Bruce Rieder:  

MY LIFE: As Johnny Winter said, "Still alive and well". Surprising to many, including myself. Growing up in Vernon/Rockville, CT as a teen, education was the last thing on my priority list. The old saying, "sex, drugs and rock & roll" were number one on that list. Parental intervention found it best to locate my priorties elsewhere, so I was relocated to Tolland CT schools where most of my time was served under suspension or I didn't bother attending at all! Upstate New York was next. There on the banks of the Hudson River, I met more chasing the same goals whom I quickly became friends with. They were great years no doubt in many ways, but while there I did complete school with good grades... (Again a surprise, but it delghted my parents).. Some classmates I'd met there from all parts of the world, are still friends today! Returning to Vernon, I gained the alias, "Captain Keg"! If everyone has ten minutes of fame, it was mine! Celebrity status for something I enjoyed besides... Life coundn't be better I thought! Newspaper interviews, town council meetings defending "drinkers rights" were on my business agenda. The Captain Keg days brought me back to Vernon where upon I didn't so much choose bad friends, just friends who shared bad habits. Many, sadly, are no longer here but have gone on. Drugs and alcohol so often the blame. I was married at 35 for my first time, to my daughters mother who had child on the way. A drunken dream that had come true. We had known one another all our lives... For whatever reason (my guess is it was my daughter) I laid to rest many bad habits,and said goodbye to many of my old ways. As I often say these days, "I spent eighteen years being eighteen". Watching those die since that day back in 1992 was hard to say the least. To be young, yet out survive so many friends brings sadness. To have survived it myself, brings great joy and opened my eyes and heart to gratitude, and a new outlook on life! My friend "Ginch" as he was called died in 2000. He and I were friends for many years, and he fathered a child with a half-sister of mine. We spent years hangin' together, partying together, and laughing with one another. A fifth in our hands, speakers on the roof with Hot Tuna blaring and hair half way down our backs were the early things in common. Years and years of friendship followed. His deat...Expand for more