Late August, 1978 - Otis & the Otters formed.

Earlier in August I took an acetate of the Psychotic Petunias 45 to Jim's Records. Jim and Doug were planning to put a band together to play at a toga party at Chatham College's REA House. As I recall, Jim had asked or was going to ask his friend Micah Clarke to be the drummer, but after hearing the Petunias 45 he asked me if I was interested. I, in turn, got Jim "Surfin'" Bird into the band because they needed a lead guitarist. We rehearsed at REA House maybe twice (?) The first one was the first time Jim (Bird) and I met Eddie. I remember introducing myself to him and adding, "I'm the drummer" to which he replied with typical dry sarcasm (after looking at my car loaded with drums) "No kidding." At the first rehearsal, Craig Match was there to play piano and sing, but he changed his mind pretty quickly (probably because the drums were too loud.) We started learning songs from the "Animal House" soundtrack which made up the bulk of our early repertoire - "Louie Louie", "Money", "Let's Dance", "Tossin' & Turnin'", "Shama Lama Ding Dong", and, of course, "Shout". We also rehearsed "Hey Paula" but it didn't make the cut. Initially I think the expectation was that we'd do the one gig for the fun of it, and that would be it.