Blue suede memories

What a treat to discover that a part of your past is, in a way, still around.

Senor Doug Bright, our beloved Spanish teacher from Halls High, called a couple of weeks ago to say that he had uncovered something I believed lost forever. Yes, that meant complete Elvis tribute shows from my sophomore and junior years!

FYI, for those who weren't there: we put together and performed a show back at the old school to raise money for scholarships and other worthwhile projects. We recruited a band, singers, brought in Bandit Lites and M&L Sound and asked the dance team and cheerleaders to jump into the act as well.

It was a heck of a lot of fun.

For whatever reason, though, we never did a good job of recording it. Tons of photos were taken of course. But other than brief TV clips and a home movie or two, I thought it was all gone with the wind, other than the professionally-made (and I use that term loosely) video recorded our senior year.

But Senor was searching through boxes and uncovered these gems. I watched the sophomore year show over the weekend and couldn't help but sport a huge grin.

I had forgotten what a production it was. That year (March 15, 1994) we put on a true act. It lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours and featured a bunch of songs by me and others. Hard to believe I was once that skinny.

What make me a little sad about it is I don't think I fully appreciated what we had going. When you're 16 you think life's going to be one big rock and roll show.

Then you graduate from school and start paying the mortgage.

But, you know, I wouldn't trade those memories for all the gold in California.

I'll tell you one thing, though: I'd like to step back on that stage, just one more time, for auld lang syne, and blue suede memories.