Note worthy: Safety patrol tunes in to students. Husband and wife bring safety messages to schools through songs. by Stacy L. Graham-Hunt (Record-Journal staff)
SOUTHINGTON — A local married couple has been spotted on television, playing instruments in a bathtub wearing backpacks and bright orange safety patrol belts. This couple calls themselves School Safety Patrol, but they aren’t helping kids cross the streets or get onto buses safely — though they might sing about it.
Peter Riccio, 43, and his wife, Julie, 42, make up the School Safety Patrol band, which they created over dinner at Bertucci’s last year.
The band sings about anything and everything that can go on in a grade school setting, such as math class anxiety, getting teased by classmates for having parents who serve on the PTA, and snow days. Peter Riccio said, “We started cracking each other up with what we were writing.” Julie Riccio said their music appeals to people of all ages. Peter Riccio said both kids and adults could relate to their music, because they are either currently having the experiences the band sings about, or because they have gone through it at some point in their lives.
At their performances, School Safety Patrol hands out the lyrics to their songs in blue exam booklets used in schools. “Knowing what we’re saying is an integral part,” Peter Riccio said. He said audience members will sing along with them or shout out the lyrics to songs they may want the band to play.
School Safety Patrol does not usually perform in bathtubs, but Julie Riccio said they performed on Ken Safety’s show on public access to emphasize that their instruments were so small they could be played anywhere. Peter Riccio plays an 18-inch electric ukulele, which fits into his backpack, and Julie Riccio plays a popcorn 8-inch snare drum, one tong, and one symbol, which she said could fit into a small suitcase. School Safety Patrol is one of five bands that this husband and wife duo have created together. Julie Riccio said their other popular bands are the Sawtelles and the Poptelles. Peter Riccio said it was essential to have the School Safety Patrol be its own band, because it was a whole concept with uniforms and school-related themes.
Julie Riccio said she and her husband have jobs outside of their five bands. She said she works for the state, and Peter Riccio is a mixer for a wholesale baking company. They also have a 22-year-old daughter, who is a college student, who Julie Riccio said is more conservative than she and her husband. Both band members said they write songs and perform for fun and enjoyment. However, Peter Riccio said doing performances in schools about safety is in the back of both his and his wife’s minds. “Wherever it takes us, it will take us somewhere we’ve never been before,” Peter Riccio said.
Email from Julie:
This pic was taken in conjunction with the Poptelles taping their "rails to trails" ken safety cable access show. The previous week on the ken safety show the schoolsafetypatrol bathtub episode was aired and one of the editors from the record-journal paper saw it and wanted to interview us. After the newspaper photo shoot was wrapped up the Poptelles commenced their bike path tour stopping at various points along the way. The show will air in a few weeks on cox cable ch 15 in cheshire, plantsville, and meriden once the editing is finished. Visit our myspace pages for all of our updated gig listings into November. We've got this month: farmer's markets, taverns, trains, and outdoor festivals. - Sawtelles
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