Going through my mother's scrapbooks I am amazed at the coverage she has. In the first four signatures of "The 66 Kid" I wrote about memories of my baby sitter Mrs. Holmes in Kingman and Lippo Asmus in Iowa. I wrote about almost drowning in the stock tank on my grandfather's farm. I talked about learning to ride a bike on Andy Upsall's lawn in Swea City and I talked about the gang I formed and the guys in my gang. My mother has photos of every single thing I just mentioned! Just to give you a taste, here I am with my grandfather standing next to the deadly stock tank:
Bottom photo shows me and my grandpa in livestock pen and the stock tank I went into head first, is at right. The top photo is of Carl, Minnie and their youngest son Glenn, who was the first Bell to make it to California, believe it or not. He and his new wife, Claudia, landed in Long Beach and he taught and was in the school system for many years there.
Another cool photo is of our first house in Kingman, which is somewhere downtown and according to my mother's note it's May of 1947.
The note at bottom says, "The car Daddie drove Robert in from Iowa to Arizona, May, 1947." Can't place the house but it an old rock house somewhere downtown and I think northwest of the courthouse. Wish I knew where it was.
And here's more snow photos on the farm and a very rare photo of my dad pumping gas in Swea City at his Phillips 66:
That's my babysitter Mrs. Holmes at top and the piece de resistance is me dressed in a Mickey Mouse outfit for a Halloween contest in Swea City.
I had no idea she had saved this. Love the girl's name dressed as Minnie—Karma Johnson. I wonder where she is today. Shouldn't be that hard to find with that name.
And moving a little closer to now, here is the crew at the Tangent Recording Studios in 1977. We were recording The Doperoper Radio Show with this crew and with William Edward Compton (not pictured).
In front Darlene Harshberger, Terry Townsend and Jan Prefontaine. Back row, L-R: BBB, Dan Harshberger, Roy Brown, Tom Scott and I can't remember the cat's name. A musician, of course.
"Time is my greatest enemy."
—Eva Peron