UO Pep Band Camp Outs

As you probably know, I went to the University of Oregon and got a Bachelor of Music in Composition. While there, I hung with a gang of mostly Music Education majors as they were way more fun than the Composition folks. Most of my music classes were full of roughly these same people, year after year, so we became very tight and did almost everything together.

Towards the end of our educations, we started this tradition of going on camping trips every Memorial Day weekend. Members of the gang started graduating in ’76 and continued for the next couple years, so the camp outs became reunions of sorts. Many of us have kept in touch throughout the years and miles.

This video shows three of these camping trips (’76, ’77 & ’79). The photos are not great (it was dark in the campground and there was drinking involved – mostly the latter), but if you were there, you’ll probably enjoy them. If you weren’t there – well – it might be a little more difficult to find amusement in there anywhere. I dunno. All of us 65-year-olds were in our 20’s then, so that might be entertaining for you.

The tune was written in 1978 for Steve Moon’s senior recital, and I thought that since he was a Camp Out regular, re-recording this tune might be appropriate for the video. He had originally asked for something jazzy and that on which he could play flugelhorn. This is what I came up with at the time… I had a recording, so I could remember the chord changes and stuff. Anyway, it should be noted that Steve is everywhere in the pics.

And finally, two of the revelers are no longer with us. Both died way too early, and even though I wasn’t in touch with them regularly, news of their passing’s struck deeply. RIP Kathy Doherty and Dana Benesch.