News has come via the UWP Sing Out site that Dan Skuce has passed away. This is sad news to me because Dan was mostly responsible for me getting into UWP.
Winter 1966-67: Dan visited Sing-Out Salt Lake City several times. He was often joined by John Ruffin. Once we met in a "Stake House" for a rehearsal/meeting and he and Dan were looking all over the housing subdivision for a food restaurant "Steak House". They passed by the address they had been given several times but did not stop at the spot because all that was there was a church.
We all had a chuckle about that because LDS church houses are often called Stake Houses. The name comes from the "stakes" that held tight the sacred tabernacle tent that travelled with Moses in the wilderness. The Stake House is the larger meeting place where smaller congregations called Wards meet occasionally.
After graduating in 1967 and participating with the local Sing-Out for several months my group bought me a one-way ticket to New York so that I could participate with the World Sing-Out Festival in New Rochelle. Dan told me that I would get accepted in the National Cast if I found my way to New York. Well, thank goodness Dan was right, because I don't know how I would have found my way back to Salt Lake City if I didn't get accepted.
Fort Slocum was a great experience and I got accepted to Cast B. I was pretty much an iron-man and lived by all of the rules, but I did find myself having to go to Dan to tell him of a couple of infractions that I had committed, but alas, my membership was secure with Cast B.
Dan and Carla came into my life often throughout the next three years, though I was not a "chum" of Dan's. I have fond memories, and even though I have not had contact with Dan for several decades, I have a lump in my chest, a hurting soul and even a part of me that is happy, as these feelings all tend to build me up. I can't explain it, but there is goodness here.
All the best my friend, and to you Dan, I get the feeling that you had a hellava ride!
Mike