I was born in 1950, in Holbaek, Denmark. At the age of seven, my family moved to Grayslake, a small town in north east Illinois. My aunt lived there, with my uncle, who owned a Danish bakery. I remember coming the America and living there, in the bakery with my aunt, until my parents could get on their feet and learn the language. Of course my brothers and I had to learn the language too. My aunt would always tell the story that the first word I learned was "cookies". Needless to say, living in a bakery at that age was a lot of fun.

We moved there in June, and when school started in September, my two brothers (who were older twins) and I were thrown into the same 1st grade class together. AND, we hardly spoke any  English. What a hoot that was. I remember being teased by my classmates because I was a foreigner, they would always say that I came over on the banana boat. This of course, I am certain, has caused some severe emotional damage. My kids could probably testify to that. It was in grade school that I joined band and started to learn how to play the trumpet.

It was as a freshman in high school, that my aunt bought me my first guitar. The first picture on the left is from Christmas 1965, and my new guitar. It was a hand me down acoustic guitar that pretty much made your fingers bleed. But in the 1960's, with the rising of the Beatles and rock and roll, a small group of my friends and I began to play and join together, with aspirations fueled by the cultural changes taking place in the society that we were born into. Talk about basement bands and garage bands, I think we created the term. The picture of me sitting on the Fender Amp playing a Rickenbacker guitar is in a basement. That was probably in 1965 or 1966. That was the early years of learning to play. We learned a few chords and how to play bar chords and we were on our way. Other than playing the trumpet since 5th grade and all thru high school, the guitar was totally self taught.

It was in Grayslake, in 1968, that I met my lovely bride, Mary Jean, while attending Grayslake Community High School. Those were turbulent years, with the Viet Nam conflict raging, and civil rights and anti-war protests in full force. The hippie movement and the drug counter-culture were also part of the driving force our my generation.

-more to come-

This is me the the 1970's