
Actually, this whole project came about because of the music. Amy Gabbitas is the oldest grandchild of my dad Thomas W. Lee. She is a very talented clarinetist who is a founding member of the Aspen Winds. She remembered hearing Grandpa Tom tell this one story back when she was a kid. Grandpa used to take the older grandkids (ages 6 and older) up to the canyon to have cousins' camp outs in the summer. All the kids loved hearing Grandpa tell bedtime stories to get them to go to sleep.
That was precisely the problem. My dad could talk and talk and talk embellishing his stories until he heard heavy breathing. Then he would just stop. Even to his best stories, nobody could remember the endings.
"Johnny in the Moon" was everyone's favorite story. We learned this when all of us in the family were to contribute something to a Memory Book for Tom and Carolyn's 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2001 (A Space Odyssey). All of the older grandchildren submitted the same "memory" about going on campouts and hearing Grandpa tell the story of "Johnny in the Moon." BUT NOBODY ACTUALLY REMEMBERED THE ENDING! We finally convinced Dad to write it down for posterity. (And he did write it out --- 18 pages worth of 12 point font, single-spaced! No wonder none of us actually read it as a bedtime story to our kids.)
Then a couple of years later, my brother Bob found a copy. Even though the anniversary date had passed, Amy went ahead and commissioned the concert piece. By then, her son Robert Gabbitas was well on his way to graduating with a Music degree with an emphasis in composition and conducting. The score he produced based on Grandpa's story is magical.
Amy then told me that I needed to create some illustrations that she could take with her when they played concerts for the kids at Elementary Schools. I decided that if I was going to do any illustrations, I would go ahead and create a picture book --- one that we would be able to read to our kids and grandkids!