That's very interesting ......

Back in the early 1980s, Bob was in Louisville for a show and he came to my house.

By then, I had 3 or 4 copies of all of the Trio albums. 5 or 6 or more copies of some of them.

I had a few still sealed... still do.

I asked Bob if he needed any of them.

He said, "Yes, the Christmas album."

So, I went to get him one.

Then, I remembered, I'd loaned one of mine to a friend to record. This left me with only two copies. I wasn't about to give one of them up and I told him I'd send him the one I'd loaned to my friend when I got it back. I guess you know what happened to it... The guy had hundreds of albums... great ones ... that always ... somehow ... got misplaced. He had all of the old Folkways albums... nearly every comedy album ever made, including some signed ones... one by Shelly Berman was a real prize ... all had disappeared by the time he died.

Many great out-of-print DVDs too.

I know that in the late 1990, Bob asked Jean Ward to get him copies of all of the Guard Trio albums for each of his kids so he could give them to them for Christmas one year. She found some special boxes to put them in and kept one set for herself.

Jean had THE most extensive collection of Trio memorabilia of all... there's no telling what her kids did with this stuff when she went into a retirement home and they sold her house. There was just too much of it to be able to afford to ship to someone to keep. I couldn't afford it.

Over the years, I've lost many valuable things. Makes me sick to think about it ... a perfect ... like new Schwinn bike... the list goes on and on... But, I still have my albums.

Max