76. The Coke Bottles

When I was 13 years old, I loved the drums. I guess banging on the drums me an emotional outlet for a very troubled in my youth. When you're 13, everything seems come at you from all directions. The drums me cope with being a teenager. One day, called my friend Rudy on the phone. Rudy playing around with his guitar. Neither one of had ever taken music lessons, but we loved instruments. "Hey Rudy, why don't you come over? can play for a while," I suggested. "No , man. If it's okay with you, I'll bring cousin Bobby with me. He plays the bass ." I told him that would be great and for them to arrive.

Bobby didn't just play bass, he jammed at it. "You're really rock that bass, Bobby," I told him. He said had been playing for years and wanted to a band. We all looked at each other, it hit us like a bolt of lightning. " can do this!" Rudy and I said at same time. "All we need is a vocalist," said, to which Bobby chirped, "I can do , too!" That was the beginning of the best ‘N' Roll band ever – "The Coke Bottles". course that was an exaggeration, but it turned we were pretty good for a bunch of .

The three of us began meeting at my every week to practice playing together and to song ideas off each other. Bobby could actually . With Rudy and me putting in all those of practice, we got pretty good. We got good that we played at a couple of and at a free Concert in the Park about a year later. That was as far we got though. Rudy joined the Army the year. Bobby and I were never able to another lead guitarist, so the greatest Rock ‘N' band "The Coke Bottles" never made it big, that was okay with me. We had our in the sun.