THE RECORD

March 04, 1998

BACK TO THE EGG

Suzanne Trevis

It started out a depressing day. It was overcast and drizzling which is somewhat normal, I know. But after spending most of my morning tracking down rumours on the strike I had been over to the CUPE rally in front of Village Hall. I had talked to some of the principals and was mentally tossing a coin as to whether I should do my job and hang about for a bit longer, or do the Mom thing and get my butt over to the school for the Lip Synch.

It was no contest, really. Both my girls had been practicing for weeks and had been so nervous the night before I don't think they had hardly slept a wink. So with a few guilty good-byes I hopped in the car and hustled over to Ray Watkins.

The gym was already full when I got there, but I used the excuse that I had to take pictures for the paper and squeezed my self on the floor just behind the judges' table. I did not want to block too many folks bobbing up and down taking pictures.

It was encouraging to see the number of parents in attendance considering it was the middle of the afternoon. And, as Master of Ceremonies, Dan McInnes introduced the first group, the crowd of children grew quiet and the curtain opened.

The atmosphere was charged with excitement and as each new group came on stage the audience loosened up and eventually began to join in. Midway through the performance, which lasted two full hours, Dan announced the unexpected arrival of a group that was not on the agenda.

"The Teachers" a well dressed bunch of, well, teachers , obviously hadn't read competition criteria. Midway through their parody of Beethoven's 9th Choral, amidst a great amount of booing and hissing, came a sharp whistle and the arrival of Constable Mark Fisher. Fisher asked them what they thought they were doing. "Don't you know this is supposed to be rock 'n roll?" He asked.

The kids loved it! They all started yelling, "Put them in jail, put them in jail!" Fisher hustled the teachers off stage only to have the curtains open a moment later. All of the "inmates" were now in prison togs miming the classic Jailhouse Rock. It was a riot.

The rest of the program continued. Small children started coming to the area in front of the stage to dance. People were clapping in time to the music, there was foot stomping and wild applause and I felt like I'd been caught in the middle of a huge house party, were everyone is being rowdy and having an awesomely good time. In fact I had such a good time I didn't even feel sorry for skipping out of work (sorry, Jerry!).

Winners for the afternoon were "The Oldies" - Val Anderson, Joanna Lake, Shane Ballard, Joel Anderson and Jonathan Lake with special guest Chuck Syme, who did Tell My Ma by The Rankin Family.

The "Oh, Brother Band" - Megan Cyr, Jenny Riddell, Cole Cyr and Sandy Sinclair took second place with Brother For Sale and "Hot" - Connie Lauer, Chrissy Sine, Michelle Gordon and Myles Talarico came in third with Lollipop.

I think all of the kids were winners and I wouldn't be a judge to save my life. Congratulations to those who were doing the judging and to all the parents who helped with costumes and scenery and generally put up with 500 renditions of the same song while their kids all practiced!

Congratulations also to the teachers, who despite the risk of making fools of themselves, got on stage anyway and had what looked like one heck of a good time. I had one heck of a good time and I was only doing the audience participation thing.

To all the teachers and to Ray Watkins School for getting the children involved in activities such as this (my two had a blast, even though they didn't win) and for providing parents the opportunity to see their children in such a fashion, Thank You. It was well worth the afternoon off and lifted my spirits no end.