Lee Allen:  

So many people say you need to have plans and goals in life. I was far too naive to even start to imagine what I was going to do and how I would end up. If I made plans back then, they would more than likely held me back. I had lots of fun in school. I spent so much time at the beach with friends some of which I still keep in touch with. Our Senior year was so memorable for me. But, unlike Brian Adams, I spent the Summer of '69 in basic training for the Navy. Ran into John Maley out in San Diego (really sad thing his illness rest his soul). Draft Lottery number was 17 and I didn't want to end up a grunt or mud marine. I ended up in Hospital Corpsman school in California being staged to join the Marines in Viet Nam. Then, just before I completed corps school, they pulled most of the Marines out of Nam and I ended up working in the Naval Hospital in St. Albans, New York (Queens). Ran into Kyle Inskeep there sharing a room in the enlisted barracks on post. The next few years found me at different jobs mostly in construction. Nothing serious and nothing too challenging. I tried my best to find a future, but everything was still uninspiring. I still remained active in theater work while in the Navy and afterwards. It was the only constant in my world. 1974 was the beginning of change for me. January 1975 I returned to college studying Accounting and still pursuing the artistic side with theater in college. The theatrical pinnacle came in 1976 where I produced, designed and acted in an 1890's melodrama culminating in Memorial Day performances at the old Englishtown Music Hall. My association with the promoters behind the Music Hall resulted in many rich experiences from stage managing a bluegrass festival in St. George Staten Island to a pair of concerts s...Expand for more