It feels like a lazy Saturday morning. The air is cool, the wind is calm, we both feel good, even Buddy seems good, and the SIMH is more than one. That’s about as laid back as I can get, I reckon. Some days the SIMH is crystal clear, other days something I hear triggers the memory, like the chime our hall clock, or a message tone from my phone. Today, one of the sounds changed the song that was rolling around upon awakening and now, 20 minutes late, I can’t remember the first one!
But the song which came to mind is an old Separate Baptist choir song which had an alto lead for the chorus. My sister Margaret has a strong alto voice (she turned 90 this past February.) The song went, “I’ll Meet You in the Morning” — I think that was the title — “with a how do you do, and we’ll sit down by the river, and with rapture old acquaintance renew! You’ll know me in the morning, by the smile that I wear, yes, I’ll meet you in the morning, in that city that is built foursquare!” Not exactly Scripturally provable, but poetic license aside, I loved to here Margaret sing with the choir behind her.
My first memory of a “choir” singing was at Lick Spring church, just South of Trafalgar, IN, somewhere around 1948-49. The church probably didn’t have 60 people or so, but the choir had about 15-18, several of them young adults. And, they had Herb Proctor, who could knock the keys off the ol’ piano! Herb’s family were all musicians & singers. The oldest members of the choir included my parents and Paul Hogue (his wife Pearl is still alive at about 104, I think. We saw her at Margaret’s 90th party—pretty cool, a 90 year old had her 104 year old friend as guest at her party. Bet that don’t happen much.)
Music has always been a big part of my family’s lives. the one’s of us who don’t sing much, however, can carry a tune. But, we have several who play multiple instruments and some extra good voices. Barb and I used to sing a lot at church, some at conferences many moons ago. We were famous as a trio with our friend John Sanford (well, we were really only famous to the one preacher who asked us to sing…come to think of it, he was the only one to ever ask us to sing!) Never mind about that “famous” part.
Our son who lives in upstate New York is very talented and it comes out more or less on an annual basis. Not frequently, but very enjoyable. His “man-cave” has a wall full of instruments he can play well. It’s one of those things I love to do, listen or watch my kids do what they can do best.
Our 3 children, no longer kids themselves, have always been a joy to us. In good times or somewhat rough times, they have never been a bother or trouble. Oh, yes, we’ve found out from time to time how imperfect they were, but even those things have never been troublesome. Once, when our daughter was in a bunk house with other girls her age, the two boys (grownup young men by then) stayed with Barb and I in a small trailer. They kept us up nearly all night laughing and telling stories of their teenage exploits which we knew nothing about! Once we got over the shock, most of it was really, really funny.
The Lord’s grace has prevailed and we are all very thankful to Him.
Thanks for reading, the Elder.
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