A Santa Fe SOS Christmas

During my years in Sing-Out, there always seemed to be some kind of conference being held or planned, either on a state, regional or national basis.

And Sing-Out South was always well represented.

That includes the Jones sisters (Debbie, Candy and Pam) seen above with Bill Cates. It was late December, 1966, and according to the NASHVILLE BANNER, they were among 85 delegates from Nashville who attended a year-end Sing-Out conference held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More than 1,500 Sing-Out cast members and others from all over the nation and the world attended, including all three traveling national Sing-Out casts.

Being in the southwestern United States, you might think Santa Fe would be a warm weather destination such as what you see in the photo above. But the city is nestled 7,000 feet high in the Sangre de Christos mountains. The weather the week of the conference back in December, 1966 was reportedly snowy and quite cold (with near- zero temperatures at times).

You can almost see how frigid it was by looking at the folks in the photo below which appears to have been taken outside a Holiday Inn in Sante Fe. The photo features the entire Jones family, along with Bill Cates, and the reigning musical superstars of the Sing-Out movement at that time, the Colwell Brothers (and a few other folks I can't identify)

But while the weather was very cold, the fervor of those attending the conference from Sing-Out South was heating up according to an article by Peter Pence in THE NASHVILLE BANNER.

Speaking to the entire conference on New Year's Eve 1966, Marlene Echols of Sing-Out South said: "We're going to take a new spirit back to Nashville. Sing-Out South has been kind of dragging and we couldn't figure out why. But we found out at this conference what it was---we had lost some of the spirit of Moral Re-Armament. We're going back with a new spirit to sing out in 1967."

Added Mike Glasgow of SOS: "This is the year we hope to find 50,000 young people who are committed to taking the spirit of Moral Re-Armament to every corner of the world. We want people who will set a pattern in everything they do, in every way they live their lives, by living for God."

Another SOS member, Ollie Jones put it this way: "MRA gives me a purpose to serve. I live for other people in order to help them. By helping them, I help myself. I CARE for people now and it is not a selfish care. I hope Sing-Out can bring about a unity of the races. That's the thing about Sing-Out. It includes everyone. If it excluded anyone, it wouldn't work."

Finally, SOS member Bobby Johnston (seen in the photo below)added these comments: "It's a real challenge to live these (MRA)standards (absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love). It's not easy. It doesn't mean you don't fall. But when you fall, you can stand up again, and you've got friends to help you and stand with you, and you are a better person than when you started."

Bobby apparently had lots of friends in Sante Fe, as the photo above shows him opening presents (with help from Jeff Jones) during what appears to be a birthday party held for him.

Thanks for all these wonderful photos to the Jones family (especially Pam who provided them to me). I will indentify those I recognize in each photograph, but I urge all of you who were there, or anyone else, to help me by posting your IDs of folks I don't recognize or mis-identify.

Cabot Wade and Ollie Jones are in the foreground with Bill Cates, Judy Engels and Mrs. Engels in the background. I can't identify the other lady.

Jim Troutner, Ollie Jones and Pam Jones Hazelwood are in this photo. I can't ID the guy in the back of the photo in front of the door.

That's Mike Glasgow to the far left of the photo along with Debbie Jones and Alfred Saffell (in the foreground). I believe Candy Jones Wirt is the person obscured in the photograph. I can't identify the others.

Former SOS Cast Director Dan Skuce talks with Mrs. Jones, while Mrs. Engels is also in the photo.

Buster Barry is in the center of this photo to the right of the Christmas tree with Cabot Wade and Ollie Jones in the foreground. Mrs. Engel I think is also in this photo, but I can't identify the other young guy in the shot.

If any of you in these photos, or anyone who attended the Sante Fe conference, have stories and memories to share please do so below or send them to me (pat.nolan@dvl.com)and I will post them here for everyone to share.

I make a particular plea to my old buddy Steve Hinton, who I recall had a rather harrowing plane ride on the way back to Nashville.

While we enjoy these photos from a simpler time and place some 44 years ago, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year in 2010 to all!

A Night Of Christmas Carols & The Book Of Genesis

One of my favorite Christmas memories dates back to 1968.

It was Tuesday, December 24,the night before Christmas. I joined a group of my Sing-Out South friends at the home of fellow cast member, Patty Mayer. We came together to do some Christmas caroling, going door-to-door in her Green Hills-area neighborhood to raise money for the Fannie Battle Day Home (which is now the oldest child care center in the nation).

Caroling for the Fannie Battle Day Home was (and remains) a long-time Nashville tradition on Christmas Eve. Being in Sing-Out together, you would have thought we would have gone Christmas caroling every year. But this is the only time I can remember doing it with other cast members. And I am sure I remember this night so well because of what happened later that evening.

While we were out caroling, the Apollo 8 astronauts had gone into in orbit around the moon. For the first time in the history of man, they got to see the picture above, our beautiful green and blue earth rising up above the moon.

Later, when we returned to Patty's home, we all got some hot chocolate and sat down to watch an unprecedented live television broadcast. It featured live pictures of the lunar surface beamed back to earth from the astronauts' spaceship while they each read portions of the first ten verses of the Book of Gensis from the Bible. Here courtesy of YouTube is that part of the broadcast....

Even today, almost 41 years later, I still get goose bumps thinking back and remembering that special Christmas Eve and that wonderful moment in history featuring a broadcast that was at that time, the largest ever in American history. To put it all in perspective, here's a report from WGN-TV (courtesy of YouTube) that contains some insights about how the Gensis reading came to be read on the broadcast and the reflections of Jim Lovell, one of the members of the Apollo 8 crew...

And just like the Apollo 8 crew did 41 years ago, I close wishing everyone "good luck and a Merry Christmas. God bless all of you...all of you on the good Earth."

A Nashville Christmas Tradition

If you grew up in Nashville during the 1950s and 60s, one of the biggest annual Christmas traditions was riding over to Centennial Park to view the Nativity Scene in front of the Parthenon.

Despite the strange juxtaposition of the Christ Child being placed in front of a pagan Greek temple (which never occurred to me as a child or a teenager),the people of Nashville truly loved the gift of department store owner Fred Harvey, who donated the Nativity Scene to the city in 1953 and continued to add pieces to it for several years. The original Nativity Scene was estimated in value at $20,000 in 1953 when it was first erected.

An article in THE NASHVILLE BANNER in 1957 estimated at least one million people annually "came from near and far" to seen the Nativity Scene, which was particularly striking at night with all the changing-colored lights reflecting off the larger-than-life albaster figures while Christmas carols played softly in the background.

I do have one Sing-Out South memory to share about the Parthenon Nativity Scene. It was Christmas,1967 and I was dating Laura Jones (now Rutter)from the cast. We had been to either a dance or a basketball game at Father Ryan and then went by the Nativity Scene. It was particularly beautiful that night because it was snowing, which added even more luster to this wonderful holiday scene.

Little did we know but this would be the last time the Nativity Scene would be on display in Nashville. By the next year in 1968 according to George Zepp in his book called THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF NASHVILLE: "the annual exposure to Nashville's fluctuating winter weather had weakened and eroded the statuary so much that the diorama wasn't fit to display outdoors. The display was sold by the city to an advertising agency which placed in a Cincinnati shopping center where it was reportedly used for only two seasons before being discarded as irreparably worn out."

How sad, but what great memories still continue to flow for those of us who saw the Nativity Scene each holiday season while we grew up in Nashville.

Of course, the 1950s and 60s were very different times. A religious display like this in a public park today would be a source of likely controversy and perhaps litigation. But that doesn't mean Nashvillians have no place to go anymore to enjoy the holidays lights or the reason for the season.

For the past quarter century or so, the place to be during the holiday season has been the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where according to a recent article in THE TENNESSEAN(December 13) "the outside light display features about two million sparkling globes, while inside, the botanical atriums are awash with holiday wonder, including water shows synchronized to holiday songs (and) horse-drawn carriage rides among the decorations.."

Almost as a tribute to Nashville Christmases past, there is also an outdoor nativity display from 5 to 10 p.m. daily on the hotel grounds. And all this is just the beginning, as Opryland has plenty of holiday shows to attend (including the annual Country Christmas show, as well as ICE! featuring A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Rockette Show from Radio City Music Hall in New York City).

According to THE TENNESSEAN article, at Opryland you can also place an e-mail to Santa and take a trip through a 1950s Christmas with a live band, dancing girls, icebergs and Santa's lost sleigh (must be a very different '50s from what many of us grew up in :)).

Many of the outdoor light displays are free of charge as you drive your car around the Opryland complex. But the traffic stretches for miles so be ready to take your time!

There are of course paid tickets available for the shows, while parking to go inside the Hotel or to attend the shows can range from $18 to $25.

Do you have Nashville Christmas memories to share? Please leave them below and come back to this blog next week for another special Nashvillle Christmas memory from Christmas Eve, 1968.

A White Christmas!

Nashville in the 1960s

A White Christmas!

It's doesn't happen very often in Nashville. In fact, it hasn't occurred here since way back in 1969. That's 40 years ago!

According to an Associated Press article (November 26) I found at NewsChannel5.com there's only about a 13% chance of it happening this Christmas (about the same odds as Louisville, KY and surprisingly slightly better than the odds this year for New York City, NY which are only 10%).

I do clearly remember the White Christmas snow in Nashville in 1969. Having started college at Peabody that fall, I was no longer active in Sing-Out South, but that didn't keep a bunch of us, both current and former cast members,(Molly, Henry, Gene, Debbie and others) from the getting together and going to Midnight Mass (I found my non-Catholic friends particularly liked staying up late and attending this service).

My memory was we went to the chapel at the old Saint Thomas Hospital where then-Father Ed Johnston said the Mass. It was wonderful gathering up and around the altar and seeing old friends, especially my high school friends who were coming home after their first semester away at college.

But it was also a bitter-sweet time. One of my Father Ryan classmates had been killed in a single-car wreck just after coming home, and then my Aunt Dot Shelton died of a heart attack just few days later. We had buried her on December 24.

As I came home in a driving rain that night, the idea of a White Christmas didn't look very promising, but sure enough, when I got up in the morning, there was 2 inches of snow on the ground!

Now it used to snow a lot more in Nashville than it does today. In fact I can remember a White Christmas and a White New Years back in 1963 with big snowstorms blanketing the city with several inches of the white stuff twice in a week. So little did I realize on that December 25 morning so many years ago, I was looking at something that would not happen again in our town for at least 4 decades.

In the house I grew up in, "White Christmas" always meant this Christmas Album by Bing Crosby. My father purchased this LP back in the early 1960s, and it just wasn't Christmas until he brought out the record player, put it under the Christmas tree, and we started playing this album over and over again. How my father loved Bing Crosby!

Keeping with the tradition, it's still not Christmas in my house until Bing begins to sing, although now it's on a CD and usually I am playing it in my car or on my computer. So many memories of Christmas' long, long ago go through my mind every time I play it. Here, courtesy of YouTube, is the title song of the album, WHITE CHRISTMAS, as it first appeared in the movie HOLIDAY INN back in the 1940s....

To sum it all up, I would say December has always been a magic month for me, and not just because of Christmas.

My birthday is December 13th and my father's was the 14th. Now my grandson, Shaun, has a December 19th birthday (he will be 3 this year), while his dad (my son-in-law, Mike Rosenhagen) oberves his birth the very next day on December 20th.

How interesting and special to have the generations with their birthdays back to back on days during the holiday season in December!

Happy Holidays to all!

Please come back next week for another Sing-Out South holiday memory.

If you have any memories to leave please do so below or e-mail them to me. Thanks!

A Nashville Christmas Tradition For 57 Years!

This Friday evening (December 4) the city will officially kick off the Holiday Season with the annual Nashville Christmas Parade downtown, sponsored by Piedmont Gas. The festivities begin with the city's Tree Lighting ceremony in front of the Metro Courthouse.

Since the Parade is just about as old as I am, it's always been a part of my life. That includes when I was in Sing-Out South in December, 1966 when cast members helped build and performed on a float in the parade.

In the 1960s the parade was different. It was held on Sunday afternoons (that changed after the Tennessee Titans came to town). The parade route was also different, beginning at Centennial Park near Vanderbilt then coming downtown via West End Avenue and Broadway. To revive some memories, here's a video of the Nashville Christmas Parade from back in the 1960s, courtesy of YouTube and with a little Burl Ives thrown in to put you in the holiday spirit of Christmases long, long ago...

What I remember about being with SOS in the Christmas parade in 1966was it was pretty cold (things don't change, the temperatures will be in the 30s this year on Friday night). But even though I remember the sun was out in 1966, it was a long time to perform outside in just your Sing-Out stage uniform (dress shirts, ties and blazers for the guys, those A-line jumpers for the ladies).

Of course, we also performed the same songs over and over again (that what you do in a parade) and since we didn't have a sound system I think it was kind of hard for folks to really hear us especially with all the nearby bands in the parade.

Finally, the flat bed truck that was a part of our float was not built for a lot of people performing choreography on it. We included some parts of our SOS stage on the float, including those very heavy steps.

I don't think we had time to do any practicing on the float before the parade and it was something of a shock when we all started doing our movements and the float seemed to be suddenly moving and shaking so much some cast members almost fell off. I think we faked the choreography the rest of the way. :)

All this is probably why I don't remember Sing-Out South ever performing in the Christmas Parade again. We did receive a overall good response from folks along the parade route, but really,just like today,everyone comes to the Christmas Parade to see this guy, Santa Claus, not us....

I wish I had a photo of SOS on that Christmas Parade float. I do have a shot of the other float we made when we were in the 4th of July Parade in Kingston Springs. I think it's already posted here on the blog somewhere (check July).

I have some vague memories of being involved in making the Christmas Parade float. We were in the basement of the Barrys' home over on Clairmont Drive. I can't remember anything about what the float looked like or what the wording on it said. All I remember was doing the work while listening to the Vanderbilt basketball game.

Vanderbilt was playing at Western Kentucky that evening. It was the first game for the Commodores without one of their greatest players ever, Clyde Lee, who had graduated the year before. With Western dedicating its new Diddle Arena, nobody gave Vandy much of a chance in the game against the highly touted WKU squad. But Vanderbilt won anyway! Maybe I can't remember anthing else about that night because I was wrapped in the game. :)

I have confirmed all this by going to Vandy's basketball media guide and looking up the date and details of the game which was played on December 1,1966. That would have been just a few days before the Christmas Parade on the first Sunday in December that year.

Isn't it amazing how your mind work (or doesn't) to remember things!

My family is always amazed (and somewhat annoyed) that I can remember things by what sporting events were occurring at the time. If and when they read this posting, I know they'll be having those same feelings again. :)

Happy Holidays!

If you have SOS Christmas Parade memories to share please leave them below or e-mail them to me.

I will be back with another SOS Holiday memory story next week!

100 Oaks---The Place To Be Again

When we were all together in Sing-Out South, 100 Oaks was Nashville's first indoor shopping mall and THE place to be during the holiday season, especially beginning the day after Thanksgiving (Friday).

And now that Vanderbilt Medicial Center has opened a major clinic operation inside the old mall, it is once again the place to be as new restaurants, shops and other businesses are once again opening and flourishing in the area.

Sing-Out South performed often at 100 Oaks Mall in its early days, as you can see from the photo above. This picture most likely was taken during a show at 100 Oaks in the late 1960s. I can remember several appearances we made, including one where we did the show in the area right between the two escalators during Christmas season.

We got a lot of attention, but as I recall, since we were right at the front door, our performance tended to clog up people going in and out because they were stopping to listen to us sing, either just as they entered and right before they got on the escalator, or right after they came down from the upper level of the mall and were near the exit doors.

By the way, the entrance and the escaltors are still there and you can still get the feel of the old mall if you go out to Vanderbilt 100 Oaks. Here are some more photographs from our late '60s show there (courtesy of Alan Mayor). Remember you can click on these photos to make them larger and easier to see.

On the Sing-Out Express with Dave (Harry)Goodman in the foreground runnning the sound board.

We attracted quite a crowd that day.

More of the crowd listening to our performance at 100 Oaks mall.

Sing-Out South did lots of shows at area shopping centers besides 100 Oaks, including Belle Meade Plaza, Madison Square, Rose's in Murfreesboro and others. What memories do you have about those shows? Please feel free to share them below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the Road Again---Sing-Out Asia

It's been over 41 years since the members and families of Sing-Out South hosted the Sing-Out Asia cast for a show at West End High School on September 4, 1968.

Yet despite the years, that visit continues to touch us.

The latest examples are a couple of responses here on the blog that were sent in just a few days ago (they are under the posting concerning the passing of one of our beloved Sing-Out parents, Mr. Curry Barry).

The messages are from Rey Sayno, who says he was one of the guitarists for Sing-Out Asia. Chances are pretty good he is prominently featured in the photo below, which was taken by a photographer either by the Metro City Photographer or THE NASHVILLE BANNER newspaper, while the group was practicing before their show.

In the messages he posted, Rey Sayno offers his condolences to the Barry family and he thanks the Johnston family (Mama J and Bobby)for their hospitality in hosting him while he was in Nashville so many years ago. He also wants to let us know that Sing-Out Asia has reformed and has been performing concerts for the last two years all over Asia.

Wow!

The memories of the Sing-Out Asia visit in the fall of 1968 remain quite strong for some former Sing-Out South cast members and others who kept SOA members while they were in Nashville.

I related Mrs. Barry's memories in an earlier posting. Here are some others I gathered when I put together an article for THE TENNESSEAN a couple of years ago (2007). Perhaps most compelling were the rememberances of a young Tommy Sloan.

" In World War II my father was a 22-year old US soldier captured in the fall of the Phillipines. He endured the Bataan Death March and was a prisoner of war in Japan (1942-45). He welcomed the Sing- Out Asia cast member into our home, including conversing in Japanese. It was an extraordinary event for my family."

Then there are the memories of Shelia Stephenson Lindsey, a member of Cast C of UP WITH PEOPLE who just happened to be home for a visit when her family hosted some Sing-Out Asia cast members.

"My mom was a host. She recalls make them a rice dish and how hungry those boys were! They gobbled up that rice faster than anything we'd seen in a long time. There were three boys staying in our home as I recall, but I don't remember their names. I got to see their show and it was so special that I was in town during their visit. Good memories."

After writing my article for THE TENNESSEAN, I had my own personal contact from a former Sing-Out Asia member. Atek Jacinto was the Assistant Music Director for the cast in 1968, part of a 12-member Phillippine contigent of singers and instrumentalists.

Somehow he found my article on line and contacted me through THE TENNESSEAN. He asked me to send him all the photos and information I had on the SOA visit, including the remembrances of the former SOS cast members and their families, which I did.


Here is one, final, amazing twist to the ongoing story of Sing-Out Asia's visit here. Not long after I wrote THE TENNESSEAN article about Sing-Out Asia and I was contacted by Mr. Jacinto, the new Up With People cast visited Nashville. I attended their show which was held at the Acuff Theatre at Opryland on St. Patrick's Day (March 17), 2007.

After the show, I met one of the UWP cast members who was from Japan. Her name was Madoka Tatsuno. I told her about the visit of Sing-Out Asia here in 1968. She became very excited because, as we both quickly realized, her mother had been a member of that cast and now here was her daughter in the same city many years later, again spreading that Up With People spirit.

It was an awesome moment!

I took down her e-mail address and sent her the photos and the other materials I have from that 1968 Sing-Out Asia show to share with her mother. A few months later on May 16, I got a wonderful e-mail back from her, telling me how excited and grateful both she and her mom were to receive my information.

Here's what she said: "Thank you for your support and information about Sing-Out Asia. I went back home and talked with my mom about you. She was very excited to see the pictures and to know of the amzing coincidence from Nashville.She told me she joined (a Sing-Out Asia reunion)in the Phillipines and met many friends in her cast last year.

She is keeping the UWP spirit even now. And you have inspired my mom more!! I appreciate the coincidence and opportunity to know you in Nashville."

How amazing that something that happened one night so many years ago when Sing-Out Asia performed in Nashville, can still invoke such wonderful memories!

If you have memories of the Sing-Out Asia visit please feel free to leave them below.

Christmas Village!

It was 43 years ago this very day (November 11, 1966) that the NASHVILLE BANNER carrried the photo above (featuring Sing-Out South Cast Director Ted Overman) with a cutline promoting the upcoming performance of Sing-Out South at the Christmas Village charity event.

Now a Nashville tradition in its 49th year, Christmas Village was just getting started back then as an holiday fund-raiser for the Nashville Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity raising money for its charities.

With more than 200 merchants from all around the country coming to town for the latest edition of Christmas Village this coming weekend (November 13-15),even more money will be added to the $6.6 million that has been raised in the past 48 years for charities such as the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, which serves persons challenged by communication-related disorders.

Back in 1966, Christmas Village was held at Nashville's Hippodrome
on West End Avenue. According to an article by George Zepp in THE TENNESSEAN on November 8, 2006, the Hippodrome was the city's arena of its day (1906-1968) operating for some 62 years.

It was Nashville's favorite place to roller skate, attend big band and other musical shows along with dances, even Vanderbilt home basketball games were held there (in the days before Vandy built its Memorial Gym).

I can remember attending many pro wrestling contests there as well as seeing the Harlem Globetrotters perform in the mid-60s. I also got my hair cut in a little barber shop (called Joe's Barber Shop) which was right between the Hippodrome and the Western Auto Store (you can look for it in the photo above).

Trade shows and fund raising fairs such as Christmas Village were also held here. And while the Hippodrome reportedly boasted 40,000 square feet, the one thing I remember most about Sing-Out South performing at Christmas Village was how crowded we were being confined into our booth space. We were bunched in so close together, it was kind of difficult to do all the choreography without bumping into the person next to you.

After the Hippodrome closed and was demolished in 1968 (for the present-day Holiday Day Inn-Vanderbilt where my wife and I had our wedding reception in 1974) Christmas Village has been held for many years in the Women's Buildings at the State Fairgrounds. But now that the Fairgrounds is closing next June, the site for Christmas Village for its 50 anniversary edition is in some doubt.

Let's hope something can be worked out to keep this wonderful annual event a part of Nashville's holiday tradition!

Marlene!

During the years I have been active in trying to find former Sing-Out South cast mates, one person's name which consistently comes up is, Marlene Echols. It seems everyone has wanted to know where she is, and what she is doing these days.

Now you have that chance!

I am happy to say, thanks to my cousin, Gene Nolan who tracked down her contact information, we are back in touch with Marlene, who is now Marlene Echols Kinnard. She is living in the Townsend area outside Knoxville, TN. She tells Gene she would be happy to hear from her former SOS and Up With People friends and cast members.

Some of you will remember Marlene attended our SOS Reunion at the Maxwell House Hotel back in 1989. But unfortunately we had lost touch when we had our 40th reunion in 2006.

Now I have her home and e-mail addresses, which I will be adding to our SOS list and which I will be recirculating soon to all of you on our roster.

Marlene Echols(far left playing guitar) sings in female quartet including Gail Goodman (obscured), Debbie Jones and Karen Davis during show at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon in the fall of 1966.

Marlene was a member of the original cast of Sing Out South. She attended the Action Now! Sing-Out Conference in Estes Park, CO in June,1966, and then traveled the rest of the summer with one of national casts. She returned to Nashville to continue her high school education and re-joined Sing-Out South.

A vibrant and,at times, an outspoken personality, she could more than hold her own during our "bull sessions" when we discussed the important issues on our minds. That included discussions with folks like Henry Swider or Bob Sharp who you see below going at it back in the day. This photo was taken by Alan Mayor (as was the shot at the top of this posting)

If you have memories or stories you like to share about Marlene please feel free to leave them below. Or Marlene, if you are visiting the site, please leave your thoughts and memories below to share with us.

We are so happy to be back in touch!

A November to Remember....

It was a November to remember 43 years ago when Sing-Out South hosted a state-wide conference of Tennessee Sing-Outs at West End High School here in Nashville.

It began on Halloween, 1966 and continued through November 2 with Cast C of Up With People coming to town for the event and performing school assemblies over two days at Battle Ground Academy, Belmont College, Father Ryan High School and Overton High.

I remember two things very distinctly about this conference. First, watching with great excitement as the members of other Tennessee Sing-Out groups (Lebanon, Springfield, DeKalb County, Memphis & Knoxville) disembarked from their buses by the dozens, and then all of us coming together to practice songs on stage at West.

My second vivid memory is when Cast C came to Father Ryan a few days later. Nashville had a freak early November snow storm and several inches of the white stuff covered the ground and streets. Some other schools I think had already closed. But because Up With People was coming, our principal Father James Hitchcock kept Ryan open until the assembly was over.

I am not sure all the students were happy about that, but I remember Cast C got a good response that day.

He's Been Gone Four Years Now....

If it wasn't for Dan Skuce I am not sure there ever would have been a Sing-Out South. He was the person left behind in late January, 1966 with the prime responsibility of molding together one of the first local Sing-Outs in the wake of the national cast's (Sing-Out '66) triumphant tour of Nashville.

He was perhaps a strange selection for the job. For one thing, he was Canadian (and so here in the South, we thought he talked funny). Secondly, I am not sure Dan had much of a musical pedigree. In fact, I am not sure he could carry a tune in a bucket. But he had such energy, spirit and enthuisiam.

And so, it was his powerful personality that in many ways helped mold together several hundred Middle Tennessee high school and college students into one of the finest singing and performing groups I have ever seen or heard in this town.

Dan Skuce, at the microphone, on stage during a Sing-Out South rehersal at the War Memorial Auditorium in February, 1966 (click to enlarge)

I think one of the finest tributes paid to Dan's work with Sing-Out South was how many of our cast members were recruited to join the expanded national casts after the Action Now! Conference in Estes Park, CO in the summer of 1966. But he also trained us well who stayed behind, and Sing-Out South continued to be a major force (along with a lot of other Tennesseans) in the Sing-Out and Up With People movement throughout the late 1960s and up until Sing-Out South ended in 1971.

After Sing-Out South, Dan repeated his great work with other local sing-outs across the country, but we like to think he always did his best work here in Music City....

Dan could always hold an audience. Here he is during one of Sing-Out South's earliest pratices held in the gym of the old Father Ryan High School.

We lost Dan to cancer four years ago today (October 26, 2005). In the weeks leading up to his death, and at the request of his friend Jaine Place, I was fortunate enough to be one of those who wrote him a letter of thanks for what he meant in my life. Here are some excerpts of what I wrote:

"One of the key people who shaped my life is you, Dan. Thank you.
...If you had not been willing to come and stay in Nashville in the winter of 1966 to mold together the cast of Sing-Out South, I am sure the rest of my high school days and the rest of my life might have been very different. I think it was in Sing-Out for the first time that I learned to dedicate myself to something greater, something beyond myself.

"...I strongly suspect I am not the only one who feels this way about their Sing-Out South experience. It was a wonderful time, filled with wonderful people...We may not have changed the world, but we changed ourselves, and mostly for the good, I think."

The intensity that was Dan Skuce.

If you have memories or stories you'd like to share about Dan Skuce, please feel free to leave your comments below.

Rest in peace, Dan.

Words To Live By...And Always Remember

I mentioned in the previous post how the recent funeral Mass for Mr. Curry Barry was such a wonderful celebration of his life and of the entire Barry family as well.

Sons Rick and Phil shared some great stories about growing up in the Barry household (complete with 9 children) back in the
1960s. Phil closed their comments with a poem sent to him by his father. It's by an unknown author, and Phil said he edited it a bit to reflect his life with his mom and dad, who were also such special folks to so many of us in Sing-Out South:

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING....

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang pictures of all your children all over the den and I immediately knew you loved us most.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed "Speedy" the squirrel and the foxes on the beach, and I learned it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you made Christmas cookies and bourbon balls to give to all our neighbors and I learned that the little things can be special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always talk to, and I learned to trust.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to our cousin who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing, and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how hard you worked, even when you did not feel good, and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grew up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good person.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say: "Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking."


How true this poem is in capturing the lives of Mr. & Mrs. Barry, and for that matter, so many of the "cast parents" we had in Sing-Out South.

We've Lost Another Of Our Wonderful Sing-Out Parents

I received word late last night (Friday, October 16) that Curry Barry, the father of Sing-Out South cast members, Buster and Beverly Barry, had passed away at the age of 87. According to another one of his children, Brazo, Mr. Barry died from complications following a recent surgery.

At this time, all I know about arrangements is that the funeral will be Tuesday, October 20 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation Catholic Church on West End Avenue. I will post more details as I receive them.

UPDATED INFORMATION (Sunday October 18): Mr. Barry's funeral mass will be at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, October 20 at the Cathedral with Father Joe Pat Breen as the celebrant. Vistation with the family will be on Monday, October 19 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.(with a rosary at 7:00 p.m.)at Marshall Donnelly Funeral Home located next to Centennial Park.

The Barrys were one of the very active families in Sing-Out South from the very beginning. Buster, the oldest son, was a member of the original cast of Sing-Out South, and traveled with Cast B of Up With People beginning in the summer of 1966 following the National Sing-Out Conference in Estes Park, CO.

Buster continued with the national cast and left Father Ryan to take his junior and senior years of high school on the road with Up With People, although Father James Hitchcock, the principal at Ryan, made sure both Buster and Robbie Rourke, another Father Ryan student traveling with UWP, got the chance to come back and graduate with their Ryan classmates in the spring of 1967 (Robbie Rourke) and the spring of 1968 (Buster Barry).

After Buster left Sing-Out South his sister,Beverly,the oldest daughter,joined the cast and stayed with the show for several years while she attended Saint Bernard Academy.

Beverly Barry is fourth from the left in this photo, next to Jill Walters. Others in this photo are (from the left) Kenny Swider, Lee Lee Luken Dorough and Mary Jane Varley.

Beverly & Buster's mom, Mrs. Marian Barry, was one of the cast mothers who was almost always there for practices along with helping to car-pool cast members to both shows and rehersals. She also helped store and carry around a lot of the Sing-Out materials (record albums, books, etc) that we sold at our shows. I can remember that old blue Chevy Impala station wagon the Barrys had filled to overflowing with cast members and SOS sales materials as we set off for one more show.

Mr.Barry was also a frequent attendee at practices and shows, and their home on Clairmont Place just off Woodmont Blvd. was often a site for cast members to hang out(even though the Barrys already had a house full of children of their own).

Of course, when one of the national casts of Up With People would come to town, the Barrys always took some into their home. That also included when the cast of Sing-Out Asia arrived in Nashville in September, 1968.

Sing-Out Asia practices on stage at West End High School in Nashville in September, 1968

Here's what Mrs. Barry once told me about the time Sing-Out Asia came to town.

"I remember it well. We had six boys (from Sing Out Asia) staying at our house on Clairmont Place and I had to farm out six of my own children to neighbors (to find them a place) to sleep. Of course, they all came home to eat. It was a hot summer and we managed to find swim trunks for the boys and took them to the Knights of Columbus swimming pool (on Bosley Springs Road near what is now St. Thomas Hospital) for a swim. They really seemed to enjoy that. One (Sing Out Asia) cast member spoke almost no English and I spoke no Japanese. But we managed to communicate through sign language."

The Barry's frequently opened their home to others...even on Christmas Day. I fondly remember going by there every Christmas Day for their Open House while I was in the cast. It remains one of my favorite holiday memories growing up.

Mr. Barry was a 1940 graduate of Father Ryan and retired after a 40-year career with the Clements Paper Company. He was an Air Force veteran and a 50-year member of the Knights of Columbus. Memorials may be made either to Father Ryan High School or the Sisters of Mercy Convent. He and Mrs. Barry were married for 61 years and had 10 children and 12 grandchildren.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Barry family at this difficult time. If you have any thoughts or memories to share, please feel free to do so below.

May Mr. Barry rest in peace.

The Hermitage Hotel Hits The Century Mark

Nashville's Hermitage Hotel is celebrating its 100th birthday.

Like many places, of at least a certain age throughout the community, it's a venue that Sing-Out South had the honor to perform in several times back in the 1960s.

The first time I can remember performing there was for the ZONTA International women's group which held a major convention in the city in October, 1966. I can remember waiting in line just outside the Hermitage Ballroom with the rest of the cast just before we ran on stage.

It was one of the first big shows we did that fall. It came after we reformed the cast, under the leadership of Eddie Lunn and Ted Overman,following the national Sing-Out conference in Estes Park, CO where a large number of SOS cast members were recruited to join the national cast.

I had not performed on stage very much up until that time, so I remember being a bit nervous. I think the show went well. Frankly, the other thing I remember was trying to catch a World Series score while we were waiting to go on stage. It was the year (1966) the Baltimore Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball fans were kind of in shock about that. It was also a time when World Series games were played in daytime, which almost never happens anymore.

The only other record I have of Sing-Out South performing at the Hermitage Hotel was for a meeting of the Downtown Nashville Kiwanis Club on June 14, 1968. I have no memory of that show. Does anybody else? There are other downtown civic clubs I have records of SOS performing for over the years, and it's possible we did those shows at the Hermitage, but I have no records to confirm that.

The Hermitage was one of several grand hotels that once graced downtown. For a look back, courtesy of YouTube, here's a portion of a documentary done by WNPT,Nashville's Public Television station, entitled "Memories of Downtown Nashville"......

Seeing Mayor Richard Fulton in the video above reminds me of the key role he played in turning around the fortunes of the Hermitage Hotel after it fell into a deep decline in the late 1970s and early '80s. It was Mayor Fulton who actually had Metro Codes close the hotel and force its out-of-town ownership to sell the building to another group, which wished to restore it.

That has taken several years and several owners to fully accomplish, but now the Hermitage has once again been restored to grandeur and it has acheieved multi-star status nationally. The lobby is a knock-out to behold, as well as the Hermitage Grill downstairs where once upon a time band leader Francis Craig (Near You) and Dinah Shore performed.

And then there's another somewhat unique hotel amenity that was just named the best in the nation. Here's the news from YouTube....

For those of you still in Nashville, I encourage you to come downtown and re-visit the Hermitage. For those of you who have left and not been to Nashville for several years, when you get back to town, put the Hermitage Hotel on your list of places you just have to see while you are here.

There are lots of wonderful new things to see in Nashville these days, facilities like the Sommet Center and LP Field which we could never have dreamed of back in the '60s. But sometimes the oldies but goodies like the Hermitage Hotel are the best places of all to celebrate what is now Nashville.

(And no, the Hermitage is not a client of mine. However, did win a prize at church for an overnight stay there and breakfast in the Hermitage Grill. We will probably do that in April for our wedding anniversary and I can't wait).

Please leave your memories of the Hermitage or Sing-Out South below.

50 Years Ago....

I think I mentioned it in an earlier blog posting here, but I wanted everybody to know Shoney's Restaurants, one of our favorite places to eat and hang out when we were in Sing-Out South back in the mid-to-late 1960s, is celebrating its 50th birthday.

Mentioning this does get close to a bit of shameless self-promotion for me (since Shoney's is a client of my firm, DVL Public Relations & Advertising). But I don't work on the account, and besides everybody likes a party.

And that's what Shoney's is planning next Saturday, October 17.

Come to the original Shoney's restaurant location in Nashville out in Madison at 720 Gallatin Road from 10:00 A.M until Noon. More than 50 classic cars will be on display (much like the old days of 'cruising at Shoney's)along with music, specially prices menu items and birthday cake!

I don't think our old friend, the Shoney's Big Boy, will be there. Nor will some of dearly departed Sing-Out friends like Henry Swider, with whom I (and many others) spent many hours discussing (sometimes arguing) over the issues of the day at Shoney's, especially the old restaurant on Murphy Road.

I think Patty Mayer Higgins can tell the story about the time things got so heated, the manager asked us to leave. Heck, we'd already been there for quite a while, as I remember, and being kids without much money, we probably had only ordered some cokes and maybe a couple of hamburgers and fries. Or maybe it was a Slim Jim or the Big Boy hamburger, or a hot fudge cake or a sundae.

Yummm......makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Fun times, fun memories. If you'd like, leave your thoughts and memories below.

Smashville Is Back!

It's Opening Night in Nashville for the team's NHL hockey team, the Nashville Predators. Having won its opening game on the road against the Dallas Stars, early season expectations are up for the squad, which barely missed the Stanley Cup playoffs last year for the first time in a while. We will learn more tonight about this team as it plays the Colorado Avalanche.

Back when we were together in Sing-Out South in the mid-to-late
1960s, the concept of Nashville having a major-league NHL franchise would have been more than a bit far-fetched. But that wasn't because we didn't have a hockey team in town.

The Dixie Flyers played for nine seasons at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium as a member of the old Eastern Hockey League (EHL). And not surprisingly, Sing-Out South once performed at one of their games during a break between periods.

I remember being a part of the performance, and I have even been able to track down the date we did it: December 2, 1966. But beyond that, I have no memories. Do any of you? If so, please e-mail me or leave your memories below.

It's odd that I wouldn't remember more. I am pretty sure it would have been a strange experience. We would have had to walk out a bit on the ice, and probably perform on some rugs or something put over the frozen surface so we wouldn't fall (especially trying to do our choreography).

And what did we do for music and musical instruments, especially our electric guitar or piano? And, for that matter, how did they mic us so we could be heard? Anybody remember?

The season we entertained at hockey game was a very good one for the Dixie Flyers. They were in the midst of winning their second straight EHL Championship and they remained very good for the next several years losing out in the playoff finals during the 1968-69 season.

Unfortunately, Nashville then, as it remains, is a "non-traditional" hockey market, and the Flyers struggled for fans, finally folding as a franchise after the 1971 season (about the same time I think Sing-Out South disbanded). Here's a video I found on YouTube that is a look back at the old Eastern Hockey League that operated from 1954 to 1973. You can also learn in the video where to order old jerseys on line, including ones for the Dixie Flyers....

There is some irony in all this. It was because the NHL expanded beyond its "Original Six" teams, that the Nashville Dixie Flyers and the rest of the ECHL was squeezed out of existence in the early 1970s. And now it is because the NHL has continued to expand, that Nashville again has a franchise, this time in the NHL itself.

Let's Play Hockey!

The Cars of Sing-Out South: Jerry Baker's Blue Mustang

During the years we were in Sing-Out, there was no hotter car on the market than the Ford Mustang. It had taken the country by storm when it was first introduced in late 1964 and sales continued to be hot throughout the mid-to-late '60s.

Jerry Baker of Sing-Out South had a car that looked a lot like the blue-colored one above and I remember riding in with him to all kinds of SOS shows and practices and even out to his home in Kingston Springs.

Mustangs of this era are still highly prized. Here, courtesy of YouTube, is what one owner has lovingly done to redo his classic 1966 blue Mustang coupe....

Looking at the inside of Mustang really takes me back. It also reminds me of Jerry bringing it down to Atlanta a couple of times in the summer of 1969, after I had left the SOS cast.

Once, I think, was on Fourth of July weekend when he and my cousin Gene Nolan, along with Henry Swider and Bob Sharp came down to visit me while I attended a broadcast school, Career Academy. Believe it not, while the rest of us of kicked around Atlanta for the day (gawking at the new-fangled lobby & elevators of the Hyatt Regency, going to the Varsity Restaurant and watching the Alanta Fourth of July parade), we also took Bob Sharp out to the Atlanta International Speedway, where he attended a rock festival.

That festival wound up having a lot of the same groups and bands that performed later that summer at Woodstock. Now if any of you knew Bob in those days (pretty straight-laced with short hair), the idea of him attending a long-haired rock concert might seem a little far-fetched, but he did it.

Bob Sharp celebrates his birthday in December 1968 as Rick Jolly looks on. Does Bob look like someone about to attend a rock concert?

My other memory of Jerry's blue Mustang and Atlanta came one other weekend that same summer of 1969, when he came down and we went to Stone Mountain and the Atlanta airport, where we saw LeAnna Whitehead's older sister come back to the U.S. from being overseas. Later that summer, I had my first airplane trip leaving Atlanta to come back to Nashville. I was almost 18. My how times change. My children and grand children took their first plane trips before they could walk.

I also attended my first major league baseball game with Jerry on that trip. We watched the Giants and Braves play at old Fulton County Stadium. We just missed seeing Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays hit a grand slam off Hall-of-Famer Phil Niekro. We missed it because Niekro, a knuckleball pitcher, wild pitched in a run with the bases loaded before Mays hit the next pitch over the center field wall!

That's Jerry Baker right in the middle of the photo above (wearing a tie). He and the other SOS cast members (along with Mama J, Bob Johnston's mom) are manning a booth at the Junior Achievement Fair. The Fair was held (and SOS performed) each year at the Municipal Auditorium. Based on some of the posters and materials on display, I would say this photo was taken in late 1968 or early 1969 after we attended the second World Sing-Out Festival the previous summer.

In addition to being on stage in the cast, Jerry, for a time, was also in charge of ordering, handling and selling all our PACE magazines, record albums, books and other items. I can remember helping him transport the many boxes of materials we had to sell. That Mustang really wasn't all that big a car to transport that stuff, but we managed to find a way to do it(many times with the help of the Barry family's big blue Chevy Impala station wagon).

More on that in our next installment of the the Cars of Sing-Out South.

If you have a favorite car or an SOS memory to share, leave it by just clicking on the link below.