Purdue Varsity Glee Club:
Fall Break Tour
October 8-11, 2005
This October, the men of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club spent Fall Break traveling down south, including performances in Columbia, Missouri and Stillwater, Oklahoma. Scroll down for journal entries and pictures of the guys as they spread the music of Purdue across the land.
Saturday, October 8, 2005: Columbia, MO
Our day started in West Lafayette at 8:30 in the morning where we loaded the busses and began our Fall Break tour. After a quick 5 hour bus ride, we found ourselves at the beautiful Missouri Theater right outside the Mizzou campus. We went on campus to eat at one of the dining halls and spread our special brand of Purdue entertainment to the students there while we ate. Then it was show time. The members of the Purdue Club of Mid-Missouri were our gracious hosts and brought a great crowd to the theatre for the show. It had been five years since the Glee Club had performed, and the crowd was very appreciative. After the show, we split into groups for our homestays and went to the homes of our host families to spend the night.
The men sing Happy Birthday to a girl from Mizzou during dinner before the show.
Sunday, October 9, 2005: Oklahoma City, OK
7:00 am. It was an early start for us in Missouri as we left for Oklahoma. We drove eight hours to Oklahoma City to sing for the Epworth Villa Retirement Center. We went at the request of the Thompson family, who has an aunt who lives there. David and Janet Thompson are the proud parents of Darin, an alumnus of the PVGC. They are big supporters of us and it was an honor to sing for their friends. After the show, we left to travel back north to the Thompsons' home in Stillwater. We had an excellent dinner, sang a few songs, and split again to join our new host families.
The men line the aisles for another birthday song.
Monday, October 10, 2005: Stillwater, OK
We started the day at the Advanced Technology Research Center at Oklahoma State University. There we had breakfast and sang for the Dean of the Engineering Department who happened to have a birthday today. We then walked over to the brand new Gallagher-Iba Arena and took a very cool tour of the arena and the football stadium. Lunch was at Eskimo Joe's, a place very comparable to Harry's back home. The food was great, and so were the other patrons, who we had the pleasure of singing for. I think many people were surprised to hear us sing both the OSU fight song and the Oklahoma state song. Everywhere we sang them, we got an awesome response. After lunch, it was off to the local high school for a quick rehearsal. They were a great group and responded very well to us and to Brian; we even had some time to sing for them and to hear them sing. We made a couple of round trips between the Community Center, where the show was, and the high school between setup, dinner, and show time. The performance was a singular experience. We have not had such an appreciative, energetic audience in a long time. Their energy kept us going on this last performance of the tour, a sellout of 675. We went home to our homestays, still energized by their response. It was an eventful, but very rewarding day.
The PVGC poses for a group picture with the Stillwater choir.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005: West Lafayette, IN
Back home again in Indiana. After a fifteen hour bus ride, we arrive home. This trip was a lot of things to us. Every step was full of opportunities, from connecting with old friends, to making new friends, to just coming closer together as a group. Every time we go on the road, we are getting better, closer, and more focused about the direction we want to go as a group. I hope that we get the chance to do that again next year.
Casey Kloiber and Peter Tarrant practice sparring during a bus stop on the drive home.