25 years ago today was not only the last day of school for the seniors at Model High School, it was Commencement Exercises for the seven seniors who would be participating in the state national Mock Trial competition that was being held the following week.

“Middle I Band” was the band consisting entirely of sixth graders (I believe it was the ENTIRE sixth grade class) while the “Middle II Band” consisted of seventh and eighth graders:

Mr. Schubert had been a popular band director.  He had a frenetic conducting style that was fascinating to watch from both sides of the stage.  But he was also a wise man and loved to speak his mind as he was expanding ours.  Almost every class was filled with his little bits of wisdom.  On the last day of school in sixth grade, I distinctly recall this little nugget: “When you walk across that stage at graduation, that’s when you will find out what your names really are.”  His “meditation sessions” during the last 15 minutes of band class (with the lights out and the instruments put away) were legendary.  If you look at the photos of the high school band from this time period, you can definitely see that membership in the band was at an all-time high while he was the director.  I only had the opportunity to play under him during two-thirds of my middle school days, but he was the one who got me started (and therefore must shoulder the blame).

One of Mr. Schubert’s most notorious acts was what I call the “Spontaneous Section Tryout.”  This usually took place after he was disgruntled with the performance of a section and decided that it was time to shake things up, and, right there on the spot, he would make each member of the section perform the same short snippet and then rearrange the section based on that performance.  It was during one of these spontaneous tryouts during the spring semester of 1982 (when I was a seventh grader in 7th/8th grade band) that I found myself moving from third-from-last chair clarinet to FIRST CHAIR CLARINET, almost solely on the basis that I performed the piece without any squeaks or breaks, and also primarily because the other clarinet players ahead of me messed up in one small way or another.  The first chair clarinet player whom I dethroned was furious at me (and refused to speak to me, well, ever again)!  Afterwards, I asked Mr. Schubert about why he had made such a drastic shift in the positions, and he said that it was because I performed the best out of all of them … but he said it with that devious twinkle in his eye that could also be interpreted as “I wanted to challenge you to make you a better performer because I can sense greater things for you and I don’t want to see you stuck in third part forever,” but that’s just crazy talk, there.

This rearranging of the clarinet section took place in March of 1982 and there would be no more shifts in position after that, as we were working on material for the Spring Concert.  This would turn out to be the one and only time that I would sit in the first chair position, because after this year there would always be somebody who would be just a little better than me that would sit one chair ahead (darn you, Shay Quillen).  And it would also turn out that my one time performing in the first chair position would not be a performance at all, because right before we got on stage, my reed chipped and I did not have a spare and I ended up faking it throughout the entire concert.  That was very difficult for me to handle, and I carried that guilt for years — literally, decades — that I was not able to adequately perform at Mr. Schubert’s final concert in the position that he had given me.  It wasn’t until I saw him in 2006 (coincidentally enough, at the Retirement Celebration for Allan D. Stephens, the band director who followed him) that I was able to tell him what had happened, and he said that everything was okay, because he knew that even though I wasn’t actually performing that evening, he knew that I was still performing.

The concert itself was legendary, for a Middle School Band concert.  The seventh and eighth graders sat in the first few rows of the auditorium and watched the sixth grade band perform, and then we had our special guest soloist of the evening: Junior David Eldot, a trombone player with a talent level that was simply unbelievable — he would be a McDonald’s All-American Band participant in the fall.  He performed a solo number that brought everyone to their feet and almost made everyone forget that they were at a Middle School Band concert.

There was some rearranging and the seventh/eighth grade band took the stage.  ”Overture Primo” remains one of my all-time favorites (being the first overture that I ever played) and I can still sing it today.  In spite of it being written down for our band level, “A Hard Day’s Night” still rocked, bearing some semblance to the original.  Apparently I was so impressed with “Sakura” that I selected it the following year for our Middle School Band’s Student Concert.  And we closed with “A Lotta Jazz,” a perennial favorite of all of the Middle School Bands, but with that extra Schubert “oomph” that really kicked the tune up several notches.  Mr. Schubert really got into this one; on my original tape recording of this piece, as he is counting off the beginning, you can clearly hear him exhale with a strong “whuh” on the fourth beat.  So cool.

And then, it was over.  Fine.  Mr. Schubert would go on to direct the high school band in their final concert in a few days and he would retire to the exciting world of instrument repair.  All of the band members would have to anxiously wait for three months to find out the identity of the new Band Director (and whether or not he would aim to be mediocre).

Years later, Mr. Schubert would remark on the time period: “I have many very pleasant memories of my years with the Model bands. Being a part of a student’s journey from being a beginning player to a more accomplished musician playing in the high school band was one of the greatest experiences one could have. One of the great things about playing in band is that, regardless of which part you are playing, the performance of the music would not be whole without every part being played.   Everyone in the group owned the accomplishment.”

Gas and Tires

Fishin’ the Old-Fashioned Way

The theme of this year’s prom was “2,000 Leagues Under the Sea” … I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a play on the Jules Verne novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and that the joke was that the Junior Class could not afford the other 18,000 leagues, or if someone just screwed up with the title, or this was all intentional and no one was supposed to notice or care.  At any rate, the prom had an underwater theme, and the Junior Class did a fine job with the decorations, even if a lot of it was literally thrown together that very afternoon (they had to recruit fourth and fifth graders to cut out a bunch of paper fish).  The prom was held in the school gymnasium.  Upon entering the gym, you had to walk through a long tunnel (where the fish were hanging).  Next to the entranceway to the gym floor was a small pool, and to the right was a cave containing a large four-legged octopus (the other four arms were presumably behind it).

A very large net had been draped from the ceiling of the gymnasium, with a clearance from floor to ceiling of about ten feet.  Small green lights were strung above the net and fans were placed in strategic positions around the net, and as they blew and rippled the net it gave the impression being under water.  Apparently this setup was the brainchild of Junior Class Sponsor and Band Director Allan D. Stephens.

More paper fish and balloons hung from the net “ceiling” along with streamers that dangled all the way to the floor.  There was some sort of huge “Jaws”-type monster next to the snack table, and a replica of a sinking Titanic in the middle of the dance floor.  As usual, elementary kids had been drafted to be servers at this event, and their attire was Hawaiian shirts and jams (which would have not been out of place at LAST YEAR’S prom, “Tropical Paradise”).  And on each of the fifteen tables was a small bowl containing at least two goldfish — this would change as the evening went on.

The band that the Junior Class had hired for the evening was Paradox, a college party covers band from Lexington.  Now, last year, our Junior Class hired Lexington-based national recording artists Velvet Elvis for the prom; I mean, these guys had a record out at the time (with a hole in it and everything).  On the other hand, Paradox was one of those bands that played college rush parties and did free gigs at UK during freshman orientation (which is, in fact, the next time that I saw them play).  There were pros and cons with both of these bands.  While Velvet Elvis was definitely the more talented band, they had a repertoire of original songs that they played, and most of the attendees at the prom were not familiar with their songs, so there was more standing around and watching the band play than dancing.  On the other hand, Paradox played nothing but covers, and songs that we all knew (I recall they did “Walk This Way” and “Twist and Shout”), so there was definitely a lot more dancing going on at this year’s prom.

The prom officially started at 9:00pm (which is when the band started) but people filtered in over the next hour or so.  As the Guy with No Prom Date But Still Rented a Tux, I came strolling in at 10:00pm and wandered around with my camera.  And here’s who I encountered:

Shay Q. and Dawn B.

Meena M. and Josh M.

Tamra H. and Chris S.

Meena and Tamra thought it would be cool if they wore their sunglasses inside the darkened gymnasium.  They weren’t the only ones.

Keith H. and Pam T.  Below is another shot of the couple, from the May 22, 1987 edition of The Observer.

Peggy L. and Chris M. (a student at Transy)

Jonathan L. and Leah W.

Andy C. and Dawn Q.

Dawn Q. and Melissa B.  Both had graduated from Model High the previous year but returned home for the weekend to be prom dates.

Andrew T. and Michelle H.  Below is another photo of the couple, from the 1987 Exemplar.

Jon A. and Mary Tom T.

Aaron F. and his date (whose name I didn’t catch)

Pat C. and Cathy J.

Otto H. and Tracy G.  Interestingly, Tracy’s younger sister Kelly wore the same dress at her prom, in 1994, as evidenced by the comparison shots below taken from the yearbooks of 1987 and 1994:

Mr. Stephens, Ms. Papp, and Mr. Henrickson were among the many teachers that patrolled the gymnasium that night.  Mr. Stephens was a Junior Class sponsor and first-year chorus teacher Mr. Henrickson was a Senior Class sponsor (first year on the job and he was given the thankless task of watching over us).

At around 10:30pm, a group of seventh grade students walked into the gymnasium, stood around, watched what was going on, and then turned around and left.  Were they servers finishing up their duties?  Were they just wandering around and saw activity in the gym and decided to check it out?  The world may never know.

At about this time, the crowning of the Prom Queen took place:

The band came back on, did another set, and then they took a break.  Josh and Chris went up to the female keyboard player and requested Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is” (as this was one of Josh’s favorite songs; so much so that he, Chris, Shay and Joe Ballew would perform it at the Talent Show in a few weeks).  The keyboardist informed them that they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it because it “wasn’t very dance-able.”

At 11:00pm came the big surprise of the evening: James A., Stephen J, Chad W and Otto H stepped up onto the stage.  Stephen, Chad and Otto played in a band called Decembrist Uprise and were actually quite good.  With Stephen on the guitar bass, Chad on the bass guitar, Otto on the drums, and joined for this one-time performance by James on the vocals, they went into a rousing rendition of The Ramones’  ”The KKK Took My Baby Away.”

Immediately after the song was over, Sarah W. stepped up to the microphone and announced that it was time for the “traditional” Removing of the Garters (actually, this was only the second year that this had been done).  All of the senior girls and their dates were to step forward and the guys had to remove the garter from the ladies’ leg “using hands and maybe teeth … but don’t get too gross.”  On the count of three, everyone did so, but not quite as wild and unrestrained as it had been done last year.

The band resumed playing, and the party started to wind down.  People slowly began to trickle out even though the band was still performing and there was still dancing to be done.  Goldfish started disappearing from the bowls as people started to gulp them down (I recall Ranjan M. doing at least one).  The last two songs played by the band were “Lean On Me” (in which I shared a dance with Dawn Q) and “Fight For Your Right To Party,” which brought the house down at 11:45pm.

The prom was over, but the night was just beginning, with the traditional After-Prom Breakfast being held at Mila P’s house.  Everyone cleared out of the gym, headed home or to their hotel rooms to change out of their tuxes and dresses, and eventually made it out to Mila’s.  I’m not sure what the “official” start time was supposed to be, but when I got there at 1:00am things were well under way, with people crammed into every space in the house, stuffing their faces with sausage balls, fruit, bread, pastries, strawberries, and a lot of cheeseballs and crackers lying about.  For some very odd reason, there was no coffee brewing.  Andrew T., a hardcore coffee drinker at the age of 16, was wandering throughout the kitchen on a desperate mission to find a cup of coffee.

People were everything, talking, eating, drinking, in the living room, kitchen, front entrance hall, outside porch, and the sunroom.  In the living room, I recall that there was a book of poetry on the coffee table open to the poem “Plucking Lilies.”  A huge wave of people came through at 1:30am, and there was a lot of activity in the kitchen as Mila and her sister were dashing about collecting plates and cups.  At about this time, Andrew had finally obtained a cup of coffee, but then Mila backed into him, spilling the coffee all over her back and temporarily depriving Andrew of the caffeine he so desperately wanted.  Fortunately, she wasn’t upset and quickly brought him another cup.

Stephen J, Aaron F and Seth E in the sunroom.

David M, Meena M, Dawn Q and Melissa B in the living room.

Dawn B and Shay Q, finally wandering in at 2:00am.

The party finally started to break up between 2:15 and 2:30am as people headed off for the After-After Prom parties at various hotel locations that I don’t know anything about, nor do I know anything about the beer that was present at one of those parties.  All I know is that I drove around for a little while, then went home, fired up the Macintosh, and spent the next three hours writing down all of my recollections from the night on five typewritten pages, from which this posting was derived.  Then at 8:00am I had to go to Lexington to pick up my father from the airport.  And that’s the story of what happened the first time that I stayed awake for 30 straight hours.

Links of interest:

“Prom 1987″ set on Flickr (containing shots not used in this post)

Coverage of the 1987 Prom in the May 22, 1987 edition of The Observer

Coverage of the 1987 Prom in the Exemplar (school yearbook)

The annual banquet was the traditional lead-in to the Prom.  Hosted by the Junior Class, the dinner also served as a way for the Juniors to show their appreciation for the Seniors and for the Seniors to return that appreciation with insults in the form of the Senior “Wills” (having traditionally been roasted by the previous year’s Senior Class).  Attendance at the banquet was certainly not mandatory with the exception of the class officers.  The majority of the students who were attending the Prom also attended the Banquet.

The banquet was held on the second floor of the Keen Johnson building on the EKU campus, in their “fancy” banquet hall.  As per the traditional unspoken “rules,” all of the juniors were dressed in their Sunday best, while the Seniors were … well, not everyone wore dress shoes.  All of the senior ladies were attired nicely, and the plastic pistols were a nice touch.  Seth E. and Danny B. showed up dressed as hooded monks, for reasons that I do not know.  Many of the guys had on a suit and tie with sneakers (very much inspired by David Letterman).

By six o’clock, everyone was seated.  Junior Class President Ellen B. was about to give the opening speech when a group of senior “jocks” (including Senior Class President Jonathan L.) came striding in wearing a suit jacket, tie, no shirt, and a bath towel.  The fun had only begun.  Ellen continued with her welcoming remarks, and then Amanda B. gave the invocation.  Then dinner was served.

As with all of our functions that took place on the EKU campus, the food was prepared and served by EKU Food Services, the same chefs behind our delicious and nutritious meals that were served at our school, except on real plates with silverware.  The servers were the most dreary workers that I have ever seen, although I am sure that they had much better things to do on a Saturday night.  I hope they got overtime for this.

The opening salad was served with spoon bread.  I remember this because as the food was being dished out, Josh M. and Chris S. (both juniors) arrived, late but not fashionably late.  Josh had just come off of fasting for Passover and was ravenous, and began eating all of the spoon bread that he could find (it was pretty bad, so he had a lot of offers).  The two were late because they had just come from our friend Kurt A’s house, which had caught on fire that afternoon.  Coincidentally enough, less than an hour before the house fire, we had all been down the street filming scenes for the movie that we were working on.  But that’s another story entirely.

After we were through eating, Principal Dr. Bonar stepped up to the podium for a speech, which mainly consisted of some random memories of our class from the fifth grade teachers, including: “When Jon Allen loved Lori-Lynn Hurley, when Randy Pigue wrote a poem, when Jimmy Kwak hit Mrs. Higgenbotham on the back of the head with his lunchbox, when Mark Calitri always broke his nose, when Jimmy Kwak wrote a newspaper, and when Dan Shuntich was the big brain,” among others.

Then came the reading of the Senior Wills, most of which consisted of in-jokes which make very little sense if you do not know the targets.  Most of the Juniors were shot down and burned, although many of the wills seemed directed towards Ellen B., Mary Tom T., and Mila P.  Here is the transcript of the Wills as they were printed in the May 22, 1987 edition of The Observer:

Click on the above image for a larger view in Flickr

I do recall that the original wording for the one involving Josh and a way to “play” with his brain used another word entirely and one that probably could not be printed in a school publication.

Following the Wills came the reading of “Ten Years From Now,” featuring the senior class’ predictions for the future of their classmates.  Once again, in-jokes (also taken from the May 22, 1987 edition of The Observer):

Click on the above image for a larger view in Flickr

And following that came “Remember When …” probably the most interesting of the presentations that evening, as all of these were true recollections.

Ellen B. made some closing remarks, and the banquet came to an end at around 7:30pm.  Prom would begin in about an hour and a half, which will be covered in Part Two.

Photos from this evening, taken from the 1987 Exemplar:

Seth and Danny

EKU Bypass at Night

On the eve of the National Championship.

For the game itself, though, I wore this shirt (finally)!