If there's one thing we got plenty of while we were on David Island's for the First World Sing-Out Festival in August of 1967, it was exercise. And it wasn't just playing volleyball such as the photo above.
What remains most infamous in my mind (and I suspect for others) was the manditory early morning calisthenics we had to do on the parade field...jumping jacks, push-ups, etc. Hey, man, like any teenager, I was barely awake and I was doing exercises? Oh well, we survived, and I guess it gave us a better appetite for breakfast.
One time while we were on the Island our exercise got a little out of hand. We had these really big medicine balls to push around. One of the cast members, Jackie Dodson somehow got on top of the ball, then lost her balance and fell right on her tail bone. It was really painful and she had to leave the Island and ultimately went home early from the conference with her mom who had come as a chaperone.
This is what the ID badges we had to wear looked like (thanks, Alan Mayor for taking this photo). I can't remember exactly why we needed them. I guess to get into the shows and the mess hall for meals (although I doubt they had many folks swimming over or getting smuggled into the conference, but who knows?).
One day we did get the chance to get off the Island and do a little sightseeing (and the girls did some shopping as you can see from the picture above) in nearby New Rochelle, NY. In the photo are above are me (in the center) along with Patty Mayer (right) and Sandra Vaughn on the left. I have no memory of who is blocking her face in the shot nor who took the photo.
After 10 days at the World Sing-Out Festival, it was back on the bus for the two-day trip back to Nashville. That's Mr. Raymond Cannon (Dave's father), one of our chaperones who is walking the aisles (you can only see his back) in this photo.
You might also notice what looks like a strand of beads or something hanging down in the shot. Those are pop-tops off cans of Coca-Cola we brought while on the Island. Cokes in cans were a relatively new deal in 1967, and unlike today's more environmentally-conscious time, to open the can you had to peal off a pop-top. Don't ask me why, but we decided to collect them. By the time we left the conference we had a string of these pop tops that stretched at least the length of the bus as I remember it. While I remember a lot of Coke machines on the Island, there were often empty, which was frustrating at times. Nevertheless, one of our cast members, the late guitarist Jerry Austin could always seem to find a Coke and I think everytime I saw him he had one in his hand. Jerry lost his life recently here in Nashville trying to be a goof smaritan and help a woman being mugged. He is missed.
When we arrived back in Nashville on August 23, 1967, I think everyone was glad to be back home and fired up to see the other SOS cast members there to greet us.
We'd all had a great time at the Festival and we couldn't wait to add some of the new songs we had seen and heard the national UWP casts perform (The World Is Your Hometown, Gee, I Am Looking Forward To The Future, and New York City come to mind) along with some of the songs from the foreign casts (Harambee, Panama and others).
And then we were already planning how to go back to Fort Slocum and David's Island the following year in 1968 to attend the Second World Sing-Out Festival. More on that in future posts.
Dave Cannon sent me an e-mail with some thoughts to share about the World Sing-Out Festival.
ReplyDelete"First year at David's Island, it was a gym that we stayed in (the SOS guys). Remember soccer between the beds?
I have several other strong memories of two times on the Island.
One of the strongest is of the first time I saw "Mr. Brown Comes Down The Hill" (an MRA movie). Do you remember the song that was written about the film? "What You Gonna Do When Mr. Brown Comes Down?"
Finally, do you remember the bombshell that greeted us (in 1968) when we were told that UWP was then separate from Moral Re-Armament?"
Thanks, Dave for sharing those memories. Now I do remember playing in-door soccer between the beds. When I reminded my cousin Gene Nolan about it, he remembered colliding with Rick Jolly, twisting his ankle and then having to go to the infirmary and staying on crutches for a few days.
Ouch!
Now that you mention it, I do remember the Mr. Brown movie (wasn't the script written by Peter Howard of MRA?)I also remember the song, but I don't remember the lyrics beyond the first line you quoted.
I certainly remember the 1968 bombshell about UWP and MRA. I think it took us the rest of the time we were at the conference to figure that one out.
If ayone else has any memories, please feel free to share!
I was there in 1968, it was a fantastic experience. I came with the group from Kansas.
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