Brick House…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU

Easy…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgsDiufGVAg

Sail On…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg-ivWxy5KE

 

After Friday Night Lights…

Brick House

The Commodores

She’s a brick—-house
Mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out
She’s a brick—-house
The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact,
ain’t holding nothing back.

She’s a brick—-house
She’s the one, the only one,
who’s built like a amazon
We’re together everybody knows,
and here’s how the story goes.

Verse:
1. She knows she got everything
a woman needs to get a man, yeah.
How can she use, the things she use
36-24-36, what a winning hand!
(Chorus)
Verse:
2. The clothes she wears, the sexy ways,
make an old man wish for younger days
She knows she’s built and knows how to please
Sure enough to knock a man to his knees
(Chorus)
Bridge:
Shake it down, shake it down now (repeat)

 

In the summer before my junior year of high school, my family moved to Longmont, Colorado. I LOVED living in Longmont. It was like I came home to a place I’d never been, yet lived inside me somehow. I loved living in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains and could hike and fish to my heart’s content. Every morning, I would leave the house and walk the 5 blocks to school after first turning to the west to see the ever-changing mountains in the morning light.  The mountains never seemed to look the same. Always beautiful, they captured the light and played with it, using clouds as natural reflectors to create differing shades of color. God impressed upon me his artistry that was ever changing, even as it stayed the same. Remarkable!

The school I attended was quite different than my prior school. Longmont High School was a 3-year high school, sophmore through senior, and contained over 2,1oo students. This was a change from Elkhart, Kansas, where the entire population of the town was around that number. Although a tad shell-shocked, I plunged into the activities I’d always loved: music and sports. These two departments were inbedded with a tradition of success and respect, and I felt like a fish let free into a fresh water lake who was used to living in a mud puddle. I felt free to stretch out and test the new depth.

The community of Longmont was inhabited by around 35,000 people at the time and was 35 miles from Denver and 15 miles from Boulder. A great location that yielded the best of small town living, yet close enough to the opportunities of urban life.

There were two high schools in Longmont when I first moved there: Niwot High and Longmont High. There was, obviously an intense rivalry between the schools,  yet the music programs were pretty supportive of each other. Football season was a time of particular rivalry, although LHS was ALWAYS better… The rivalry even played itself out in where we went after football games on Friday nights. On the main drag of Longmont, there were two pizza joints: Pizza Hut and Pizza Inn. LHS went to Pizza Hut… NHS went to Pizza Inn. Although the two restaruants were fairly close to each other, you were looking for problems if you wore LHS blue at the Inn, or NHS green at the Hut. It wasn’t dangerous to cross lines, just a hassle.

Pizza Hut usually began to fill up steadily after the game and the other customers would begin to filter out as more blue came in. The Hut was beginning to hit it’s fever pitch when the players would begin to arrive, after showers and donning their blue and white letter jackets. The juke box in the corner would be fed with quarters, and management would turn it up after the parent traffic filtered out. Whenever I hear Brick House, by the Commodores, I’m back in The Hut. The cheers beginning to erupt when a parade of blue and white jackets entered the room. Although pizzas were ordered, the point of coming to The Hut was to move from table to table. Some tables were filled with upper-classmen, sporting their blue jackets with white leather sleaves which were covered with blue footballs with white printing explaining honors received from past gridiron campaigns and a big blue “L” bordered in white on the left side, over the heart. The upper-classmen would hold court as girls moved from table to table, moving to keep the gaze of  a particular boy affixed on a particular girl. Flirting was the major activity until, the pizza was delivered to the table, then the guys appetite turned to something even more basic than sex…. FOOD!  After the food was inhaled, it was time to socialize again.

From time to time, drama would break out. This girl didn’t like that girl because that girl was sitting too close to that guy. Or two guys would stalk outside because of some perceived slight from one to the other. Pretty typical stuff, and yet it didn’t seem to really get out of hand. It was fun! When we won, life was great and the Jocks always told each other stories of the great plays they’d made, or a particular great hit, or how they’d beaten an opponent who’d been talking smack all night. The other tables continuing their conversations about teen-age romances, or last week’s parties or next week’s parties. And the juke box was continually fed… and the music blared with occasional flare ups of laughter from random tables… and the glances between certain guys and certain girls became more frequent… and the music selections began to get slower and less raucous… and the crowds around the tables began to scatter, the pace of conversation slowing and becoming quieter… and the crowd began to thin as groups broke up and couples formed… and the music continued to get more intimate…

Until  The Hut is practically cleared, except that table of sophmores who are finally allowed to stay out and want to enjoy every minute until their parents come get them. The staff begins the process of cleaning up, and the music is replaced by the drone of the vacume. Finally, as the last student leaves, the manager puts one final quarter in the juke box, and pushes F8…

Easy, by the Commodores…

then F9…

Sail On, also by the Commodores…

“…just something mellow, so I can finish counting the drawers…” she thinks.

And after the last note and the last server is done with clean-up, the door is locked and the staff retreat through the cans in the parking lot to their cars and the drive home….

…And next week is Homecoming….!