This was just talk for quite a while, but in the summer of 2002 things actually started to happen. First of all, the theoretical band was given a name. Ryan and Rich each created some lists of possible names and narrowed them down to a very select few, out of which Fooled Mommy was chosen the victor. Rich gave Ryan a CD of guitar ideas he'd recorded and Ryan practiced playing the drums along to them. The stage was set, so to speak, for the band to get off the ground. The first actual meeting of the band to play Rich's demoed songs together took place in August of 2002. By "the band", I mean Ryan and Rich. Someone to play the low notes was still a long way off at that point.
A few practices had gone well, and on September 8th, 2002, this site was created. Rich created it originally, although all work since then has been very much a joint venture as the look and content of the site have changed pretty significantly since that first incarnation. As practices went on, Rich started writing up some new tunes and Ryan decided to get in on the fun by writing some lyrics. Practices continued weekly, or biweekly, or whenever they could fit one in, for quite a while. At some point, I forget exactly when, Ryan and Rich decided that they kinda had to have a bass player. Things were going well with just the two of them, but they knew they needed a third to complete the band. Mike O'Connell, son of the "teacher" of the Instrumental Music course and two years younger than us, was the first to attempt to bassify FM. Ryan knew him through the plays at school and somehow got word that he played bass and asked him to come by the basement one night for a practice. He did just that. Unfortunately, the were some major availablilty issues and he never returned, with the exception of his appearance in the recording of "Da Wyrd Sistaz" which also included 2 other girls who didn't really do anything and don't deserve to be mentioned here.
After the very brief appearance of Mike in the band, Fooled Mommy once again because a duo, until Rich recruited John DeSentis to play some bass. The band needed a bass player for a Battle of the Bands assembly, so he was brought in to fill the position. After some practices, the assembly, and some new songs written by Rich and John, and actually one written almost entirely by Ryan except for the chorus guitar part, Fooled Mommy went to the Banana Factory in Bethlehem to record their very own album. Soon after this, the band played a live show at Bonnie Hanner's graduation party. And then John left the band and Fooled Mommy was a duo again.
After some downtime, Tina Moser, the first FM bass player with only one capital letter in their last name and first female member of Fooled Mommy, joined the group. Everything went fine for a while, but eventually a whole bunch of stuff happened and Tina decided to leave the group. Once Tina was gone, Rich's girlfriend Bonnie Hanner was tapped to take over bass duties. She successfully attempted to play bass, but grew weary of the bassist grind after about two practices. She still plays with the band, but her instrument of choice is now the Nintendo 64.
Since that point we've had a few other temporary members, such as Kara Blum of keyboard fame, Dan Rassler the bassist, and that mysterious third guy in the picture on the main page, Justin Oren. All of the "old school" and SUYM songs have been scrapped and sent to that great songbook in the sky at this point, and so the band is busy practicing the newer gems and furiously whipping up some nice new tunes and trying to find somewhere to play them for an appreciative audience.
***This history will be updated and revised as new information becomes available or as old information becomes remembered***