POTK is coming!

Some time in early 1987, my third grade teacher Miss Haynes had a vision: 25 third graders would dress up and lip sync hit songs on the Beye Elementary School stage.

In an additional flash of brilliance she decided to keep the show a secret right up until performance day! But we did want people to start getting excited about it so we hand-made and then stealthily hung posters all over the school.

"POTK IS COMING!!" the posters proclaimed.*

We succeeded in creating quite a buzz around school. Questions and rumors were flying! "What is this POTK?" "When is it coming?" "What does this mean for manufacturing sector jobs in the US?" Yes, quite a buzz.

The show was a big hit, due mainly to the fact that it was mandatory and got our classmates out of class to listen to pop music. I particularly remember that Courtney V. did a stirring rendition of Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All." There's something peculiarly poignant about having an 8 year old sing "I believe the children are our future...."

For my part, I was the Friend portion of "Cyndi Lauper and Friend" in the Iko Iko act. My classmate Katy (Cyndi) wore all pink and I dressed all in blue and stood directly behind her. I was wearing a big blue bow on my head the size of another head and would pop out to the side on alternating "hey now!"s. There might have been more choreography than that but it is also possible that there wasn't.

Perhaps my clearest memory of that special day, however, was being in gym class after the performance. We had a substitute and he wasn't so good with names.

"Hey! Bow-head!" he yelled to get my attention at one point.

Is it a coincidence that I no longer wear head-sized bows on my head? Possible. But not likely.


*I think some of them were made with stenciled letters. Very fancy business in those days. Almost guaranteed to get people extra excited.