I moved to Kirksville, MO May of 1983. I lived with Steve, Brad, & Phil at the newly opened Pin Oak Apartments behind NMSU’s Centennial Hall. We had great fun that summer. We were 3 college dudes hanging out. I only took 6-hours of classes that summer (Speech & Biology) and I worked at the Centennial Dining Hall. It was a light load, not what I was used to. At Bible College I read and studied and wrote and memorized constantly. That summer, not so much.
I got involved with Campus Christian Fellowship and helped lead songs occasionally. I got a job at Pizza Hut, eventually fell in love with Amy and I got really crappy grades. I just wasn’t into school.
The next semester I actually got a recommendation from the Bible College to be a part-part-part time youth leader at a little local church. Amy was a good influence on me to study and raise my grades. I wasn’t working at Pizza Hut until 3 AM, so my grades and GPA came up.
My 2nd year at Kirksville Joe Belzer graduated from Bible College and came to the University to be the Campus Minister. Joe is an extraordinary person. Like Tony, he had that elusive ability to move in traditional circles and even have favor from the “old guard” while maintaining a very forward focus. Joe is relational. Joe values relationship and discipleship (which is relationship) above programs or formalities. Joe remembers people’s names and details of their lives. He cares for people, prays for people, serves people. He loves Jesus with his whole heart and was not ashamed to express it. His teaching is very conversational and he tries to dish out stuff people can practically apply right now. He seems to have endless energy and he’s ornery. In other words, he’s perfectly wired for campus ministry. CCF made a hefty investment to buy a big property close to campus and the people orbiting around CCF drastically increased. Joe and I talked about small groups and I assisted him in organizing some of that. I even lived in the basement of the new Campus House with Joe for a year.
Amy had been at Kirksville for a year before I got there. She had grown up a dancer (her mother had run dance studios her whole life) and she was a part of the High Street Dancers. Amy was a dancer in “The Pajama Game” the year before and she regularly rehearsed with High Street. They performed Modern & Jazz concerts twice a year as well as support whatever show needed dancers. I had never known a real ballet dancer before and was fascinated by the whole process. The rehearsals were closed, but sometimes I would wait for her to finish up a rehearsal and I’d peek in. One of their performances was in conjunction with “The Franklin Street Singers” the University show choir. I understood choirs, but at that time I was pretty committed to rock music, never-the-less, I liked “Franklin Street.”
The summer of 1984 I stayed in Kirksville and took 12 hours of classes. By this time Amy had got me in the right direction and I earned a 4.0 over that summer. Amy stayed with her Grandmother in Washington, MO that summer so there were lots of phone calls and weekend visits. One Saturday she took me to The Muny in St. Louis.
“The Muny, short for The Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis, is an outdoor musical theatre, located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. During a summer season that runs every year from mid-June to mid-August, The Muny produces Broadway-style musicals in a historic outdoor amphitheatre that seats 11,000 people with approximately 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first served basis. The first performance was in 1914.”
We were in the free seats. Surprisingly, we could see really well. It was a beautiful night and I think I was wearing parachute pants. The show was called Dream Street. It wasn’t West Side Story or Singin’ In The Rain. It wasn’t produced by Harold Prince or choreographed by Bob Fosse. It was actually a Las Vegas show (from the Dunes) that went on tour. It was directed by a couple of Vegas directors and choreographed by the people who brought you, who else, The Chippendales Dancers. This was the first attempt to originate a Broadway-type show from Las Vegas to the general public. It was a review of songs from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s loosely tied together into Fame-meets-Flashdance-who-becomes-the-grandparents-of-Rent-type-show.
The show sucked,
But it was really entertaining from the song and dance perspective. Apparently they employed a lot of A-list Vegas dancers and there was huge energy from the stage. We were in the free-seats farrrrrrr away, so maybe if we were closer it would have been irritating. But from ¼ of a mile away, it looked great.
It was at that time I really caught the “bug.” I looked at that show and said to myself, “I wish I was doing that.” I thought my voice was as strong as any of those dudes on stage, but I couldn’t dance a lick. I decided to get involved with the shows at school in the fall and even audition for Franklin Street. That was when I was introduced to Eric, Randy and Al.
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