Little Mary Sunshine

Back row: Micah Beuhring, Someone I can't see, Jason Hills, Jacob Haight.
Middle Row: Bryant Blackham, Scott Sackett, Andrew Thorne, David Horan, Jeremy Parker, Someone I can't remember.
Front Row: Brendan Something, Brandon Anderson.

They are wearing the old marching band uniforms from Orem High. The left over uniforms that local drama departments didn't want were later used in a giant bonfire to celebrate the new and less. . . vibrant uniforms.I hated Junior High- with all my heart! It ws such an awkward age for me. I was too young, but too old, and I was dealing with all of the emotional baggage that comes with puberty and moving a ridiculous amount of times to new locations and changing schools. I was shy and awkward and ugly. However, the one bright shinig moment of my Junior High torture was my 9th grade year. I think things got a little better then because technically I was no longer a junior High student- I was a high school Freshman. I suppose it may have also had a little something to do with the fact that I got friends that year. Some really great ones at that. One of my favorite parts of 9th grade was the musical that the drama department did- Little Mary Sunshine. It was the cheesiest, sillyest, funniest thing ever! I was the stage manager because I could not perform anything on stage unless I was hiding behind my flute. My boyfriend, David, was the lead guy- Big Jim Warrington, and most of my best friends were either in the play or in the pit orchestra. This meant that most of my spare time after school was spent with the people I loved most. The picture above is of all the Forest Rangers who helpedd to saveMary from a wanton and jealous indian named Yellow Feather (Mike something. . . I can't remember). Here are some of my favorite moments from the play. Is it weird that I remember all of this and more?

Billy (Ben Abbot) to Naughty Nancy (Melinda Lockwood)-
You tell me they're your cousins, but you've got cousins by the dozens, and somehow every single one of them is male!

You've made your bed a rolling stone and now the shoe won't fit, you've had your cake and should have known you'd have to lie in it.

B: Once in a blue moon, I think you love me
N: It's rather pleasing, to be so teasing.

Billy to Big Chief-
Me a Heap big injun!

I'd lose my head for Pocahontas if she'd keep my wigwam warm!

Young Ladys (Sarah West, Ashley Poulsen, Carrie Mortimer, Nikki Matthews, and a lot of others- but those are the ones I cared most about. Sarah, Nikki and Ashley were two of my best friends, and Carrie and I became best friends in high school)-
Playing Croquet is a wonderful way to enoy an afternoon, when there's not a man in sight! and there's not a man in. . . .[spoken] Look- a Man!!! Look, another man!!. . . [singing again] And there's now a man in sight.

Matta Harri, Matta Harri, oh what a wicked girl was she! That's the kind of girl I want to be!

Forest Rangers to Young Ladys-
You see, we have not enjoyed the company of young ladys for some time now, so I must have you tell me if you are as pretty as you seem, or are you on the whole, rather plain?

FR: I'll take you down the garden path
YL: ooh!
FR: We'll watch the birdies have a bath
YL: oh!
FR: Beneath the tree we'll kiss
YL: Oh Bliss
FR: We'll be a loving girl and boy
YL: Oh joy- You make it sound so pretty that, you make my little heart go pitty-pat.
ALL: Oh heavens above, I think I'm falling in love with you.

It is silly now to think that this musical and the people involved in it meant so much to me when I, myself, was not really gifted with that kind of performing talent. For some reason I just really fit in with that group, and I am so glad that they accepted me. It would have been an awfully lonely year without them. It is also a little sad that the picture up there is the only one I have of this whole experience, and it is all ripped up around the edges for some reason. Just imagine how much I would have been able to remember if I had more pictures to spark those memories.