My Tribute To Darrell Andrew

 

Today’s story is yet another one, because this one goes out to my teacher Mr. Andrew.

Back in 2005, I met Mr. Andrew for the first time when I started high school here at Free State. The first time I met him was that time I went on a school’s scavenger hunt, and it was really interesting when I got my classes picked. And my favorite part was when I got to hang out with him during classes and learned something new for a living. One time I was watching an educational video about bad manners, and the funniest parts of the video series were the one where the music was blaring as the actor was blown away, and the parrot named Rambo. He was really funny.

Warning: This is only just a demonstration of a green parrot. This is not the real parrot Rambo. We repeat, this is only for demonstration.

But this is what Rambo looks like in the video series. In "Mind Your Manners", this is what he looks like. The parrot with white feathers.

I also remember watching the Be Cool video series. Why? Because it taught me how to not lose my cool. It even taught me to look cool, think cool, and act cool. That other Be Cool series video about how to deal with anger was really shocking. And this was one I don't wanna watch ever again, because the guy was drunk and out of control. The others Be Cool video series was better though.

There's some other things that I also learned about while I was in school. I learned about 'First Impressions'. It was like another education video series I've seen. In school, it taught us all about the importance of first impressions and how to make a positive one. And it kinda worked for me, and for all of us.

I'll never forget the time I did a little video making with them during broadcast media. I remember doing the homemade version of 'Don't Just Sit There' once. Everyone loved it. But in the film festival, mine lost to 'The Locker Room'. Yeah right. The next video I've done was music videos. I remember doing the homemade version of "Sweet Troubled Soul" by Stellastarr* when I edited all the footage, the whole thing was on videotape and I never got the chance to transport it on a DVD. If you still have the tape, bring it in for me when I come back cause I wanna put it into a DVD and/or on YouTube. (Just in case.) This next music video I made was for the song "Ramblins" by Shaking Tree. There were plenty of footage we made while we were in downtown Lawrence and we did some green screen effects too. It was really fun when I imagined myself playing air guitar. The whole school loved it. And there's also one that I really enjoyed doing as an educational video.

Fun With Feelings!

We did silly.

Sad.

Scared.

Surprised.

And happy.

It was a great time to make an educational video like this one, we really had a lot of fun together.

Brandon Johnson was in it, Amy Hill was in it, my friends were in it, even Michelle Drucker was in it too. And she likes doing it with me. Thanks, Michelle!

And everyone else were being silly at the end. LOL!

One of my favorite things that I love doing with Mr. Andrew is going out to lunch with him. I remember Pizza Street once, we both went to that place to have some dinner together. I really loved how they make good pizza of any kind, especially the barbecue pizza. My favorite part was the 'soft drink suicide'.

In case you didn't know, the soft drink suicide is made with a lot of flavors. If you added a lot of soda flavors like root beer, cola, lemonade, Sprite or whatever, you get a complete mixture of all the sodas that you'd combine with. Okay?

While we were at Pizza Street eating, we were talking about some memories we’ve enjoyed and chatted about some ideas on what’s going on at Free State.

I even remember after eating pizza, I enjoy some fine soft serve ice cream, play a couple arcade games, and scored some candy from the claw machine. That was one of the good times together.

Oh, there’s another restaurant that I went to especially during the school year. We went to Salty Iguana. We enjoyed some good chips and salsa before ordering an entree, and we were talking about something for the next thing to learn about in the school. Mr. Andrew and I wanted to talk about what we might be doing this summer. Ms. Norris was also there with us though, I forgot to mention you that.

Hey, I’ve been thinking about something. Maybe next time when he and I can hang out together, we can go out lunch again. And maybe we can do something different together, the two of us might wanna think about maybe planning on doing some new ideas of new video shows for Free State High School and put them on YouTube.

That would be really cool to try, don’t you think.

We also remember those times we got into the car and went on some trips around town together. We looked around at Kohl’s while shopping, rode to Kief’s to check out some music and got free stuff, all that plenty of things we did during school years. I’m not sure I forgot something on what else we did, but we know another thing we did. We went down to Sonic Drive-In to eat out. I wanted a Sonic Blast once. Hmm, where to begin… Ah, there we go. I know another thing! Spangles!

I remember when Mr. Andrew took me to Spangles for lunch for a burger and fries. That was fun also. I also remember getting myself a mudslide for a special treat. In case you’ll know, Spangles is one of my places I’ve been to in my younger days. The oldies music was excellent and the food was fantastic. Too bad it’s not around here in Lawrence anymore, but at least there’s one in Topeka though. Go figure.

When I was in high school, Mr. Andrew would help me out with my assignments and my reports on computer and on paper whenever I need assistance. Like that time I was doing some wrestling and I worked on my pin downs after school. It was too easy for me to do when it comes to getting pinned down to the ground. After that we  all did a little running around the hallways of the school. Of course I was still sprinting really fast as I can without getting trampled. I saw an episode of Jimmy Neutron once and he was still running too fast and he couldn’t stop. That’s what happened when we didn’t stop without a single break. In case you didn’t know on that one, that’s also considered jogging, which you already knew about right now. At least I got some exercise though, and I can always get the idea of getting myself fit and active. Just like that other time I was in weights class while I was lifting weights. I really gotta exercise more often. Anyway, I’ll be looking forward to visit him once again, cause I’m coming up with some new plans for me and him that we can do together. In fact, Mr. Andrew might have an idea that might surprise me.

I wonder if he can take me down to the Lied Center to see a show. If he does, he'll let me know 'cause I wanna know what he and I would like to see here at the Lied Center. I've been there and I've seen a live show once, it was inspiring and exciting when I see what's up on stage. I'll talk to him about some time later on and see what's going on. Maybe he might get me some answers. Who knows for sure.

One time I made Mr. Andrew a music mix CD for him, and it had all the songs of any kind that he likes. Like this one song he remembers listening to from Nickelback, that song is 'Rockstar'.

I loved listening to that song from back in the day.

I make him plenty of mixes of songs he likes, especially when it comes to music. In fact, he and I lost listening to music when we're both in the car. If I were to jam out to a song that Mr. Andrew and I would like to hear, it would be "Hit The Road Jack" by Ray Charles. And I'd tell you right now, he is wonderfully talented!

Ray Charles is also known for his other songs such as 'Georgia In My Mind', 'I Got a Woman', 'Here We Go Again', and many others. Mr. Charles can also be seen in many movies like the Blues Brothers movie. He was also known for his animated voice role of G Clef in 'Blue's Big Musical Movie'.

Cool, huh!

Anyway... I'll never forget this other time I brought in Buzzy the Bee with me and did an interview with him about a radio station for Free State High School. We all hope that someday the school will have its own radio station sometime in the future. Buzzy was really good at interviewing some people on camera.

And I also remember that time when Buzzy and I visited Free State High School on a February, I got to record a special video with him about Black History Month. And at that time when Mr. Andrew was on camera being interviewed, he talked about Ray Charles and his favorite song he really likes. In fact, he really likes it when I record him on camera. Especially when it comes to video making. I like it when he sings that Ray Charles song in his head.

That silly Mr. Andrew! But at least he really loved it.

I've been thinking of an idea for a variety comedy show that's homemade to come up with on my own, so I wanna like ask him about a little more title change since I already won an award for a music video I made in C-Tran long time ago. So the next time I visit him in Free State High School, maybe he and I can work on the next variety comedy show here. I'll talk it out with him later on when I video chat on FaceTime. There’s always so much to talk about. Know what I’m sayin’ boy?

Now here’s something that we remember doing while I was on vacation visiting Lawrence, I got to meet him at Big Mill for some lunch. I got to try the deep dish pizza there and it tasted really really good just like the kind from Chicago. The first time I once went to that place was in October 2022. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw that place, and I’ll be willing to come back to Big Mill for something to eat when I’m finally back in Lawrence.

Those were really good times I had with Mr. Andrew, even the memories we’ve had together while I was in high school. It was a great time to be here, and I hope that someday I will do it again. Thanks for all the good times together.

Love ya, love your show!

That’s it for this special tribute blog. Check back later for another great story on the next Lawrence Kansas Blog.

Catch you later!