Are you still there, Deckman? I sure hope so! I am an 88 year used-to-was with a ton of great memories. The Drinking Gourd was an important part of my life for the tan year period 1960-1970. In 1960 I was transferred by the US Navy from Virginia Beach, VA to NAS Alameda to be an instructor at NAS Alameda. As a bachelor living in the Bachelor Officers' Quarters, I used my spare time to learn to play the five string banjo, probably driving the other residents crazy. I quickly discovered the Gourd, as most people referred to it. I got to know (and hear) Charlie Stivers and George Sayre, who played there often. From the start, live music was featured on the tiny stage; about 1964 or 65, the Gourd expanded its space next to Stu Goldberg"s music store, more than doubling in size and featuring a much enlarged stage.

During the early years, I remember lines of people more than two blocks long waiting to get in; lines continued on weekends even after the expansion with its much greater seating capacity, Within a short time, I was playing and singing the Gourd on weekends - I was discharged from the Navy (but continued in the Naval Reserve) in August 1961 and enrolled in law school at UC Berkeley. Bob Steger moved to CA from Florida after receiving a B.S. in aeronautical engineering. At that time he was playing a Martin D-28 guitar and singing in one of the highest tenor voices imaginable. We started playing together as "Bob and Carl".

Very early on, we met Bill Ackridge and tried to form a group together. Bill wants us to learn a blues tune entitled "Shorty George", but try as we did, it never clicked. I loved Bill's great sense of humor and some of the songs he wrote: Cable Car Calypso, There's an Old Tule Fog A-hangin Around The Golden Gate Bridge of My Heart, You Blew The Shingles Off The Shithouse of my Heart, etc. I of course met Dave Spence (and later Joanne) and loved his singing, stage presence, and repertoire of Irish songs and his delivery. He was also a wonderful person.

He and Joanne had adopted a daughter and she was only a few months old when tragedy struck one Sunday in Marin County when Dave's Benson Gyrocopter crashed on the last touch and go of the day. This traumatic event caused unbelievable sadness. As I do on the death of a friend, I mourned inwardly with dark thoughts and happy memories....I was especially concerned about Joanne and their child. I was delighted to read the threads of comment from Joanne and her daughter, and I wish them health, prosperity, and long life!

Another favorite: Pete Brandelius, the long time bartender (and bouncer!) at the Gourd. A hello and shout out to Pete!!! Bob Steger's wife Barbara was a delight to know. From Northern Ireland, she sang songs in a wonderful Irish lilt; she was also very artistically gifted and drew a picture in chalk on a narrow canvas about 5' high of a rather gaunt banjo player (which I still have in my garage, it having been given to me by one of the later Owner's and long-time Gourd fan, Tom Thorpe when he moved back to Tennessee in the Early 1970's). About 1966 Bob and I were joined by Gloria Lima, whom we had met on a Florida beach