Aloha! My name is Wendley Keeleuohilohanakahi Kekauoha Jr., but most of my family and friends on the Mainland just call me "Bert". I've lived in Maryland for thirty one years and for thirty of those years I've shared my joy and love of music with diverse audiences along the East Coast. I've been fortunate to play with many of the local Polynesian groups over the years and there are times when I might get to sit-in if someone has an emergency. But about five year ago I formed a trio, which has since disbanded, and we did a number of varied gigs around the area. Gigs included corporate events, weddings, luaus and parties for almost any conceivable reason. We were semi-regulars at a friends coffe house and shaved ice stand in Timonium for a couple of those years. That was a good time.
Also during this period I recorded a CD titled "ALA MOANA" which included seven songs which I had written. My friend, O'Donel Levy, was also a motivator, mentor, recording engineer and musician for this project. I believe if it was not for his patience and expertise the project would never have been completed. But it was and my wife and I handled the production of the cover, liner notes, photographs and duplication. It was stressful at times but we were satisfied with the final product.
The CD also opened a door to perform with one of the premier groups of Hawaiian music, the Makaha Sons. Me and two friends were the opening act for their concert at the University of Maryland. It was great to meet them and see what they do to be successful in the business. When we were introduced we got up and did out thing for twenty minutes and it was great. Just to be there and share my music with friends and family but also to a portion of the audience that were there to see the Makaha Sons. It was awesome! I made new friends and we still keep in touch. We were in Hawaii in 2008 and the Sons were performing at a local car dealership's anniversary. The event was free to the public. We were there and the Makaha Sons recognized me to the crowd as a musician on the Mainland sharing the music and aloha of Hawaii. Another great moment.
The past seven months have been one filled with travel for personal pleasure and not for music though music always plays a role in all of our vacations. We were in Mexico spending two weeks in Manzanillo. I played for our friends when we had lunch at one of the beach restaurants or in the evenings at the rental property. We also went to Mexico City for a birthday party and I got to perform for the matriarch of the family. It was a great time. Also we got to spend sometime with Enrique who is the guitaria player for the best mariachi group in the world, Mariachi Vargas. He shared what they do when they're on the road and when they're home. He has been with the group for twenty years. I thanked him for his insight and hospitality.
April we were in Hawaii for my dad's 80th birthday. I got to meet and talk to the band that played for the party. Milton Kepa, guitarist, George Kalamalama, keyboards and Henry Crozier, bassist. The trio provided a variety of music for three and half hours. They covered the spectrum. After the party we must have talked for two hours about music and life in general. George and his brothers were mainstays at a club called Jubilee's. The Kalamalama brothers also made a CD of Hawaiian and pop tunes. It's easy listening. When we said goodnight we all was sorry to see it end.
Currently I'm working on new songs and re-writing or re-working previously recorded tunes. I'm also currently looking to find a couple of players to form a trio and maybe do some club dates. I also thought of maybe trying to see if we could do the wine tasting or vineyard circuit. I was at one last year and it seemed like a nice job if one could get in. I've also been sending audition songs to opportunities on Sonicbids and Taxi. Nothing yet but I keep trying.
The information below is my original bio. The information above is an update through July 2009.
If the moniker is too much do what most of my friends do and just call me "Bert". It's easy, doesn't seem as formal and one doesn't have to "trip" over all of the vowels that are a part of my name. I am a part-Hawaiian male who resides in Baltimore, Maryland with my wife, Linda. My wife is from Baltimore and I moved here thirty years ago. I celebrated the anniversary of my move just last month. Where have the years gone? I've always enjoyed playing music since I was a teenager but wasn't always enable to indulge in my passions due to financial concerns. But my love of music never waned. If I couldn't play it I did enjoy listening to it on the radio, 45's and LP's, terms that have gone the way of the dinosaur with today's technology. I must admit that I'm still a novice with regards to the hardware and software that is available for recording my music and posting it on the Internet for others to hear and comment. I am learning but I still feel I'm behind on the learning curve. Being from Hawaii one would be led to believe that I grew up with Hawaiian music and traditions but that is not necessarily true. My parents did not speak Hawaiian. Just one of my grandparents spoke the language. It seemed when I was growing up that my parents wanted us to be more American than Hawaiian. I never understood the irony of Hawaiians living in the land discovered, colonized and flourished by our ancestors long before Columbus set sail and sailed into the New World to be more like the people who overthrew our government and totally changed our history. There are still groups fighting for the recognition of a Sovereign Hawaiian Nation today. But I digress. When I got to Intermediate School I enrolled in band and picked the clarinet. I was good enough to play in the advanced band for a year but again not being able to do summer school and other lessons caused me to drop band by my freshman year. During these years I was into surfing and the guys I surfed with on weekends all played guitar to some degree and would often let me try to strum a few chords . . . though I could never get the knack of holding my fingers just right on the neck. I even tried the ukulele and wasn't very good at that either. Again my lack of progress postponed my musical dream but I knew somehow, someway I'd be in a group. June 1967 I graduated from high school and within days I'm working as a part-time warehouseman with a cousin. The job doesn't last more than two weeks when we both are fired. A few days later I'm working at the company where my dad works delivering steel but I'm part of the chain link fence crew. The foremen know my dad but that doesn't get me any special privileges it's hard work and I earned my two dollars an hour. I work six months installing fences all over the island then one day an uncle asks me there's a new dairy opening not too far from where I live and they are hiring. He tells me to go and fill an application. He says starting pay is $5.50 an hour. It's a Monday when I go to the dairy I'm there at 8:00 a.m. and by 8:30 I'm on the line filling and stacking six gallon boxes of milk. I then are packing half pint cartons into cases and stacking them to be loaded onto delivery trucks. My first day ends at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and I need to be back at work at 7:30. My time at Sunrise Dairies were five and sometime six days of twelve to sixteen hour days. I tell you all of this because it was at this point of my life that I had enough money saved to get my first bass guitar and amplifier. I also bought a Yamaha drum set for my brother. Soon after we got together with couple of our neighbors and had our first garage band. It was a day I'll always remember. It was a holiday weekend when we got together. It was guys from the neighborhood most of them were starting or in high school. It was seven of us that day six guys and a girl. We had the three guitars, lead, rhythm and bass, a drummer, a tambourine man and a lead singer. We all sang so that was a plus. I believe the first song we played that day was "Groovin'" by the Young Rascals. The Rascals were huge in a Hawaii. All of their concerts were sold out affairs. Also that day we had a reel to reel recorder so someone had the great idea of recording our practice to get an idea of how we sounded. Hanging the recorder's microphone from the the light fixture in the center of the living room we recorded a couple of songs. Groovin and Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by the Casinos. We all agreed that for our first session it was okay. We knew we had a lot of work ahead but as the first steps we felt we had done okay. Over the next couple of months we get together and rehearse then sometimes one of the neighbors or a band members family would have a party so we get invited to play. Most of the gigs were free but we felt it gave us a chance to perform before a live audience rather than just to ourselves in the garage. Everyone said we were doing good but there were things brewing that would rear its ugly head in the near future. We had a chance to play a gig with a friends band. It was a birthday party outside of our neighborhood so we thought hey this might be a good thing to see if we were really any good. So, we told them we helped them out. The night of the gig the guys get lost but somehow we get to the party with enough time to set up and do a short sound test. Then our friends say they want us to go on first. We say it's your gig and they say, "No we want you guys to start." We go on starting with the introduction of the band and going into Spencer Davis' Group's,Gimme Some Lovin. Forty-five minutes later were doing our last song and introducitng our friends. They start and they do the exact same songs in the exact same order that we had just done our set. As confused as we were the party goers were even more confused. Even now as I'm reliving the moment I can't tell you what they were thinking all those many years ago. Our pay for that night was a slice of pizza and a medium drink. I don't think it was a dollar a man. The worst part of it was that I then I had to take eight guys, three guitars, amplifiers, a drum set and mic stands home, about an hour away in a 1962 four door Chevy Impala. It was a long night which didn't end for my brother and me because we had to face the parents who had stood by their bedroom window and watched us unload and exit the car. It was a long night but it was a longer morning and day. We never ever played with that band again. Soon after that our first garage band disbanded partly I think because one of the parents thought her son should be playing with guys from his school and our neighbors did not appreciate our rehearsals because as soon as we would start they would call the police and lodge a complaint. It might have been two years and then my first garage band was gone. I then played with a couple of older friends,Uncle Jay Naeole and Phil Kaikala,both enjoyed playing music. We played some Hawaiian tunes but also a few pop songs. But we had a hard time learning new songs because not everyone read music. I tried to make learning the song as easy as possible by transposing the keys to ones he already knew. It worked for a while but then we started to get into a rut doing the same sets in the same order whenever we played. In time the audience could tell what the time was by the song that we were playing. I left the band though if they needed help I would come back and sit in with them. My brother, the drummer stayed with them for years until they finally called it quits. A friend of my dad was looking for a bass player and my dad said his son played. One thing led to another and that is when I met a guy who had the gift of gab and could charm almost any audience. His name was Leroy Chang. I'll tell you about him in a little bit. Leroy was a guitar player and a schmoozer. Everyone who met or knew him said he was a better schmoozer than guitar player but it was a chance to get out and play in some little clubs. One of my first gigs with Leroy was as part of a trio in a club that had a burlesque revue early and then had dancing from 9 pm to 1 am. Our night there it was Leroy, a drummer and me. There were a lot of people there, for a weeknight, and they wanted to hear the top forty of the mid and late 70's but Leroy was still doing things from the 40's, 50's and 60's. The natives were restless and just before we got done a huge fight broke out and there were patrons and bouncers flying all over the room. Luckily no one approached the stage. I just try to get my stuff together so that it wouldn't get destroyed. We made it out safely that night but were never asked back. Leroy and I and an assortment of drummers did a number of auditions. One I remember was in a little club in Waikiki. It was a late afternoon audition. We got through it and the owner and crowd seemed to like us but we never got asked back. The thing about this gig was that there was a "girl" at the bar who was absolutely gorgeous but all the regulars knew she was a he and "she" had three sailors arguing over who would take her home. They went outside and had it out and the winner came back to claim his prize. As the couple left you knew everyone was wondering what the sailor would do once they got to their destination. Surprise. But most of the time we played a little club in Aiea, a suburb of Honolulu, called TicTacToe. It truly was a little club. I think the maximum seating capacity might have been forty people. We had the Friday and Saturday nights there at least twice a month. The owner and staff were great. It was here that my brother joined Leroy and me. We had a great time. Eventually we added two more members, Lawrence, who played a number of instruments and Wayne who played guitar. A five piece band in the club took some doing and sometimes my brother had his drums in the aisle to the kitchen. We played a variety of music; a little rock, some Hawaiian, oldies, standards and even a few country songs. It was a sad day when we stopped playing there. Then as a group we moved to a bigger dance club in Kaimuki just a few miles outside of Waikik. The club was called Yoko's. It had a great weekend crowd but they had a band called the "Laughing Kahunas" in that spot. We were booked to do the Sunday through Thursday nights from 9pm to 2am. These nights were awful. If we got ten people at one time or even over the five hours it was a good night. If it was slow we tried to use the time to work on new material but the owner wouldn't have any of that he wanted us playing and dancing. How were people going to know that we were having fun if they couldn't here the music? I played there a week and then I received my greetings from Uncle Sam to come and join the Army. But the guys got to play at some of the better clubs in Waikiki soon after my leaving the band. While playing at Yoko's we did an audition at Honey's in Kaneohe. Honey's was famous for being the club where Don Ho started. Our audition is a Saturday night and we get there early to listen to the band that's leaving. When we get there it's guys from our neighborhood that my brother and I know. The group was called The New Paradise Seranaders. They were great. They were moving from Honey's to the Holiday Inn in Waikiki. When they were done they came down and said hello and even stayed through our first set. We got off to say thank you and wished them the best in the future. We finished the night and we never got that job either. I mentioned getting my "greetings" letter from Uncle Sam so on the morning of August 22, 1969 I report to my draft board in Kaneohe and along with twenty-five other guys we're bussed to the testing center at Fort DeRussey. There we're given a physical and a battery of tests that lasts most of the day then just before we're sent home we're sworn into the Army and told to report to Honolulu Airport that evening for our flight to San Francisco, CA and then on to Fort Ord. As soon as we're released I call my parents to let them no what's happening. My Mom and Dad are stunned at the news but deal with it as they have dealt with everything life has placed in their path. We go home, I pack. We have dinner and then the family takes me to the airport. At the gate the rest of the group is there with their family and friends dealing with their goodbyes. It is not a joyous occassion and eventurally we board the plane and are off. It's a quiet flight each of us dealing with the uncertainty in our own way. We land and are driven to the fort and there we begin our time in the service. While there we meet up with the all Hawaiian company. Guys who enlisted and are going through boot camp together. We go over to their barracks to talk story and a little jam session but that ends all too soon when we have to get back to our own barracks before lights out. The next few days are filled with medical exams, tests of all kinds, haircuts and uniforms. But this is not where will be staying for basic. There is a meningitis problem and the Fort is filled to capacity so recruits are being sent to other Basic Training Facilities. We are being sent to Fort Bliss, Texas. A day or two later and we're traveling to the great state of Texas. We arrive just after midnight are given something to eat than given some bedding for a few hour sleep and at 5:30 we're awaken by our drill seargeant sending us down to the yard for our morning formation. You're in the Army now and you will enjoy yourself. My time in the Army was a learning experience and I met a lot of people both good and bad that helped to mold me into who I am today. I spent ten weeks in Texas. Met a group of Hawaiian NCO's who took us under their wings even having a luau for us at one of the senior NCO's home. Hawaiian food, music just a great time. Graduation came and most of the guys were sent off to their advanced training school. I was "held over" because of some problem with my orders. I usually had some daytime duty and nights were spent in the barracks, at the movies or the EM club. A few of the Hawaiian NCOs took me to Juarez one night. It was surreal to say the lease and a night I'll always remember. I got my orders and was sent back to Fort Ord as an 11B40, an infantryman, for advance training. Another eight weeks of training on tactics, weapons and physical training. In the middle of this Christmas showed up so we were sent home for two weeks. I returned and completed my training and was then sent to NCO School in Fort Benning, GA. I had applied for OCS but got into some trouble so there were some issues so I chose NCO school because I wouldn't need to extend for another year. NCO or shake and bake school, as it was "fondly" refered to by old timers was a twelve week class on history, tactics and weapons to help one in a combat situation and there was no doubt that we would all be in a combat situation soon. I graduated number 5 in my class of 200 and was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant after approximately nine months in service. I had a musical experience while in NCO school. There was to be a change of command ceremony so all of the training companies that were in cycle were asked to come up with some entertainment for the affair. When the call went out I showed up. There were twelve of us who showed for the first rehearsal. There were a lot of singers, a drummer who was very good, couple guitar players, I got to play bass and we had a horn section. We had a couple of weeks to put together a half hour show. It was rough at the beginning but we got it together and we all looked forward to performing that night. We had dinner at the OCS mess then driven to the General's Quarters and played. We were complimented on our performance. We all felt great about it all. We performed one more time at a sporting event before we graduated and went to our next station. I was sent back to California for OJT training which I never understood because all we did was take training classes out on their final field training exercise and try to teach them the things we learned at NCO school. Most of the recruits did not want to hear anything we had to say but sooner or later we would meet again when they would place their well being in what we knew or didn't. I was in California for ten weeks for they couldn't find my orders for two weeks but my first sergeant found them eventually and that put on a plane back to Hawaii for leave before my next duty station in the Republic of South Vietnam. I arrived in Saigon of Friday, November 13, 1970. Why do I remember the date so vividly? It's because the stewardess constantly reminded us as we arrived at the airport of the date. Thus begun my tour in Southeast Asia. It was the usual, hurry up and wait. Getting processed and then finding transportation to get to the In-Country training center before getting to your unit. I was heading north to the mountain region of the country, the area designated I Corp. My destination the 101st Airborne Division at Phu Bai. Welcome. I was in country for a short tour due to my extended stays at the various training facilities. I for one went to war knowing the possibilities and being in charge of other people's lives gave me my mission while I was there and that was as long as I was there I would do anything in my power to make sure that my guys got back to their loved ones. War affects each one differently and we all carry some luggage from the experience but as long as they returned physically the way they left I would consider my tour successful. And when I left country in August 1971 I had two men who suffered leg wounds but wouldn't require amputation. Though the wounds were not serious it was still a tough letter to write to a mother or wife. But those were the only casualties that were suffered on my watch and all my forty-seven guys knew that I cared what happened to each and everyone of them. The day I left the field and returned back to the rear for processing and eventually leaving country I got on the last supply helicopter leaving the firebase with four Red Cross girls, everyone called them "Donut Dollies" because whenever they showed up they brought coffee and donuts. As we circled the firebase my guys were "popping" smoke grenades and waving to me from the landing zone. They had made me promise that I would not re-enlist and return to the field I told them I wouldn't and didn't. Returning to the United States was a long trip I guess because of the expectation of once again being out of harms way. I had a stop in Fort Lewis, WA to get mustered out and then on to Honolulu. Upon deplaning at Honolulu Airport me and another Hawaiian returning home knelt and kissed the asphalt. We were glad to be home. My family were there to meet me and I could see the relief on their faces. The next few months I did nothing but visit old haunts and friends. Got back into going to the beach and surfing. Also got back into playing a little bit of music. I had thought of continuing my college education but due to my laid back life style I missed the registration date. After about six months of trying to get back into civilian life I went back to work for the Engineering Company I worked for before being drafted. Most of the guys were still there and their comment was that I had lost my innocence, looking and acting differently that the nineteen year old who had left two years ago. I would spend seven years at Sunn, Low, Tom and Hara, which later became Research Cottrell and then finally M&E Pacific, before leaving and moving to the Mainland. In those seven years I encountered many different styles of music and played with some new friends and even discovered a few old friends but like life itself my music was still a journey, which even today I enjoy taking it one step at a time. The fall of 1971 I was invited to join a band with a couple of guys I knew from around the neighborhood. The guys were Jonathan Kalua and Kenneth Afong. I had seen them with bands in the neighborhood before I left for the service and here they were asking me to join a group they were forming. The group consisted of three guitars, a bass and a drummer. We were doing a lot of soul, funk and rock. We could do Hawaiian but didn't practice it much. We had rehearsals every day for about three weeks when Jonathan comes in one evening and says we got a job at a little club in Kailua called "The Red Carpet". We were to fill in for the house band who were playing on one of the other islands that night. It was a Friday and we were playing from 9pm to 1am. We get there and set up. There isn't much of a crowd so we play the blues and a few soft numbers. Around 9:30 the bowling leagues are done so they start coming in and the club gets crowded so we go into our songs which consisted of seven tunes we could do "cold". We start and about thirty minutes later we've gone through our list. We then here Jonathan say "Are there any request?" The rest of the band is staring at one another mouthing the word Request? The rest of the night we do request and the people are on the dance floor just loving it. It was so good we were invited to come back the following Friday. We played the Carpet a lot but then we invited a keyboard player, Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar, and in a few months things changed and we disbanded as a group. Jonathan joined Kenneth, his brother Keith, Randy Lorenzo and a couple of other guys to form a group. Before our breakup we played a lot of private parties and visited other groups and played during their breaks just to get our sound out into the public. One such gig was when a group called the "Sons of Kamehameha" were playing at a club not too far from Kailua so we went to see them. They said they would let us play but by the time we got on stage most of the customers had left but for the ones who were there we blew their socks off. Even the other bands girlfriends were impressed with our style. We played, thanked my friends and left to go back to the Carpet where we got to play the last hour and close for the night. Once my brother and I was going to help one of our uncles, who was working at United Airlines, because he asked us to play in a band that was forming for a United Airlines function. He tells us the groups having a rehearsal so we go there and when we arrive there are a few people but no one knows what exactly is going on. We find out there will be an organizational meeting the following week. We are about ready to go when we find out there's a party a the lady that's providing the music asks my brother, Greg and I if we'd like to sit in. We say "Sure, we were here to practice anyway and we'd give it a try." Her name was Nani Ho and her son, Phil, played guitar. We played for the party and had a wonderful time. When that was over they asked us if we wanted to go to a party in Hawaii Kai. We said it's on the way home and if it's okay with the hosts we'd be happy to join in. We arrive and its another musician's house. I think his name was Vick Malo. He was related to the guy who had been on the gong show and won. Everyone was nice and we had a good time. When we got ready to leave we thanked everyone and left for home. We would see Nani, her daughter Kanani and Phil a lot over the next couple of years and then we slowly drifted apart. Also during this time I would often run into Leroy Chang unexpectedly when I'd be visiting clubs in Waikiki. It didn't matter where it was he would always say "My friend, Wendell, is in the audience. Give him a hand and encourage him to come up on stage and play a few songs. Inevitably I'd end up doing a forty-five minute set and Leroy would be talking to the women. Once he had a job at the Whaler's Cove in the Kuilima Hotel. He calls and says he needs a bass player. I go and its the two of us and a drummer but he also has a girlfriend and her sister with him. We do a four hour gig and then I tell him I'm heading home but he wants me to drive the sister and meet him at Windward Drive inn. His girlfriend's sister is not happy but what is she going to do . . . walk home. So we go to the drive-inn and get something to eat. We wait and its about two hours before they show up and then they park away from us and it's about three in the morning when I finally get to leave. I get home just in time to get an hours sleep and go to work. Between 1976 and 1978 I have a chance to play in a group with brother and our cousins, the Kanaeakalas, Cliff, Jr, Wayne and Darwin. We played a lot of gigs during those two years. We had a lot of fun doing the gigs. Some were just backyard parties while others were high class affairs but whatever it was or wherever it was we always had a good time. Sometimes I got lost in the music but I always learned something new. When I left for the Mainland it was an end of my playing days in Hawaii for awhile. My bass stayed with Cliff until I found a job with a Polynesian group in Baltimore my home away from home. I arrived in Baltimore in June of 1978. I didn't find a group to play with until a year or so later when I met this Samoan, Meki Toalepai, who had been living in Baltimore since 1964. In fact Meki was sort of a celebrity because when he wanted to get married there was a law in Maryland that forbade inter-racial marriages between whites and any other race. At the time Pacific Islanders were considered blacks. There were articles from local papers even Time magazine. Meki was doing the fire knife dance at a luau and we got to talking. He said he had a group and if I was interested I could come to one of the rehearsals to check it out. Missing my music Linda and I went to rehearsal. It turned out it was just the two of us and we went through some of the songs they did which I knew. They had a gig in a couple of weeks so he asked me to show up and play. I show up and there are some internal issues that I wasn't aware of that come to a head that night. I'm there to play so I play. That was the start of me finding music in Baltimore. I played with Meki steadily for two years working weekends. Then we had a falling out because of musical ideas but then we got back together for a little bit and then I would fill in from time to time. We still are friends and still share the stage from time to time. His son has taken over the reins of the show. Meki is now an ordained deacon with the Episcopalian Church. In the thirty years I've been here in Maryland I've shared the stage with a number of groups and performers. Most of them had Polynesian shows as well as dance music. The groups were local and had their own following. I think if there's a polynesian group in the Baltimore Washington area there's a good chance that I've played with the group at some time over the past thirty years. Meki's Tamure got me started but there was also Gordon Vallesco's Ho'aloha, Mahina Bailey's group out of Alexandria, VA. Recently I've played in a group for Halau O Na Halia out of I've also played with musicians who have since relocated back to the islands. Jimmy Kaina who once headed the Hawaii Visitors Bureau in New York City is classically trained singer. We met at a wedding. I was with the band and he knew the couple, Ipolani and Richard. Somehow we hooked up sometime during the event and we were singing long into the wee hours of the morning. The wife and I were staying with some people who had left earlier so needed directions to their home. Plus we were playing a fund raiser the next day. But I digress. Jimmy and I kept in touch and would usually see one another at parties held at friends home from time to time. One of my memories is when we Jimmy, his bass player Frank and I did a reception for the Sargeant at Arms of the United States Senate. He was from Hawaii. His name was Henry Juni, not sure of the spelling. But we have passes to get into Mr. Juni's office. This office is huge. It's three large office suites combined. There are four secretaries at their desk. They've brought in a spinet piano. We set up in a corner and wait until the ceremonies are complete. When we start we see all these Senators and Representatives that we've only seen on television passing by and saying, "Hello" or how much they enjoyed the music. It was a great time. I've played with a friend Ivan Hoopii. Ivan when I first met him wanted to play guitar with a passion. I showed him what little I knew because I played bass guitar most of the time. Fast forward several years and Ivan is back in Virginia for a birthday party for one of his nieces. He begins playing and he just "rips". I'm like standing there in awe. We talk story and he says he just got serious about it and practiced, practiced, practiced. We have kept in touch. I saw him last year when he stopped by the house. We caught up on news and even played a little music. He now teaches "slack key" in Hawaii or when he travels. I told him it was nice that I could say I knew him when. We just laughed. MORE LATER