It was the spring of 1997 and I was a sophomore in high school. I was in Austin, Texas, with about 25 other classmates from my high school. We traveled down to Austin to watch other schools, large and small, participate in the state one-act play contest. We wanted to soak up everything we could about state-quality plays after losing disappointedly in the competition circuit a few months before. Can you imagine being the theater instructor or one of the parents chaperoning such an event? With male and female high schoolers ranging in age of 15 - 18 with varying maturity levels and hormones ranging, I did not envy them. Needless to say, it was an interesting road trip.
Our theater instructor Ms. Murphy had to drive one of those school provide white utility vans hauling her share of the kids for five hours south on I-35 and around town while another parent did the same. We were "her kids" since she never had any of her own. We loved playing tricks and mind games with her, almost as much as she liked playing them on us. Every year her house was toilet papered and forked - not because we didn't like her. We loved her. That's why we didn't throw eggs.
I riding with the group driven by one of the parents which ended up being a wild ride. We hit a couple of curbs, got lost, drove half way across Travis County the wrong way, and, I found out after the fact, almost ran out of gas! We ended up getting stopped for a taillight out, but since it was a school sponsored trip, the officer let her off with a warning and she did not have to take a defensive driving course in Austin, although she might have needed it.
After all that, we finally made it to the hotel where more hijacks insured. The next day we went and watched lots of plays. Some good, some bad, some outright confusing (all plays had to be cut from the original length to 40 minutes, most were originally 1 ½ to 2). The road trip down there was not the highlight of the trip, nor were the plays, but I will tell you what was the most interesting part.
The next day the plays did not start until afternoon, so we piled in the white utility vans again and went to the local mall and Central Market. We were moving through the store as group when someone pointed out to one of us with a camera that Harry Connick Jr. and Sandra Bullock were in the store and she should try to take their picture. We did just that. Harry looked like he had just gotten up from bed with some peacock hair, but he was very pleasant and congenial. Sandra looked a little peeved in the picture. She was probably on her lunch break from being on the set of Hope Floats (Fox 1998) being filmed at the time.
I don't remember any of the plays that year, but I do remember the trip down there and meeting these two actors at the height of their careers. Maybe it was a sign, or a stroke of good luck, or the just the fact that we made down there alive, but we did make to state the next year, not as audience members, but as participants.
Neil Lemons represents Comedy Defensive Driving, a state approved Texas defensive driving online course. Since 1989 Comedy Defensive Driving has helped dismiss traffic tickets and lower insurance rates. Learn about their Austin Defensive Driving course, or any other Texas city by visiting their website: http://www.comedydefensivedriving.com
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