Richard Hammond:  

Well, for what it's worth, here's my story. After high school I went to work for Semie Mosley building electric guitars in run down building out on Panama Lane. I designed and sold two guitars of my own while I worked for him. One was for North High classmate, Ken Hutchcraft and the other was for Dave Meyers and the Surftones. After I joined the Air Force in 1964 I learned that Semie hooked up with Nokie Edwards of the Ventures and the guitars we were working on at that time are now a collectors item on Ebay. I got out of the Air Force in 1968 and went to work at good ole¿ Channel 29 in Bakersfield as a prop boy for the Sandra and Jimmy Bays show. I was 23 years old. While I was at Channel 29 I learned a little bit about photography and transferred over to a full time job at Channel 17. While at Channel 17 I got paid for hanging out with George Day, drinking Black Russians and shooting TV commercials for Wally Tucker Datsun and Floyd's Block Long emporium. In 1973 I married Joan Vordermark and started to grow up a bit. I got a hair cut, quit smoking and pretended to be a more responsible member of society. Joan and I left Bakersfield in 1974 and I went to work for Harry Pappas who had just started up KMPH, Channel 26 in Visalia. During the time at Channel 26, Nick Zachreson and I co-authored "The San Joaquin Valley" and published it in December 1979. Joan and I had already divorced in 1976 which was a sad time i...Expand for more