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Provided by the compucert Jon was my tall blond friend who got me the job in Great Neck, lo those many years ago. But we met a long time before.
Our very first introduction was in Junior High School. As I recall it was 7th grade. Our Social Studies classes were having a talent competition. Why two SS classes would be partaking in such nonsense is quite beyond me. In the other class was Ernie, a dude I was friends with since kindergarten. He introduced me to this big skinny blond kid with a huge goofy smile.
"Bobby, this is Jon. He's rich."
A very profound introduction, wouldn't you agree?
The next school year we in in the same homeroom. It turns out that Jon was long time friends with the maniac Jonathan Feldberg. After a better introduction we got to know each other a lot better.
As I recall things really changed when my brother got his first guitar. At that time Roger's hair was growing into quite a voluminous mane of rich dark brown. We were all in our heavy metal phase at that time. Jon had taken up the bass. He suggested that I should get a drumset so we can form a band. Despite the fact that I had about 4 years of experience with instruments like the violin and the stringed bass, I hunted down a drumset. That set is still with me to this day. I got a used 5 piece Ludwig "See-Thru" drumset; including a custom made Fibes snare, one extra-heavy-duty Ludwig crash stand, one no-name 16" crash; all in fair condition for about $250. The story / evolution of that drumkit is interesting enough that I will post a blog entry dedicated to it alone. Anyway that band had it's moments. Jon had to leave due to tinnitus, a condition where you have a never ending ringing in your ears that can progress to deafness. He blamed it on the band, but I think the fact that he was also in a marching band and the school's jazz band added to his problem. I think he always carried a slight chip on his shoulder over how we "afflicted" him.
Now that we were a band we really grew very close. Various things happened in our lives. We were like brothers, Jon and I. We just did things for each other without concern about getting comped in the end. That's friendship, you know? Help out with this and that. I got him a date to the high school prom with Cathy Zarate who first coined the name "Jon Blondie."
Years later when we were both finishing off our educations I needed some extra money. My boss at the local candy store had severely cut back my hours, so Jon got me a job in his yogurt shop. The rest on those early days are in this blog entry:
http://baxojayz.blogspot.com/2005/02/great-neck-chronicles-begin.html
but I plan on sharing some of the other stories in the coming days.
Our very first introduction was in Junior High School. As I recall it was 7th grade. Our Social Studies classes were having a talent competition. Why two SS classes would be partaking in such nonsense is quite beyond me. In the other class was Ernie, a dude I was friends with since kindergarten. He introduced me to this big skinny blond kid with a huge goofy smile.
"Bobby, this is Jon. He's rich."
A very profound introduction, wouldn't you agree?
The next school year we in in the same homeroom. It turns out that Jon was long time friends with the maniac Jonathan Feldberg. After a better introduction we got to know each other a lot better.
As I recall things really changed when my brother got his first guitar. At that time Roger's hair was growing into quite a voluminous mane of rich dark brown. We were all in our heavy metal phase at that time. Jon had taken up the bass. He suggested that I should get a drumset so we can form a band. Despite the fact that I had about 4 years of experience with instruments like the violin and the stringed bass, I hunted down a drumset. That set is still with me to this day. I got a used 5 piece Ludwig "See-Thru" drumset; including a custom made Fibes snare, one extra-heavy-duty Ludwig crash stand, one no-name 16" crash; all in fair condition for about $250. The story / evolution of that drumkit is interesting enough that I will post a blog entry dedicated to it alone. Anyway that band had it's moments. Jon had to leave due to tinnitus, a condition where you have a never ending ringing in your ears that can progress to deafness. He blamed it on the band, but I think the fact that he was also in a marching band and the school's jazz band added to his problem. I think he always carried a slight chip on his shoulder over how we "afflicted" him.
Now that we were a band we really grew very close. Various things happened in our lives. We were like brothers, Jon and I. We just did things for each other without concern about getting comped in the end. That's friendship, you know? Help out with this and that. I got him a date to the high school prom with Cathy Zarate who first coined the name "Jon Blondie."
Years later when we were both finishing off our educations I needed some extra money. My boss at the local candy store had severely cut back my hours, so Jon got me a job in his yogurt shop. The rest on those early days are in this blog entry:
http://baxojayz.blogspot.com/2005/02/great-neck-chronicles-begin.html
but I plan on sharing some of the other stories in the coming days.
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