The Cascades 'John Claude Gummoe & Rhythm of the Rain'

<p> </p> <p><strong>JOHN CLAUDE GUMMOE</strong></p> <p>I suppose it's usually not done, but I've decided to write this biography of myself in the first person, so actually, it's my autobiography. It just felt too odd to be writing about myself as though I were someone else. So here goes.</p> <p>I was born in Cleveland, Ohio on August 2nd, 1938 to John Corwin Gummoe and Beulah Foy Harris. John, my father, was the son of James Alfred Gummoe who came to America from Cornwall, England about 1880. I'm told that he jumped ship in New York, but did eventually become a naturalized citizen about 20 years after coming here. My mother also came from English ancestry and her side of the family goes all the way back to the early 1600's and The New Haven Colony and The Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seems like so many people today are searching for their roots and I'm no exception. I've been bitten by the bug and along with music, genealogy has become one of my passions.</p> <p>As a young lad, I first began singing at the kitchen sink with my much older sisters. My mother had me at the ripe old age of 38. When I arrived, there were already three sisters in thier teens. They were very much into the big band sound. Later on, in the sixth grade, I joined Mrs. Clark's Boys Chorus. She seemed to like me and my voice (boy soprano), and she often had me doing solo efforts in school pageants. One year, a touring company from The New York Metropolitan Opera came to town with the opera <em>"Carmen"</em>. It starred Risa Stevens and Robert Merrill and Richard Tucker and Mrs. Clark's boys were chosen to be the street urchins in the first act. Very exciting stuff for a 6th grader; costumes, make-up, big stage. It was truly awesome. We had to learn our part in French and we were to be sort of mimicking the soldiers in that scene. On into my teens, I drove my friends and family crazy as I was always singing with everything on the radio, on records or whatever. They were always telling me to keep quiet so they could hear the music. Little did they