by Tommy Hayfield

Created on: June 06, 2010   Last Updated: June 07, 2010

Carl Snare or CJ Snare as he came to be known when he became a singer grew up in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in a suburb called Dunnstown.  As my neighbor Carl was hindered by his study of music by his parents so much that he had to practice his piano for two hours after school from when he was very young every day before he could go out and play.  He would come to the realization that the discipline of that practice made him the well-rounded performer he is today and I'm sure he bears no grudge against his parents for making him practice.  He was really a fantastic piano player.   He was strictly a piano player and a very fine one before he started singing in high school productions including 'Joseph, and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.'  He had a great voice and his dynamic presence on stage was obvious.  He also sang lead roles in our high school production of 'Godspell.' 

Carl had a rowdy side as well as a teenager.  As kids do, Carl and I and ano ther kid from the neighborhood took aim at cars with snowballs from a spot in his yard.  We eventually fled that scene and went to another hiding spot in my yard and were eventually lectured to by the Pennsylvania State Police about the folly of throwing stuff at cars.  Carl and I would also sit on a hill as pre-teens overlooking the Appalachian Mountains to the south of us and he'd say he saw UFOs flying over the mountains 5 miles across the river valley.  I can't claim to have ever seen any UFOs over the local airport but he continued to insist that they were indeed there.  He was a character.  As a near-high school graduate,Carl and I and two other senior classmates cut class on the final week of our senior year and the vice-principal called our houses and we got caght and were given 3 days of detention hall.  We went on a ride to State College and went swimming in a very cool pond that afternoon.  The final  week of school and we were given detention hall!    That vice-principal wasn't a very nice guy. 

Carl and I graduated in 1977.  He eventually formed Firehouse in the late 1980's with members from the town just to the west of us-State College, Pennsylvania.  Jack Knepley who was a 1979 graduate of Lock Haven High School became the band's manager.  Firehouse as many of you know came to be known nationally and I guess internationally  known as a very dynamic act.  They still tour today all over the states and in Southeast Asia as well.

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