u/thefoothills

So, we spent last week out on the Oregon/Washington coast. On our flight out to Portland, my wife was sitting across the aisle from our two boys and me.

She struck up conversation with the gentleman next to her and they were talking about our boys both being named after musicians and that we are music nerds.

He asked who our favorites are and she mentioned a few she likes, and said that her husband is obsessed with a band called Phish.

He got a huge smile on his face and said, “One of the best things I ever did in my life was introduce my buddy Page to the rest of the guys.”

For the next few hours, we talked and he shared all kinds of stories about early gigs, hanging out in the house “over on King Street” with them, some anecdotes about each of the guys, etc. He talked about how nice of a guy Jeff was, their buddy Miles getting random royalty checks in the mail for his part in writing Hood, etc.

It was awesome. He said the last time he remembers seeing them play was right before they went out with Santana in 92 and joked that maybe it’s time to go see them again.

I could have talked to him all day long. His name was Ricky Puffer. Just the kindest dude who was so happy to walk down memory lane from his college days.

We took a selfie together when we got off the plane. Just a really cool experience to chat with him about the early days.