One night, back in the late 50's, I was driving my 51 Chevy, collecting fossils in central Illinois. I was in college then, and had no money, so I was looking for a quiet place where I could sleep in my car without being hassled. It must have been around midnight, and it was very foggy. As I drove through Kickapoo (yes there is a town named Kickapoo, you can look it up) I saw a sign for a historic site. What better place to sleep than at a historic site? I was driving through a very foggy stretch of road across a bridge and a small creek when I turned on the radio. Out of the speakers came music I had never heard before. It was the theme song for a midnight radio program, and they didn't say what the music was. But, the combination of being tired, it being foggy, and my approaching a graveyard (where I slept that night without being bothered by nobody,) the music really transcended the moment. I was mesmerized by it, and waited to find out what it was, but the announcer made no mention of the music.

When I got back to school, I went into a record store, trying to find that piece of music. Only the young could be so foolish to try to find a particular piece of music, with no clue to the title or the composer. As I flipped through album after album in the classical music section, I came across Pictures At An Exhibition, which I had at that point never heard. I thought... "Maybe this is it." And I bought it and took it home. When I put it on the turntable, the first notes that come out of the speakers were the same ones that came out of my radio that foggy night in Kickapoo. I have no explanation of how I found the piece, with no information to go on. It seems unbelievable now. But then, it seemed unbelievable then.

But it's true.

Jerry