Walking the hallways with Genesis

“Need I say I love you, need I say I care…”

Now, one would expect to hear that in 1986 coming from a ghetto blaster or a car stereo.

However, if you attended Kate Andrews High School in Coaldale for the 1986-1987 year, you could hear that song bellowing in the hallways upstairs during afternoon class changes.

Today, I flipped the TV to “Stingray Remember the ‘80s” and “Throwing it All Away” by Genesis was playing.

I was instantly transported back to that time in the Spring of 1987.

Thought it was funny
Grade 12 was nearing its end for me, and I was acutely aware the things all around me would be gone once the last day of school passed. It gave me a certain freedom, because I knew where I was going – work for the summer then off to the University of Alberta in Edmonton in the Fall.

At the same time, I was finding myself, and doing some odd things. Looking back, they were attention seeking but harmless really. One had been in the Winter. I had never skipped class, but I wanted to try it. So me and some of my classmates in English 30 hung around downtown. Usually, I would have been the one anxious to get back. Instead it was someone else, who usually had no problem skipping class. So we walked back into class with maybe 20 minutes left. I wore my scarf tied around my head the way cartoon characters used to when they have a toothache, so the knot was on top of my head. I must have thought it was funny. No one else did. What was funnier was that the teacher never reprimanded us and we never suffered any consequences.

Another time, we had a rehearsal for our grad at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge. Me and Chris Vining, my best friend of the time, had gone to this restaurant in Coaldale we frequented called “Corky’s”. I had just discovered that one side was for take out, so I grabbed some fried chicken to go. We were a couple minutes late for rehearsal, but I thought I’d look cool walking in eating the last part of a chicken leg. No one else did, although Cindy McLean said, “Thought you’d bring a lunch?” That was funnier than I was.

Which brings us to a day I was walking back to my locker to put my books away after an afternoon class. I shared a locker with Vining, and he was there.

I started singing “Need I say I love you, need I say I care” as we walked down the hall to the stairs. Vining was always up for something goofy, as was I for him. So he joined in with “Need I say that emotions are something we don’t share.”

Then our friend Randy joined us and upped the volume another couple notches.

A good chunk of people were watching as we walked down the hall hitting the exit just as we got to the line “She’s throwing it all away.”

En route, I passed Bill Elliott who said we should take our show on the road.

That was probably funnier than singing the song.

The song
“Throwing it All Away” by Genesis was from their “Invisible Touch” album released in 1986. The song went all the way to number four on the Bilboard Hot 100 singles chart, as well as number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary and Album Rock Tracks Charts.

Encore
“Throwing it All Away” wasn’t the only song we sang in the hallways of Kate Andrews High School.

We also sang “Easy to Tame” by Kim Mitchell, focusing on the opening line, “What am I doing to make you so sad?”

Parting thoughts
High school is a strange time. I was at an age where I did some odd things which, really, is no different than now.

The funny thing was I had reached that point in my high school life where I really didn’t care what anyone thought.

Not even about walking down the halls singing, “Need I say I love you, need I say I care?”