I was lucky enough to get an old, beat up a long neck banjo -- a Baker Belmont -- as a graduation gift from my parents from junior high school in the mid-1960s. I later came under the spell of Earl Scruggs’ compelling bluegrass sound, eventually migrated toward the guitar. I hauled that banjo with me to Southeast Asia in the mid-1980s and when I came back to northern Virginia, field stripped it with the goal of rebuilding it, but soon lost interest. I offered it on BANJO-L, the predecessor to the Banjo Hangout, to anyone who might want it. By then, the early 1990s, it was in parts and pieces and sitting in a garbage bag. Bates Littlehales, a clawhammer player and a talented banjo builder living in northern Virginia, who was then in his seventies -- and just hit his mid-80s a few months ago -- offered to take it and insisted on giving me “one clawhammer lesson” in return for the banjo. I agreed. Bates came to my home every Saturday morning for about 2 years, and would spend 2 hours or so drilling me in clawhammer, teaching me technique and tunes, and talking about the art form and the artists, especially West Virginia banjo players. When he got ready to “retire” back to his mountain in West Virginia, I reminded him that he had signed up to do one lesson. Bates replied that it was one lesson, only it took two years because I’m a slow learner. Over the years Bates engendered an interest in banjo repair and building, and taught me the basics of cutting wood, caring for machines, solving banjo problems, catastrophic neck repair, and so on. I visited him in WVA about 5 or 6 or so years ago, and he handed me a paper bag filled with a banjo, my Bacon Belmont, and told me to make it right again. I did, and pretty quickly after fixing it up I sold it. I don’t really pine away for it because I have this great story in its place. After that, I kept finding ways to help friends in Arlington, Virginia – and, later, Staunton, Virginia - with their banjo repair and set-up issues. And this is the “backstory” to the Little Bear Banjo Hospital – Our Motto: “Rescuing Vintage Banjos from Modernity.”