My tenure in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was coming to an end. The Ontonagon School District, where I had been employed as the “visiting” Elementary School music teacher in three different schools, as well as being the high school and junior high school choir director, needed to cut staff.  My position would be cut to part-time.

Unfortunately, my living expenses remained the same and there was no way that I could exist on a part-time income. It was time to move on. I explored all possibilities, but the only option was to leave the U.P. and look for employment in greener pastures elsewhere.

My heart was heavy as I considered the alternatives. I had grown to love the U.P., its rugged beauty, as well as its people; and I had experienced numerous mountaintops as well as its sometimes unforgiving valleys. It was a place that allowed me to grow beyond personal hardships.

It allowed me to make peace with the past and to come to the place of forgiving, to be forgiven, and to boldly walk into the future. It was also a place where I had grown professionally; producing and directing the “Sound of Music” in the awesome Calumet Theatre.

It was a place where the cast and I walked in the footprints of giants such as John Philip Sousa, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., James O’Neil, and Sarah Bernhard and even one of my organist idols, Virgil Fox. We had walked and cried with Jewish children who were destined to be victims of the Holocaust in our Suomi production of “I Never Saw another Butterfly.”

I treasured playing for Sunday morning services, and providing concerts at Trinity Episcopal Church on the only three- manual pipe organ in the U.P. (except for the three-manual Wurlitzer Theatre Organ I played at the Michigan Tech hockey games).

I would have to leave those who, at first were strangers, but who over the years had become dear friends. These were countless memories, never to be forgotten; but now it was time to begin a new chapter. But where?

I remembered that, “God helps those who help themselves.” It was time to get to work and to use the gifts that I had been given. I recalled reading somewhere that “only the mint makes money, the rest of us have to earn it.”

I asked myself, “How soon could I start “earning” money again? The answer was simple; it was as soon as I started a new job. Question: “How was I going to find that new job”?  The answer again was so simple,” Look for it, and leave no stone unturned.”

Sometimes, it is a good idea to have a conversation with yourself. Chances are you already know the answers to your questions. All you need is to hear yourself say it.

I went to work immediately, using all the resources available, and I was encouraged by the philosophy that “a “yes” will follow the next ”no”. Bingo! Hastings High School, in Hastings, Minnesota, contacted me and asked if I was available to come down for an interview.

They were looking for a choir director and they were impressed with my resume. A date and time was agreed upon and on the designated date I drove down to Hastings, and the following morning I went through the interview process.

One of the things that I had learned early on in my career was to save important documents: programs, pictures, letters of appreciation, comments on my work from parents, school staff members, students who had been members of my choirs and theatre groups, business leaders, politicians, clergy and members of the community. I had five volumes in my collection from Forest Hills and Creston High Schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Suomi College, Gwinn and Ontonagon High Schools in Michigan’s U.P. Literally a box full of testimonials. Yes, it is good to sell yourself, but it is even better to have others make the sale for you!

Today, with the availability of the Internet, it would all have been different. My information could have been entered on a flash drive and I could have carried all that information in my pocket; plus I had duplicate copies available to leave with a prospective employer. We have come a long way in a short time.

The interview went well, and within a few days I received word that I had been hired. I guess they were impressed. They said “Of all the candidates that applied you were the only one who brought “a box of testimonials.” I moved to Hastings, bought a house and moved in. The job (perhaps unfortunately) only lasted one year.

I had this weird philosophy that “choir” should be more than just a “fun” time. I was a strong believer in the concept that the kids should not only learn the “notes” but they should also learn the music theory and the history behind the notes. In other words, they should learn the language of the music that they were singing.

They were going to be graded, and just being in choir did not mean an automatic “A”. Most of the kids went along with the program, but a few had their program changed and dropped out. I even had some parents call me to tell me that what I was doing was unheard of and crazy.

Fortunately I was raised knowing that “you can’t please everybody.”

When the kids learned that I had been the hockey organist for Michigan Tech, and now had been asked by the Minnesota North Stars to be one of their organists, they asked if I would please play for the Hastings hockey team, also. What could I say, but “Yes”?

For Christmas, I embarked on a bold program. There was a community chorus in Hastings and I invited them to join with the high school choir and perfom the Christmas section of George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” for our Christmas concert. The community chorus loved the idea. They inspired the kids and the kids, in turn, inspired the community chorus. Our concert was a huge success.

I was so thrilled with the kids’ performance that, as a reward, I wanted to take them on a choir tour to Washington D.C.; I had been there twice with the Creston Choir performing in the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, the Senate Office Building and the White House Rose Garden. I knew I had the connections to have the Hastings Choir do some of the same things.

I had established a “choir parent board” and they were 100% behind the idea. However, the school principal and the school board said “no.” The kids and I, of course, were very disappointed. I was offered an alternative. It was, “Why don’t you take the kids for a weekend to Winnipeg?” The offer came with this stipulation, “We had to raise the money for the trip!”

Somehow schools never lack funds for anything athletic, but when it comes to supporting the Arts, funds miraculously dry up. This school was no different.

 It is not a reflection on our Canadian neighbors, but going to Winnipeg is not quite the same as going to Washington, D.C., but, if the choice was between Winnipeg and nothing, the choice was easy. The next day I announced “We are going to Winnipeg. All we have to do is raise the money.”

I do love a good challenge, and raising money to benefit my students was a worthy challenge indeed. I had heard of a company (in Ohio?) that was marketing frozen pizzas. It was a whole new concept. You purchased the frozen pizzas and frozen toppings, put the pizzas and the toppings in your oven at home, and after the designated time, the pizzas, piping hot, were ready to eat.

I proposed the idea to my choir parent board. They loved it. We printed order forms for the kids to use when they went door-to- door to sell the frozen pizzas, and off they went.

Within a week, we knew that our sales campaign was a huge success. The order numbers were out of sight. I called the pizza factory and ordered pizzas……..a lot of pizzas.

In the afternoon of the delivery date, a semi pulled up in front of the high school. I think the school’s administration had a near heart attack. The kids proved that “where there is a will, there’s a way.” That evening a large share of the Hastings population ate piping hot (frozen) pizzas, and that spring the Hastings Choir went on their very successful spring weekend tour to Winnipeg.

When a person is hired by a school as a new teacher, your first year is a probationary year. At the end of that first year you are either hired and placed on tenure status, or the school can just dismiss you, without cause.

I guess the truck load of pizzas was my final demise, “the nail in the coffin.” I was told that I was not a “team player”; a typical athletic expression.

I guess I was more concerned with the growth and welfare of my kids than the opinion of the administration, and that, my friends, is not a tenure position.

I will always treasure the sight of that pizza semi truck pulling up in front of the school door and seeing the excitement of the kids and the consternation of the school administration. “Thanks for the memory.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Gerrit Lamain is a former Copper Country resident who served as a music professor at Suomi College. He has published a book, “Gerrit’s Notes: A compilation of essays,” which can be found on Amazon. His email address is gerrit.lamain@gmail.com.