The first summer of the "Nut" I fell in love. P.M. was her name, and she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I was hanging out at a local theater where Don worked and saw the girl at the concession stand. It was love at first sight. Problem, was that Don had asked her out. To make a long story short P.M. and I started going out after their first (and last) date.

That summer was the best for me. Growing up, I, was always the geek. I had only one friend (Big Len) and had only gone out on two dates. The first was my eighth grade prom. Not a blazing success. The second was a girl in High school, who moved after our only date. Not the most outstanding track record.

When I met P.M., I immediately knew this was my soulmate for life. Funny, how life has a way of screwing up our version of reality (more on that later).

After the summer, P.M. and I started living together. Our first house was a 3 bedroom beach front house that we rented for 125 dollars a month. The band used to practice there. It was a two story house. Downstairs was one bedroom, kitchen, living room, and deck. Upstairs was two bedrooms, a huge living room, and deck. The band took over the upstairs.

We moved all our equipment in and basically set up a small rehearsal studio in the upstairs living room. Being the winter, and at the shore, we could do and play just about anything we wanted. Amps were kept on ten and the beer was always flowing. Johnny H. and Shevy would come down when they could and we would practice. Amazingly, the house wasn't trashed when we had to move the next summer.

That year I think Johnny H, Shevy, and I really pulled together. I know I had a lot of fun, even though we didn't really have a band (in the musical sense), just hanging out with those guys. But soon things changed. The Dream vrs. Reality. Johnny H. was a fine musician and Shevy was learning the keyboards amazingly fast. I, on the other hand, was having too much fun just drinking and acting crazy. I didn't really think about the musical aspect. Nobody actually said anything about my vocals and the audiences paid more attention to my theatrics. Everything was fine until the letter.

We had played around a few times (beach parties, coffeehouse, and block party) and had scored a gig at a local school, Mt. Carmel. At this time, I had bought a stereo cassette deck and was in the habit of taping anything we played. After the Mt. Carmel gig, I went up to Johnny H.'s so he could listen to the tapes. While listening to them Johnny got a phone call and went into the kitchen where the phone was to talk. I stayed in his bedroom where we were listening to the tapes. While waiting for him to come back, I came upon a letter he had written, detailing just how bad a singer I was. In that split second the "Dream" was crushed.

Funny how now, looking back years later, some things just seem to stand out. It took me five years or more just to get over that one. It took the life right out of my singing. Never had too much confidence in my singing, but when this happened lost the rest of my self-confidence.

After, I basically confined myself to background vocals and concentrated on playing the Bass. Till this day though, I still get the most enjoyment out of just plain singing.

I must admit I hated Johnny H. for the longest time after that. Oh, we did gigs together, but it just didn't feel the same. Along about this time I had the brilliant idea to move up North Jersey. Being winter, the music scene at the shore just about died out and I thought P.M. and I would move up North to get where the bands were. Suffice to say, no thought about P.M.'s feelings ever entered my mind. Also, being kicked out of our house, helped make up my mind. Can't recall if I was in trouble with the police, but there's a nagging suspicion that I was. This was the demise of the original "Left Nut".