A Teenage Dream

Don Catelli   Potent Percussion GMB

When I was 14, I heard a song off the above album POTENT PERCUSSION, and immediately knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life...  play percussion in a band like this.

I had been studying percussion since I was ten years old and was playing in the school band while at the same time taking private lessons from a soldier who was in the band at Fort Belvoir.  I would meet him at the high school once a week after school where we had access to the band room.

My percussion instructor told me that I had natural talent and invited me to come to the Atlantic City Board Walk to play in a JAZZ BAND with him during the summer.  At 14, I assumed that he was telling me the truth, but my parents refused to let me go.

As I look back on the incident, my parents were correct to say no for two reasons:

First - this man may have been a child predator

Two - I could have been negatively influence by the environment if he had been telling the truth

That summer, instead of going to Atlantic City, I got with three other guys my age and we stole cars, boats, and broke into houses.  We were caught towards the end of the summer but instead of going to jail, my father accepted a job with the State Department, and my police record was destroyed.

I spent the next four years, going to high school in Cairo, Egypt and traveling through Europe during the summer months, because American high school students were not allowed to work in Cairo.

It is funny how life has a way of changing right in front of you, and one does not realize it until much later in life.