Memorial Day---1967

If there's an American holiday perfectly suited to the music and message of Sing-Out South and Up With People (along with the 4th of July)it is Memorial Day.

That was particularly true in May, 1967 when Sing-Out South produced a 30-minute television special entitled "A Memorial For Tomorrow" at the studios of WSIX-TV, Channel 8 on Murfreesboro Road. The show was directed by Don Elliott, written and produced for TV by Bill Baird, Jr. with Bill Jones (father of SOS cast members Pam, Candy & Debbie)as production coordinator.

Here below is the pre-show publicity about the special (click to enlarge) as featured with a by-lined article by Jacque Stubbell and a color photograph in THE NASHVILLE BANNER on Saturday, May 27, 1967.The show aired on Sunday, May 28 at 1:30 p.m....

A second article in THE BANNER the following Monday (on Memorial Day itself) said the show was so well received that "due to public demand" it would be featured in an encore presentation at 10:30 p.m. that evening

This was quite a time for Sing-Out South and Up With People as WSIX-TV also aired earlier in the week prior to Memorial Day a 30-minute color TV special of the national cast.

Said A. Donovan Faust, Vice-President and General Manager of the station: "We feel that, especially at this time, with world conditions in such a state of unrest, it is highly appropriate to show the positive element of young people who are accepting today's responsibilities and molding a new and better tomorrow."

Indeed during May, 1967, tensions were rising in the Middle East with Syria mobilizing against Isreal and U.N. peacekeepers being asked to leave the area. In early June, the Six Days War began as seen in this video courtesy of YouTube.

As for our Memorial Day itself, it is perhaps the most solemn of American holidays honoring those who have fought and died to defend our liberties. While it's history dates back to the years following the Civil War, it was not an official national holiday back in 1967. That did not occur until 1971. Here's a brief history of the holiday from a video by Watch Mojo.com..

While Memorial Day continues to grow as a major American holiday, no video copy exists of our "Memorial For Tomorrow" TV special. However I do still have an audio copy of the show that was taped by an SOS cast member(I think it was Dave Goodman who was a part of the SOS stage and sound crew) when it aired back in 1967.

Harriet's & Bob's Excellent Adventure

After a going-away party the first weekend in May, Harriet and Bob Cates have been in the process of slowly moving to Costa Rica. Both are original members of Sing-Out South and also spent a number of years traveling all over the nation and the world with Up With People.

After spending a lot of their adult lives in Tennessee (particularly in Nashville), Bob and Harriet are ready for a new adventure in their new country.

After during some on-line research, I can see why they seem so excited to move there.There is one environmental group that considers Costa Rica first in the "Happy Planet Index." That index measures life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. In fact it "ranks Costa Rica first in the world in life satisfaction, and and has the highest happiest life years." The country also has an ecological footprint that is one-quarter of the United States. In fact,overall in this survey, the U.S. ranks 114 out of 147 countries. Courtesy of YouTube, here's a quick little visit to the wonders of Costa Rica....

Given what you've just seen no wonder both Harriet and Bob are already enjoying life in Costa Rica, even if the country has a number of volcanoes and even recently had a 6.2 earthquake that apparently did very little damage....

It is hoped that Harriet and Bob will be spending some time still coming back and forth to Nashville over the next few months, especially if we have a 45th Sing-Out South Reunion event sometime during 2011. And they have family still here in town, including Bob's brother Bill and Linda Blackmore Cates who were also active in Sing-Out and Up With People.

But for now, I can't think of a better way for Baby Boomers like ourselves to wish Harriet and Bob, all the best, just like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans did, singing "Happy Trails" until we meet again...

All the best to Pudge and to Bob, who hopefully have finally found their own way to their own paradise. Who knew that was somewhere "Up The Hollow" in Costa Rica?

We Volunteer!

As the waters from Nashville's historic and tragic Flood of 2010 slowly begin to recede, and the rest of the nation is finally becoming aware of what happened here May 1-3, the country is seeing a city of volunteers.

Literally thousands of citizens have joined organized efforts, or struck out on their own, to help those in need as overall damage estimates are now topping $1.5 billion and still rising as of Friday, May 7.

"The Volunteer State" was a nickname we acquired back in the nineteenth century when our soldiers volunteered in record numbers to fight both in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1848. For very different reasons today, it is gratifying to see that spirit to volunteer to protect those in need or in danger remains quite strong in our community...

Those of us who were in Sing-Out South from 1966 to 1971 remember how important the concept of being volunteers was to our cast. Not only did all of us participate in practices and perform our shows as volunteers, we sang about it in our songs.

When Sing-Out '66 first came to Nashville in January, 1966, the cast created and performed the song "The Volunteers of Tennessee" which Sing-Out South immediately added to its run of the show.

The song details how Tennessee got to be the Volunteer State. In addition the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, it also mentions the exploits of Davy Crockett at the Alamo, the crack markmanship of Tennessee soldiers and the many battles fought in Tennessee during in the Civil War, and finally the gallentry and courage of Sgt. Alvin York in World War I

Sing-Out South had its own signature song about volunteering. Written by musical director Bill Cates it was called simply "We Volunteer" and it began with a line that surely echoes today as we see thousands of Nashvillians, and others across the state, taking it to the streets to help local flood victims. That first line to the song says:

"We Volunteer, to show America that we care."


Sing-Out South members learn the words and movements to "We Volunteer" during an early cast practice at Father Ryan High School in the winter of 1966.

2010 Flood photos used courtesy of THE TENNESSEAN