Playing it Forward

They were the St. Joe Singers.

The year was 1978 and Ann Aldridge, just a couple of years out of college, was at Port St. Joe High School teaching music.
The St. Joe Singers, and that Class of 1978, would be something of her newborns, the first "Rock Band" that Aldridge - later Comforter after marrying Rocky - had in her long and distinguished career at the high school.

The first of many of Comforter's performing groups that would transform high school events into something special, something to remember.

Aldridge and those St. Joe Singers had a musical brainstorm.

Why not make a record?

Of course, back then it was a real record, a vinyl long-playing grooved disc as opposed to the hermetically-sealed coffee-cup plate that is the CD of today.

The group selected songs popular at the time, nuggets such as "Rocky," "Mockingbird," "Landslide" or "Boogie Nights."

They traveled to Dothan, Alabama to Studio Four and recorded the album under the direction of Ann Aldridge in four hours.

The singers laid down 13 tracks and about 500 copies - all pre-sold to cover recording costs - were stamped.

At $5 a pop, they sold out fast. It was hyped in this newspaper.

"This was a really big thing back then," Ramsey said.

Fast forward 30 years and the members of the Class of 1978 - which by-the-by at 126 remains the largest graduating class in the high school's history, Ramsey said - had another musical brainstorm as they prepared for their recent 30-year high school reunion.
Why not figure out a way to make that album provide something tangible for Comforter's students and efforts of today?
They thought of the album.

Comforter happened to have digitized the entire disc, so the idea was hatched to offer the burned CDs for $10 a pop to the classmates who attended the reunion and give the money back to Comforter" Port St. Joe High School Choral Department.

In these days of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and the too-often marginalization of arts programs in today's schools, the idea was a winner, particularly when taking into account Comforter, who has provided so much to that school for over 30 years, from her skills as an instructor and artist to her upbeat humorous demeanor.

"This is such a good thing for the school," Ramsey said. "Ann Comforter has done a ton for that school."

The idea broadened.

Why not offer the CDs to any who'd like this keepsake and toe-tapper to all the community, anybody who would like a taste of what can be done when a group of youngsters put their minds and voices together, with background music tossed into the mix?

All the proceeds, in turn, would go back to Comforter and the Choral Department at the high school.

Copies are on sale at the high school office. Stop by. Pick up one or a few. The beneficiaries are the students of today.

So play it forward. The Class of 1978, the St. Joe Singers, Ann Comforter; they've done all the heavy lifting.