Hondo High School
(Class of 1981)

High School Daze

The word "daze" describes my high school experience pretty well. It went by so fast for me. It seemed like I was just starting to realize the value of friendships and to grasp opportunities when the last bell rang. I can't say that I didn't enjoy my time in high school, because it was a blast. I think everyone at some point wishes they could go back and do it all again, knowing what we know now, right? (haha!) Boy, would things be different this time around. Isn't there a movie about this?

Well, those days are definitely over. Hard to keep in touch with some of you guys (well, it has been a few years...)

My glory days consisted largely of:

  • Band
    • Great drum cadences (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida)
    • Learning the electric bass
    • Having Johnny Martinez as a band director - best ever
    • Learning to play the Tri-toms and Quads, later Tympani
    • Fun Band trips
    • Jamming until late at night with Scott and Baldermar
  • Drama and Speech - hanging with Mr. Harmier, the "Hawkeye Pierce" mentor of my lifetime
  • Surviving the Richter sisters' Science ("How big is Uranus?") and English I-IV
  • Driving the ugliest brown station-wagon on the planet
  • Learning that unusual people are a lot more fun to be around
  • Owning an actual Akai 8-track recording deck.
  • Owning an actual Sony Reel-to-Reel (spent lots of time playing music at home)
  • Fun times when my cousin Don Capps would come to visit
  • Having crushes on lots of girls, and...
  • Having my heart destroyed over and over - ha
  • Late night walks to Dutchman's to grab a Creme Soda & see if another Space:1999 paperback was out yet
  • Jamming, jamming, jamming!

Here's a new web page! Click HERE to read some of the events from those times.

For those of you Hondo High School Band members whe were in the 1980-1981 Sweepstakes Band:
Did you miss out on buying one of the record LP's that our Band Director Johnny Martinez made for us?
There are two full boxes of them still in shrink wrap on a dusty shelf in the band hall storage room near the water fountain
- 07/2005.
The Pictures
We used to edit our tapes, and listen to music in the study of Scott's house. We had a reel-to-reel spool of 1800', the tape was damaged in some spots so, with Jeff Milam's expert photography help, we put it to good use. This was taken the night of the band banquet our Junior year.
Me on bass, Jack Rothe on keyboards, Jeff Cagle on guitar Baldermar on drums,and it was the uniforms from heck... Great friend and all-around good apple Sherry Grell in the background. (She, like the rest of the stage band was wise enough to not participate in our masacre of 70's tunes.) The girl whose face is partially obscured by the music stand is Leslie Blasing - who went on to fame and fortune in the music business. A very talented lady whose singing voice can melt your spinal column at a distance of 50 yards...

Baldermar Galvan on drums. Makes rhythm come out of things never designed for it. He added sparks and fire to anything the rest of us were trying to bang out. I honestly think he gave our group its unique sound. He still teaches drums today in addition to everything else.

He has been a great friend since the day we met, and a nicer guy you'll never run in to anywhere...

Me and Baldy pose on the scaffolding inside the band hall. This was taken shortly after graduation - we were still going to the jam sessions. I'll bet Mr. Martinez thought he'd never be finished with us. This was (I'm pretty sure) the last time we played before going off to college.

Going around the clock - Me (& my first Sears & Roebuck electric bass), Baldermar Galvan (drums), Scott Peden (keyboards, percussion), Don Capps - my cousin and best friend who took this shot by remote (ran the reel-to-reel recorder for this session) on a visit to Hondo, and in the lower left corner Travis Wernette. Travis was a different particle circling in the outer valence orbit of our nucleus of friends. He had some great musical influences and had us all listening intently to Emerson,Lake, and Palmer, and lots of Kansas (not to mention all those Cheech and Chong records...haha)

I still hear from Travis from time to time. This group had a lot of good times together.
Baldermar Galvan and Eric House at the "Blasingfest" celebration, hosted by George Blasing.
Junior/Senior Play 1981, M*A*S*H - A few good nurses and Col. (Baldermar) Blake. Cathe Santos, Balder, Lori Friddle & Leslie Blasing.
Donna Kunz and Eric House as the cooks - M*A*S*H.
The rule was males could not have hair touching or covering the ears. Me and my hair-rebellion jamming down a Sonic burger & RB between school and Jr/Sr Play rehearsal. I ran the lights.

We took this shot of Balder under what was probably illicit circumstances. Jam sessions consisted of breaking into the band hall with whatever driver's license would jimmy the door, and we would jam in the upstairs practice room sometimes until pretty late. We had to cover the window with carpet or cardboard to keep the light from alerting people driving by of our presence (as if the loud music wasn't a dead giveaway... ha) I hope the statue of limitations has run out on that one. Music was everything during our high school years.

His weird hat was one of many samples being checked out for new uniforms. I'm glad this one didn't make it. There were two of these pictures of him taken (b/w), the other wound up in our 1981 yearbook.

Actually, in 1999, I discovered the current Hondo marching band uses these exact hats! Sheessh!

This whole session wouldn't be complete without a graduation shot. My great friend Ray Don Tilley is in the foreground taking pictures that would later end up in a photo album he gave to me as a graduation present. There are people you are friends with in high school that you can just tell that they are going to turn out to be really special in the world. That's Ray Don.
Marching contest Fall of 1979.
Band Director Johnny Martinez and I.
Playing bass at a Pep Rally during Fall of 1980.
Email your questions or comments to:

Counter
Visits to this site!

Back to the HOME page!

Photos, background image and MIDI file and contents of this web page © 2006 Joel Owens. Note: The audio files have been removed from this Mobile-Friendly version of the page. To hear the audio, check the full-blown site HERE.