Troy Day

I need a break from my book, but I feel like writing, so I’m stopping here for a minute. Hope everybody’s good.

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I’ve written a lot about holidays I don’t like, seemed like a good day to tell you about my FAVORITE non-traditional holiday. It’s Troy Day, and unless you were in a VERY specific place, at a VERY specific time, you’ve never heard of it, but you’re welcome to celebrate it with me. It comes in handy from time to time.

Troy Day started in one of my earlier lives, the one where I was an Air Force radio/television broadcaster in the Pacific.

At the time, I was half of a morning drive-time radio show in Tokyo (whaddup Jakey!!!!!!!). Over the weeks/months/years that the show existed, we’d built up a fair amount of popularity and a VERY sizable audience across the Kanto Plain; mostly because we’d dumped the rule book pretty early on, and just had the most fun we could without going to jail.

(That’s a pretty ironic sentence if you know the whole story. I’ll have to remember that sentence later. Sorry readers, that’s an inside joke. I’ll try to keep those to a minimum)

Anywayanyway … shortly after 6am every morning, we used to get the first wave of music requests. Two groups of people called at this time, most mornings. Group A, was the school kids at different bases who were getting ready to go to class, and wanted a shout out, or to hear their favorite top 40 song first thing in the morning. The Jake&Stew show was all about playing whatever somebody specific wanted to hear because … well, it sucks enough to be away from home, and this was the pre-Ipod period of history, and a radio request seemed like a simple enough thing to give somebody when you are sitting in a roomful of music with a gigantic transmitter outside.

Group B was the Japanese chics who liked our voices, and wanted us to come party with them. Also a very fun group, but they have nothing to do with Troy Day.

One morning, during this early time, Troy called.

Most live radio jocks that actually get to TALK to listeners will tell you that they have their favorites. No matter how big your audience is there are ALWAYS people who listen faithfully, and call frequently, that you come to think of as “regulars.” Some “get it,” and only call periodically for something specific. You talk to them, and over time get to know them because … well, you talk to them on the phone all the time. Those are the “good” regulars.

Others call too often, request the same thing over and over, and basically annoy the shit out of you. You’ll usually take their calls, but after awhile they get to be somewhat like stalkers, very scary people who you can feel in the room before you even pick up the phone. You hate those people, because they’re unnerving first thing in the morning.

Troy was my all-time favorite caller. He only called twice ... two days in a row. He was an elementary school kid who wanted to hear a particular song. Nothing wrong with that, BUT … he stood out because he was incredibly polite, very articulate, and obviously bothered by something.

I wrote down his request, and asked him a couple of questions; generic stuff like how old he was, what base he was calling from, and what grade he was in. He politely answered, but called for his mom when I asked what school he went to.

I heard her pause, then yell the name of his school from another room, which seemed a bit strange. I teased him a little bit about being in the sixth grade and not knowing his school name.

He took my teasing good-naturedly, and then explained that this was his first week. His family had just moved to Japan from a base in Europe, and he was still the “new kid.” Something about how he seemed to take it all in stride really stayed with me. He’d been the new kid before, as most military kids have, and he understood his place in the world. He knew that he’d be the new kid for a while, and then somebody else would take the baton and he’d eventually make new friends, and figure out where he’d fit in.

He then explained that his dad was deployed with “the Ship,” and his mom hadn’t finished unpacking all the boxes and stuff, so he was going to come home and help her out after class that day. Really sweet kid.

Things in MY life sucked at that moment. I was in the middle of listening to my marriage break up a little more every evening, I was drinking too much, working too hard at my other job, and pretty much wasting oxygen that some more worthy human could have done more effective things with. I asked him how much time he had before he needed to leave to catch his bus. He said awhile; so I asked him to hold on, while the on-air song ended, so Jakey and I could talk to him live on the air. He seemed pretty excited about that, so he held.

Jakey was just potting our mics up to talk awhile before we started the next song, so I cut him off to tell him about the caller on-hold. I slid the note with Troy’s request to an intern to go pull the song, while I told Tokyo about this very cool young man who’d called in with the request for our next song. Jakey put the call through, and for the next ten minutes, one of the world’s largest cities was introduced to my new friend Troy.

We asked him about his class, his teacher, his favorite subjects, and if there were any cute girls he liked.

The kid was born to talk on the radio.

He was witty, and charming, and a lot of fun. Jakey and I both shared anecdotes about being the new guy, and he asked us questions back … GOOD ones.

We laughed and talked for a bit, and then I asked him to introduce the song he’d asked for. He was flawless. We wished him good luck at school, and told him that if he ever needed anything, he’d made two VERY powerful friends on the radio, and he could call back anytime. I declared it Troy Day, and said that anyone who met Troy at school had to ask him something about himself, and do whatever they could to make him feel at home. We started his song, thanked him for his request, and disconnected the call.

AND EVERY PHONE LINE LIT UP.

The first call came from one of our dear friends, a public affairs officer at Troy’s base, asking if there was anything SHE could do to make Troy day a success …

One of the teachers called from the school, she’d been listening in the lounge, and was now late for class because she didn’t want to leave before the segment was over, and suddenly the day’s show was about being the new guy. Everybody had a story, and they were in a sharing mood.

Geralyn, the PA officer, took on the challenge of getting some special stuff for Troy’s class that day. The teacher arranged for Troy’s teacher to call us, and Troy Day started taking shape.

On air, we talked about Troy Day, and being the new guy with caller after caller after caller. Suddenly, people were greeting us with “Happy Troy Day,” and sharing their stories. After about an hour, Geralyn called to tell us that the bakery had donated cake with a Troy-themed message, and ice cream for all the sixth grade classes. The fire department was chipping in a ride on their new fire truck, and the entire base … everyone not deployed with “the Ship,” was getting into the mood of an unplanned holiday.

Near the end of the show, we got a live call from Troy’s classroom. A full-fledged Troy Day party was underway, which I’m not sure, but I think replaced a spelling test of some sort, and Troy had almost instantly gone from “the new guy” to being “big man on campus!”

That night, at the NCO club, I was starting my traditional binge for the evening, and heard a group at a table nearby toast “to Troy day, and being the new guy.” I felt good.

Troy called the next day.

“Hey guys, I don’t want a request or anything, I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday.”

I’m a Scrooge at Christmas, and pass on most of the other tinsel and drivel-filled forced fun days. But every now and then, when shit just … WON’T go right, and I’m fucking up everything I should be navigating ever so smoothly (like writing this book) … I grab a handy beverage, hold it up for just a second, and silently give a toast …

… to Troy Day.

Peace,
--Stew.