Stuart "chip" Clemmer:
CLASS OF 1973
Farmington High SchoolClass of 1973
Farmington, CT
Stuart "chip"'s Story
This is kind of interesting...tell a story about myself. It's been interesting ever since I graduated from Farmington High School in 1973. I've had a great life, but it has had some very unique twists and turns that I never imagined would have happened if I had been able to predict the future.
After Farmington, I attended Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio from 1973 until 1975 and Western Connecticut State University from 1975 until 1976. My intention was to get a degree in Music Education. However, after taking some of the requisite Music Ed methods courses, I determined that it wasn't for me. I didn't pick up on it at the time, because like most young people, I was idealistic and easily "influenced." Looking back with middle aged eyes, I can see that what they were training me to do was not to educate, but indoctrinate. My gut feelings at the time caused me to pursue other things.
I decided to leave school after my Junior year. I ended up studying with a private drum teacher in New York City for a year and a half. It was now time to try my luck at doing what I really wanted to do. This is where the career path twist takes place. I wanted to be a freelance drummer, but first per the advice of my teacher, I decided to get some experience playing in a military band.
In 1977 I auditioned for, and was accepted into the United States Air Force's music program. After boot camp, October, 1977 to December, 1977, I was assigned to the 590th Air Force Band in New Jersey. I was there until 1979. In October of 1979, I auditioned for and won a position with The United States Air Force Band in Washington, DC. I was with the USAF Band from December 1979 until retirement on November 1, 2003.
Currently, I am working as a freelance drummer based out of the Washington, DC area. I am now doing what I dreamed of doing. It just took a 26 year twist and detour to reach that goal. I am basically drumming for two bands in the area on a regular basis. First, there is the Joy B Band, which is an Americana band doing a lot of original material. We were nominated for two Washington Area Music Association "Wammie" awards this year, which was quite an honor. Also, our CD, "Just Livin'" tracked nationally on the Roots Music Review track. One of our songs, "Open Road," was number one nationally for several weeks, and another song, "Up Down And Sideways," tracked in the number three position for several weeks. That was very exciting news. I'm als...Expand for more
o playing with a country/classic rock band called, "The Hall Brothers." As of May 5, 2015, I cut back on the freelance work due to major health issues. In addition, I finally did go into teaching. Starting in 2003, I became an adjunct instructor in a private school in the DC metro area, and in 2011 I joined the staff of Bach 2 Rock in Bethesda, MD, as a drum instructor.
In 1980 I met a lady named Carol on a blind date. We started seeing each other regularly, and we married in January, 1982. We are still together. We have no children of our own, but she does have a daughter from a previous marriage who has two children of her own. I am a step-grandfather. Recently, on March 2, 2015, our grandson, Zachary, had his first child, Jacob. We are now great-grandparents.
Carol and I had planned at one time to relocate out west. However, we decided to stay here in the DC area as my freelance drumming career started to take off. We live in the Maryland suburbs, Prince Georges County, Washington, DC. We are in a nice centralized location. We are about a mile from a metro station, two miles from the University of Maryland, 1/2 mile from the Beltway, and basically close to everything we need. I would love to live in the city, but suburbia is a reasonable compromise. Neither one of us has any desire to live out in the country where you have to have a car to do anything. Here, I can walk to many things, including the Metro station that will get me to downtown DC.
Yes, there have been some interesting twists and turns in my life, but I'm not complaining. Things worked out right...different, but good enough to be right.
There are some folks that would wonder why someone would want to join an alumni site like this. For me, it's because while there were some bad times for me at FHS, there were some really good people too. I'm hoping to connect with, and keep in touch with some of the folks that I knew from high school, as well as some that I knew from other towns like Avon, Burlington, Winsted, and Simsbury. As of a couple of summers ago, Allison Smyth organized a reunion at her home. It was well attended. It was great catching up with some old classmates. I'm glad that she put our yearbook pictures on our name tags. Many of us had changed! I'm hoping that there will be another reunion sometime in the near future. I'm looking to connect with some old friends, so if any of you who used to know me want to, get in touch with me. I'd love to hear from you.
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