Jim Lanier

The parties we put on with money from the Students for a Better School; playing the hippie dippy weatherman in a skit and writing the bathroom interview skit for an assembly; playing guitar and singing "Country Roads" at a choir concert; roaming the halls on a pass from Dave Marks' class; working backstage in "Fiddler on the Roof"; being detained by police on the school roof after delivering a Volkswagen (the police didn't buy my explanation that I was merely fiddling); singing a James Taylor song accapella with Carmel Davis before school.

Possibly the best, though, was while we were in rehearsal for the play "Dark of the Moon."
I played Uncle Smelique, played guitar and had quite a few lines. One rehearsal, I accidently showed up stoned, what can I say? I was a victim! We got well into the play before Jane Ferguson stopped everything. I was studying the upper balcony, looking at the lights, lost in my reverie. I realized later that Jane had stopped the show to just rip me a new one, in front of everybody! She thoroughly castigated me for my lackluster performance! I thought I was doing pretty well, remembering my lines and all the songs!
I got even during dress rehearsal for Hello Dolly. I played the painter/wall paperer. The plot point was, the male lead was giving in to Dolly, by choosing blue wallpaper. I had no lines. I was supposed to look around the set upstairs, reappear downstairs and be ushered off. During dress rehearsal, I refused to be ushered off. I said very loudly, "I ain't got no blue wallpaper!" Jane had to laugh, even as she was threatening me with mayhem.


Oh, yeah, and Dave Smith and I once got thrown out of Physics class by Norm (I forget his last name), but we refused to leave. That was fun.

The big highlight was leaving Cubicle Hell. I worked for a Fortune 500 company for 12 years, until they downsized and offered me a buyout. I said, "Let me get this straight-- you'll pay me to leave? I'm outta here!"
Since then I've been homesteading in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I built a strawbale house (post and beam, with actual straw bales as infill walls, making the walls two feet thick-- really good insulation, about R60) with the help of my wife, Becky. We're off-the-grid, using photovoltaic panels for electricity and a wood stove (five acres of woods to thin) for warmth.
I'm semi-retired, as retired as any of us will probably get, with the government giving away our Social Security. I make part of my living singing and playing guitar (I went to the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, back in 1980) locally. I recorded a CD of original music back in 2004, which didn't make me rich or famous. I've had some of my poetry published, but that don't pay!

I think the last time was nineteen-hunnert and ninety-three! No, make that ninety-four. Thanks for the memory jog, Teri!

Digitally. Rick Harris, Terry Whistler, Dick Crocker, Randy Mace, Dave & Terri Howells, Pam Payne, Sharon Simmons, Tracy Reed, I could go on and on.

Boogie; Constant High; OPC#1

Chop wood, read, write poetry and songs, play guitar and seek out spiritual enlightenment. I have a fruit orchard and (fairly) organic garden. And it looks like I'll be building my house longer than Jefferson took on Monticello...
All of a sudden, I'm working with a band, are you ready for this? It's called Juke Joint Jim and the Jammers.
Well, gotta update that. Don't even remember JJJ & the J's. Working with 3 bands now, enjoying the local musical scene.

I kinda live off my wits (a poor living, I can hear Dick Crocker say) and muscle and some music. I mostly try not to spend any money. Ever.

I actually make some money playing music these days . . .

I do not remember Durm's Pond. And I have bad news for those of you who listed those parties as favorite memories: Durm's Pond was like the '60's; if you remember them, you weren't there! Unless you remember regurgitating Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill, TJ Swan, Annie Greenspring and, could that be the bouquet of Stroh's/Jack Daniels/kaluha???!!?

Extended family: two black labs: Joe (8) and Bodie (7); two black cats: Mausser and Meuler (both 7); and a pot-bellied pig named Lilith.