I went to Hackensack High School in New Jersey, class of ’62. In my senior year, we were faced with a unique challenge: a county-wide talent competition, featuring all of the first-place winners from each of the local high schools, was scheduled to take place in the auditorium at Ramsey High. Our own talent show wasn’t scheduled until after the county show, so I volunteered to represent Hackensack with the vague idea of playing my guitar and telling a few jokes. Instead, I asked two of my friends, Bob Gilman and Larry Mascia, if they wanted to form a trio with me. I thought it would be a lot more fun and, even though neither one of them played an instrument, they agreed. We had six weeks to put something together.
I became interested in the guitar when I was around 12 or so. My parents had bought me an acoustic Stella for my birthday from Robbie’s Music Center on Main Street in Hackensack. My next-door neighbor, who was a bit younger, was taking lessons at Robbie’s, and whenever we had a chance to get together, I asked him to show me what he had learned. He taught me a few basic chords, and I was able to work out some of my favorite songs. I was into country music and Elvis, and by the time I reached high school, I had my own “repertoire” and would sometimes bring my guitar to parties and get-togethers to entertain my friends.
Folk music was popular in those days, too. I had albums by Theodore Bikel, Joan Baez, and a live recording of The Newport Folk Festival, so Bob, Larry, and I decided to model ourselves after The Kingston Trio. Bob had to learn how to play the guitar, and Larry wanted to play the bongo drums, so while most of our friends were out on dates, or driving up and down Main Street, the three of us were constantly practicing, and memorizing humorous introductions for each song. After 6 weeks of intense practice, we were confident we could put on a good show.
When the night of the competition came, we sat in a back room quietly going over our songs and monologues. When one of the Ramsey students, acting as a stagehand, came in and motioned toward us, “You’re up,” we nervously walked out to the stage, and stepped into a circle of intense spotlights. There were hundreds of people in the audience, but all we could see were the first few rows in the front. The rest of the audience was hidden in a void of darkness. We could sense their presence, and feel the energy coming from them, but the only way I could describe it later was to say, “It was like looking into the face of God.” We had to do our best.
Three stools and microphones had been set up for each of us before we sat down and began to play our first song, “Tom Dooley.” We had practiced it so often that the music just seemed to flow effortlessly, and we received a very warm round of applause from the crowd. Bob began his introduction to the next song, and they laughed at every word. It was going just the way we had rehearsed it, and whatever anxiety I had felt before the show was completely gone by the time I introduced our final number, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” As we started to play, the audience began to clap to the rhythm, and when it was over, they gave us a boisterous ovation, whistling, clapping, and cheering from the darkness. We knew something had happened, waved goodbye, and walked off the stage feeling drained and exhilarated at the same time. After we put our instruments away, we whispered excitedly about the experience while we waited for the rest of the performers to do their thing.
After the last act, all of the students who had performed that night, and many of the audience members, gathered in the gymnasium to hear the judge’s results. For some reason, I had decided to drive one of the Ramsey girls to a nearby store for Cokes, so I wasn’t there when the trophies were handed out.
When I got back, I could tell that the award ceremony was already over. Bob and Larry were surrounded by our classmates and our families, calling out my name and waving a trophy at me. They were ecstatic. We had won First Place in our category (which I assume was music) and Best in Show.
The following week, a small article about the show appeared in the local paper, the Our Town: “Youthful RP Folk-Singing Trio Win County Contest of Champions.” It went on to explain that “Three Rochelle Park boys, all seniors at Hackensack High School….singing under the name ‘The Countrymen,’ entered a countywide contest at Ramsey High School and emerged top choice of the judges in competition with 11 other school champions, bringing home the first place trophy.”
I still play the guitar, and a few weeks ago, I took part in a Talent Showcase in the Adirondacks to support the small theater in Indian Lake. I hadn't been onstage in over 60 years, and it brought back a lot of memories of what it was like to win the Best in Show trophy for Hackensack. That was our goal. We pretty much stopped playing together after that, but the excitement of being onstage in front of an appreciative audience is the memory that lasted all these years and felt just as good at 80 as it did at 18.