Page 121 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
However, it was feast or famine, so the break was basically over. Lake Ozark was a resort town that closed its doors in the winter.
One day, Ed Craig came to town, in my opinion, to escape the passing of his young son Gary. He had his wife Shirley and daughter Carrie with him and it was obvious he was down. Ed was the keyboard player in our first group, The Spartans and I felt I needed to do something to help. With not much going on, we talked about going back to California, because that had always worked in the past. I was partners with Doug Stone in the horse business and he was in Fresno for the winter, so away we went, stopping in Joplin to let Carrie meet up with some of her friends. Carrie later became a famous dancer. Little did I know then how famous she would become. Carrie won the United States Ballroom Championship five consecutive years before retiring, undefeated. (See photo on page 151) We made a stop in Hollywood to visit an old friend, guitar player Bob Feldman, Cory Feldman’s dad. We spent time with old friends and after a few days proceeded to Fresno and caught up with Doug.
After two weeks with no intentions of playing music, we were convinced to go to Idaho to help out a friend of Doug’s who owned a big nightclub in Coeur d’Alene. To check things out, Ed and I went to Coeur d’Alene to see what was going on. We met the club owner’s wife and listened to the group working there and it wasn’t terrific. She asked if I would be interested in working and Ed prodded me and we agreed. I called Bob Nigg and Butch Biggs and told them to head our way. After a short rehearsal, we went to work. It was good, but during the second week the club owner showed up and I
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