Rosie Flores, who co-founded the 1960s all-girl psychedelic quartet Penelope's Children, was seven when she made her debut recording, singing along to "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (that performance appeared on her 1995 Rockabilly Filly album).

“I was a really shy kid. I remember some girlfriends from high school, they saw me [perform] at one of the street fairs in North Park, saying, ‘We can’t believe you’re onstage!’ I wouldn’t talk to anybody. As soon as I got a guitar in my hands, it gave me something to hide behind.”

When Penelope’s Children was founded in 1968, her dad signed for their $5,000 gear setup, purchased at Clairemont Music Center, and sixteen year-old Flores was elated to have a guitar that looked just like Brian Jones’s. Payments were $80 a month, so they worked the Rec Hall in Clairemont, the nearby Marine base, and assorted private parties.

They had a garage to practice in, although sometimes they’d get “this really loud knock on the garage door, and when you open it up, you can see the cop’s motorcycle boots.” Penelope’s Children opened for Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Turtles at downtown's Convention Hall in December 1969, though the group spit a few years later. Flores went on to front the rockabilly band Rosie & the Screamers.