Remmick-Hubert Special Page - Lodi Union High School, Class of 1960-Newsletter

Vol. 7:  2 Feb: Page Three

 

"NOT AS A STRANGER" was the theme song for the movie called NOT AS A STRANGER this particular sheet music shows a group of very popular actors and actresses of our time, and, now, we see them often on the television channels known as Movie Classics. They are listed from top to the bottom as presented here: Olivia DeHavilland Robert Mitchum Frank Sinatra Gloria Grahame Broderick Crawford Clarles Bickford

My musical education was through my piano teacher, Mrs. Thompson,  who had graduated from Juliard and played the piano as well, if not better, than most concert pianists I've heard, accept one, and this man played in a restaurant in Munich Germany.  Anyway,  Mrs. Thompson was a classical instructor and many of her students went on to play professionally.  Anyway, "jazz" was my short lived teenage rebellion.  A friend of mine and I would go to San Francisco and pretend we were twenty-one and sit in on Cal Jader.  The owner discovered we weren't 21 [wonder how he figured that out), but, since we never ordered anything but coke,  he let us stay and we listen to one of the old greats in that smoky old bar room.  We returned many times.  The last time we visited there was this man who had a 12 string guitar and he played something from S. American.. A few weeks later he was on the Ed Sullivan show.  I no longer recall the guitarist's name who was to become quite famous.  

MONA LISA RAMBLIN ROSE SMILE SWEET LORRAINE ANSWER ME (MY LOVE) UNFORGETTABLE WHEN I FALL IN LOVE LET THERE BE LOVE LOVE LETTERS

NAT "KING" COLE

THOSE LAZ-HAZY DAYS OF SUMMER THESE FOOLISH THINGS YES! WE HAVE NO BANANAS IT'S ONLY A PAPER MOON RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET A BLOSSOM FELL AUTUM LEAVES SET ;YOUR KICKS OUT OF ROUTE 66

The best male voice  [that wasn't trained for opera] I ever heard in person was Nat "King" Cole.

	TAMMY with Debbie Reynolds	WHITE CHRISTMAS with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen and Danny Kaye	20,00 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA with Kirk Douglas

My folks were of the old school which refers to the "Big Band" Period.  I loved the sounds, too, and would often dig out their  old "78" records and listen to Glen Miller. Tommy Dorsey and many many others.  

Benny Goodman Story Don't Be In The Way Sing, Sing, Sing Lullaby In Rhythm Stompin" At The Savoy I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good China Boy	The Glen Miller Story with James Steward, June Allyson and featured was Louie Armstrong who played Basin Street Blues and Otchi-Tschor-NiYa...  [ From the sound track were the following:  Moonlight Serenade, Tuxedo Junction, Little Brown Jug, St. Louis Blues-March, In the Mood, A String of Peals, Pennsylvania 6-500, and others.]

Since my mother's family knew Lawrence Welk who used to work with his brother in my grandfather's beets fields back in the "old days",  we never missed their television show.  My father's favorite show  was "The Grand Old Oprey" and I remember watching Dad do the "country jig" and we all would laugh.  Mom would always say something about "Dreamland" in Sidney, MT where they met at a dance back in 1938.  The country western music held sounds from far away lands [Europe] where so many of our family roots had been pulled out by our grandparents or parents....  Most of us who were the class of 1960 were first or second generation Americans. And, we could see the affect that old music had on most of our parents.  I don't recall ever seeing my grandparents listening to music from the radio or television. I do recall hearing their music at weddings.  That was a time when accordion music was dominate in my German-Russian family weddings.  There were the old love songs and the fast moving polka where their was always a couple in the forties who bounced around the room with everyone clapping.  Several of my cousins played the accordions very well.  However, it was the old concertina that produced the most sad and sweetest  tunes that caused many a tear to be swept away by those huge old white aprons worn by the older ladies who were the ones who filled up the tables with coffee cakes, cookies, pies, hams, sausages, beef and pork roasts with dark thick gravy, mash potatoes, potato salads, and homemade light feathery white breads of all sizes and shapes.... 

How many of us laughed when hearing How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? 

Patti Page singing (How Much IS) THAT DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW

There was Franky Laine who shouted out, "Mule Train!" which was used in the movie Blues Brothers, which we often watch to have some good laughs.... 

Speaking about "blue", I think most of us liked "The Blue Notes" who often played for major dances.

So, what song brings me instantly to a moment in life?  

The Kingston Trio at the Hungry i in San Francisco, CA

My husband and I have a certain song we danced so many times at the dances at Stockton College where we met,  [Fall of 1960].... I couldn't begin to count how many times we have sung "They Call The Wind Maria" with the Kingston Trio's "From The Hungary i" so anyone who was still awake from Albany to Berkley could hear us at our best.... also, there was Peter, Paul and Mary's "WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE or LEMON TREE and 500 MILES...

And, dear husband, of course, I haven't forgotten the the songs we choose when we were remarried in celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary in 1981. Nor would I ever forget seeing The Phantom of the Opera in London.... Or the Dress Rehersal of the Billy Holiday Story which was to open the following night In London...

However, our songs  were part of college and the beginning of  "the rest of our lives".....

So, if I start pushing the clock back to the time before graduation night from LUHS what would my song be?

Silent Night.

I remember singing it at a piano recital. And, in my sight was my maternal grandfather Ludwig Hein, who was dying of cancer, seated on a hard metal chair and watching me. There was so much pride in his eyes. It wasn't my fingers on the ivory keys making the sound but my voice which was carried straight to his heart.  That song, however, was before LUHS.

But that memory had to have been before 1956... The year my grandfather died.  So, it must have been just before Christmas of 1954....  

If the question was limiting songs during our LUHS years what would have been my final answer?

The answer  was right before me this morning .

"I believe the song I BELIEVE was sung first by Franky Laine first since his photo is on the cover of the sheet music dated 1953", and, later sung my Elvis Presley

I  BELIEVE words and music by Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Simmmy Shirl and All Stillman "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grow. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows. I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come to show the way.... I BELIEVE. I BELIEVE." ........................................................................................

My voice has long since gone, my fingers are stiff on the ivories, as I sat and played  "I Believe" this morning.  

The hill side was cover with a hard frost and the sky rich with it's morning blue.

As I  played this song, I tried to remember and reflect our four years together as classmates so filled with music of different kinds of sounds, and try to collect my thoughts for this letter to share with all of you....

Thanks for sharing.

24 Jan 2002

Continued.....