We didn’t know a soul when we came here—it was rather lonely for all of us as I started a new job and the kids, who hadn’t even had much choice in the matter, were faced with making new friends at new schools. But my precious family, we are nothing less than resilient, and we slowly began to take in our new surroundings and build a life.

One Indian Summer day not long after we’d moved here, I took my daughter Melissa and a couple of her new friends from Atascadero Jr. High to the Morro Bay Harbor Festival for a little face painting, local color and live music. One of the festival stages featured Bootsie Merango, a reggae rock band formed by a group of local college students whose primary passion was surfing.

Bootsie Merango was my introduction to the vibrant local music scene on the Central Coast. I had lived all over California, and I had never seen (or heard) anything quite like it. The music was loud and full of color and fun and new to me – it was alive. That fresh air concert was one of many unforgettably sweet moments I experienced during a difficult year, a moment when something tapped against the walls I’d built around my heart and reminded me that there was joy waiting for me on the other side.

The band went their separate ways not long after I saw them at that show. Since then, my daughter has grown up, graduated college and made countless cherished friendships here. My sons have grown up, too, building families of their own and giving me three precious grandchildren. And I have made a life for myself here on the Central Coast, doing some long overdue growing up of my own, forging friendships, finding love again and immersing myself in the music community that I have come to love, including forming the Central Coast Musicians’ Exchange.

Bootsie Merango has grown up, too. Frontman Michael Lopaka Jones has served in the Navy, married and founded a hugely successful, national surf clothing business, AzHiAzIaM. He was gracious enough to contribute a bunch of cool stuff from his local shop for the Musicians’ Exchange launch party at Downtown Brew a couple of summers ago. I met Jim Davis of the Morro Bay Harbor Festival face-to-face at that launch party – he had contacted me not long before asking for recommendations for new bands, and I was able to turn him on to another of my favorite local reggae rock bands, Still Time. Much to my amazement, Bootsie Merango and the Morro Bay Harbor Festival have become more than abstract pieces of my life on the Central Coast. They have become my neighbors.

It’s been a long time since that first Bootsie Merango show, but my daughter Melissa and I have been singing “Three Stacks and a Rock” and laughing over shared memories of that afternoon ever since. The memory of what Bootsie Merango came to represent to me has stuck with me, and the band holds a special place in my heart.

Thanks in part to that Indian Summer day, I am back … and now, so is Bootsie Merango!

Bootsie Merango is currently playing gigs all over the Central Coast again! Visit their page at azhiaziam.com/bootsie for info on upcoming gigs.