I played trombone with Larry in the band. There were 5 of us in the t-bone section. We called ourselves “The Quintuple K” because all our names began with the letter “K” (Kapudjija, Kelly, Kennedy, Klozar, and Potiker). Well, maybe he didn’t fit in our group alphabetically but he was just as crazy as the rest of us. I remember Mr. Renner kicked us all out of band one time for screwing off. We each had a little nasal spray bottle that we used to spray water on our trombone slides for lubrication. Well, that’s what we were supposed to use them for. As musicians, we were naturally creative beings, so we did find some alternate uses for those spray bottles. At the time, one of Mr. Renner’s big things was posture. You can’t get a good sound out of an instrument when you’re all slouched over, so he invented the “scooch club.” To be a member, you had to scooch out on the edge of your chair when you were playing, which forced you to sit erect. Then when you weren’t playing, you could slouch back in your chair if you wanted. Well, Larry liked to squirt a little puddle of water on our chairs while we were scooching, then when we slouched back in our chairs, we would get a wet seat, and Larry would get a big smile on his face. So this one day we had all fallen victim to his shenanigans. I was the last to be victimized, but not before dealing Larry a shot of his own medicine. I was so proud that I had taken the master of spray bottle down, until I slouched back and succumbed to the sudden feeling of wetness soaking into my underwear. All 5 of us broke out into spontaneous laughter just as a deathly silence came over the band room. Mr. Renner gave us a very stern look and said “you guys might as well pack up and leave right now.” We had to walk out in front of the whole band, all 5 of us with big wet circles on our butts. We were sentenced to a week in study hall to meditate on our creativity. Larry may have been a borderline genius academically, but he was a “regular guy” just like the rest of us. We shared a lot of laughs over our years together at GHS.
Bill Kelly
I played trombone with Larry in the band. There were 5 of us in the t-bone section. We called ourselves “The Quintuple K” because all our names began with the letter “K” (Kapudjija, Kelly, Kennedy, Klozar, and Potiker). Well, maybe he didn’t fit in our group alphabetically but he was just as crazy as the rest of us. I remember Mr. Renner kicked us all out of band one time for screwing off. We each had a little nasal spray bottle that we used to spray water on our trombone slides for lubrication. Well, that’s what we were supposed to use them for. As musicians, we were naturally creative beings, so we did find some alternate uses for those spray bottles. At the time, one of Mr. Renner’s big things was posture. You can’t get a good sound out of an instrument when you’re all slouched over, so he invented the “scooch club.” To be a member, you had to scooch out on the edge of your chair when you were playing, which forced you to sit erect. Then when you weren’t playing, you could slouch back in your chair if you wanted. Well, Larry liked to squirt a little puddle of water on our chairs while we were scooching, then when we slouched back in our chairs, we would get a wet seat, and Larry would get a big smile on his face. So this one day we had all fallen victim to his shenanigans. I was the last to be victimized, but not before dealing Larry a shot of his own medicine. I was so proud that I had taken the master of spray bottle down, until I slouched back and succumbed to the sudden feeling of wetness soaking into my underwear. All 5 of us broke out into spontaneous laughter just as a deathly silence came over the band room. Mr. Renner gave us a very stern look and said “you guys might as well pack up and leave right now.” We had to walk out in front of the whole band, all 5 of us with big wet circles on our butts. We were sentenced to a week in study hall to meditate on our creativity. Larry may have been a borderline genius academically, but he was a “regular guy” just like the rest of us. We shared a lot of laughs over our years together at GHS.