***Of This And That In The Old North Adamsville Neighborhood-In Search Of…..The Voice   

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

For those who have been following this series about the old days in my old home town of North Adamsville, particularly the high school day as the 50^th anniversary of my graduation creeps up, will notice that recently I have been doing sketches based on my reaction to various e-mails sent to me by fellow classmates via the class website. Also classmates have placed messages on the Message Forum page when they have something they want to share generally like health issues, new family arrivals or trips down memory lane on any number of subjects from old time athletic prowess to reflections on growing up in the old home town. Thus I have been forced to take on the tough tasks of sending kisses to raging grandmothers, talking up old flames with guys I used to hang around the corners with, remembering those long ago searches for the heart of Saturday night, getting wistful about elementary school daydreams, taking up the cudgels for be-bop lost boys and the like. These responses are no accident as I have of late been avidly perusing the personal profiles of various members of the North Adamsville Class of 1964 website as fellow classmates have come on to the site and lost their shyness about telling their life stories (or have increased their computer technology capacities, not an unimportant consideration for the generation of ’68, a generation on the cusp of the computer revolution and so not necessarily as computer savvy as the average eight-year old today).

Some stuff is interesting to a point, you know, including those endless tales about the doings and not doings of the grandchildren, odd hobbies and other ventures taken up in retirement and so on although not worthy of me making a little off-hand commentary on. Some other stuff is either too sensitive or too risqué to publish on a family-friendly site. Some stuff, some stuff about the old days and what did, or did not, happened to, or between, fellow classmates, you know the boy-girl thing (other now acceptable relationships were below the radar then) has naturally perked my interest.

Other stuff defies simple classification as is the case here in describing a situation brought to my attention by my “conduit” on the reunion committee, Jessica Sims, where a fellow classmate has offered his services to perform some “oldies but goodies music” during the reunion (gratis, which always calls for consideration, no question). Of course almost every purely social event like a reunion, wedding, etc. has to have a little music to move things along. Especially when the liquor hits. Usually such chores are handled by a bought and paid for DJ or, more cheaply, some canned music currently very easy to procure from any number of commercial outlets.

However when a classmate, a professional singer with some credentials (and CDs under his belt) offers to entertain that option cannot be dismissed out of hand. What makes the offer tricky is what about others, the other classmates who maybe won some amateur talent show at age twelve and never got over the applause or like me in sixth- grade have sung in the church choir and also have never gotten over the experience (although I had long ago, see I was just there singing “low” to be around some stick girl I had a crush on). Or, and this is not in my experience all that far-fetched, not with my high school crowd, some drunken sot suddenly at the moment decides that because he led the rowdy music (off-key and slurred by all sober reviews) at some bar in Southie on Saint Patrick’s Day he should regale his fellows that night. Moreover, and this was Jessica’s argument, the reunion is for classmates to enjoy, chat, cut up old torches at and so the entertainment should come from some third-party source. That made sense to me but as of this writing all entertainment proposals are still “in committee.” Here is Lenny’s plea for your perusal:            

 

North Adamsville High Reunion Committee                 June 3, 2014

C/o Alex Jamison  72 Marlboro Road Adamsville  , MA 02471

Re: NA High Reunion - September 27, 2014

Dear Linda, Eddy, Alex, Donna, Paula, Jessica, Nancy, Ellen, Sam and Janice:

Alex suggested that I forward some information to the Committee pertinent to the planned 50^th Reunion this coming September...in that (believe it or not) I am a full time singer, actor, entertainer whose specialty is 50's, 60's & 70's "Oldies". I know, I know...hard to believe but sometimes we even tend to surprise ourselves.

No pressure whatsoever to include me in the entertainment program (you won't offend me) but as a Classmate I'd love to be able to help out in that regard, obviously pro bono. I am including a copy of my fourth CD Album just released this past fall nationally; a 42-song 2-CD set of "Oldies" songs. I am also including a few copies of my third album, which was dedicated to my five grand kids and include a music video of an original song written about them. Yeah...that's one of my grand-daughters on the back cover. No pretentions of greatness here on my part...I'm just following my heart where it leads me.

I love to entertain and could put together a short, medium or longer set program of some of the best Oldies from the early to mid-1960's...when we were all at North, to help bring back the memories from those days. I usually do my Oldies sets in a real "Fonzie" leather jacket (that he actually used on Happy Days) that I got in LA, and with my shades on. Fun stuff! I can do 15 minutes up to an hour. The past two years I have been singing two individual "Oldies" hour sets on-stage at the Topsfield Fair. I'm not advocating that, just using it as an example. For instance, I could warm up the crowd before the dance band takes over...or whatever you wish.

I should have no problem with the September date this far in advance. I am typically here in New England aside from when I play out in LA during February and March. Thanks for the chance to make my pitch to help out at the Reunion!

Lenny "Pres" Simmons