Daniel Colbetzor
Professor Anne R. Maltempi
College Composition
2 April 2012

Hobbies
By: Daniel Colbetzor I am the youngest of a two job working, single parent of six kids. So to say I did not “see” my mom a whole lot, is an understatement. My brothers, (which there are four of them) and my sister kept an eye on me and had a hand in raising me. My sister pretty much did all the work with the feeding and clothes and stuff. But my brothers would be there if I got in trouble at school or missed my curfew. Everyone in my family had different tastes of music. I’m going to show you why I can say I have an eclectic taste of music.

Like I mentioned before, my mom worked 2 jobs to support us.
And to be honest, I don’t remember going without. But there were those Sundays mom would have off. It was like a double edge sword. We were happy she got a day off and we get to see her. But, we also knew that meant we were going to be cleaning the house all day! She would wake us up and make a most excellent breakfast (Bill and Ted reference). Then we would let our stomachs rest while we sat at the dining room table telling her all she that have happened.
Then it was cleaning time. My mom was a hardcore classic country fan. To this day, George
Jones’ “He stopped loving her today” sparks up memories and the smell of Pine-Sol. George
Jones, Conway Twitty, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, were blasting from our stereo. We would just clean and sing. She made cleaning fun. It was her way of making sure that the only time we got to see her wasn’t clouded up with memories of working in the house.

My oldest brother Glenn, Is very artistic. He can draw, paint and

play instruments. He got me into bands like Led Zeppelin, The Yard birds and Queen. remember spring break my freshman year, I went to Columbus to spend a week with him and his wife Ruthie. We would play a music game. We would turn on the CD player and hit shuffle and whatever song came on, the person who figured out how to play it on the guitar first wins. The loser had to do a shot. Now I didn’t say he was a responsible adult but before child services
Get involved here; I was doing shots of beer. Needless to say, that was the first time I ever
Passed out drunk!! Now at the time I thought it was just a game we would play. But when I
Look back, I know it was his way of teaching me music. Glenn isn’t that much older than me. 9 yrs. to be exact. But he moved out when I was 10 so we didn’t see each other that much. But, he knew I was getting into music. To this day we still play the game whenever there is a family function. Mike is the brother that most would say I emulated the most of as a child. He was the fighter in the family. Case in point, it was the beginning of summer break and my sister had poison ivy all over her face. My mom wouldn’t let her outside to play. Well finally she convinced my mom to let her just in the front yard. She was out there and the kid across the street named Scott saw Bev and started to pick on her. It got to the point of his friends egging him on that he slapped my sister in the face. What he didn’t know is that my mom asked Mike to watch and make sure nothing happens to Bev. As soon as Mike saw that smack, He chased Scott into his own house and beat him up in his kitchen. Mike has always and forever be the “protector” of the family. Now his music taste was weird due to the fact that it was the opposite of his demeanor. He got me into Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and old Joe Cocker. If you think about it, those all are relaxing kind of music, or as I refer to them, “Stoner Music”.
But then again, without that music he might be a little worse than what he was. Music does calm the savage beast! Onto brother number three, Bryan. Bryan was and is the smart one. There is nothing that man can’t build, figure out, or rewire. And he excelled at sports.
Bryan was also the practical joker. One time when I was sixteen Bryan got me in big trouble. My mom had met a man who is now my step father Bill. Well it was 2 weeks before they went on a vacation and I had the high school football team over to the house. My brother Bryan asked us to prove our strength as a team. So he challenged us to bounce and lift the back end of my mom’s Dodge Shadow. Mom and Bill went shopping so we did it. He went and got a camera saying “I can’t believe you guys can do that!! You really work well as a team.” We were all proud of ourselves. Well, Mom and Bill went on vacation and when they got back they woke me up yelling “how could you do this?” They showed me the back yard was all turfed up by the 4- wheeler we had. I told them I didn’t do it but then the showed a picture of me and the team moving the Shadow out of the way of the garage. I got grounded for 3 weeks for that. Bryan introduced me to the Doors and Dwight Yokham. Every time I hear “Fast as you” I realized I never got even with him for that.

Bev is my only sister. She was and still is a crazed Alabama fan.
From “High Cotton” to “Love in the first degree” my sister would be in her room singing it. She got me in that Teen high school clique phase where I wore a cowboy hat and boots to school all the time. She showed me the “new” country with Sawyer Brown, The Forester Sisters, Highway
101, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Restless Heart. And I am glad she did because that opened a whole new chapter of my life that has the fondest memories to date.

Now Tim is the one closest to my age but the furthest from similarity. Tim will save money and cry when he spends it. You know how there is a black sheep in every family? Well we all are the black sheep and Tim is the white one. He would hibernate in his room and listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy. He would have his good spirited days and one of those days he showed me how to play the classic blues riff on the guitar. I didn’t have one so he let me use his and that was a gift in itself. He let me borrow
Stevie Ray Vaughns CD “Family Styles” I listened and listened to that thing for weeks straight.
And then he would take it back and give me another CD. That’s what pushed me to take some of my savings and I bought my first guitar. Still have too!! Blues is what you need to hear when you’re down. They know exactly what you’re going through and how to get through it. Just like
Tim. He knew I was having trouble adjusting. We had just moved from Goodyear Heights to
Fairlawn. What a culture shock. Tim would let me use his music as a way to escape. And it worked.

To this day, music is my hobby. I play several instruments, and I’ve written songs that have been recorded on local bands albums. It’s to the point that I actually own a business that not only DJ’s, but we do a team based bar game called “Name that Tune”.
Music has gotten me through a lot of hard times. It’s carried me through deaths and a divorce.
Music has been my safe haven. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.”