I "heart" GLEE - both PAST and PRESENT

Last night I spent 3 hours getting caught up on “GLEE”. Phil and the girls were all sleeping, and although I probably should have been doing the same – I had a date with my DVR. I find that I rarely have time to sit down and watch anything on T.V. these days. That is probably a GOOD thing. But last night, it was me, and “GLEE”. Do you watch that show? It’s – silly . . . and I LOVE it. Now, if you are one of my conservative readers, I will tell you that I do understand it is sometimes raunchy and probably not very PC – but you have to take it with a grain of salt. It’s plain silliness from start to finish. That’s what it is meant to be. It is on primetime, so definitely not something that young children should watch. But for me – it’s 1 hour of silly fun, and brings me back to my own high school years and makes me smile.

I was in my High School’s “GLEE” club – although we called it Show Choir. (However, in honor of the Fox GLEE television show, I will refer to my high school show choir as "GLEE club" from this point forward.) My GLEE club was one activity that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s funny – because I must be getting old. The memories of my time in high school are so very different than many people I have come in contact with recently. Even though I was involved in “drama” (the Drama Club), my memories are not about THE drama. Well . . . let me first show you a couple photos.

Here I am in sophomore year (second on the left) in “True Blue Dancin’ Crew” (yes, seriously, that was the name, and yes, seriously, that is me. I was not involved in picking the costume. That cumberbund needs some serious updating, and I'm not even going to talk about the bowtie.) True Blue was for all the girls who just didn't quite make it in the varsity glee club. I mean - this was high school. You know how the auditions work . . . 100 girls auditioning for 10 female spaces, and 5 boys auditioning for 10 males spaces. So, True Blue was created. Recently I gathered with a few people from the ol'High School drama group, and it made me laugh to actually hear someone comment about this little True Blue group, as if it was choir for the degenerates. Hmmm - I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean . . . I was in it. I didn't turn out that bad.

Here I am in junior year in “Ramblin’ Rams” (yes - that is seriously the name of this one.) Don’t you love our costumes? I remind you – it was 1987. (I'm the one circled on the right . . . with my mouth wide open . . . I can't tell you how many photos I have of myself with my big mouth open. Some things never change.)

GLEE club to me was some of the best times I had in high school - an opportunity to be someone else - a reason to sing and dance (and not look that ridiculous doing it, because you had 19 other people next to you doing the same thing), and it was something that made other people smile. Seriously. I find that one of the reasons I enjoy doing this blog is because I like to tell you stories that will make you smile – stories that might even inspire you. That wish to make people smile didn’t happen overnight. It was always there – even in my GLEE club days.

As I said, my memories of GLEE club are not of the drama that ensued between this group of teenagers (remember, we were teenagers). My memories are not about who was dating who, or which BFF decided not to be a BFF with someone for that day. My memories are about piling in the big old High School Bus and loading it with equipment; driving to a school gymnasium, a church social hall, or a nursing home, performing, and seeing the smiles on the faces of those in the audience. I remember vividly a particular Christmas performance we did at a Nursing Home. I remember the room and how the stage was set up. I remember all of the elders sitting there waiting with great anticipation for our performance to begin. I remember the happiness on their faces watching us. We brought JOY. It was touching and sweet and kind. Those are my memories of my GLEE Club - that’s what I choose to remember.

The last time we were together, my dear friend Cindi was talking to me about the “GLEE” show on Fox. She said that she wishes we were (in our day) as good as the kids on that show. You know . . . in my memories; we WERE as good as the kids on that show. When I think of the faces of those people in that Nursing Home that Christmas – with the smiles and twinkles in their eyes as they watched us perform – I KNOW that we were that good. Seriously.

Those are my memories. And I’m going to keep them – just as they are. If you are reading this and happened to be in either True Blue Dancin' Crew or Ramblin' Rams, leave me a message with 1 POSITIVE memory you have about your experience in our GLEE club. I'd love to hear what you remember about this time we shared together.

Oh, and if you are one of those people who went throught his time with me . . . I remind you . . . "Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm!" ; )