We were off to a good start and the band already had two members. So what if they were just Bruce and I? No big deal; we figured as long as we could add others who could actually play and sing, then their credibility would in fact turn our enterprise into something of perceived value, and not lend itself to the allusion of merely putting lipstick on a pig.

Anyway, being at the O’Club made it easy for us to think of Tom Triplett who, like Bruce lived just a few minutes walk away. For one thing we knew Tom was a pretty good guitar player but also, and only as a minor, secondary consideration, we figured having him in the band wouldn’t hurt our chances of being invited to his older sister Trudy’s frequent Hootenannys; that while they began at the Triplett house, would by sunset relocate to the 7th green of the golf course across the street and morph into “make out” parties. Or so we had been told.

We agreed that as young “rising stars” it probably made sense to become part of these outings; and besides the additional “hands on” experience was largely desirable, particularly in light of the barely manageable testosterone levels that were pulsing through our bodies...

We were ready, willing and able to take the next step and if it was going to take singing “If I Had a Hammer” instead of “Satisfaction” at a Hootenanny, then we would agree provisionally that this action would constitute an exchange we could live it. But, we also decided that these folksy fifties standards would have little or no place in the electrified, Rock and Roll world we were creating.

We knew that Tom listened to all styles of music and believed he would be able to stand on his own with an electric guitar, and decided to approach him. His joining the group would bring solid vocals for me to sing against (and Bruce to scream around) as well as a personality we knew would fit right in.

Tom and I had hung out together off and on every since he had moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground from Red Stone Arsenal in 1963. One of my favorite memories of Tom was the trip we made one summer to the Florida Keys scuba diving and generally creating a state of general confusion along the US 1 corridor between Harford County and Key West.

Tom was an integral part of the band until he left during the summer of 1967 and joined the Navy to get on track for an appointment to the USNA.

What was pretty cool: on our last gig of that summer Tom showed up as we prepared to play the last song the band would perform before we all moved on to “higher callings”. It was a song that Tom routinely carried the lead vocal on, and we all could not have been happier to end the night and the season by having him “take us out”.

As “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” resounded thru the room we all turned to each other and smiled, flashing back over all our earlier triumphs. When it was over we patted each other on the back, packed up our gear and headed over to my house for a farewell party. For us, our post high school summer had run its course.  But it is only now by looking back that I realize it was that very night we all, save Howard, crossed that celebrated but indefinable threshold in time that separates the youthful ways of high school from the adulthood (?) of college. We had come to the end of an era, yet the beginning of something we believed would be bigger. And, we were all way past ready to take the next step.

Tom did head to the Naval Academy and during my days at the University of Maryland would occasionally rescue him and his Middie buddies from the “brig” in favor of some partying and adventures at my apartment and in and around metro D.C.

Tom became a husband, father and successful businessman, and here I believe I can not adequately serve to tell “the rest of his story”.

State of Mind anticipates the day original band members reunite for a gig or two.