Photo by unknown:
I’m posting yet another shot of my early days leading up to my 40th anniversary season at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. This photo was taken in 1977 before I could grow a beard and still had a full head of hair. I’m playing my one and only gig as a musician. At the end of the day I would play my doumbek drum for a belly dancer near the front gate. I learned how to drum when I was training to be a professional dancer. My teacher suggested I take lessons to help with my ability to count out steps with precision on the dance floor.
The truth is I have no rhythm and I only learned one beat, but it came in handy the day I met Rosie Cole. It was the first day of our apprenticeship training at The Valley Studio. I saw a young woman arrive dressed like a hippie with long brown hair, and a printed skirt with hiking boots. I fell in love at first sight.
Her dorm room was at the far end of a long hallway, so I sat on my bed and began playing the one beat I knew on my doumbek drum hoping to call her to me. Sure enough the first to appear at my door was the young woman with long brown hair who introduced herself as Rosie. It has been many years since then, but she is as beautiful today as the first day I met her.
*<[:o)
