1974 Spent summer at Dogskin Lake Lodge in northern
Manitoba, skipped grade 8, spent winter in isolation, looking
after dogs as parents went to work in lumber camp
1975 First job as grounds maintenance at Motlong's Rod and
Reel in
Sioux Narrows Ontario, at the end of the season, I moved to Snelgrove Ontario and continued my
education in high school
1976 Spent 2 more years in high school,
1977 Brother taught me to play guitar,
1978 My father divorced his second wife, I got frustrated
and dropped out of high school after finishing grade 11, moved
back to Sioux Narrows late in the spring but work was unavailable.
1979 Worked as grounds maintenance at Totem Lodge in Sioux
Narrows for the summer and moved back to Brampton with my brother
in the fall. Found work pumping gas, then went to work in a flower
warehouse.
1980 Got job with Ontario Humane Society and started my
first band. Played at local parties and such. Left OHS to pursue
career in rock and roll, didn’t work out so I took a job through
a temp agency with the K Mart warehouse in Brampton learned how to
operate forklift, clamp truck, hand truck.
1981 Worked at Cercor, flattening airplane gaskets. Brother
offered me a job doing sound for his band. Two months later his
bassist quit so I bought a bass and became part of the band,
toured all over Ontario.
1982 Toured with a couple of different bands, as my
brothers band didn’t have a lot of experience. Still touring all
over Ontario, Also got to play at the CNE and Ontario Place
1983 Joined Dublin Corporation and stayed with these guys
for two years, touring Ontario and Quebec, learned some
choreography and really developed a playing style. It was a good
band to learn from
1984 Where’s big brother?
1985 Left the band when I took a vacation in
Great Britain.
1986 Took a gig with Louis Curtis’ Solid Gold Band,
Toured Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, Jammed with Sweet Daddy
Siki, left that band and joined a country
band, they weren’t very professional so I only did one tour with
them
1987 Spent the summer working in a car wash as the music
business was getting me down, picked up a week end band in the
fall and talked the lead singer into going with the Solid Gold
Band with me.
1988 Louis wound up being at odds with my friend so we left
that band and put our own band together.
1989 Left the music business again and cleaned cars at
Budget for a few months, Started a duo with one of the guys from
Dublin Corporation,
1990 Continued playing with Duo in southern Ontario, got to
play Ontario place again
1991 Started playing at Jam Nights through the week, got to
play with Amanda Marshall, Alan Thicke and a lot of semi big names
1992 Put my own party band together called the Toons,
hosted jam nights all around Brampton and got to meet a lot of the
local musicians
1993 Continued hosting jam nights and supporting other
bands in the area, we had enough musicians that we started mixing
up the line ups at times to give us variety in our frequent clubs,
Met Corinne
1994 Put away the Toons for awhile and started a touring
band with my drummer and half of another band that shared the same
circuit, we called this band Ashberry Jam, toured mostly central
Ontario
1995 More personal turmoil split that band, the lead singer
(Lloyd McMillan) and I rounded up our respective significant
others and moved to North Bay, Ontario where we established
ourselves as a duo called The Toons, Became a member of my first
church, played in the worship band
1996 Married Corinne July 27, Took church band into a
battle of the bands at Wylder’s Music Hall, took 3rd
place which was pretty good since a lot of the people there didn’t
like Jesus and made it very clear. Got a couple of gigs with jam
bands and met Jim Simmis (RIP Nov 15 2005), a biology expert who would frequently
take me fishing and hunting for edible mushrooms and other
indigenous plants
1997 Got disillusioned with the music business again and
went to college to study graphic design, had pneumonia the first
week I was there, learned to use a computer, got a couple of
awards for being in the top 20% of my class
1998 Second year of college, Did some tutoring in
PhotoShop, acquired steady gig as a single at Churchill’s Dining
lounge, also played with the Toons and Acoustic Circus
1999 Samuel, my first child was born, graduated
Graphic design course, got first job as a graphic designer with
SeeMore Graphics, designing weeding and applying vinyl graphics to
signs and vehicles
2000 Got a job as sales associate at Mail Boxes Etc.,
established a graphics service there and learned a lot about
retail business, Did some freelance contracting for Dale
Smith and designed web graphics for Penny Neil, a web developer
2001 Got a job in customer care at Teletech Canada, Learned
to trouble shoot cell phones, billing problems and I learned to
multitask with different computer platforms, Second child, Naomi
was born
2002 Moved to Indian Harbour Nova Scotia so our kids could
meet their granddad and uncle Jim, worked as bartender at
Seabright Legion, found a lucrative place to busk in the summer,
formed a band called Time Bandits
2003 Met Blaine Waldbaur (The Phantom Fiddler) and played
with him at Peggy's cove and around the community for the summer.
Blaine came from Winnipeg.
2004 Quit the Legion, fired drummer in the band and hired
his uncle, doing all graphics for the band, and a few other
people.
2005 Acquired WHMIS, First Aid and Health and Safety
certificates. Working on portfolio. .
Volunteered at East St Margaret's Bay Elementary School
2006 Began recording original material on computer. Made
some songs available online.
2007 Going back to school at NSCC
Akerly campus. Going to study appliance repair
and hope to get into the refrigeration
business.
