In the late 1960's and early 70's I had a spirit for adventure
on the open road. I did quite a bit of hitch hiking up and down
the coast of California. My favorite route was up the coast from
San Diego to San Francisco and back. In this same period I was
becoming acquainted with folk music.
There was a club in Mission Beach that featured live folk music.
I attended with a friend and watched someone play a banjo. It
looked like fun. Later on, my mother bought a banjo at a yard
sale, and I asked to borrow it from her. I began enthusiastically
teaching myself clawhammer style old time tunes.
When I had worked out about 5 tunes at a level which was vaguely
musical, I decided to take it with me on one of my hitch hiking
expeditions. I left San Diego early one morning, and by mid afternoon
I had reached the coast highway just north of Los Angeles.
While standing at the side of the road with my thumb out, I heard
a loud air horn sound twice quickly, and an 18 wheeler pulled
up next to me on the highway. I climbed up on the passenger side
and opened the door. The driver looked at me and asked me if I
was carrying a banjo in my music case.
I nodded and told him that I was heading north to San Francisco.
He told me that I could ride with him as far as I wanted as long
as I would play banjo for him while he drove. Once the truck reached
cruising speed it was so noisy in the cab, that neither of us
could hear my mistakes, as I played long versions of my claw hammer
tunes over and over. It was a good trip. I later became good enough
on banjo that many folks asked to take lessons from me. I ended
up teaching banjo, and writing
instruction books, and making DVDs.