The Tigers of Joliet West

The Water Tower and Joliet West High School
Photo courtesy of www.jolietfromabove.com

I looked in the mirror and halfway expected to see a mop of thick black hair and a teenager's furry caterpillar mustache. The face looking back at me wasn’t the one from fifty years ago. In my mind, fifty years wasn’t that long ago. I just needed a time machine and a decent song to get there.  

1975 was a pretty good year for me, and a lot of my friends.  We were high school seniors that year; young dreamers headed for the future. We cruised McDonalds with the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Doobie Brothers crankin’ loud.  We took our dates to great movies like Jaws, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.  Gas was cheap - about 50 cents a gallon and you could buy a hamburger at McDonalds for about 30 cents. We had it pretty good.  Good things don’t last forever, but good friends can. Especially those who share a bond of shared experience and memories. The class of '75 had held up well for fifty years and there was a lot of positive energy and anticipation for our 50-year reunion.

Two years ago, fellow classmate and songwriter Terry Schnell said to me “we’ve got a reunion coming up - we should write songs”.  Of course I agreed.  Give me a two year lead time, and I can agree to almost anything.  Writing a “one and done” song for a specific occasion didn’t seem like a huge task. Then, about 3 months later, Terry came to town and said “hey, listen to this song that I wrote for the reunion”.  He played it and I was instantly struck by how insanely good it was.  The guy writes and performs like Dan Fogelburg.  I also realized that he had set the bar pretty high and I’d better write a song that didn’t embarrass me in comparison.  The heat was on.

Fast forward to about two months ago.  I had procrastinated and put off writing my reunion song, partially out of knowing it would be played either right before or right after Terry’s song in front of our fellow classmates.  It was just a little intimidating.  While songwriting isn’t a competitive sport, I knew it would be compared to Terry’s, and I didn’t want to be remembered as the guy who wrote the crappy song.  On a Saturday night that I had planned to go see a minor league ball game, the sky turned black, and the rain came down like it was coming out of a firehose.  It was a clear sign from God that I needed to write the reunion song that night. I gathered up my memories and began to write.  

Summing up four years of your life in a couple verses and a chorus takes some effort, but within an hour or so, I had a pretty good first draft of the lyrics and a melody to go with it. It checked all the boxes - good imagery, decent hook, reasonable melody, and above all, not too complex. I recorded a simple version of it with my phone and sent it around to some songwriter friends for feedback. I took some of their ideas and tried them out; I liked the result.  After several rounds of rewrites (typical for me), I was pretty satisfied.  After that, I just needed to play it about a hundred times and burn it into my memory.  I didn’t want to screw it up.

We had the reunion about two weeks ago and over two nights, we partied like it was 1975.  Well, maybe not. But the same old spirit was there. It was amazing to share the old memories and life stories with so many old friends.  On Saturday night, Terry and I took the stage in the front of the room and took turns singing our original songs for a half hour or so. We both finished up with our reunion songs, one after another. As expected, Terry’s song, “Reunion”, was terrific and well received.  I followed with mine, “The Tigers of Joliet West”, which was equally well received. Our classmates and spouses gave us both a standing ovation and requested encore songs, which we were happy to provide.  

It was a pretty amazing experience and afterwards, a lot of people came up to compliment Terry and myself.  Another classmate, Steve Thomas, followed us with his jazz quartet and they were just great for the rest of the evening.  If you wish, you can hear Terry’s song, “Reunion” here and my song, “The Tigers of Joliet West” here. Here are the lyrics to my song.

The Tigers of Joliet West

Bob Schmucker © 2025

The water tower stands, still guarding the high school

Just like it did, 50 years ago 

The buildings are bigger, and I’m a bit older

And it's good to come back home

Looking to the past, I remember the hallways.  

I remember the teachers, the laughter, my friends.

The questions and dreams, as we reached for the future

The issues of life we’d contend

The future it called and each of us answered

We raised up our glasses and hoped for the best

18 years old, how could we have known

What a life time of memories we had

Some went to work, and some went to college

Some joined the Army or or Air Force I’m told

Some they got married and some would die young

And some moved to places unknown

I am a writer, who lives in Virginia

Grateful for each of us here

To hear your life story, and see you again

And cherish the memories we share

The future it called and each of us answered

We raised up our glasses and hoped for the best

18 years old, how could we have known

What a lifetime of friendship we'd have

We’re the Tigers of Joliet West

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