended up leaving the band and we found Pat Caroll for drums, and what a drummer he was and still is. Pat brought the tightness we needed to the group. We ended up getting some really good gigs. We opened for the Kind at their record release party at the Red Derby in Blue island, IL. As the Kind started to play after us the crowd started to chant Paris Landing, Paris Landing, ... they were total pricks to us so this felt really good and we were really happy with the outcome of the night.

I had stopped playing in the 90's after being in several groups when Dean asked me to come and jam with some friends. After a few get togethers we decided to take it to the clubs, so The Planet's were formed. Dean thought of the name the Planet's after everybody throwing out all kinds of crazy names like Cheesecake Rifle. The Planets were a really fun group to be in and played a wide range of music. Dean started out playing guitar and volunteered to switch to bass. The members were Dean Groom, Chris Maravilla, Ken Anderson, Terry Markby and myself. We ended up having a great following and when the end came it was much regretted. But, as they say, all things must pass.

Moving forward to the present, 43 years later Dean and I are still playing in bands together. After the Planets Dean and I went on to form Lake Effect. We decided to form a band with horns and go back to playing the music we grew up with and love, Blues, R&B, Motown, etc.. The original members were Dean Groom, Terry Cook, Cy Rangel, John Sabovick, Bob Horn and myself. In 2004 Bob left and was replaced by Danny Lemmon on keys. In 2005 Cy left and was replaced by Jessica Pergola on sax. Right now Terry, Dean, Jess and I remain as core members and are in the process of working with a new keyboard player, Curtis Moore. As of 2010 Lake Effect has been together for 11 years and been very successful in many ways. Lake Effect appeared during the summer at Chicago's Navy Pier from 2002 - 2005 and continues to appear regularly at clubs from Chicago to Northwest Indiana.

Dean and I remain very close friends and band mates and look forward to playing well into our golden years. I always thought Dean was a good guitar player but I’m amazed at how accomplished has become at bass. Deans switching to bass has been a huge influence on the progression of my guitar playing. Both of us have had a rich and satisfying life of enjoying and playing music. Fueled by the dreams of stardom and fulfilled by the joy of being able to express ourself together doing what we love, playing music. Life couldn’t be better......