"Once I rose above the noise and confusion ..."

Back in the day, 1971 to be exact, I took my Richards Junior High yearbook and located every single picture of David Ragsdale. I took a marker, and lovingly drew a heart around his face in all those pictures. I was in 7th grade, he was in 8th. I was a dork, he was a cool guy. I was 5'10" already, he was ... short. But he knew how to dress, his hair was long and oh, so beautiful -- and so there was nothing else for me to do. I had a Crush. With a capital C.

(I think that was the beginning of my fascination with "Men With Hair", and why I ended up falling for the man I live with now. Jimmy used to have some dreeeeeamy hippie hair ... WAY back in the day. His brother Michael did too!)

But time marches on. There were babies to raise and houses to keep; and through the years, not much thought was given to my junior high school Crush. In fact, except for the time in the 80's, when I heard he had made the bigtime and was playing in Louise Mandrell's band (Ha!), I hadn't given him ANY thought at all.

Not sure when he joined up with the old band, Kansas ... but his webpage says he has spent at least 7 years playing with them. Jimmy heard that they would be performing in Greenville on Saturday night, so herniated disk be damned ... we were there.

For a bunch of old guys, they put on an awesome show! That was a little joke there. I enjoyed it a lot. Especially when the lead singer said, "Hey, tonight's really special for me! This is the first time all 3 of my grandchildren have come to see us perform!"

*sigh* All we are is dust in the wind, y'all.


You have to skip ahead to about halfway through the video to see a little concert footage (and David with old hair).

David, with new hair, on Saturday night:

And finally, if you really need proof that time marches on ..

"I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone ..."