In 1970, when I was 14 years old and serious about buying a guitar, my parents told me I could buy one when I saved up enough money. So I got a job cleaning up the luncheonette at Kessler's Pharmacy in my hometown of Albany, New York. For $20 a week, I scrubbed the grills, mopped the floors and restocked the kitchen every night from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, seven nights a week. I finally saved up $225, which was the price of a brand new cherry red Gibson SG, the guitar used by my guitar heroes Eric Clapton (during the Cream years), Pete Townsend of The Who, Tommy Iommi of Black Sabbath and Carlos Santana, to name a few. But my Mom and Dad thought $225 was too much money to spend on a guitar (What the *#$!@?% are you talking about?) I'd like to know how people who listen to Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme are automatic experts on how much I should spend on a guitar? And besides, it was my money! And why did they always get the final word on every discussion? I quickly learned the phrase "Because we're your parents" is the absolute, bar none correct answer to any further questioning I pursue in response to any "no" answer I get. But they did allow me to spend $150, which I quickly used to purchase my first guitar - a pre-CBS blonde Fender Telecaster. Well, at least I had $75 left over to go towards my $200 amp, a pre-CBS black-faced Super Reverb. So when I recently saw this SG Reissue at my client's store, Rockley Music in Denver, Colorado, I snatched it up in defiance of my parent's spending limitations some 35 years ago. Now this guitar reminds me of how much I miss my Mom who passed away in October of 2004. I know she and my Dad were just trying to teach me some important life lesson about money when I was a kid, and I also know my Mom would probably buy me 10 Gibson SGs today just to prove how much she loves me. Frankly, I'd give up all my guitars just to have her back in my life again. I love you, Mom; you were and still are the best Mom ever.