Lost Love in Leola


April 28th is a memorable anniversary to me for a couple of personal reasons. One involves a woman I met forty years ago, with whom I had a very brief relationship.

During the spring of 1984, I attended Moorhead State University in Moorhead, Minnesota. In an electronic music class, I used synthesizers and a multi-track recorder to produce a demo tape of original songs. One of my classmates was a guitarist named Greg who played in a band called Switch (no relation to a successful R&B group of the same name). I got hired to be the soundman for their gig at a high school prom in Leola, South Dakota. It would be my only job with them since the band already made plans to break up.


On a Saturday afternoon, Greg rode with me in my ’73 Monte Carlo for the three-hour road trip to Leola (the other members of Switch met us there). Greg brought a bunch of cassettes with him, but my car didn’t have a tape deck. So we mostly listened to the radio. Before the dance started, the band and I looked at old photographs on the wall of previous graduating classes. One of the band members pointed out a man with a weird-looking hairdo. It reminded him of Thomas Dolby.


Switch put on a good show, playing mostly Top 40 hits. It was the first dance Leola High School had in a while. The band joked onstage about being the best band that ever played there. It took some time for me to learn how to operate the soundboard. It was different than using a mixer in a recording studio. During one of the band’s sets, a young woman walked by waving at me. I waved back but wouldn’t talk to her until after the dance. 


The band and I got invited to an afterparty at somebody’s house. The woman who waved at me came over to introduce herself. Tami was the class valedictorian who played Helen Keller in a school play. We exchanged a few Helen Keller jokes and then went outside to talk. Tami was also a journalist and desired to be a writer for Rolling Stone. I decided right then if I ever got approached by the magazine for an interview, I wanted Tami to conduct that.


Although it got late at night, I waited on returning to Moorhead. I joined Tami and another couple on a 40-minute drive to Aberdeen (Greg got a ride home from one of his bandmates). Tami and I cuddled in the back seat while tapes played on a car stereo. I wished I had brought my demo tape for Tami to hear. At one point, tears flowed from my eyes. I had dated many different women, but desired a special someone. I felt Tami was “the one.” After eating breakfast at Perkins, we returned to Leola as the sun began to rise. While starting the tiring drive back home, I told Tami I loved her through a speaker connected to my CB radio. She responded by blowing me a kiss. Two weeks later, I would see her again.


On a late Friday afternoon, I showed up for my sales job at Kmart but was let go for being “too slow to catch on.” Tami happened to be graduating that night. So I decided to make another road trip to Leola. I arrived at a café around 10:30 p.m. Tami met me there a few minutes later. We then went to a couple of parties. I loved it when she grabbed my hand to follow her so she could introduce me to people. I spent the night at a local hotel that charged only $10/night.


Tami and I got together again the next morning. After breakfast, I finally played my demo tape for her. Later, we took another trip to Aberdeen. While other friends of hers saw a movie, Tami and I went rollerskating. We all eventually went to a nightclub and watched a band perform. Upon returning to Leola, I thought of spending another night there. To my disappointment, Tami asked me to leave town. She had been “infatuated” with me. So I made a late-night drive back to Moorhead. 


Tami went on to attend South Dakota State University in Brookings. Although I continued dating other women, Tami was still on my mind. I wrote a couple of songs about her. In the fall of 1984, I called her dorm room but found out she had a boyfriend. Two years later, I made another phone call to Tami. She was still seeing that other man. Tami eventually married and became part of the faculty at SDSU. Meanwhile, I pursued a music career for several years before becoming an evangelist. I’m no longer interested being interviewed by Rolling Stone unless there’s an opportunity for me to share the gospel.


Two days ago, I had a dream of witnessing to people in Leola. Perhaps I’ll go back there again for that purpose. I have already done so at SDSU. In 2007, I did a stopover in Brookings during a road trip to southwestern Minnesota with friends from Fargo, North Dakota. A later Internet search revealed Tami and her husband attend a Presbyterian church. Hopefully, both of them know the One who rolled the stone away. 


“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:9-10


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