David Glendinning:
CLASS OF 1975
General Mclane High SchoolClass of 1975
Edinboro, PA
David's Story
I feel like I'm giving myself a "Mannix" assignment here (remember that TV show?) -- distilling thirty-three years of life into one web page.
(If the distant past seems too boring, skip ahead to the next section.)
1975-2000:
After graduation, I moved into the local Christian community for a couple of years while I 'played at' continuing my education at Edinboro. After that I got married; when she graduated, we moved to south-central Florida so she could start her career track. When that fell through we moved to the Pittsburgh area where she was raised.
During that time I found a contemporary Christian band and joined up with them until they broke up; although the band was short-lived, it taught me a lot about the music business.
The next couple of years can be summed up by a line from a country song -- "I know what I was doing but what was I thinking?" A series of bad choices left me floundering alone in the wilds of north-west Florida... but God sent a divorced angel named Joan to a Catholic bookstore to rescue me.
We met in the summer of 1989; when the place I was living in was suddenly No Longer Available To Rent she took me in. And the months afterward found us growing closer together - so much so that when she found it necessary to move back to her hometown (do you sense a trend here? <grin>) I went with her. After my divorce was finalized and the marriage annulled, Joan and I married in 1990 -- it will be 18 years next month.
After six years of living with family, I got a work transfer to the Buffalo area - my father retired and I wanted to spend some more time with him. After my workplace (Computer City) was bought out by CompUSA I decided to go back to school to 'update my skills.'
And this was the start of another miracle from God. I was accepted at Niagara County Community College on the last day of registration planning to take some computer courses -- there were none available. What was available were several music courses, and I tentatively signed up for them. After meeting the music staff the first day I decided to become a music maj...Expand for more
or and get the degree I *should* have had before 1981.
Two years later I had an associate's degree with honours; my father came up to see the ceremony. That was the last time I saw him alive -- he died three weeks later (Mom died in 1983.). That summer I moved back to the family home in Edinboro... and attended the 20th high school reunion.
I tried to continue my education at Edinboro -- but a heart attack in 2001 put an end to all that.
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Summer 2001 - Present:
After finding out that there was no major lasting damage from the heart attack, I got a call from a friend at the Erie Playhouse: could I possibly play guitar for a show?
That call led to my playing for some thirty-odd shows for local musical theatre; some with guitar, most with electric and upright bass. I've done all kinds of shows -- everything from West Side Story to The Who's 'Tommy'.
2007 saw me almost give up music entirely, though: I found it harder and harder to play guitar, and then developed an infection that wouldn't go away. So I went into hospital and walked out six days later with a supply of insulin: I was a full-blown diabetic.
It took a local production of "Children of Eden" -- a show I'd vowed to play again if I ever had the chance -- to bring me out of musical retirement. And I found that while I still can't play guitar all that well, I have most of my "bass chops" intact.
That discovery has brought me to the point where I'm ready to continue my music education -- as I write this I'm researching where I'm going to spend 2 years finishing my bachelor's degree.
Other things:
During all this time I've been renovating the house I grew up in: the outside is nearly complete and it's time to do some work on the inside of it. I've also gone back into the workforce (I took Dad's death very hard; it took a long time for me to Become A Whole Person Again) -- working at a local convenience store to help pay for my prescriptions.
And that brings me pretty much to the present. If you're still with me, congratulations! Thanks for reading.
Peace,
David.
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