Author: Mark

Joel Sanders and I have been concert going buddies for a very long time! He also has this built-in radar that has worked every time we go to a concert! After the show is over, I just follow him and he gets us right to where the car is parked. We get in the car, and we are usually one of the first to leave the parking lot! Once we were at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA seeing Loggins and Messina. After the show the five of us headed for the parking lot with Joel leading the way. I decided I needed to use the bathroom on the way out. By the time I got to the car, there was already a big traffic jam! We only had to sit fifteen or twenty extra minutes in the parking lot, but this threw Joel off his game plan of getting us quickly out of the parking lot! I believe this evening being stuck in traffic threw Joel’s radar off balance! Later that year Joel flew up the Portland, OR in my neck of the woods, and we drove my car to Vancouver, WA so we could see Steely Dan and Michael McDonald play!

This was one of the greatest concerts we had ever attended! During the encore we headed for the exit with Joel leading the way, right when we hit the parking lot the music stopped! I followed Joel to the spot where we thought the car was parked, and it wasn’t there. We walked up and down the parking lot and still could not find the car. We split up and he walked this one area and I walked the opposite direction, still no car. 15 to 20 minutes had past and we finally found the car. We started the car up but it was too late, we were stuck in a massive traffic jam. So we were sitting there listening to music, and watching everybody getting mad in the parking lot! One guy who I think had a little too much to drink, made a sharp right turn in the parking lot, ran into a concrete barrier, and crumbled the whole right side of his car!

I believe Joel must have gotten his radar fixed, after the Dan show. We have gone to several concerts in the meantime and haven’t gotten lost once during our search for the car!

My band Steamer had just played our first gig with the DeLuca brothers, in a concert at Mitch Wards Ranch! We were discovered by a person on the Nevada County Fair Board and were contacted soon after to play the Pine Tree Stage on Saturday Night of the fair.

Steamer would never go by a set song list. After we finished playing a song we would look at each other and have a little band meeting. We would talk about what song we wanted to play next. Sometimes it would take us two or three minutes to decide on what we were going to play next. We had three weeks to practice for the gig, so we decided on fifteen songs and put them in a set order that we planned to follow. The band gave me the list, and I was to call out the next song. We were going to start with “Smokin” by Boston, so when we were ready to play I called out “Smokin.” My brother Stan piped up and said let’s do “Good Bye Your Honor” instead!

So I took the set list, waded it up and threw it over my shoulder, and we started playing “Good Bye Your Honor” while Stan stepped up to the microphone to sing the first verse. What Stan didn’t know was his guitar wasn’t grounded to the PA system. SNAP! Went the microphone and Stan stumbled back, dazed from a severe shock. John DeLuca saw what had happen, and started singing the first verse. Since we had two drummers, I jumped up to see if Stan was OK. He was pretty dazed for a few seconds but he quickly recovered. I switched the ground on the back of his amp, then he stepped up to the microphone and started singing the chorus. After the song was over we all looked at Stan, he said he was OK. Although we could tell he was still a little dazed, he played fine the rest of the night.

After the gig was over he told us how much it hurt when he got shocked. “That’s what you get for not going by the set list.” I told him. I guess a set song list and Steamer were never meant to be!

Nine days after the three Cummins brothers saw the Grateful Dead in Las Vegas, I took my two daughters Inez and Sarah to a Dead show in Portland, OR. I had taken Sarah to a Dead show the year before, but this was Inez’s first show! I remember it being a very hot Monday afternoon. They made us park our car on the other side of I-5 and we walked a half mile to the Venue. We walked onto the field and laid our blanket down on the grass about 100 feet from and center to the stage. Inez and Sarah were wearing two of my Grateful Dead shirts that were way too big for them. As we waited for the concert to start we took pictures, drank a lot of water and watched all the colorful “Dead Heads” as they walked by! Chuck Berry was the warm up band, he played a bunch of his hits like “Roll over Beethoven” “Johnny B. Goode,” but he really got the crowd going when he played “My Ding-A Ling!” Inez and Sarah got a big laugh from that song!

The Grateful Dead came out and played “Let the Good Times Roll” then a couple songs later they played “Tennessee Jed” and I was just singing away when I turned and looked at Sarah and she was laughing at me! The second set started with a very hot version of “Shakedown Street” then a real smokin’ version of “Terrapin Station” and later they rocked out on “Sugar Magnolia” and during the Sunshine Daydream part of the song, I looked over and saw both my girls singing! That put a big smile on dads face! For the Encore they played “Liberty” This was the last song I got to hear the Grateful Dead play, Jerry died a few months later. After the concert it was hard walking to the car, because we were all fried from the heat. But as we were walking to the car, I was thinking. I know the Grateful Dead is not my girl’s type of music, but I know they had a pretty good time. It wasn’t so much the music, it was the time we were able to spend together and have some fun! That hot day with my girl’s, I wouldn’t trade that for anything in this world!

 

Hands come in all different sizes! Some people have small hands, some have medium size, some have large, and some have huge hands! My hands are in the huge category! I have had people stop me at work and tell me that I have giant hands! They put their hands up against mine, and say oh my gosh! They have taken pictures of my hands with their cell phones to share with someone they know. At church I drape my arm on top of the pew we are sitting in, and lots of times I hear people who are sitting behind us whisper “Look at the size of that hand” I have a buddy at work, and we like to give each other a bad time. He will do something to me, and when he is trying to escape from me, I will reach out and plant my hand on top of his head! I can palm his head with my hand, and he can’t get away from me, and he’s a big guy. The more he fights me the harder I squeeze his head, till he gives up and calls it a truce!

So am I blessed, or am I cursed with these huge hands? I can carry more drinking glasses to the dining room table then my wife or daughter can! But I have to ask someone to change a light bulb, because I can’t get my hand inside the light fixture to change the bulb. I can pick up items with one hand that most people need to use both their hands for. But I have a real problem using small nuts, bolts and screws. People are always asking me to open jars, plus I’m real good at catching a football and basketball one-handed. But I have a hard time working on cars, because I can’t get my hands into some of the tight areas in the engine compartment! So I really don’t have a good answer for the blessed or cursed question. All I know is, I enjoy having big hands, and I really don’t want to trade them in for small ones. So the next time you meet up with me, don’t be afraid to ask me to compare your hands with mine. Even thou I have heard it a million times, I still enjoy hearing: “Look at the size of those hands”

On a Saturday morning in 1972 my buddy Scott DeAngelo and I went to the Nevada County Fair. As we were walking through the Carnival area, Claudette and Kristlin Noe came up to us and asked if they could hang out with us! Scott and I were both very quick to say, “Of Course You Can.” I remember walking around for a while, and then we decided to go on some rides. We went on several rides, but the two rides, I remember most were the Hammer (my favorite) and the Merry Mixer. There is something about having a girl sitting next to you, screaming at the top of her lungs that has fun written all over it! Walking through the buildings was next, and they looked at me kind of funny when I said let’s go through the sewing building first! They understood why, when they saw my Grandma Madge’s Quilts and her crochet pieces all with blue ribbons on them! Next was the flower building, I remember being in awe about how beautiful this one display looked, with the little creek running through it. Then we enjoyed looking at all the art, the oil paintings are still my favorite!

I remember sitting in all the cars that were on display, and climbing on all the tractors! I’m sure the car and tractor people didn’t appreciate us one bit!  Then we walked through the big building at the front of the fair. I always liked going through that building. There is always something very educational in there, and I always found myself talking to someone for fifteen minutes or more about their product.  Scott and the girls found this unexciting, so we headed to the outdoor stage. We watched a lot of fun entertainment, which included a Magic act, Nelda Honey’s dancers, and a jazz band that was really hot! Then it was off to treat street! I remember us getting some Hot Dogs and drinks, and we sat on some chairs under those beautiful shade trees and enjoyed our meal! The rest of the day, we saw all the animals, more entertainment, more treat street and more carnival! The four of us were enjoying the carnival when we heard over the PA “The Fair is now closed.” Scott and I were not planning on being at the fair all day, but having two lovely girls with us made for a wonderful fun-filled day!

Claudette and I became close friends and we dated a couple of years during High School. After we graduated from school we lost track of each other. In 2008 I was in charge of planning a church reunion. I got in touch with Claudette’s mom and she gave me the addresses for Claudette and Kristlin! When the Reunion party first started, I was in the gym of the church helping with getting some entertainment set up when someone said I was needed in the hall outside of the gym. I walked out into the hall, and I heard this loud “Mark” and I was getting this big hug. I didn’t know who it was till she let go and then I saw Claudette’s face! Since I was in charge of this party, I didn’t have time right then to talk. So later in the evening after things calmed down, she and I sat down and we had a great visit! We talked about a lot of different things, but there was one memory that I enjoyed talking about most. That wonderful day that the four of us had at the Nevada County Fair!