It was the Christmas holiday season of 2001, when a group of long-time friends gathered at a local Dallas, Texas venue one evening for a meal. Over the years there had been many get-togethers of two or more of us who have known each other since elementary school days at Lakewood Elementary in Dallas. From "Lakewood", we all moved to "Long" (J. L. Long Junior High, now Middle School), and on to Woodrow Wilson High School, always known by its students, parents and alumni as simply, "Woodrow".

Our school years from 1956 through the Spring of 1962, were punctuated by the birth of rock 'n roll, which included the harmonic musical style and unforgettable songs we know as Doo-Wop. The groups that originated this special music began in the basements of local churches and on the street corners of Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. They often sang a cappella with no instruments and those that reached the top received little credit for the memories they spun at 45RPM on the records of our lives.

We embraced that music during our school years and decided to form "combos" or groups to perform for our peers at school functions. We named ourselves "The Embers" our senior year at Woodrow and began to win school talent shows and perform for assemblies. In one of our few performances outside school walls, we won second place in a Central Dads Club Talent Contest at State Fair Music Hall. The First Place winner was a band led by Jesse Lopez, brother of Trini Lopez. This group was later disqualified because Jesse was performing professionally at the time.

Two of us, Jack (guitar) and Ralph (sax) in a J.L. Long Jr. High talent show in 1958

College and the military sent us all in different directions, but we somehow managed to reconnect along the way. Eventually, all but one of us made our way back to our roots in the Dallas area. Mike, a trained tenor, put his voice to work with bands all through his years at Baylor University. Glenn started High Spirits, a band he lead full time for a couple of years in Dallas. Ralph joined friends from the Guard in a rock/doo-wop band, while Jack and Jerry had no affiliations musically again until the winter of 2001.

That night at Cafe Express we were, as always, reminiscing a little and the subject of our upcoming 40-year high school reunion came up. Jack, a doo-wop lover, popped out with something like, " Wouldn't it be cool if we could pull our old Embers group together and sing a few of our old songs at the reunion?". "I was thinking about that myself," returned Glenn, a former professional musician with his own group, High Spirits, a local 70s band. Everybody seemed to like the idea, with reservations. What was conceived as a casual idea over dinner begin to incubate. The pros and cons were followed by more ideas, obstacles and possibilities: Could we still sing? Good question! Who would join us? How would we start? What would we sing?

Over the next few weeks, the answers came. An "audition" session was scheduled at Glenn's in January of 02. The result? None of us had sung much for decades, but there was promise. Nita, Glenn's wife, a music teacher in a Dallas area school district and a musician herself, shared later, "When you guys first came up with the idea, I had my doubts, since I had never heard you sing together. Then, when I heard you at that first session, I thought to myself, 'I really think they can pull this off.' "

It was agreed the idea had merit and could actually be do-able. Details over the initial song list, style, participants, practices and approach had to be resolved, not the least of which concerned Mike, who then lived in Sedona, Arizona and had not been seen by any of us since the class reunion of 1982 -- 20 years earlier! But not to worry. When Mike was contacted, he shared our enthusiasm and joined us long distance. Bob, another former Embers member, was unable to participate.

Winfrey Point, July, 2002
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