Merle's 1962 Fender Stratocaster Steve: You and Joe asked that I send you some background on the Stratocaster you bought from me.  Here is some of the history, and if you want any other specifics let me know.  Also let me thank you for the way everything was handled as part of the transaction.  I worried for a long time about who to sell it to, and if we would get cheated in some way.  I am happy to say everything went well, and we are very happy we chose to sell it to you and Joe instead of “the other guys” in Nashville or the other national guitar store.  We think it went to a good “home”, unless I see you playing punk rock on it in Scary Hand!!!!!! When I was in high school in a tiny town in Nebraska, I was very involved in music, and decided to start a rock band.  I was just about 16 in 1962, so I went to the “big” town of Norfolk (10,000 pop.) to Tom’s Music House, and bought a guitar and amp.  I had gotten two guys I knew in the school band to also get involved, and one bought a bass guitar and the other another Fender, I think a Jazzmaster. We then took 3 lessons, the first song being Honky Tonk, and then we started buying 45’s and I learned the words and the chords, and proceeded to teach them to the other guys.  Once we had learned 20 songs, we rented the local Community Center, and after a Basketball game one Friday night, we held a dance.  That was the start of about 4 years of playing most Friday and Saturday nights.  We played for school dances in the area, as well as county fairs.  We knew we had “made it” when we played at Kings Ballroom in Norfolk, which was the biggest dance hall in the area. After a while, the band rented a building at the local fair grounds in Pierce, and we started having dances every week.  Once a month we would play, and the other 3 weeks we would hire other bands to play.  So for the rest of High School and the first year of college, we kept the band together.  It was called the Palisades, and our theme song was Palisades Park. We played Beach Boys, Ventures, Beatles, and lots of other top 40 hits of the time.  I had another brand of amp at first, but when the surfing music started going big, I bought a Fender Showman, blond two-piece and a separate Fender Reverb unit. I never had the Stratocaster in the shop, so I know that everything is as it was the day I bought it in 1962. In 1967, Uncle Sam offered me a job to go to far away places and shoot guns, which was an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I put the guitar away, and never played it in a band again.  In the 1980’s I got it out to show my kids, and plunked around a little, and then it went back to the closet.  So it really has only had about 4 years of heavy use playing in a rock band.  That guitar made me money as a kid, and also led me to a lot of interesting adventures.  So I hope that whoever gets it gives it a good home and has as much fun with it as I did in the 60’s playing what we today call the golden oldies, but then they were the newest songs on the radio. Merle Parks