Because there weren't many rock bands in eastern Iowa or western Illinois at that time, perhaps none even, we became very popular. Shortly thereafter, Grant moved away and we decided to capitalize on our instant successes and form a rock group without the Everly Brothers influence, and we called it the "Rock-Its". We began holding weekly or even semi-weekly practice sessions anywhere we could find a vacant basement, and although we agreed on style and presentation "most of the time", we did have our times when the sensitivies of the group were put to the test. Flick and I were the most subject to argumentative behavior, as I recall. Ron went along with almost everything. Jerry had strong opinions, but was more maturely in control of expressing them.

I was probably considered the "leader" of the Rock-Its, but to this day, over 40 years later, I'm not sure how I got the job. Probably my superior managerial prowess. But in any case, it usually fell on me to arrange the jobs, write the letters (no email, remember), remind everybody to show up, and decide what we'd wear. We had some jazzy clothes, too. We went out and bought ourselves forest green Nehru jackets, collarless sport coats which were very trendy. For one show, we also had four very wild, science-fictiony satiny shirts custom-made. They have huge collars that looked like they came out of "When Earths Collide". Devo would have appreciated having them many years later. In those days, bands and singing groups dressed alike, or the star dressed one way and the rest of the group dressed in another way, but alike. Most of the time, bands appeared in suits, with ties, clean-shaven and with Ollie North length hair. And we might have walked on the grass, but we never smoked it.

On one trip to the local radio station to talk about our phenomenal rise to fame in our town of 23,000, we were asked to bring our instruments, and the station management set up a studio for us so we could play "live" on the air. At that session, we improvised a song called "Rockamotion", which after that session became as popular in Clinton, Iowa, as anything else on the radio.

During the late 50's, "talent shows" were a big thing. Service clubs, like Rotary and others, would sponsor talent shows in school auditoriums, church basements, or wherever they could find the space. General invitations would be issued through the newspaper to sign up to perform in the talent show. Not only were the shows popular on the local level, but several talent shows could be seen on the national television networks as well. The most popular of these was the "Ted Mack Amateur Hour", a spin-off of the radio hit, "Major Bowes Talent Scouts".

We decided that we'd enter a few of these talent shows. Very often, you could pick up a few bucks apiece in prize money, so we entered and won most of the shows we entered. When you consider that the other talent was usually made up of baton twirlers and little kids, we had a definite advantage. (Although the little kids really appealed to the parents in the audience.) One such show was sponsored by a local agent of New York Life, and the grand prize was a trip to New York and an audition for the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. We entered, and were soon packing our instruments and suitcases for a trip to the Big Apple. We had a great time, and although we auditioned for the Ted Mack Show, we didn't get a call back to appear. But it was a wonderful experience during our four days or so there, and something we'll always remember.