My granddaughter, Robin (age 10), has experienced some things over the past few months that remind me that sometimes people can surprise the daylights out of moi. She had a little solo in her all-district choir concert a few days ago, and participated in a Miss Zion pageant a couple of months ago--both of which showed her to to have stage presence and interest that I never would have suspected of her. Who knew? Indirectly, I will take some credit for that. Read on...
I think I've already mentioned at least a dozen times that, as a Navy brat, I was in a lot of schools before I hit 6th grade. Sixth grade was a milestone because that was the year that my dad went on inactive duty with the Navy Reserves, and we settled in Oak Park, IL, while he went back to his teaching career as a civilian. We wouldn't be moving anytime soon. It was the first time in my life that I could explore things about myself that I didn't already know.
I did know that I could sing. Music--and musicals--were loves of mine. I grew up in a time when musicals were really, really good...Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The King and I, South Pacific...good stuff! Some of the sound tracks, I knew by heart--every single line.
I can't remember if it was 6th or 7th grade when Mrs. Harvey, my school's librarian, decided to put on a program of "Americana". She needed someone to sing a solo part in Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, a Negro spiritual, so she called on our music teacher, Mrs. Boehm, to select the soloists. My singing voice had never been noticed before due to all of the moving...so I remember the day quite well. Mrs. Boehm went around the room, asking each kid to sing a line, to select soloists. Well! Everyone who was anyone in that school knew that Nancy Hartigan was the favored songbird in our grade. And she was good. Nancy sang before I did. When Mrs. B got to me, she played and listened...then asked me to sing it again. It was as if she was shocked at my talent. A couple of days later, it was announced that Nancy and I would share verses in the song--she would sing one and I would sing one. I loved it, but it launched Nancy's "posse" into subversively threatening me because I had de-throned the queen. (That only lasted until I finally told my mother who then went to the school and talked to the principal. He called a convo of all of the female students of that grade and, without naming names, just said that he had gotten word that bullying was taking place and it was to stop immediately or there would be nasty consequences. It stopped. That was in the days when students actually respected school administration.) On another note, Mrs. Boehm was an excellent music teacher. She introduced us (and tested us) on opera and composers: Wagner, Tschaikowsky, Moussorgsky, etc. Exposure is a good thing!
Oak Park-River Forest High School was a big school. With six elementary feeder schools in a well-to-do area of what my mother called "old money", just west of the Chicago city limits, the sky was the limit. There were over 3,400 kids in that school. Academic competition was huge, as was the disparity between the people with money...and the likes of me, without. By the time I was a sophomore, I had already thrown in with the theater crowd. Our school had a REAL auditorium, a REAL stage, complete with everything that a Broadway stage would have, a REAL stage crew, and all of the bells and whistles. OP-RFHS put on three stage productions a year. The fall production was open to all students. The winter production was a musical, only open to members of the A Capella Choir, a select group of juniors and seniors. The spring production was for seniors only. I went to every production and wormed my way in by becoming Props Mistress for productions that I didn't have the courage to try for or weren't eligible for...but it got my feet wet.
Then, when I was a senior, I got brave enough to try out for the fall production, Harvey. At the time, my mother was with my grandparents in Rochester, MN, at Mayo Clinic to try to find answers to my grandmother's health problems. The day Mom got back, I was happily able to announce to her that I got the lead in the play. My mom was thrilled...as was I! The rest of that year, I also got the lead in the musical AND the senior production. It was glorious for me!
Then I graduated in 1965, and that was the end of that! Although I registered as a theater major in college with an English minor, I came to realize that I didn't have the looks or talent to become a Hollywood star. I also didn't have the drive. Shortly thereafter, I flip-flopped my major and minor so I could teach school (English) and possibly use my minor (Theater) to direct plays. In retrospect, it was probably the smartest thing I ever did in my life. English is a 4-year required course in probably every school district in the nation...but almost NO schools have a theater department! I was on a teacher track...
Enter (stage right), my marriage and the advent of my beautiful daughter in 1979. My husband considered me boring because I had become devoted to motherhood. By the time our daughter was about 5, in Pontiac, IL, heard about try-outs for a summer musical in Chatauqua Park. I got the lead! I taught school, I made supper, kept house, looked after my daughter, and went to rehearsals. In fact, I not only did THAT production, but a dinner theater after that. I think my husband was proud of me during performances--local school principals' wife making a splash in the community--but there was also jealousy. I was making friends that didn't include him. I had spent our entire marriage being HIS trophy, but he wasn't willing to be MINE. In fact, one of our longest arguments started when I made plans to have a garage sale with one of my newfound gal-friends. That was the beginning of the end.
One of the GOOD things that came out of that was that my daughter watched everything I did. At the dinner theater in Pontiac, my mother reported that Megan sat near the stage to watch me and mouthed almost all of my lines. Mom said Meg was transfixed. I don't know for sure, but I think she got bitten by "the bug" then.
Then we had to pull up stakes and move to Indiana, to Cloverdale. (1988) There was a summer theater group, so I tried out for Damn Yankees, and got the character lead. At that point, Megan wanted to be a part...so we worked her into a walk-on. Thereafter, she also got into a huge production of Oliver , for the same organization. Beyond that, she took dance lessons, which I thought was a waste of time. Meg didn't seem like the type to me. What a fool I was!
The next performance opportunity for me came with an Easter cantata put on by a Baptist Church in Putnam County. I landed a solo as Mary, singing at the foot of the cross..."Has it come to this?" It was the most emotional performance of my life. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. But the only person I knew who was there to listen was my daughter...ever faithful. I think Joe felt bad that he wasn't there to support me (because he was already into his affair with his now-wife, because he had pizza fixed for us when we got home and asked questions). The very next year, when we were totally apart, I stilll did the Easter cantata and had a small solo. My father died the night of the first performance. I decided to do the second performance the next night before leaving for Illinois. I will never forget the woman who said, when I told her my father had died the night before, "How nice! Yesterday, your father could not hear you sing. Tonight, he can!"
When my husband and I divorced, and Megan and I moved to Plainfield, it took a couple of years for us to sort things out--similar to my early days after my dad was out of active duty in the Navy. She was drawn to theater and musicals. It didn't take long for her to be part of her school's productions, but the creme-de-la creme was Belles et Beaux---the show choir. She took part in a couple of musicals, but kept her eye on Belles et Beaux...and by the time she was a junior (just like her mama) she got brave enough to try out and not be just a part of the crew. One night, she was sitting in the bathtub after a night out with the organization and announced to me that she had made it! Now I totally understood how thrilled my own mother was when I made a similar announcement!
The next two years were filled with rehearsals and competitions and happy, happy days of cheering the show choir on. By the time Meg was a senior, she was a crowning glory in the show choir! She could sing. She could dance. She had a stage presence that I never, ever thought possible...but I have the evidence on tape! I love watching those old videos.
Through the years, my daughter was exposed to REAL music...musicals; John Denver; Peter, Paul, and Mary; The Messiah, and other stuff that makes her tastes as ecclectic as mine. So go my grandchildren. We took them at very early ages to watch show choir competitions and stage performances. Maybe some of it "took". All I know is that my "baby Robin" seems to have the spark that is so much a part of my/our history. She looks like a pro on stage at age 10. If this is what she likes, may she have many opportunities to lead and set an example for schools to keep programs in place for kids like her!
This was a very roundabout way to tell a simpler story...but I want the world to know that influence is influence. If my granddaughter becomes half the songbird that he mother and I were, we will be very happy people. I am so proud of you, Robin. You rock!
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