The Floyd Connectiongreenspun.com : LUSENET : occasional planet : One Thread |
I think James is right about the albatross...I'm stepping in to clarify the Soltesz/Studders/ Lanier/Jones branch. It's true that Dale is the connection here. In spring '86, Steve, Max, and myself (and maybe Keith and John) went to a "swimmer deal" at Eric Singer's house (not a swimmer, but that never seemed to matter). Amazed by the swimmers' drinking abilities and music selection, we sought out these guys a few weeks later at the beach. This beach-based meeting was led by John Krege, who shared a cottage with us. For the record, our beach cottage included not only Max, Steve, Keith, Studders, Krege, and myself, but also Jim Lee, Patrick Enright (??) and one of them Parr boys (????). I'm not joking.
-- Dave Jones (David_Jones@harvard.edu), August 13, 1997
Just one of many tangents.I believe Dave is suggesting that the entire "705 OD" group is connected to Floyd through me? This can't possibly be true!
And what about ol' Eric Singer? I saw him at the Grimsley '82 10-yr reunion. He was living up near Lynchburg, VA, married with one or 2 kids at the time.
I'll see if I can locate his email. I think he IS online and actually working with IS stuff (who isn't?)
-- Dale (dale.swanson@usa.net), August 13, 1997.
I thought I'd posted this the first day you posted, Eric, but it appears that I was interrupted before I could click. Anyway, here's a PUBLIC welcome to the Albatross and the occasional planet BBoard.
I'm not sure why the traffic here has slowed over the past few days. I guess I need to seed a few more provocative, imflamatory, and otherwise flamming posts to get things stirred up again.
Great to have you on board.
Dale
-- Dale (dale.swanson@usa.net), August 19, 1997.
Shall I cross post (copy) your memoir to 3d_Floyd? If you need to connect through Steve or Max or someone like that we'll have to nag them into posting first.
-- Dale (dale.swanson@usa.net), September 05, 1997.
Ah-hA!
Tommy, I believe you are the one of superior memory. I DO seem to recall more and more of the "Swimmers @ the Gate" story. Those were heady times indeed.
I must admit, however, that Floyd is the one who really got the ball rolling - at least as far as negotiating the terms of the take over. I do recall being involved in helping to recruit members of the new Jr. Civitans.In retrospect, the whole thing was quite a joke, especially since none of us had any idea what was involved in being 'Civitans'. Did the senior arm of the organization ever reprimand the Jr. organization for it's un-Civitan-like behavior?
-- Dale (dale.swanson@usa.net), August 28, 1997.
Hence the Albatross Music History page which pre-dates 3D_Floyd by several weeks - even months - which is how many years on the net?Until Floyd gets back online, everyone type up the play lists from the Floyd party tapes many of us are in posession of - or party tapes of your own - email 'em to me - post 'em here - or send by snail-mail - and I'll record 'em for posterity in the Albatross Music History section!
-- Dale (dale.swanson@usa.net), September 08, 1997.
I never would have thought that Dave Jones would have remembered such details about the beach trip to "705 Ocean Drive". Just to add a few more from deep within the bowels of my brain - I believe that was the same trip that involved a whirling dervish with the girl from down under and the subsequent trip to the Strand hospital to patch up our eyebrows.Does this have anything to do with the Floyd connection?
-- Keith Lanier (klanier@ix.netcom.com), August 13, 1997.
I guys, it's been too long! The correct information about me is I'm married with one son age 5. I live in Martinsville, VA (1 hour north of Greensboro). I work as a programmer/analyst for a small computer company (ISP). My thoughts of the Reunion in '92 was that it sucked! It cost lots of money and I didn't have the time of my life. A lot of people were missing that I would have liked to see again.
-- Eric D. Singer (esinger@neocomm.net), August 14, 1997.
Senility has set in!! Big time!! And even for Dr. Jones. I guess it's up to me to tell the story right.It was the Spring of 82 when that beach trip was and the group at 705 Ocean Dr consisted of Me, Jones, Lloyd, Lanier, Studders, Krege, Patrick Enright, and Greg Priddy. We had heard that the "Swimmers" were staying in a place up the and they seemed to have the place where most of the people were getting arrested so that's where we went to party.
Keith is remembering a trip from years later when we again visited Ocean Drive but stayed in a different place. This was probably '85 or '86 and he did in fact put an Australian girl in the hospital with his dance.
Are you people all on drugs!
And then there was the time that me and Morgan Fairchild discovered the fountain of youth...
-- Sanchez (steve@avanticorp.com), August 13, 1997.
OK, OK, maybe I overstated Krege's role at the beach. However, he IS the one who told us about all the activities at the swimmer cottage.Steve's right about the origin of the dervish.
-- Dave Jones (David_Jones@harvard.eud), August 13, 1997.
Ah yes, its coming back to me, Steve's right, the Grand Head Bash did occur at a different address. We had picked the woman up at Crazy Zack's.I don't think we went to clubs that much on the first trip. Spent most of the time wrestling with Krege over the stereo and trying to force down cereal moistened with beer, because no one had brought milk. And of course we spent a lot of time on the beach, writing poetry and drinking Sloe Gin with some guys from VA Tech.
-- Max Lloyd (Max_Lloyd@avanticorp.com), August 13, 1997.
I think Steve is right that the Lloyd/Jones/Soltesz/Lanier/Studders' branch merged with the Floyd branch in Spring of '82. My recollection of first meeting Floyd is as a fledgling Serteen crashing some party on Madison shortly after receiving my driver's license in April of '82. I think there was supposed to be a Keg, but we were drinking screwdrivers. Already present (among about 50 persons) were Max, Keith, Steve & Dave. I believe Dave and I snuck into a barricaded (to keep revelers out) dining room and had some SloeGin. I left with my friends and later snuck back with the parents' car. Subsequently Max, Steve and I believe Dave talked me into driving to Taco Bell. We had multi-colored hair as was often the case in those days. Anyway, I got a ticket for making a left turn out of the right lane of Market St. (remember the good ole' days before they cared if you were driving drunk?) There was plastic baggy on the floor of the car and the cop thought we had been smoking dope and wanted to know what had been in the bag. I truthfully explained that it had been carrots, because my Mom always packed carrots for our Easter trip (more evidence of Spring) to visit my grandparents. Oh yeah, I met Floyd, or at least Mr. Wells, after I accidently broke a window in the stairwell to the attic. So Dale, I guess you can put me into the 3DTree for Spring '82. Query to all - could Albatros really be the mutated child resulting from the combining of these two branches?
-- Mike Lloyd (j.m.lloyd@worldnet.att.net), September 04, 1997.
Actually, I believe Keith's memory is faulty here.While my memories do not seem to be as lucid's as Dave's. I do remember vividly the nite Keith attempted to impale some poor girl's forhead with his own. I believe it happened on a subsequent trip to that famous address (which I now believe is now the Xanadu III).
There were some woman involved in that first trip, but the time with them was not spent in the Hospital ER.
-- Max Lloyd (max_lloyd@avanticorp.com), August 13, 1997.
Davey, this might actually make _you_ a connection. I clearly remember you being involved before that beach trip. I feel sure you were present at other variuos functions. After all you and I shared a locker. (How did that happen anyway?) Maybe you are the elusive Soltesz, Lanier, etc. connection.
-- Tommy (tjoseph@plcmc.lib.nc.us), August 13, 1997.
This is fun . . .You could say that I'm was the long-term connection between Floyd et al. and Soltesz et al. Officially, though, John Krege was the link at the beach, and, before that, it was whoever dragged us to Eric Singer's party (Studders?). Of course, a few months after the beach, the bigs boys went off to college, leaving me to fend for myself my senior year. I easily and happily found refuge in the swimmers/ Civitans crowd, the most important step of which was asking Tommy J. to share a locker with me. I also supported James in his gonzo campaign to be president of the Civitans, which proved to be a smart political move. Comfortably settled in the Civitan nest, I kept in touch with the big college boys, such that, when they came home for the weekend, I led them to the cool parties.
I also take credit for the all-important Martineau connection. Beans was one of my closest college buddies from Day 1 of freshman year. The summer after that first year, we often got together in Greensboro, so I would drag him along to more swimmer deals. One night at New York Pizza, Beans was joined by his brother, JB; as fate would have it, also there that night was Jennifer Wells -- a SWIMMER, no less!
-- Dave Jones (David_Jones@harvard.edu), August 13, 1997.
I protest, Floyd is getting way more attention than he deserves (and I'm sure he loves it!).As best I see it (and it is cloudy), there were this bunch of geeks (can't spell geek without EE!) at Grimsley and one of them also tried to write (Soltesz). That hooked him up with Dave Jones.
Now somehow, this group of geeks started partying with a group of Civitans. Best guess is it started at the beach the spring break of 1982! For me, THAT is the beginnings of this crew. (I call it Generation zero)
Now, for many (probably most) of the future generation additions, I'll give floyd the nod. He pulled in ECU folks, WS folks, etc.
So, floyd didn't "start" this mess, but he sure has perpetuated things and helped them grow!
The question is how did these groups (geeks and swimmers) get together at the beach? All they had in common was a love of "wierd" music, beer, and partys!
Is Eric Singer the fateful link? or is it Krege? Maybe it was Priddy!
-- John Studders (studders@avanticorp.com), August 21, 1997.
With one fatal blow, Mr. Studders has cast doubt on this entire enterprise. Could it be that The Albatross started not with Floyd's birth, but rather with the fateful meeting between The Swimmers and The gEEks (heretofore referred to as The Sons of Larry Saunders, a confusing moniker for me since I belong to this crew despite never taking calculus nor EE)? This meeting, as I pointed out in a previous posting, took place at a Eric Singer's party shortly before the '82 beach trip. Again, I believe Dale invited one of us (Steve?) to the party. If it's true the merging of these two geek-clans triggered the birth of The Albatross, then DALE SWANSON is truly our father, our god, our center of the universe. Oh, and that would make Eric Singer the innkeeper. Sorry Floyd. And congratulations, Dale. You are the messiah. Now that I think about it, I think Dale created this web page and chat room so that we would "spontaneously" reach this important discovery on our own. Dale, you're finally getting the credit you deserve.
-- Dave Jones (David_Jones@harvard.edu), August 21, 1997.
So, Dave, you've found me out. My secret ploy uncovered!I will fourth the emerging opinion that the present band can be traced back to the '82 Easter Break Myrtle Beach trip - and very likely to the Eric Singer connection. (chime in any time Eric!)
I sure don't recall how or who was responsible for connecting the Civitans with the Sons of Larry Saunders - I think I may have met Steve or Studders in physics class (Dirk who?).
I know that Floyd came to the swimmer/wrestler/? crowd with the proposal that we assume control of the Jr. Civitans. Chris someone was in charge with a membership of 2 at the time. I believe that was where Eric came into the picture.
But, no, I cannot claim any sort of responsibility alone for the mess that we are. I still hold that the most coherent method for tracking our history remains FLOYD and the hot new party game 3D Floyd
-- DALEbatross (dale.swanson), August 21, 1997.
I have to speak up here. I went to Dale at swim practice with the proposal to merge into the Civitans. Yoiu and Floyd did the follow through.
-- Tommy (tjoseph@plcmc.lib.nc.us), August 27, 1997.
I have to agree with John, at least the part about gound zero being the 82 Beach trip.
-- Richard Wells (floydwells@www.hotmail.com), August 21, 1997.
It's music, it has to be....it's not Floyd, (he does make decent party tapes though), it's the thread that brings all worthy people together! Long live Jello Biafra and Gordon Gano, I'm still waiting for one more party where Jennifer Wells yells out, "Too Drunk to What?"
-- Steve Soltesz (steve@avanticorp.com), September 06, 1997.
O.K., now the conversation takes a positive turn. Who has my tapes? I'm missing quite a few. Truthfully, there were quite a few great tapes out there. Who can name them all? Let's see: Rocks and Garbage (Dave, Dale, Will & Steve?); The Betterenitwas soundtrack; The Polo Road Tape; etc.... P.S., my E-Mail link still sucks.
-- richard wells (floydwells@www.hotmail.com), September 16, 1997.
Good -- we missed you. Hang in there, buddy!
-- old roomie (kempen@rti.org), September 18, 1997.
Hey, Don't forget Greg Priddy was also in the 705 OD place, Krege kept turning off music in the middle of a song, we built a large beer can "fortress" on the back porch, fixed more things than we broke, AND broke into the place on several (later) stays at the beach for a free place to stay (What originality when on a zero dollar budget) oh those were the days.DOn't ask me what this has to do with anything, I'm just remembering...
And to Floyd's comments as to me on crutches... I ain't been on 'em in over 2 years, and I had a much bigger wingspan than an albatross
-- hurting brain from memory overload (studders@avanticorp.com), August 13, 1997.
I do protest!! Albatrosses (-trossi?) are very big birds and they have huge wingspans. The ones you see aren't all that big because you won't feed them any food, you miserly sailor.
-- floyd (www.floydwells@hotmail.com), September 23, 1997.