Early Performances

In the fall of 1967 a couple of young Jesuit priests named Tom and Obie started teaching at St. Paul's and (among other things) they started a folk mass group. I honestly don't recall how Peter Paolucci (who played bass) and I got involved, but here we are:

Peter and I are the ones in the back who aren't singing. (I'm on the left, Peter on the right.) I feel strangely compelled to point out that there are blemishes on my chin...
Interestingly enough, this is the only picture I've ever seen of me performing... I'm sure there are bunches of them out there just from all the birthday parties I've played :-)
BTW - the kid sitting to the right of us is playing bongos. He was a freshman and was an excellent drummer - well known in the local rock community...
The group was actually pretty good - the whole folk mass thing was in its infancy and we did a demo tape that was sent to Jesuit HQ in the Vatican...

My other gig at St. Paul's that year was for a school play - a production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner"... We did Christmas songs and Peter played bass for that also...
Father Murphy was in charge of the music for the plays... He really didn't have the proper temperament to be teaching at a school like St. Paul's (where the students tended to be a bit "high spirited"). I seem to recall he eventually had to take a leave of absence. Translation - we drove him nuts...
During one of the practice sessions Father Murphy was helping the pianist with a piece when Peter and I started playing Gloria (or something similar) in the background... After a while Father Murphy said "You know - I really don't mind you accompanying us if you're contributing something to the music - but I'm not sure that adds anything." Yeah - any other Jesuit priest would have yelled "Would you $%*&$ idiots knock it off !!!"

My only other notable memory of the play involved the white gloves we wore when making our entrances and exits (they went with the capes)... I had an incident in the dressing room involving a can of pop (I suspect it was a setup - it had been shaken)... Unfortunately I was wearing my white gloves when the can "went off" and Father Murray (who produced the play) freaked out...
It wouldn't have been so bad except the female lead in the play was Maureen Murphy (my favorite of the Murphy sisters) and she was right there when Father Murray chewed me out... I glanced at her during the tirade and she did look like she felt sorry for me... I might have never recovered if she'd been laughing :-)

The other play that year was a production of "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme". I was seriously bummed because the music called for a bass but not a guitar. So Peter got to participate and I didn't... I wanted to audition for a part in the play (the cast was huge) but that required something like a 3.0 GPA and mine was below that... I explained to Father Murray that my grades reflected a lack of interest - not a lack of study time - but he wouldn't make an exception :-)
Of course, I didn't tell him that I was actually trying to maintain a 2.5 GPA - I was afraid his head might explode...

Yeah - that was part of my whole "I'm not that special" thing... Hey! There's nothing wrong with setting attainable goals :-)