Author Topic: Talent In Cleveland  (Read 2719 times)

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Offline NOT12NOW

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Talent In Cleveland
« on: October 20, 2005, 07:18:00 PM »
August of 76 marked some sort of anniversary for the Cleveland seed.   So one day the staff started throwing around ideas for a talent show to celebrate the event; it was one of their more spontaneous moments.

We came up with bunch of acts making fun of druggies.  I remember a group of guys singing fifties tunes, cigs rolled up in their sleeves, called the Grease, or something like that.  The planning of this event took up a whole rap.  I actually remember it as fun.  It was like the "before I came to the seed" part of the rap with a sense of humor.  Terry chose me to be in the tough chick girl group.  Including me was a joke was a joke in itself.   I wore a sign that said trainee.  

The rehearsal process was the happiest time I spent in the program. We lip-synced Teen Angel and Leader of The Pack.   Terry choreographed dance routines that we practiced in the basement or the unbelievably wide hall upstairs. Most importantly I spent less time sitting in raps.  It was great, go in, sit down, put up your hand but for just a little while till Terry or someone else calls you out for rehearsal.
Art came up to watch the show. we wore costumes that included jeans (don't know where we got that contraband.)   We rubbed dirt on the jeans and t-shirts, I think, someone might have had a leather jacket, we teased up each others hair and put on lots of black eye liner.   Waited for our entrance in the parking lot behind the gym-open meeting hall everyone was getting into character, talking trash, giving each other evil looks, pretending to threaten each other and all of a sudden I got scared like I was hanging with these girls on the street?I actually felt truly freaked for a moment. They were, after all, the oldest girls with the toughest pasts and I was the youngest.
The performance however was way fun.  We got a big laugh every time we revved our motorcycles-- butts facing the audience.   The rest of the show had me laughing all night.  I think Suzy did her squishy face, ?Can I come to your birthday party.? routine

Riding home that night, I found that my parents were horrified.  My mother said,? you looked just like your old druggy self up there."   My father said,? I don't want to see you looking like a druggy." They were clearly-- not pleased!
Still the seed seemed to think it had been funny.  We were laughing about it during lunch for days after, photos were passed around.  

The next big event was Christmas.  This time when the staff brought up the subject of planning a show for open meeting they each repeated the hope that it would be something really classy, " Something Art would enjoy."  The tone during the planning of that show was subdued; drastically different from the blowing off steam, tone I so enjoyed during the planning of the Anniversary talent show.  When anyone stood up with an idea for a silly act staff seemed shocked that any seedling would suggest such a crude thing when they themselves had tossed out ideas just as silly and crude a mere three months earlier.  

The Christmas show was mainly a live nativity acted out by seedlings while a staff member read the story.  I also, remember that, this show, my parents liked.  On the way home my parents kept talking about how amazing and wonderful it was to see the girl playing Mary looking so pure now in comparison to the hardened look she had when she was a newcomer.  "It was like a miracle," my mother said,? you?d never have known it was the same girl.?

It makes me wonder if parents complained about the earlier show.    The seed was, after all, in the business of making parents happy.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
leveland chick 76-77

Offline GregFL

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Talent In Cleveland
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2005, 09:23:00 AM »
sounds like you guys just repeated the shows of 1973 show we had in St Pete, right down to the 50s acts and raps planning the show.

Did you have tables set up and get served turkey and gravy also during christmas?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline cleveland

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« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2005, 10:47:00 AM »
I am reposting this...


"Singing was a big part of things as noted elsewhere on this site. Arm in arm, singing songs like 'Greensleaves' (The Seed Indeed, Is All You Need, to Stay Off the Junk and the Pills and the Weed) or Stevie Wonder's 'Moving On.'

When Art was in the group, he might call up Hank or Randy or someone else with a good voice to sing a duet or perform a song. 'Fly Me to the Moon' or 'Bye Bye Blackbird.' Sometimes a 'Druggie' song would make the cut like 'Blackwater' by the (believe it or not) Doobie Brothers. I'm sure the first time some kid sang this the senior staff anxiously waited for Art to smile approval - likely he didn't know the origin of the song and it was fun so - OK, it made the cut.

I'm guessing the year but in 1980 or so, there were about 25 graduates hanging about the Seed and there were few or no newcomers, so Art devised this Talent Contest which kids rehearsed for weeks. An actual room was rented at some hotel, we had cabaret tables with candles, I think and probably soft drinks, and kids performed. BUT, instead of the usual stuff that Art sanctioned which might have been seen on the Jackie Gleason Show when I was a kid, this stuff was pretty outrageous. The 'Guys' and 'Chicks' had separately rehearsed and then performed them. They were crazy. This is before the guys and girls spent anytime together playing football or whatever and we lived completely segregated lives, and the guys come out in full costume and do 'YMCA' by the village people, followed by the girls doing some other wild song adn dance, complete with risque costumes and performer's names like 'Poke Your Hontas' (Pocahontas). I was in the audience and remember being shocked, jealous, excited, angry and confused. This seemed to mock all of my efforts to keep my mind out of the gutter completely, but it was also very funny and the kids performing got into it. There was so much sexual tension in the room I thought it was going to explode. I remember thinking, we shouldn't be doing this but then Art was laughing his ass off and soon after we started to play coed football and around the same time there were the first one or two Seed marriages that I remember so I guess the cat was out of the bag.

For those of us not in on the joke it was kind of cruel, but also exciting. You can't imagine the impact; it was like an explosion, and people talked about this for years."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline GregFL

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« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2005, 11:26:00 AM »
We had those talent shows in 73. The kids that particpated were hand picked, often based on their reputation and participation in group, and they got almost instant cred for it.

The rest of us just watched and enjoyed the break from the raps and so forth.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline NOT12NOW

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« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2005, 10:10:00 AM »
Greg it didn't seem to me that being picked to be in the talent show got me anything but out of group.  I was no star seedling!  Maybe I was on the good seedling list that week but I didn't know it.

It's hard to imagine that this was just a repeat of Florida talent shows cause, after it was over, Art did not approve.  Unless it wasn't art at all just parents complaining about kids dressing up as druggies.Sitll the day after the show it had all been good fun.  Two days after it was never to be spoken of again and soon after that Scott(the most playful staff member at the time) was gone.  I got the feeling all the staff had been reprimanded for creating the event.

No there was no turkey.  We did it at open meeting.

Which reminds me did you florida folks have the christmas dinner at the seed tradition/fiasco where they made you eat more than you wanted.  I remember being told stories for months before hand about seedlings asking for just a little of something and the staff member filling their whole plate with whatever food they had been requested to serve a small portion of.  They protrayed it as a sort of holiday jovialiy, stuffing everyone to the bursting point--Ho,Ho,HO.  It was considered vain to eat less than they heaped on your plate, "what are you trying to keep your girlish figure," as they heaped more mash potatoes on your plate then anyone should eat in one sitting.
That was fun!  At least we didn't have a heavy rap that day.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
leveland chick 76-77

Offline TRUCKER

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« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2005, 02:25:00 PM »
Yea ,We had a christmas talent show.It was during an open meeting. The turkey was  made to taste like a pbj and the gravy tasted just like kool aid. I think we had an orange that was picked from the over grown  grove that the compound was in.

                           TRUCKER
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »