It began with my Dad having settled in at Sheltering Arms Hospital (in its original location) for rehabilitation, nearly a month after his brain surgery and subsequent seizure. I finished, after nine months, my first job at the Beaverdam Quik Stop (which lives on to this day, though it's sister feed store did not. I worked at both...), and got ready to travel to three different events in six weeks.
I offered to stay home and help out, but, I give great credit to my stepmom who said I should proceed with my schedule. Two of the three events were "once in a lifetime" opportunities. The first week I attended American Legion "Boys State" at Lynchburg College. I won their public speaking contest and got to present the speech on closing night. That was my first time speaking to well over a thousand people live.
Following a week at our church camp, Camp Accovac up in Millboro Springs, it was off to Mary Washington College (as it was named at the time) for four weeks at The Governors School for The Gifted and Talented. Two Saturdays in a row, including on my 17th birthday, I'd come home, wash clothes, go visit Dad, then head off to the next adventure.
I arrived in Fredericksburg July 1st, having no idea just how impactful those four weeks would be. The lessons, experiences, opportunities and friendships I made have lasted now for 32 years, many reborn in this age of social media.
Each year, Governor's School, being in the era of the real MTV, would create a music video to highlight our tenure there. At the time, "Purple Rain" from Prince and The Revolution was all the rage. In fact, the only time Michael Jackson came up in conversation that month instead of Prince was when we recalled Jackson's hair catching fire on a Pepsi commercial shoot several months earlier. MJ was so "1983".
So, our video was done to today's song. I still have a copy of the VHS recording, though it works poorly after all these years. A classmate had a better copy, put it on our Facebook page when it was developed several years back, only to see it muted. As you may know, Prince did not let his music proliferate on YouTube and elsewhere.
But, for now, we have a copy to listen to on YouTube at the screen below. Whenever I hear the opening strain to this song, I'm immediately transported to July, 1984, watching the great Fred Campbell exiting an elevator with guitar in hand to mimic the crazy ending of a song that perfectly encapsulated the group that invaded Mary Washington for four unforgettable weeks back in that crazy summer.
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