The Contents of Jimmy Kwak's Band Locker

This is how Jimmy Kwak tells the story:

Back in my senior school year, 1986-1987, my first period was entirely free. I put in a request to be Mr. Stephens' student assistant for that hour, which would involve the time period in which Mr. Stephens taught two 30-minute classes: the 5th grade band and the 4th grade music appreciation class. While I eventually engaged in some conducting and spinning of records on the turntable, the majority of the time was spent hiding in the backroom or getting coffee at Hardee's. Having a more or less free run of the back room, this gave me access to the rack of keys that opened the lockers in the back room. So, eventually, I had, at one point in time, ownership of five of the wooden lockers in the back room. From a school standpoint, this made more sense, since I was spending more time in the bandroom than in any other room in school, and the backroom was where I ended up stashing most of my school stuff. From a practical standout, this was pretty ridiculous, because just what the heck was I bringing to school that would necessitate having five lockers? Most significantly to the purposes of this story, the locker in the corner (as indicated in the photo) was my "main" locker, the one that I had been using ever since my freshman year.

Now we fast forward to the year 2001. Fellow clarinetist and Sousa Award Winner of 1988 Shay Quillen, now residing in California, informs me that, while going through some stuff at his parent's house, he came upon a set of keys which he believed to be mine. Having no recollection of ever loaning Shay any of my keys, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Regardless, this necessitated a trip to Lexington, KY, and a visit to the Quillen residence, where the keys were uncovered, and I immediately recognized them as band locker keys. Very odd ... what were these keys doing with the Quillens, and to which lockers did they open? More importantly, hadn't I emptied all of those lockers when I graduated in 1987? What could possibly be in these mystery lockers that could be of any significance FOURTEEN YEARS LATER??!!

The next day, a trip to Richmond and Model Lab School was in order. I crashed the band class (I think it was the high school class, although it may have been the middle school class -- I don't exactly recall; these kids look too damn young every day). While Mr. Stephens had absolutely no idea who I was at first, eventually he recalled who I was and proceeded to regale the class with highly overexaggerated stories of dumb stuff that I did when I was their age. I quickly explained the situation and why I was there, and what I was attempting to find. Mr. Stephens quickly dashed any hopes of any significant discoveries to be made when he said that a couple of years ago they had opened all of the lockers and thrown out everything and anything that they had found in there that wasn't supposed to be there ... but I was still welcome to check. Plus, he noted, there was no way of really knowing if any of those keys would fit any of the lockers in question.

Stepping into the back room, I tried all of the keys on all of the lockers that I could remember, but no such luck ... none of the keys seemed to fit. Except ... there was one last locker. That main locker in the corner. The only one that hadn't been attemped. The key that appeared to be the one that I remembered working on that locker slid into the lock ... and turned ... and opened.

And here's what was inside:

A magic marker and a fruit & grain bar	Entry postcard for the USA Network's "Dance Party USA" for a chance for Model Lab to appear on the show
1st clarinet part for "Chester," the piece performed by the marching band	The back of an anniversary card sent by Sarah Warner (I have no idea who the recipient was, or, for that matter, why I would have this)
A folder full of sheet music, mostly for tunes played at Foster Music Camp in 1984, but also all of the parts for my failed band composition entitled "Storm" -- including the original handwritten parts and the computer-generated ones.	An unfinished dot drawing for art class of my award-winning "Chicago '85" photograph.
A big stack of Band Adventures, specifically episodes of The Band Adventures 1987!	Countdown calendar for the upcoming visit by the Jefferson High School Band from Monroe, Michigan in September of 1986, complete with photos cut out of my original proof sheets for those negatives.
An undeveloped roll of Tri-X 400 speed film, the kind used in art class back then. The film has obviously been used and had been in the canister the entire time, so there is no risk that it has been exposed. What photos exist on this roll? Stay tuned ...	A folder containing four negative strips that were developed but never printed ... until now. The negatives are from the band's trip to the University of Louisville Band Day in 1986.
Advertising poster for the 1986-87 MHS Band T-shirt. With such catchy advertising like this, it is a complete mystery as to why we didn't sell more shirts!

Contents copyright © 2006 JLK Productions