We should be putting the band back together (2024)

Somehow, we’ve lived through a lot of good stuff, so far, and some of us are still alive/kicking, just not as high as we did when we, as some of our non-native schoolmates said, attended Enterprise High Skewel.

A few hours last weekend, thanks to Alabama Public Television, the nation’s first Public Television Service system, local Baby Boomers had opportunities to return to our EHS days more’n a half century ago.

Two presentations, the new “My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert” and a repeat of “This Land Is Your Land (My Music)” prompted today’s visit to our mist-shrouded past.

Thanks also to the late Bob McMillan, EHS band director (1958-73), for introducing Wildcat Marching Band members to R&H music and for entering us in the 1964 Festival of States in St. Petersburg, Florida, where one April evening we blossomed in a small park across Beach Drive from the Soreno Hotel (est. 1923) with members of other bands singing folk tunes protesting one ’60s issue after another.

“Tom Dooley” never sounded better.

Last weekend, APT had problems Friday that possibly produced head-rollings Monday; the first 30 minutes or so of “Rodgers & Hammerstein” repeated six/seven times before allotted time expired and another program began.

Glitches were fixed by Sunday night, enabling us to enjoy the same tunes from “Oklahoma,” “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music” among other R&H plays/movies, EHS bands played throughout the McMillan era, performed by true professionals with musical souls.

Hmmm.

Due to attrition, your scribe tried playing alto sax as a sophom*ore in the pit orchestra for “Oklahoma,” and “Carousel” as a senior; key songs from those productions remain but a thought away at any given moment.

“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from “Oklahoma” continues being a good thought to start every day and “People Will Say We’re In Love” is just a nice tune.

From “Carousel,” two House of Adams’ Big Moroccan Theater favorites, “If I Loved You” and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” are outshone by a third one we’ll mention shortly.

Even without sitzprobes, we band members practiced “Oklahoma” and “Carousel” in tune, then played those songs and others to a combined six packed EHS Auditorium crowds and relished every note supporting schoolmate actors.

Hmmm.

Some expert critics think “If I Loved You” is the best R&H song.

Those critics don’t take their meals in the HoA, where three R&H songs surpass all others.

Nope, not “South Pacific’s” unforgettable “Bali Ha’i” and “Some Enchanted Evening.”

Tunes from “The Sound of Music” movie are more than memories, with the title song, sung by Julie Andrews, pretty much the soundtrack of your scribe’s life.

As Brisco Darling explained, “If there’s time to breathe, there’s time for music.”

The key song in “Carousel,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” belongs in church hymnals ... twice.

And its counterpart from “The Sound of Music,” as mentioned here recently, wasn’t sung by Julie, but by “The Mother Abbess.”

The 1961-62 EHS Bands played it after football games, mostly wins.

In the APT presentation, Audra McDonald, the world-leader in Tony Awards with six, sang “Climb Every Mountain” and left her audiences bawling in her wake.

Slayed us all ...

Hmmm.

Just between us, we’re puttin’ the McMillan Band back together.

Watch this space for updates …