Paul and I played with the Collegians about two years. Paul played the guitar and I the upright bass. He wrote most of the arrangements. One year shortly after school started we picked up a kid just out of high school. His name was Snooky Young, a terrific trumpet player. He later played with several of the Big Bands including Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Doc Severenson, etc. Google Snooky Young.
More Collegians
In those days, most young men had a great deal of respect for the opposite sex. Our piano player, a fellow student. was a young lady. When considering her to join the group, the guys had one problem – our language. Our language? Yes, there were times that some of us didn’t express ourselves in a way that would be proper if a woman was present. Long pause – discussion -- long silence --- then one fellow, probably an English major, said “We could use substitute words, so the ”s” word became “shed.”
It actually worked out very well. I was really surprised. Our leader spoke of this while on tour, but a funny thing happened in Memphis, Tennessee before we headed back to Ohio.
A relative of one of the fellows invited the band to her home for lunch, all l5 members. It was a beautiful home with a large family room, however, when the hostess rushed over to three of our guys as they were settling down on one couch, with a large brush in her hand, she almost frantically said, “Oh, I am sorry I didn’t have time to brush the sofa, the dog slept on last night and I know she made a mess on it. She SHEDS all over the place. The three fellows jumped up so fast they were airborne in a split second. The nice lady relative never knew how funny it was. On the rest of the trip the guys were called the three astronauts.
No comments:
Post a Comment