WHO IN THE HELL AM I?
WHAT MADE ME THIS WAY?
OTHER INTERESTING FAMILY FACTS AND PERSONAL TRIVIA....AS REPORTED BY NED ROUSE
"For me, myself and my loved ones, I am the Reporter"





















































Fresh out of high school, in what I call the drug and alcohol years, all of us partied hard. Many times we put ourselves in danger. We didn’t realize how close we were coming to death. One particular night, in the winter, a friend of mine was having a birthday party at the Grange Hall in Cedar Springs. At that time I did not drive, so I went to the Sparta parking lot where everyone hung out, and hooked a ride with an acquaintance of mine named Chris. He was what we called a “gear-head.” Of course, he had a snooped-up car. He asked me where the party was. When I told him, he hit the gas, and off we went. We were instantly going considerably over the speed limit, and soon the police were behind us. I remember him laughing and hitting the gas even harder. After a couple of minutes we were running red lights and fish-tailing on the snowy, ice covered streets. For awhile we kept going in circles all around the town. Then two more squad cars joined in the chase. I looked over at the speedometer and he was going over 100 mph! At one point I told him I wanted to get out! He was just laughing, and called me a “pansy.” We slid around a turn and started heading for the Sparta Foundry Building. He told me this is where we were going to lose the police. As we approached the corner of the factory building, I though we were going to hit it head-on. He slowed, slid sideways, and made the turn down a side street. The cops did not make the turn, they slid through the stop sign, and lost pursuit. Chris zigzagged through the side streets and came to the main road out of town. He floored it again, with just one set of police lights in the distance, slowly disappearing. At that point, I kept my mouth shut, because it began to snow even harder, just like my praying! I don’t remember the exact route he took, but it seems we pretty much stayed on mostly the same road. There were times I looked over and the speedometer was as much as 110 mph. It felt like we were gliding and fish-tailing just above the road. When we got to the Grange Hall, we parked and went inside. I was shaking. The first thing I decided, was that I was going to find was someone else to hitch a ride home with! I was never in to hard drugs, but when I found the friend who was celebrating his birthday, he was shooting up heroin, on a stage, in front of his large birthday crowd. Now let me explain, my father was deputized by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department in his work with AA. The one thing that I did not want to do was, to get busted for this kind of substance abuse. I quickly spotted another acquaintance who seemed as uncomfortable to be there as I was. I had no idea of how he drove, but I decided to quickly leave with him and his friend, Jude. This seemed to be a better match, traveling at 50-55 mph! The two of them sat up in front and I sat in between their seats in the back. We were on a road by Long Lake and were approaching a sign informing us that there was a “T” in the road ahead. Just about the time I was thinking to myself, “Gee, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” I heard Jude say, “Wake up, Phil, wake up!” Phil drove through the sign and into a tree! We was still driving over 50 mph. Phil’s face hit the steering wheel, Jude’s face hit the dashboard, and my head came up and hit the ceiling of the car. The last thing I remember, was that their faces were all bloody and cut up, and I reached for the top of my head, not finding any blood, and then passing out. The rest of this story is what people involved told me later. I definitely had a bit of amnesia, probably shock, but because the trunk of the car had illegal substances in it, they decided to point me in the direction of Sparta, and get me walking home before the police arrived. The knew what my father would probably do to me. One of my good female friends, Suzie, slowed down, recognized me, and told me to get in her car. Once in the car, I told her a confused story, but she got enough out of me to know to return me to where I was living, with friends at a house by Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. One of my roommates, named Linda, told me that I woke her up and asked her what having a concussion was like. She advised me to stay awake. A little while later the doorbell rang, and my good friends, including Bob and Jim, had me get into their car, go to and wait in line on the streets of Chicago, for Led Zeppelin tickets, going on sale in the morning. Off I went! I don’t, to this day, remember anything, between passing out at the scene of the accident, and coming to focus in front of the Chicago Stadium. It was almost surreal, and drunken feeling, slowly emerging from the state I was in, and realizing cops were hitting the concert ticket mob with billy-clubs, and throwing them into paddy-wagons. My friends told me parts of my story, and let me know that we had tickets to Led Zeppelin! I was soon pretty much back to normal, if that’s a word I can use in my life, but I did have a cop chase me with his billy-club when I cross-walked! The next time I saw my parents, they asked me what I’d been up to lately, and as usual, I told them, “Nothing much…” Several months later I ran into Chris in the Sparta parking lot. He yelled to me, “Hey Rouse, you want to hear something funny? I know someone who was so scared to ride with me from a party, that he got a ride with someone else, and guess what? He got into a car accident and hit a tree!! I guess he wasn’t a safe driver!!” I just smiled, and kept my mouth shut…
I collect things. You must have guessed that by now. I usually keep interactive mementos and the scan below is an example of that. When I was putting together the band, Barbazoonka, we put several of these up in the music stores around town. I was trying to be very painfully specific. We were putting together a progressive rock band. Of course I put a little humor and sarcasm to the ad, based on the first few, poorly matched, responses I got, to insure we wouldn't get what I called, Cro-Magnon rockers! There were a lot of these around at the time. I love what the anonymous musician wrote, in blue ink, as a response to my fat, ugly, groupie line! It must of hit the bulls-eye in his situation. His comment also showed that he thought I would have a very hard time finding someone around Grand Rapids who wasn't having those fat, ugly groupie, child support issues! It's hard to explain, but around here that was the case with many of them. I wonder if it is still that way?

Over the years I have played many different places. I was never happier than when I was playing for the great crowds at the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. Below are the kind of wonderful things that the Grand Rapids Press does to unite readers with the artists! That Saturday night we closed the main stage with a powerful performance that kicked ass! That was the first night I premiered my playing drums standing up, while playing keyboards with my right hand. Many of the songs on our set list were originals written by our band. We ended that show with a composition that I wrote for that night. It became the title of my first CD, 2002's, Life In The Furniture City and it's the first cut appearing on that recording!

The day after John Lennon was murdered, The Grand Rapids Press spoke with me about him to get more information for their article on his life. They also printed the lyrics from the bridge of the song I'd written just the night before, when John was killed. It was entitled, MDC. (Mark David Chapman) The updated song finally appeared on my 2005 CD, Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life! It is a song honoring the man who inspired me to become a songwriter!

-THANKS!
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