As you might imagine, after having years of adventures involving Walt, my memory tends to jump to specific images ... like the night he showed up at our apartment driving his 1935 black Packard hearse with actors and actresses hanging out all the windows. That was in 1959 and Don Firth and I were living in the San Francisco area, attempting to make our fame and fortune as folksingers. I don't recall that we made much fortune, but we sure had some famous adventures!

Walt had followed us down to the CITY, fearing he might miss out on something. Our lives were pretty much a mix of little gigs in Sausilito, San Francisco and Berkely, with the occasional college concert somewhere. Walt's main activity was in trying to break into the theater in San Francisco, not an easy task.

On this particuliar night, Walt had somehow scored in invitation to the dressing room of the roadshow of "Westside Story", starring Carol Lawrence. (Walt was very good at scoring ... invitations like this). From this introduction at the dressing room, Walt got himself ("hisself", as he would say) invited to the cast party, and as his hearse was of sufficient size, he filled the car with the most amazing bevy of beauties, of all shapes and sexes. He HAD to swing by our place on the way, mainly I think, to show off his catch. When I think of that night, I still see the image of Walt as he climbed from behind the wheel of his hearse, grinning from ear to ear, with an expression that said, "can you top this!"

Don and I did go to that party. I won't elaborate more, except to say that Walt didn't surface again for three days. (note to Don ... as resident historian, I give you full permmision to correct any details you may wish.)