Maybe my recent statement about school priorities is even validated: "I think co-curricular is even more important than academics." I further noted that I detested the word "academics." It suggests boredom, tedium and even pain. Pulled from my own memories? Perhaps.
Man, I wondered how this cast of kids could even memorize all the material! I mean, so voluminous. I'd have to conclude that I wouldn't have a prayer. So it was humbling to be in the audience.
The production nowadays even includes a "pit orchestra" - pretty elaborate. So polished and with such a thorough commitment by all. No fooling around.
Is there any fooling around by high school kids anymore? I ask because I remember a fair amount from when I went through the young phase. The talented kids of my day had to overcome distractions that were on the dark side of life like drugs. It was almost a status symbol to have word get around of being suspended from activities due to alcohol consumption. My how lax our elders could be.
Our elders escaped to various vices themselves but then they'd say "tsk tsk" to kids considering the same. I look at a really talented kid now and makes me wonder if the kid can stay free of the dark temptations. You might say "falling in with the wrong crowd." For whatever reasons, the parents of my generation were not good at protecting us.
We were challenged in trying to hold up high ideals. Or, we created our own sense of ideals that could irritate our parents, the prime example being protesting the Vietnam war. Michael Moore is in the news today (Sunday) for having said the U.S. killed four million Asians for no reason in Vietnam. So you might say the young of the '60s and '70s knew the proper things to be concerned about.
The older folks could be quite circumspect and hesitant about this. We got the song "Okie from Muskogee" from Merle Haggard which was actually intended as parody at first. I'm sure ol' Merle and his musicians did not care much if the song was misunderstood - money in the bank for them in the end. I'm sure they knew a song wasn't going to change anything anyway.
Elvis Presley was pressed to express skepticism about the war. You could see he was unnerved. I'm sure he was thinking "why should this be up to me (and others like me)?" He pleaded with us to remember that he was "just an entertainer." I remember those exact words.
Well, good luck if you wanted to communicate with the real power sources. The government had rhetoric all set for just holding back and letting the conflict play out. Until, the phenomenon of "fragging" in Vietnam reached a point where we had no choice but to leave. It was sinking our military objectives anyway, not to mention being unspeakably tragic on the face of it.
"Fragging" was where the servicemen would kill their own superior officers, most often colonels. They did not want to be led into engagement by superiors who stayed relatively safe by comparison, and who might be motivated by wanting to get their picture in their hometown paper. Tactics used would be out of the John Wayne model.
The maelstrom
Kids could get easily demoralized and drawn into self-destructive activities. So when I see the absolute treasure of the kids onstage now for the MAHS musical, I can't help but wonder if these kids might have gotten drawn into the maelstrom of the '60s and '70s dysfunction with the drugs and counterculture. "Falling in with a bad crowd."
And you know what? I will venture to say that the abundantly talented kids of today actually do stay on course. They stick with their ideals and all the proper standards. Undeterred you might say. They lift each other up.
So this is a very happy assessment to share on the morning after seeing "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" at the MAHS auditorium.
"Oliver!" back in 1970
I believe the first major musical in Morris school history was in 1970: "Oliver!" Billed as an "all-school musical" with a wide age range. It was presented at the art deco auditorium of the old, now-razed school. Where there was balcony seating! There was a hazard: the edge of the stage. Today with all the people walking around looking at their phones, what a hazard that would be! But it's gone now.
"Oliver" was a delight of a show. Ah, Mark Lammers as "Fagin!" Of course I attended.
Today we have the theater auditorium at MAHS which is to be differentiated from the "concert hall." We had a superintendent who had to tread in rough waters to even get the auditorium built! He would claim repeatedly in later years that the auditorium "almost got me fired." I had a friend who was amused at how Mr. Switzer made this point more than once in a conversation. So there was controversy.
Ironically there was zero controversy for getting the much superior concert hall built many years later. I think the solution has been over time to get more funding from higher levels than the local. We're talking "state" I guess. The "Minnesota Miracle?" Was that the first big step? Wendell Anderson?
"Wendy" had the reputation of leading the "Miracle" but his political career proved to be like a meteor, in other words flaming out and disappearing. Poof! He appointed himself to the U.S. Senate. My, the public had no indulgence for that. He resurrected his stature later on by getting appointed to the University of Minnesota board of regents.
I have to smile. Dean Johnson landed the same gig with the U after his political career crashed, in his case because of an embarrassing conflict with the state Supreme Court. Since then I have written about how political figures in some state of disgrace have "parachuted" onto the board of regents! We're not supposed to notice the infamy. "Nothing to see here."
Speaking of the board of regents, I wonder how they are assessing the future of UMM now. On the surface at least, UMM seems to be eroding at least by the numbers, wouldn't you say?
I am discouraged following UMM music as this once-proud discipline is now relying on "guests" and "ringers" to keep the public performances going. The last two performances have been super but not because of current students, that's for sure. And I'm also discouraged by such small audience sizes at the already-small recital hall. Man, how did this come to be?
By contrast, look how absolutely wonderful the arts are at our high school now! Nothing could underscore this more spectacularly than "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Jennie Odello is so talented it just makes me feel like an inferior human being. But that's fine. We look to the youth. Now they'll be continuing into adulthood in an America led by Donald Trump. We hope they can keep their ideals in this climate. However, I am not hopeful.
Addendum: "Oliver!" had kind of a left wing political bent. Surely you remember the song "Consider Yourself."
Consider yourself at homeConsider yourself one of the familyWe've taken to you so strongIt's clear we're going to get along
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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