Ramblers: Post College, (page 5)

During their respective intermittent absences the group stayed together, with Terrell brother, Eddie, rejoining the group, along with a variety of substitute and fill-in players. As the sixties came to a close, one by one, the group began to graduate from college, get married and begin careers other than music.

All the members of the group initially took jobs in Birmingham so that the band was able to stay together, but soon, the pressures of new careers, new wives, and even children began to put a strain on the group. "I don't remember us ever officially deciding to break up. I just recall playing in a little town somewhere in South Alabama. We all brought our wives. It was a fun weekend. I remember staying in some "Bates Motel" place and we all went swimming in their pool. That's the last band job I can recall, but there may have been others," said Sanders.

Johnny Robinson, who had tried to hold things together began touring with a new group, The Homestead Act, and subsequently moved to California to help his new wife start a music career. Chris moved away to seek his fortune, Chip moved near Memphis to start an insurance agency, and Tommy became a bank examiner for the Treasury Department.

Tragically, Van Veenschoten, husband, father, and successful young insurance executive, was killed in the prime of life in a motorcycle accident near his home in Crestline, Al, while still in mid-twenties.

The Ramblers were history, or so they thought. They stayed in touch with one another and by 1978 all of the remaining members of the group were thinking the same thing. They wanted to play again.

"I got a call from Tommy out of the blue one night," says Sanders. "He said he had a new house with a music room in the basement and that he'd been talking with Johnny. He wanted to know if I'd like to come over to Birmingham for a little 'Rambler Reunion.'