The White Water Band V
Sometime during that winter of 1975-'76, we went to Cleveland, Tennessee, and played a dance at either Jenny's or Tanya's school--they didn't go to the same place. We returned in the spring, to Chattanooga this time, and played a prom--one of my favorite single gigs ever--on a paddle-wheel boat cruising two hours down and two hour back up the Tennessee River. During this second trip Harlan met one of the girls' friends--Tammy. Seems she was vandalizing license plates while the dance was going on, if I remember rightly. Anyway, it was love at first sight, and the two were married within just a few weeks. (I saw them recently on my way back from New Orleans, and they seemed just like they always did. Life seems to have been good to them.)
But as I went through the graduation of the class ahead of mine, the class of '76, I took a look around and realized that I had just one year of high school left, that I was so involved in the band that I really didn't know many of my classmates. So, sometime early in the summer of 1976, a year after our trip to Myrtle Beach, I quit the band and spent my senior year playing football and basketball, running track, writing songs, getting to know my classmates before we went our separate ways and preparing for college.
Although I don't know where Jim is now, the other guys are still playing now 30 years later. Harlan plays in a big band over in Cleveland, Tennessee. Terry and Kirk still play together in Asheville most every weekend--even though Kirk has to drive up from his home in Atlanta to do so! I had my run in Nashville during the '80s and, while I play at church a good bit, I don't play nearly the amount the rest of the White Water Band does.
We were a decent little band, I think, and I've had fun remembering it all (or at least most of it).
But as I went through the graduation of the class ahead of mine, the class of '76, I took a look around and realized that I had just one year of high school left, that I was so involved in the band that I really didn't know many of my classmates. So, sometime early in the summer of 1976, a year after our trip to Myrtle Beach, I quit the band and spent my senior year playing football and basketball, running track, writing songs, getting to know my classmates before we went our separate ways and preparing for college.
Although I don't know where Jim is now, the other guys are still playing now 30 years later. Harlan plays in a big band over in Cleveland, Tennessee. Terry and Kirk still play together in Asheville most every weekend--even though Kirk has to drive up from his home in Atlanta to do so! I had my run in Nashville during the '80s and, while I play at church a good bit, I don't play nearly the amount the rest of the White Water Band does.
We were a decent little band, I think, and I've had fun remembering it all (or at least most of it).
posted by mac | 4:44 PM
8 Comments:
Great story..thanks so much
Glad the story is never over! Glad the Lord has you still writing and playing.
amen........
Sure sounds like you had a great time in the "Band" and I am really glad you are playing, and singing, at church.
Dennis
That last year of high school is strange, isn't it? After I was admitted to college, I quit studying so much and went on lots of bike trips.
Good to see your blog... 'til the next time they shut the site down.
Have you thought about a reunion concert...at the church maybe...?!!
Fun as the White Water Band was, the Cody band was a lot better. A reunion of that group at the church would be a very cool thing.
This post is being done in April of 2008, to bring closure to a little of the story. Since Nov of 2006, when this was posted, Mike and I ( I am the Jim referred to in the posts, and still see Terry and Kirk on a regular basis ) have caught up with each other, thanks to Mike and Terrys' fortuitous meeting in Ingles in Marshall, and my keeping in touch with Terry. So now you can know what happened to Jim. He is alive and well, still tall but maybe not so thin, still (thank the Lord) has hair, which some of is still black, and still plays in a band as well. We are called the "Sugardaddy Band", and have almost as much fun as we did in the Whitewater Band, and musically, I'm sure we are a much better band, but it will never carry the pschyic weight the Whiterwater Band did. We hope to get a Whitewater reunion going in the near future. Those of you who asked for a reunion of the Cody band, yes, that band was a much better band than the admittedly amatuerish Whitewater, but, even though we did not know it then, it was never about the band, or even the music. It was about boys learning how to be men, how to define themselves in a world that was fast becoming a BIG world. It was about friendship, and trust, and learning about relationships that did not center around the family unit. In that respect, the Whitewater Band was the best that ever was, the best that will ever be, in all of our hearts and souls, and it is still the reason we look back on those days with a lump in our throats, and maybe a tear in our eye. It has been fun to update this, and I will get the pictures to Terry and Kay Davis so they can be shared with readers of this blog as well. Thanks for the opportunity to remember those days and feelings. 'Till next time, best wishes, may the Good Lord bless and keep each of you. Jim Stapleton, April, 2008
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