From Pomona to Indiana

As I was saying, the Ed Sullivan Sixties retrospective took me back to that era which was unlike nothing before, or since. Music for me and probably most other folks is the definer of the various periods of our lives. Music up to about 1956 consisted of either old Swing Era stuff, Pop and Hill Billy Country with a little Western. There was some really good black R&B and Jazz around, but for the average white boy from Cleveland, it was hard to access. Although Allen Freed, the Moondog, was in Cleveland and started playing R&R in 1951, a term which he coined, he was long gone by 1956. Having moved on to New York.

All of a sudden, here was Elvis & Chuck Berry & Little Richard & Fats Domino & Buddy Holly and Bill Haily with his Comets. As quick as they came, they seemed to fade away. Elvis was drafted in 1958. Buddy Holly along with Richy Valens and The Big Bopper died in that plane crash in 1959 and things seemed to fade. Ray Charles started doing Country & Western and other things that lost my attention.

So I got hooked on Jazz. the Jazz of the late fifties and the early sixties is the best, in my humble but expert opinion. The names are to numerous to list right here. Maybe I will in another blog, but right now, I don't want my train of thought derailed.

After three months in Pomona Calif., the Navy stationed me at NAD Crane Indiana. One hundred and ten square miles of explosives in underground magazines situated in southern Indiana. Smack in the geographic center of nowhere. We were too far to get decent radio reception from Indianapolis or Louisville and the local stations aired more pork belly futures than music. It wasn't all that bad because when we were out and near a station, the radio sucked anyway. So when I was near a city, I stocked up on more Jazz LPs.