The Sing-Out South Football Game/Cast vs. Crew

Other than New Year's Day with all its bowl games, I can't think of an American holiday more identified with football than Thanksgiving.

I guess that's why as the holiday approached this year, I was reminded of the SOS football game between the male members of the cast and the stage crew. We held it in a vacant lot near Vanderbilt just off Natchez Trace (I think either the Student Recreation Center or one of the tennis facilities are there today). I can't remember when we played, but it was probably in the summer of 1968.

Of course, we played touch football.

And the Crew killed us.

I think they may have practiced and developed some plays, including some deep reverses in the backfield that always had us chasing the wrong guy (the one without the ball) while the other player scored.

Except for one play which remains one of my favorite Sing-Out and overall personal sports memories.

For some reason, we required any team that scored to attempt the extra point. Since no one on either side was a kicker (and we had no goal posts anyway), we had to run a play from scrimmage for the conversion.

On this particular extra point attempt, I broke into the backfield while the Crew tried to execute another reverse. This time, I figured out what was coming, intercepted the lateral and took off running for the other end zone.

For the first (and only) time in my life, I outran everyone (including my cousin, Gene) all the way down the field....only to be told that it didn't count. While the defense can return an extra point for two points now, in those days you couldn't, so my dash went for absolutely nothing!

I was exhausted....and not very happy!

Jimmy Wilson, one of my Father Ryan classmates, was the referee that day, and he did remark on what I did when he wrote in my senior yearbook. "That's the way it goes," he said. Which pretty well sums up my athletic career after being blessed with the four Ss, that being short, small, slow and skinny (at least back then).

I don't have any particular Thanksgiving memories surrounding Sing-Out South. Much like the photo above of Norman Rockwell's famous SATURDAY EVENING POST Magazine cover, Thanksgiving is a time for family, so we didn't perform any shows or hold any practices during the holday weekend.

But the warm memories of the people I met and became friends with in Sing-Out are still very important to me. And that's why I am looking forward to planning our 45th reunion to be held sometime in 2011. if you'd like to help or have a memory to share, let me know.

In the meantime....Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Practice, Practice, Practice

While we talk a lot on this blog about the shows we did all over Nashville, Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky, as well as the trips we made to various national conferences, we really spent much more time together practicing the show usually twice a week (Tuesday nights and Saturday afternoons).

That includes a lot of time we spent at the National Guard Armory (seen above) where we practiced at the old Quanset Hut there as well as in the main Armory Auditorium on Sidco Drive as well.

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Most of the very early practices (as seen above) were held at what is now Belmont University. But frankly, from the beginning we held practices all over town. Here's a list of where the original cast practiced from its creation at the end of January, 1966 until the cast left for the ACTION NOW! conference Estes Park Colorado in early June of that same year

Belmont University
Father Ryan Gym (Elliston Place campus)
St. Bernard High Gym
Hillsboro High Auditorium
East High Auditorium
West End High School Auditorium
War Memorial Auditorium
Issac Litton High School
National Guard Armory
David Lipscomb University

Even after the original SOS Cast Director Dan Skuce (seen above) had departed, the tradition of practicing all over Nashville continued when the cast reformed in July, 1966 after the Estes Park conference. It began in the gym at Christ The King Catholic Church grammar school on July 13, 1966. From there the practice sites moved around although in some cases we practiced for several months at a time (and usually stored our stage and our sound equipment there). Those sites included:

St. Thomas School of Nursing Gym & Auditorium
Trevecca Nazarene College
The Boiler Supply Company on Craighead Avenue
First Baptist Church Downtown Activity Building
The National Guard Armory Quanset Hut

Other practice sites included places we had been before along with some new sites:

West End High School
East High School
Main Street Commerce Union Bank in East Nashville
100 Oaks Activity Room
St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church
Apollo Jr. High School
Woodmont Baptist
I doubt that's a complete list but we did do a practice in one very unusual location...Henry Swider's backyard at 50 Vaughn Gap's Road near St. Henry's Catholic Church. I think it was in the late spring or summer of 1967 or '68.

That's Henry Swider pictured above, wearing the football jersey. He was the Director of the Crew and often kept the stage and our audio equipment in the basement of his home with the help of his Dad and other members of the Crew. I guess that's why we once held practice there (maybe we couldn't find anyplace else that Saturday).

At any rate, I don't remember anyone complaining about it, although you know with all the stage and sound equipment being used, it had to be pretty loud. Today, there's no question, someone would have complained and called the police, but it was a very different time back then, as we were learning our craft and enjoying our time together.

Practice on stage at Saint Bernard Academy in the winter of 1966

Practicing "WE VOLUNTEER" for one of the first times during practice at Father Ryan High School in the winter of 1966.

If you have any practice memories to share or if we've missed some sites you remember please leave us a comment or drop me an e-mail at pat.nolan@dvl.com.

Nashville's Christmas Village Turns 50

One of Nashville's great holiday traditions, Christmas Village, celebrates its 50th year this coming week. Founded in 1961 by the Nashville Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club, all proceeds go to benefit the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts and other Pi Beta Phi charities.

For Christmas Village this is where it all began back in the 1960s, Nashville's venerable Hippodrome on West End Avenue just across from Centennial Park. And this is where Sing-Out South performed as a part of the Christmas Village festivities in November, 1966. See the photo and cut line below from THE NASHVILLE BANNER featuring some of the Christmas Village volunteers and SOS Cast Director Ted
Overman creating their own Victorian Christmas scene...


The photo above gives an inside look at the old Hippodrome, which normally was used as a roller skating rink and sports arena. But with so many booths squeezed inside along the floor for Christmas Village, I remember how crowded we were doing the show there. Our choreography was a bit bumpy that day.

When the Hippodrome was torn down to make way for the Vanderbilt Holiday Inn in the early 1970s, Christmas Village moved to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds where for many years now it has transformed the Women's Buildings there into a shopper's paradise...

Frankly that scene looks a lot like how crowded it was when SOS performed there. Some things never change much, I guess. But ironically, as Christmas Village observes a half century of spreading holiday shopping cheer, another move seems to be in the making as it appears likely (the Metro Council approving) that Christmas Village 2011 will be held at the city's new Expo Center at the old Hickory Hollow Mall in Antioch just off I-24.