And like much of life, many a job has been found merely by popping the right question to the right person on the right day.

As it happens, a record store is a great place to meet working musicians. I would ask the local musicians who passed by my cash register at Back Alley Disc (where the latest hits on 12" vinyl cost a low-low $5.99, 8-Tracks were a buck less) Um, do you know anyone who needs a drummer?

My stroke of luck came a few months after beginning at the store, when Charlottesville celebrity and Skip Castro Band bassist Charlie Pastorfield considered, and replied "Yeah, I think Judy's looking for a drummer..."

The tattered receipt shows Charlie's hastily-scrawled referral and my own reminder just who it was who gave me the hot tip.

A simple remnant of the beginnings of a new career.