(Most of the songs and the skits we did cannot be performed anymore due to hazing and youth protection issues. But it was fun when we DID do them back then! from "Patches and Pins...", (c) 1988 Mike Walton)

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My mother, God help her, think that I can sing. I cannot -- well, I can if one considers singing commercial jingles in the shower with the hot water on "full blast" as "singing". One time, our next door neighbors actually called my mother and asked her to "Please tell your son to stop yelling!"

My "singing lesson money" went to, well, we'll just say that I didn't use it for its intended purposes.

So, I thought that Carolyn Avery was absolutely nuts when she suggested that I be a part of something called "All Together Brand New Different Show" my senior year of high school. They sing. They do funny skits and stunts. But they sing.

I don't sing. Okay. Maybe in church.

"You're an Eagle Scout, you've been hosting campfire programs -- this would be a natural for you, Mike! Just think about it -- you, out there with an upright piano, singing one of *your* songs..."

"Not in a million years!" I responded.

All Together Brand New Different Show -- or ATBINDS for short -- started with WFKE.

[Earlier it was explained that Explorer Post 294, or WFKE-TV, was a mass-media and communicative arts Explorer Post; it's sister Post, Post 666, was chartered to the Fort Knox radio station WSAC-FM In addition to covering Fort Knox community events, we also produced several Boy Scouting-related events as a favor to the Old Kentucky Home (now Lincoln Heritage) Council]

During a meeting in 1974, a discussion arose about why we were being asked "to cover a Boy Scout campfire program" -- actually the campfire program for a District Camporee. The girls in the Post, many of whom have never been involved in Scouting period before they "became explorer scouts", just didn't get it:

"Every campfire program is the same thing. You sing some, you roast marshmellows, and some guy with a bunch of badges stands and tells some stupid horror story which keeps everyone awake all night long!"

Of course, all of the guys -- and those few Senior or Cadettee Girl Scouts in our communicative arts Explorer Post -- all withheld our larger laughs for smaller, more personalized laughter at Lisa Daley. So her boyfriend, at that time our Vice President for Program, Terrance Mixon, decided to put on a simple campfire program during our next full Post meeting and asked several of the Post members to help him.

The rest, as they say in the movies, is history. Between 1974 and 1981, when the last All Together Brand New Different Show was performed in October of that year, Explorer Posts 294, 666, and 184 put on close to 2000 of those shows, each unique, each, well, an all together brand new different show, for church groups, schools, and during county fairs...

The production was very simple: take a regular Scout campfire program, boil it down to four skits, four songs, twelve "run-ons" and always include local talent. The local county homecoming queen would sing or perform; or a barbershop quartet, or some kid that can say all of the states and capitals in reverse order in less than 2 minutes. We had high school drill teams perform and the drill team that did all of the REAL moves in the movie "Stripes" which was filmed at Fort Knox (they came from my college). And each show would start out with the lights out, and someone coming in announcing the start of the show and "lighting the fire".

The "fire" was artificial, but people swore that we had built a REAL fire in the center of their gymnasium floor. We even had buckets of water and sand handy to add "realism" to the location.

I was a stage hand and an "extra" starting in 1975. But when the Associate Advisor for Program and the Advisor of Post 184, Carolyn Avery (whom was also a former community Mayor) asked me to SING in the next ATBINDS, I said "Nope!"

I eventually changed my mind, but it was a long time afterwards...and I never sang by myself out there. Steven Stovall (we all called him "Red" for his bright red - orange hair) left the community to move to Indianapolis and Carolyn was stuck without a guy that can lead the audience in those simple camp songs.

The Quartermaster Store. Pink Pajamas. This Land is Your Land. Ravoli. Red River Valley. The More We Get Together. My favorite, Kum Bah Yah.

I would be assisted by crew members holding large pieces of cardboard with the words, so that everyone can see them and follow along with us. I agreed to do it until Carolyn would find someone to take "Red's" place.

That lasted for three years. In all those years, my parents have never seen my performances -- my Mom heard about it from her clients at her beauty salon, but because of the hour of the performance and all...she didn't get to see her oldest son and his friends and some other kids put on an "indoor campfire show." My Dad couldn't because he was out of the country in Korea for a year, followed by duties which didn't get him out of the office until 6 or 7pm each evening.

The local Councils did, and they took great advantage of ATBINDS to increase memebership and to start new units. Many of our "gigs" were during school days especially to young third and fourth graders. Both Boy and Girl Scouting executives were glad we were around!

The thing I enjoyed most about ATBINDS was the fact that I was educating a large group of people, many of whom have NEVER been to a campfire program before. Kids would come down off the rafters or onto the stage afterwards and ask "how they can be Scouts like we were" and those among us whom were Scouts or Scouters never missed an opportunity to wear our uniforms during the final part of the show. It was something I was extremely proud of belonging to, and which provided a lot of "inside jokes" and laughter about when meeting up with some of the ATBINDS alumni later in life.

Like when Jeff French and I did the "suckers on the line" skit one time.

For those that don't know this skit, here it goes:

Me on telephone: Hey Jeff, I'm glad I got to reach you before you went out fishing! I wanted to know if I can go along with you today...you know, things have been really slow....Hey Jeff, can you hear me?

Jeff: Mike? Is this Mike Walton? I can barely hear you, bud...hang on a minute, okay...don't hang up!!

(Jeff stands up from his seat, and goes out to the audience and finds someone and brings them down to the "stage area". He then tells them to stretch their arms out, and point their fingers in the direction of Jeff and me, on different sides of the stage. Some times, we would have a string or rope line between Jeff's and my chair and we would ask them to hold it up over their heads.)

Jeff: Hey Mike, Can you hear me better?? Now what were you saying?

Me: Jeff, I can hear you better, but-- hang on a minute, I'm going to see if I can make it even better!

(I go out to the audience and find someone else, and have them to do the same things that Jeff's person is doing.)

Me: You still there??

Jeff: But the signal isn't that great... (he and I go back out and repeat the process. This goes on until we have about 10 or 11 people on the stage)

Me: Alright!! This is great!! Now can you hear me?? I'm glad I got ahold of you before you went fishing...

Jeff: I went fishing already, Mike, sorry you missed me before I went!! There was plenty of room on the boat though!

Me: Well, tell me (by this time, we're both cracking up and can barely hold our composure) what did you catch??

Jeff: (standing and pointing) Well, I didn't get any bass, or catfish but I've got 10 or 11 SUCKERS ON THE LINE HERE!!

One night, one of the "suckers" we picked out of the audience at random proudly announced that evening that he WORKS FOR THE PHONE COMPANY, and that HE'LL BE HAPPY TO PROVIDE SOME LINEMEN TO PERMANENTLY KEEP THIS CONNECTION UP!! which broke us and everyone else present into a round of laughter and applause. We still ask each other if either of us knew that that "phone company man" was out there that night....and laugh about getting our own prank backfire on us!

There were some wonderful singers. Dana Harvey, for one. Lisa Daley and her guitar, which added some realism to that darkened fire (the performers were "lit" by Coleman(tm) lanterns and large beamed flashlights, just like at a "real" campfire program). At one stop, a guy I went to college with and majored in theater named Sam (I can't recall his last name) gave such a performance that we wanted him to be a permanent member...but he said "nah, there's no money in it" and he was right. None of us got paid for the fun we were having. So I didn't really have to worry too much about my lack of singing ability....there were plenty of great singers!

Singing for me would come much later, to my pride and my embarrassment. But for now, I am glad that only my mother feels that I can sing.

Settummanque!

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