Peddler On the Roof.

Or Piddler (an obscure term for a vandal...just look at the programme, Okay.) I don't actually remember the plot so well (not that these excuses for entertainment had much plot.) This was the first year that Curtain Call was out of the Red and making money! We sold out 3/4 nights and had a pretty full house on opening night.














My character was not so memorable, but I did have one key scene. When I started at university, I was in the College of Family and Consumer Studies (FACS) attempting to get a Child Studies degree. I was the ONLY one in Child Studies and one of the few males in the college. FACS has a reputation (accentuated by Curtain Call) of being an MRS degree, or where women try to marry a rich Engineering or Agricultural student. Miss Inge Link was the teacher, demonstrating how to win a man: "We must, we must, we must improve our bust!" (Shoulders back, chest thrust out while chanting the credo.) Being the only male in this scene, I interrupted the teacher, requesting that I be excused. She yelled at me and I exclaimed, "My academic advisor suggested that I continue with my courses until I get debarred."



(Expository aside: Amusing, but little did the audience know, that that is exactly what happened to me in actuality. My grades were suffering, for I had to take courses in Textiles and Economics and other less appealing lessons. I was eventually debarred from the program for not keeping up a B average and had to leave for a semester. Fortunately Guelph is trimesterly, so I returned in the fall in the Psychology Department and eventually acquired a Psych Degree with a minor in Criminology.)











On opening night, I walked off the stage humbly muttering to myself. The next night, much to EVERYONE'S surprise, instead of wandering off stage, I marched into the audience, donned a red-checked hat and proclaimed, "I never wanted to be a FACS boy anyway, all my life, I wanted to be a ... Lumberjack!" and proceeded to sing the song (only the band knew what I was up to.) The lead on stage was furious at being upstaged and the director was livid. Not because of what I had done, but because I hadn't done it the previous night.

So my red-checked lumberjack hat and I became indelibly linked for years to come. I don't have any pictures of the production, but I do have a few pics of the aftermath of the closing nights' party.















Let's see if I can remember one of the songs. Creelman Prayer. (Creelman was one of the cafeterias.)
May the Lord protect and defend us.
May the Lord preserve us from pain.
May it taste like food,
Not something that is rude,
Oh, hear our Creelman Prayer.














We're so sick of starchy macaroni,
Veterinary rejects as our meat.
Chicken every night,
At times with just the sight, we puke.









Please mom send us, Care Packages from home
(May they all be stuffed with mother's home cooked food.)
Just with Creelman, we surely won't survive.
(Also send a Five or Ten from dear old dad.)

May the Lord protect and defend us.
May the Lord preserve us from pain.
May it taste like food,
Not something that is rude,
Oh, hear our Creelman Prayer.
Amen.

(I'm a bit sketchy on the last chorus, but come on, it's been 27 years!)