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.
