BillLindau

opening day of school

Here, There & Everywhere With Bill
Well done! Starting the new school year with song and dance‘I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.’
-- John Lennon, “Imagine”
By Bill Lindau
I couldn’t believe it -- singing and dancing our way into the new academic year!
That’s the way Montgomery County Schools began its 2005-06 term -- with a rockin’ Convocation, on Monday, Aug. 23.
At a time that not every kid’s that thrilled about, the faculty and administration showed everybody they weren’t always a bunch of stick-toting tyrants. There were some good musicians and one good clown among them, just letting their hair down and otherwise cutting loose. We had “The not ready for comedy player” doing Elvis, my pal John Ward trumpeting the National Anthem, among others.
Bernadette Montes, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing later in the day, showed the crowd that many of those that can do, teach as well. She told me later on that many countries this accomplished classical musician has performed have invited her to stay in their lands, and listening to her that morning, I can see why.
The Candor School faculty doing a song-and-dance medley paying tribute to the jukebox was a nice way to wrap it up.
I had a real blast watching these shows, and after finding out a lot of the things the schools are offering this year, I wanted to buy a toupee, develop a crack in my voice and lie about my age so I could enroll in one of the schools myself.
I never knew of any other school that featured a course in taking care of horses, for example, until I visited East Montgomery High School. There are computer skills, good music and art programs in this and other schools, among other things. The teachers I have met have fabulous attitudes, and I hope they can pass it all on to their students.
I wasn’t exactly a goody two-shoes, or any kind of apple polisher, but I remember at least two years when I actually looked forward to starting a new school year. The public schools in Moore County became consolidated right after my sophomore year, and I spent the next two years at Pinecrest, where I got my diploma. The school also featured a variety of courses the old schools did not have before, such as dramatics, graphic arts, auto mechanics and ROTC.
My senior year featured an advanced literature seminar in which we studied such works as Beatles songs and Eldridge Cleaver’s “Soul on Ice.” I was into dramatics in my junior year and had the lead in two plays. My former dramatics teacher, Brenda Phelps, only stayed at the school one year, but later she moved back to Southern Pines to do some other jobs in the school system, and we still keep in touch from time to time. We communicate via e-mail and haven’t seen each other in quite a few years, and I’ll bet if we ran into each other now we wouldn’t recognize each other.
There was a lot about the public schools that was actually fun. I know everything wasn’t all hunky-dory, but nowadays, when I run into one of my old schoolmates, we can look back and laugh; most of the time, if we had to do it all over again, we wouldn’t change much about it.
That’s how I hope this generation of public-school students will take with them as they progress through the system and beyond. Just as Tom Sawyer got his friends to help him paint the fence by convincing them that this task was a supreme pleasure, we hope the administration and faculty at all the schools will instill in their young charges a boundless thirst for knowledge, a look at the beautiful things we still have in this world, and the opportunities they have before them that can make them happy, productive human beings, and give them a means to help make this world a better place.
I can think of one thing the schools could do. Start the day by playing some really upbeat song over the intercom.
My top choices are the theme from “Friends”, by the Rembrandts (“It hasn’t been your day, your week, your month/or even your year, but/I‘ll be there for you….”); or John Lennon’s signature solo piece, “Imagine.”
Those don’t have to be the only choices: The Beatles songs “Good Day Sunshine” and “Here Comes the Sun,” would be good, as would the 1940s swing hit, “Accentuate the Positive,” the Italian songs “Volare” (“Flying”, once covered by Dean Martin) and “Mattinata” (“Morning Serenade” a favorite of Luciano Pavarotti) wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’d like Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” (the theme from “Working Girl”), Frank Sinatra’s hit single “Night and Day” and Duke Ellington’s signature piece, “Take the A Train.” “A Nightingale Sang in Barkley Square,” the unofficial song of the Royal Air Force in World War II, would be a nice, mellow thing to listen to in the morning.
This would be a great way to set the tone for the school day. It would put both faculty and class into a really upbeat frame of mind. And we all know, everybody -- young and old -- needs all the upbeat ness we can get.
It’s amazing, how at the end of every summer most people can feel as if they are going back to school themselves.
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The next day, I took a trip down memory lane myself, but under sadder circumstances. My old friend, classmate and fellow Cribber (I’ll explain that term shortly), John Cuff of Southern Pines went to his eternal reward earlier this month. He had been suffering from a long illness, and it was some sort of small consolation to his family and friends that he was out of his misery. He left behind three grown children and a lot of memories.
John played football at East Southern Pines High School and later Pinecrest. He played all four years. He didn’t accumulate a lot of impressive statistics, mainly because he fractured his collarbone every season.
Most people would not have returned to the team after one or two seasons of such an injury, but that’s how much he loved playing football. Certainly, it was a disappointment, but it wasn’t enough to back it in. That’s the main thing about him that impressed so many people.
Many of his old classmates came to the funeral, even though it took place on a weekday morning. There was Joe Robinson from the Sanford area, Sam and Patty Amato of Southern Pines, Robert Buchholz and his family, which included the officiating clergyman, Robert’s, John’s and Diane’s kid brother Jimmy, who has become an ordained Catholic priest; Eddie Howell of Charlotte and his brother Ken; Carol Prevatte, the widow of one of our other old friends; and Sherrill Parker, the former wife of still another friend.
Just as I was leaving the church after the services, I met John’s oldest son, John Jr. We had met each other only once, when I went to a baseball game in which the younger John was playing for Pinecrest.
Although I knew his father’s funeral was anything but a joking occasion, I found myself telling young John about the last time I saw his father.
I was covering one of the NASCAR races at Rockingham for the local newspaper. I went to the speedway early Sunday morning, to grab an early parking space. There were some volunteers directing what little traffic there was at this time of day. It was still dark and I could not make any of them out.
I was asking one of the volunteers how to get into one of the lots when suddenly this wild man hollers, “Wild Bill Lindau!”
Somebody grabs my left forearm, turns it upward, pushes down three of my fingers so that I’m giving the Italian salute and gives out a war whoop.
Sure enough, it’s John Cuff.
With fellow Cribber (that’s the name our little gang called ourselves) Joe Parker, and our friend Robert Buchholz’s brother John in tow.
John Jr. is a grown man and nothing’s too delicate for his ears. He broke into a smile about my little anecdote.
Most of us who attended the funeral of our deceased friend have all gone our separate ways, but we have still remained friends. We all cried when our friend left our earthly company, but it was so wonderful for us to see each other again, to laugh about the young and foolish days that John shared with us.
It’s amazing how many funny stories people wind up telling at funerals. I was glad John’s son managed to laugh at my little anecdote; if it had upset him I would have felt like such a villain.
I hope when I meet my maker, that all my friends who are still around will tell funny stories about me. I don’t think it shows any disrespect to the dead at all, not if it’s negative humor. The fact that you can laugh when you think of the deceased shows how much that person brightened up people’s lives. The world may not be such a funny place without him anymore, but the people he left behind should keep those wonderful moments in their memories for as long as they live. It’s the way to keep him alive, too.
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Contact Bill Lindau at blindau52@yahoo.com or (910) 975-3073.

posted by Bill Lindau @ 5:38 PM