Sun Bright

             After strawberry season I went to Sun Bright with my family. My time in Sun Bright was only for the summer. I had finished my freshman year at Central High School in McMinnville. I had got use to having freedom and very little supervision, so I wasn’t happy about going to Sun Bright. First it was a small place in the mountains. I didn’t like being where I couldn’t go on my own.

            Things had changed in the family dynamics. We no longer had cattle to care for, so that made things easier. We were allowed to play. Mama and Daddy were more relaxed. Jerry had made friends because he had gone to school in Sun Bright, but I didn’t know anyone.

            I had started playing music in the seventh grade by joining the school beginning band. I played trumpet in the band, but I was playing other instrument by the time I got to Sun Bright and was playing piano and guitar in church. There I met a kid that was around my age that was the best guitar player that I had ever heard. He could make a guitar talk. He would pick the strings with both hands and add rock and roll while playing gospel. I would wall to his house that was a shack real deep in the woods. He lives so far out that there was no passable road to it. His dad worked in Detroit with an automotive company, and would come home every other weekend. My friend was the oldest of ten kids with the youngest being a year old. They all played music. His dad had already bought an instrument for the baby and would hold her hands while he played.

            My time in Sun Bright was short, only a few weeks. Daddy had got reassigned to a church in Livingston. He was looking forward to going to Livingston and so were we. I went back to Campaign for a short time, but went to Livingston to start my sophomore year in school