"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died." - Stephen Wright

A rare photo of The Ulcers, a wildly popular group from the late 60's. You can tell it was the 60's by the hair.

We all went to the same church, and here we're playing for the little kids in their Children's Church. Come to think of it, church gigs were all we ever had.

Roger Fosse was my best friend and a very good guy. He also played a mean accordion. We walked to and from school together virtually every day during Jr. Hi and High School, and talked about everything. We were really close. After we graduated from Ballard High School Rog went to Annapolis, did his stint in the Navy and married a girl from our youth group. They had five kids. He was killed in 1990 in the crash of a commuter plane returning from a business trip. His oldest was about 10 at the time, and I think their daughter was a preschooler. I still miss Roger.

Arn Lund went to a different H.S. but also graduated in '68. He had a very dry sense of humor and a wry smile. After graduating he went to the Univ. of Chicago on a full-ride academic scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in Psychology. He now lives back in Seattle where he's a big-wig at Microsoft working on how people interact with software...I think. We're connected on Facebook but he doesn't post much. He's too busy writing articles for professional journals and speaking at symposiums. Total braniac.

Paul Nelson was a couple of years younger than we were, so even though he was in our youth group at the same time we didn't hang out together. Mostly, we had to have a guitar player, and we needed his cool. (You can tell he's cool, can't you.) He dated and married the prettiest girl in the church. I don't know anything about Paul's life after that.

The Ulcers sang classic four-part harmony of what are now called gospel songs. We did some goofy stuff, too. Arnie wrote a spoof on Wild Thing that we thought was pretty clever. Never got a recording contract, though. In fact, I think this picture is the only surviving evidence of The Ulcers. I was VERY surprised to see it on the FB page of one of the guys who was in that Children's Church group.

I'm thankful God gave me a wonderful church to nurture me through my youth, great Christian friends to hang with and music. Especially music. It was the only thing at which I excelled, and therefore became my identity. Music gave me a place at the table.

T'ank you, Fadder.