I don't often own up to a bad case of envy.

But as a onetime member of garage bands, I'm truly envious of Stafford County's Carey Leitch and the pals from his childhood still making great Motown music.

That's happening nearly 50 years after they had a run in high school and after that locally in bands like the Cavaliers and the Prophets.

Leitch and a handful of former James Monroe High School classmates are still aglow from playing several gigs recently on a special trip to Fort Myers, Fla.

There they joined former Fredericksburg area resident Rob Spratt and the Wildfire Blues Band he plays in to wow a crowd at the Music Walk in the historic river district.

It was a grand reunion for members of the Prophets, a band founded here in 1964 that either backed up or opened for the Four Tops, the Temptations, Junior Walker and the All Stars and others.

"One of our players, trombonist Tom Waite, dubbed it the 'Back to the Coachman Reunion' in recognition of the old club in Spotsylvania County where we used to play," said Leitch, who plays the sax and operates a manufacturing business in Fredericksburg.

Leitch noted that the spark for this reunion actually dates to the "Last Chance Dance" back in 2005, one of the last events at the old James Monroe High School before it was torn down to make space for its replacement.

Some of the band members, like Sons of the Beach frontman Steve Jarrell, have never stopped playing music. Jarrell, who lives near Nashville, tours with the popular beach music band and works in the music industry there.

But Leitch noted that others who were in one incarnation or another of the Prophets put down their instruments years ago.

"I had not played the sax for 37 years before that dance," said Leitch, who said he and Waite, who lives in Vienna, practiced together a bit to get ready.

On that special evening, those musicians joined others to play for an enthusiastic crowd of JM alumni.