August of 1968-

Rat Race Choir's 2nd gig was at The Hastings-on-Hudson Recreation Center. We were booked there by a very nice man by the name of Mr. Dugan, who turned out to be a great help booking us at other towns in the Westchester area.

The night we played there happened to be "The Wooden Nickel Dance." (I still have my wooden nickel-- see picture) The way this dance worked was, upon entering the dance, each person was given a wooden nickel. One side was a picture similar to an Indian Head nickel, on the other was a number, basically a "round raffle ticket." Halfway through the show, on a break, someone picked winning numbers out of a barrel of nickels, and these people won prizes.

The prizes that night were live animals. I remember there were rabbits, chickens, and some ducks. We did not know any of this was going to happen, we were just told, there would be a raffle during a break. The dance was packed, there were people crowded together. It was the kind of crowd that you can try to walk through, but can't. It was very hot and humid, and I remember we were playing very well, and having a great time. Along came the break, the raffle went off and the winners received their prizes. Why they chose to give away live animals in a crowd like that was beyond us. I guess the people who won them should have left the dance and brought them home, because what was to follow got pretty wild.

Ducks, and chickens got loose, and with the band blasting the room and people dancing, the first thing I remember seeing was a lot of feathers flying in the air, with girls screaming and jumping out of the way. The more that the girls screamed, the more that the chickens freaked out, and some of them attempted to fly across the Recreation Hall, that caused people to start ducking (excuse the pun). Occasionally an open space of floor would appear as people leapt and jumped to get out of the way of flying fowl. That’s when you'd see a poor confused wayward rabbit scurrying for safety... that he was not going to find! The music level from the band and all the people had these creatures completely freaked out.

We as a band, were caught between hysterical laughter and a sort of shocked astonishment, all of us are animal lovers or owners. So THE BAND PLAYED ON. After a while Mr. Dugan and his staff gathered up the stray creatures, and things calmed back down to the usual RRC gig level plus the occasional chicken flying over my head. That night we made $80 dollars, which was $15 more than Gig #1. So I guess we were on the way up after The Wooden Nickel Dance.

Not all of our early gigs were as crazy as these first two. There are many interesting stories about our years of playing. Some serious, some of achievement, some sad. I hope you are enjoying reading how we started out as kids and some of the stuff we went through in 1968. I hold these first gigs as "golden memories," and always will.

-- Dave Chmela