De Ja Vu All Over Again

West End High School in Nashville (now a junior high) holds lots of Sing-Out South memories.

I was reminded of that a week or so ago when I moderated a community meeting there to discuss the pros and cons of building a new convention center in downtown Nashville.

The session was held in the school's auditorium which is remarkable unchanged from the days back in the mid-to-late 1960s when Sing-Out South often practiced there. It appears all the orginal auditorium chairs on both the lower level and up in the balcony are still in use. Despite the passage of time (at least 40 years), the seating appears to be in good condition for the most part, although there were a few chairs I would be hesistant to sit in because of fears I might get some splinters in my backside.

What really brought me back when I arrived in the West auditorium was a row of flags across the front of balcony. Right in the middle was the flag of Japan and suddenly I had strong memories of the evening of September 4, 1968 when we hosted the Sing-Out Asia cast for a special concert.

Sing-Out Asia was not the only group hosted by Sing-Out South at West High. From October 31 to November 2, 1966 we hosted a regional Sing-Out conference that attracted cast members from all across the state of Tennessee. Cast C of Up With People also attended and performed assemblies at high schools all across the city while here. The shows were performed even as Nashville was struck by a freak fall snow storm.

A little over a year later in November, 1967 Sing-Out South hosted a regional Sing-Out conference at West attracting over 300 performers from 14 casts in 5 states (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Missouri). The conference was concluded with a joint show performed by all the casts (after several hours of practice). The show was performed at the War Memorial Auditorium downtown.

The War Memorial is another facility that holds lots of Sing-Out memories. We will talk about those in a future posting. Meanwhile you have any West High Sing-Out memories, please e-mail them to me or post them by clicking on the link below.