<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If there are tasks that breed procrastination more than cleaning closets, I can\u2019t think of any. \u00a0When one views this process as a form of exploration, however, there is a plus side. \u00a0Our long neglected linen closet recently yielded a source of entertainment that had not seen the light of day for at least twenty five years: \u00a0\u00a0four volumes of the Marquette Senior High Tatler dating from my high school years of 1967 to 1971. \u00a0Flipping through them and finding long forgotten gems of that golden period reminded me why these things are printed to begin with: \u00a0pictures and comments don\u2019t fade with time like our memories. \u00a0What follows are just some highlights that popped up reviewing this mother lode of history. \u00a0Please do not think of this as any kind of organized or scientific analysis of what was found in these yearbooks. \u00a0Just to keep things in focus a bit, I will summarize them by year instead of jumping back and forth like a time traveler stuck in a temporal vortex. \u00a0I can\u2019t imagine doing this four consecutive weeks, so I will break it up lest readers get tired of hearing another aria in four acts about \u201cMe Me Me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Freshman Year (1967-68). \u00a0The first thing that popped out (okay, fell out) of this volume was an 8 X 10 black and white glossy of my confirmation class from St. Mark\u2019s Lutheran Church. \u00a0It is sad to think that of the ten of us included in the photo, three are no longer alive. \u00a0St. Mark\u2019s has also been retired as a church and the beautiful building on the corner of Fair and Presque Isle has been repurposed as a business of some kind. \u00a0Even the intersection of Presques Isle and Fair \u00a0has been transformed into one of those roundabouts that have suddenly become vogue. \u00a0My first thought was, \u201cWe were so young and we all had so much hair!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paging through the photo galleries was interesting because as a freshman, one doesn\u2019t rub elbows with the upperclassmen all that much except for those who were also in band. \u00a0At that time, Marquette Senior High had a population close to 2000 students and because my class entered ninth grade with over 500, I can\u2019t even lay claim to knowing everyone in my own class. \u00a0I recognize many of the older girls who grew up in my neighborhood but even those only a year or two older than us seemed so much more mature. \u00a0They were the homecoming queens, cheerleaders, yearbook staff, majorettes, and so on, but we didn\u2019t spend any time actually talking with them unless for some reason they talked to us first. \u00a0As for the older boys from our \u2018hood, they may have acknowledged us but we weren\u2019t buddies even if we had spent time playing ball with them outside of school. \u00a0They knew who we were but if they recognized us at all, we were more in the category of \u2018nodding acquaintances\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seeing pictures of the marching band brought me back to the very beginning of high school. \u00a0When I showed up for \u201csummer band\u201d, there were two senior boys in the drum section. \u00a0Mike was a converted clarinet player and Steve was a <\/span>Star Trek<\/span><\/i> loving nerd who declared that he would \u201conly play bass drum and tympani so the rest of us better learn the snare drum parts.\u201d \u00a0As the snare drum playing senior, Mike was the section leader and told the five freshman drummers what to do but pretty much left Steve alone. \u00a0In the picture of the whole band, we don\u2019t look like two seniors and five freshman, yet Mike and Steve seemed so much older than the rest of us. \u00a0Still, we were the wet-behind-the-ears freshman (even though Steve\u2019s brother Tim and I were already taller than Mike). \u00a0Sue Anderson and I had been in band together since fifth grade music lessons. \u00a0Wayne Maki had joined us in junior high, but Maggie and Tim were the new \u2018new\u2019 kids in the section to me. \u00a0We spent the first week of summer band \u00a0marching \u00a0up and down the parking lot in the mid-August heat learning the drum cadences and how to march in a straight line. \u00a0By the end of the week we had bruises on our left thighs from the constant banging of the curved snare drum leg brace but we also formed a tighter bond than those other sections who didn\u2019t report until the second week of the program. \u00a0As band director Joe Patterson reminded the rest when we began marching with the whole band, \u201cListen and watch the drum line. \u00a0The band will only march well if you follow their lead. \u00a0They know what they are doing and only they will have to play the whole time we are marching.\u201d \u00a0Just like I thought the first time I saw the marching band go by when I was in fourth grade: \u00a0the drummers are the key to the band!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I began reading the end of the year notes that were scribbled in the yearbooks, \u00a0they seemed to increase in length and depth of content each year. \u00a0Of course, the number of comments \u00a0from fellow band members outnumber the rest, but there are some interesting threads that give some glimpses of freshman life. \u00a0Carol, who sat next to me all year in General Science wrote, \u201cTo a real nice kid most of the time, why didn\u2019t you let me copy your science exam? \u00a0Best of luck in your future years.\u201d \u00a0Kathy added, \u201cTo a good kid in my science class. \u00a0Even though you talk to (sic) much. \u00a0Good luck in your future years.\u201d \u00a0Greg weighed in with, \u201cTo a friend in science class who always gets A\u2019s. \u00a0Have fun this summer and watch those girls. \u00a0P.S. \u2026.. YEAH!\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I am getting a picture of me as an \u2018A\u2019 science student who talked too much. \u00a0Guilty as charged.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My old guitar playing buddy Gene looked into the future and wrote, \u201cTo a pretty good drummer with brains. \u00a0Maybe we can get together this summer and play a few songs\u201d and he signed it as \u201cMachine Gun Betts\u201d. \u00a0Both Gordon MacDonald and John Spratto from the band The French Church gave me musical advice. \u00a0Gordon said, \u201cExpose yourself to more music and it will help alot. \u00a0Some info on Cream – they play June 8, 1968 downstate. \u00a0I got $200 from my parents with which to get a Hagstrom 8-string bass.\u201d \u00a0John gave me a little encouragement: \u201cKen fella – I haven\u2019t heard you play the skins yet, but if I know you, they\u2019re your own. \u00a0Have a good time this summer and don\u2019t do anything that I wouldn\u2019t do Freshman (ha ha).\u201d \u00a0In that John was a joker to the Nth degree, I am not sure what the second part was telling me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for summer plans, there were several mentions of swimming at Picnic Rocks, playing tennis, snowmobiling (?), and the ever present \u201ctake it easy on the girls\u201d (who, me?). \u00a0\u00a0\u201cGirls\u201d are a reoccurring theme (or wishful thinking) for the male freshman. \u00a0Science and band weren\u2019t the only classes I got comments on: \u00a0\u201cRemember all the fun we had in English class\u201d from Fran, \u00a0\u201cRemember the Alamo, and remember Algebra, English and band. \u00a0See ya next year\u201d from Sue and \u201cI don\u2019t think I could ever forget Algebra class. \u00a0I\u2019ll drive you and Timothy mad yet!\u201d \u00a0from Lonnie. \u00a0I wonder what Tim and I did to deserve this?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music being of prime interest to this wanna be rock drummer, I noted that the bands who played for dances included The Steinsman, The Lost Souls, and The Plague. \u00a0The Plague were also featured at the annual talent show and I had totally forgotten about them. \u00a0This was Ron Phillips\u2019 band that I had an audition for at one point. \u00a0The Plague eventually became Sweat Equity with their original drummer still in the band and later Ted Thomas on the drums and not me. \u00a0It also explained why I found the word \u2018Plague\u2019 printed in my sophomore yearbook but I will have to try and remember if it was Ron who wrote it there. \u00a0I know it isn\u2019t my handwriting, but that will wait until Volume 2 of this little series.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will leave the final quotes in the hands of my fellow drummers as these were the people I spent the most time with considering all of the band functions we attended. \u00a0Sue already chimed in with the stuff about The Alamo. \u00a0Wayne kept it simple: \u00a0\u201cTo a fellow drummer!\u201d as did Maggie: \u00a0\u201cSee you next year like it or not – Mags.\u201d Tim was a little more cryptic: \u00a0\u201c To the only person you could be if you wanted to, but aren\u2019t because you don\u2019t dare – Vandy.\u201d \u00a0It isn\u2019t \u00a0hard to connect Tim and his graduating brother Steve considering they were the only two people I knew sporting pointy Star Trek sideburns. \u00a0They could both do the Vulcan salute (the \u2018V\u2019 shape formed with two fingers on each side) and definitely were cut from the same cloth, humor wise: \u00a0\u201cKen-Bear; \u00a0I can remember when the term \u201cdrummers\u201d meant traveling salesman, \u00a0I am of the firm opinion you can\u2019t even sell yourself. \u00a0Your ob\u2019d\u2019nt servant – S. Vanderburg.\u201d \u00a0Last of all, there was section leader Mike. \u00a0Mike was the first \u201cbad boy\u201d I hung around with in high school (well, at band events anyway), but not by any stretch was he a bad guy. \u00a0Mike used to like to sneak out the back door of the band room and have a smoke before pep band or concerts and for some reason he always dragged me along even though smoking was not one of my hobbies. \u00a0Mike left me with this: \u00a0\u201cTo my partner in crime who I had a lot of trouble with. \u00a0Good luck always and don\u2019t be giving people a hard time all of the time – Mike (M.G.).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The passage of time no doubt smooths out some of the rough spots one encounters during their school days. \u00a0The negative things that seemed like such a big deal back then don\u2019t resonate with me now as much as the good things that came to mind paging through these yearbooks. \u00a0If you can still lay hands on your high school annuals, take a little trip down memory lane. \u00a0It is surprising how many details are embedded deep in one\u2019s mind, even after fifty years in my case.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video;\u00a0 Okay, this is the Vogues lip sync hing on TV – but it was still one of my favorite tunes performed<\/p>\n by Ron Phillips and his high school band The Plague<\/p>\n