Recently I got an e-mail from a graduate of my high school. It contained a link to a website which was put together to organize a 30th anniversary reunion for the class of 1980. Part of the website had a page dedicated to those of our graduating class who are now deceased. This reminded me of a strange incident that involved the most famous member of our graduating class: Steve Albini.
Steve and I graduated from Hellgate High in Missoula, MT in 1980. Back then I was pals with Steve to some degree. He formed Montana’s first punk band called Just Ducky. Their first public performance was at a bar downtown called the Forum. Steve asked me to project a movie I had made using the “direct stock” method, which involves creating images on the exposed film itself, rather than using a camera. The most well known film maker that used this method was Stan Brakhage.
Steve was also a columnist for the school newspaper, called the “Lance”. I think his column was called “Paparazzi” which was my first exposure to that word. I knew several other people on the Lance staff as well.
In a high school the size of Hellgate, it wasn’t entirely unusual for a student to die during the school year. During my senior year of 1979-1980, not only did one student die early in the school year, but a second one did as well! Unknown to me at the time, Steve Albini and several other members of the Lance staff organized a morbid “dead pool” into which each member put in five dollars. Each member of the dead pool then picked a week of the remainder of the year. If a third student died during that week then the “winner” would collect the money. If no one died, the staff would use the money to buy pizza at the end of the year.
But word quickly got out about the dead pool, and it was immediately dissolved. I remember watching a student who knew one of the deceased students confront Albini and physically threaten him. I suspect that if it came to blows, Steve would have gotten the worst of it, as he was no great shakes as a physical specimen… But that never happened, and as the school year went on, this little scandal was forgotten about.
But tragedy struck a day or two before graduation, as one of the most popular students in school was killed in a high speed automobile collision. This kid was not only a star athlete, but a top-notch student, and all around well liked guy. During the graduation ceremony we had the obligatory moment of silence for him, though if memory serves, they were quite blatant about having everyone pray for the kid.
Later that summer, I got to talking with another student who had been on the Lance staff, Steve D. Steve D. and I were fairly good friends until he became a born again Christian and I lost touch with him. I had forgotten about the connection between Albini’s dead pool and the death of the well-liked athlete. I asked Steve if he participated in the dead pool, and he sheepishly admitted that he had. I asked him which week he picked and he was quite chagrined to admit that he had picked the week that the popular athlete died!
I always wondered if he considered having participated in the dead pool a sin, and asked Jesus to forgive him…
