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We started out with just two guitars, a drum machine and a PA.
Well, it was sort of a PA system. We were getting a few jobs now and really needed better equipment. Of course, we were just starting out and didn’t have much money.
We decided we would order the PA and speakers from Heathkit. You may have ever heard of Heathkit before, but it was a company that sold electronic equipment in the form of a kit that you put together yourself.
Larry had experience with electronic components through his job with the US Air Force and Harris. I was always up for a project, especially if it meant building something.
 When the UPS truck delivered our kit, we were like two little kids at Christmas. Until……we opened the box. I don’t know how we ever got that thing together much less have it work. We had to sort all the capacitors, locate where they were to go on the motherboard then solder them on. I don’t know how we did it, but we did and much to our own surprise, it worked.
The kit was an amplifier and a large speaker cabinet. I was so proud of Larry for building this equipment. Of course I helped, but only by holding the solder or sorting parts. He actually did all the work.
I know you know what’s next…..you’re right, he ordered a second one. That was the beginning of our fascination with music equipment.
The second kit actually took a little longer to put together since I was pregnant and not much help to Larry. It was along about this same time that Larry had another surprise for me. He came home from work one day with a little keyboard. When I say little, I mean it was just one octave. The sound was like bass notes.
Then he brought in some pedals that were also one octave. I said “What’s that for?” His reply was, “It’s for you. You are going to play these pedals with your feet just as soon as I figure out how to interface the pedals with the keyboard.”
 Well, I could sing and play the guitar, or I could sing and play the bass pedals, or just play the guitar and pedals, but I couldn’t do all three at the same time. It took a lot of practicing to get comfortable with all three functions.
We had our equipment set up in the spare bedroom. I never wore shoes at home, so anytime we practiced I was barefoot. The first time we played a job with the bass pedals, I realized I couldn’t play the pedals with shoes on. That became one of our trademarks, the barefoot bass player.
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