I was part of a musical family, from my mother, who played some basic piano, to my uncles, who played guitars, and a cousin who played just about everything. But my favorite uncle was Buddy, who played guitar and wrote country songs and even appeared on TV a couple of times (home-grown programming on a UHF station). Country music, always.

So I got a $15 "Airline" guitar and learned three chords (including the infamous "thumb" G). For a couple of years, that was it. The "folk boom" had started, and I heard a lot of the artists on radio and TV, but never learned any of those songs (though I'd heard a lot of them on LPs from the library) until I came to Washington, DC in 1963 for a government job. Knowing no one, I had no social life, so I had LOTS of time to practice. Got a more playable guitar and a book called "The Hootenanny Song Book," and started. Good chord charts and simple-enough songs and I was on my way. In early 1964, I got drafted, so, after basic training, I got another guitar (Harmony Stella 12-string!) and played it through advance training, went to Germany, where I got yet another guitar (I'd left the 12-string home, not knowing that instruments were the one thing they allowed to exceed the "one duffle bag" limit on the troop ships). In the Army, you get lots of time unless you like to drink and goof off, neither of which I was good at.

In 1966, I'm back in DC, reclaiming my Stella and settling into a lively folk scene indeed. By late 1966, I'd picked up a five-string, and by the end of 1968, had added mandolin, fiddle, autoharp, jew's harp and dulcimer to my "stable." I'd begun to learn to repair and set up instruments, and made a small amount of money over those years by buying broken and selling fixed.

Oh, and from my middle childhood I'd almost always had a harmonica around, so I learned to play those, too. Other than trumpet in 5th grade, it's my only wind instrument.

Of late, I've expanded to include electric instruments and Hawaiian guitars of different kinds, as you'll see if you go to

members.aol.com/rjclayton/instrums.jpg

I can never remember the html to make a blue clicky -- sorry.

Bob Clayton