Confessions of a Retired Band Director - Part II

Way back in July of 2015, I wrote my first blog entry. Though my blog isn’t widely read, I still write occasionally to share some notion that has popped into my head. In recent months, the notions in my head don’t pop so much. They are more likely to run around in my mind like dogs chasing squirrels.

My first blog entry was titled, “Confessions of a Retired Music Teacher – Part I.” I thought I would have gotten around to part II and some real confessions sooner, but kept putting that off. Still, these long-kept secrets kept creeping into my thoughts every single week. They say confession is good for the soul, so now I am going to clear my conscience and lay some bombshells on you, gentle reader. 

First, I need a deep breath, clear my mind, and just let the words flow. Here goes… I LOVE watching The Lawrence Welk Show! There – I said it! Yes, I DO love The Lawrence Welk Show. I was forced to watch it every Saturday night as a kid. Well, forced is a bit strong. We watched it every Saturday as a family, and I enjoyed it! I never would have admitted it as a kid. That would be unthinkable! I am older now, and frankly don’t care if people know I love The Lawrence Welk Show. It is a great show!

While I wasn’t wild about a couple of the singers Lawrence Welk had in his musical family, the Champagne Orchestra was amazing! Especially in the late 1960s through 1982, Welk had some incredibly talented and surely underpaid instrumentalists. Henry Cuesta on clarinet and sax, amazing trombonist Bob Havens, trumpeter Johnny Zell, pianist Bob Ralston and of course, the killer accordion of Myron Floren. Honky-tonk piano player Jo Ann Castle was fun to watch and looked like she was having a ball. They were a truly remarkable band, and every single musician was highly accomplished.  

I still watch The Lawrence Welk Show every weekend on our local PBS station. My wife enjoys it, too, but not as much as I do. I know I sit there with a smile on my face through much of the show. It isn’t nostalgia that keeps me watching today. It is the sheer excellence of the performers that bring me back every week. I am a sucker for tap dancing, and Arthur Duncan is one of the best. Bobby and Cissy did some great dance numbers every week. It still amazes me how the dancers could put together impressive new routines every single week. I enjoyed the singers, especially the Lennon Sisters on the shows from the 1960s. While I usually didn’t care for Joe Feeney’s or Norma Zimmer’s songs, I loved the rest of the vocalists on the program. One thing is for sure… Lawrence Welk knew how to put on a tremendously entertaining show.

One of the reasons I started playing in band when I was in fifth grade was because I was so impressed with the musicians on Lawrence Welk! I started on the clarinet because of the great clarinetists I saw on the show, plus the music of famous players like Pete Fountain and Benny Goodman. Clarinet is a great instrument. Those guys played some mighty hot licks on the licorice stick! Later, I learned to play tenor saxophone. That was my major instrument in college, and I still play it in bands today. It is safe to say that my 30 year career in music education began with those Saturday nights watching The Lawrence Welk Show as a kid.

Whew! Glad I got that off of my chest. But wait – there’s more. The next confession is that I became a music teacher not only because of the influence of Lawrence Welk, but also because of Captain Kangaroo! Seriously. My love of music started at an early age thanks to watching the Captain.  

Captain Kangaroo’s show featured a lot of famous songs, and some infamous songs, too. They had a lot of show tunes on the program, like “Oklahoma” and “June is Busting Out All Over.” Other catchy novelty songs like “I Love Onions” and “Playmate” were featured. Classics like “I’m a Lonely Little Petunia (in an Onion Patch).” Folk songs like “The Animal Fair” and “Erie Canal” were earworms. I even learned pop songs like “Flowers on the Wall.” It was an early musical influence, and it was on every weekday!

My earliest musical influence was my mother. She sang a lot, and she always sang in tune. Her songs were usually odd versions of folk tunes sung the way she learned them. My favorite was “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More.” Mom’s version of the refrain went, “It ain’t gonna rain, it ain’t gonna rain, it ain’t gonna rain no more, how in the heck can I wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more.” Sometime that last line was changed to “How in the hell can the old folks tell that it ain’t gonna rain no more.” Ah, the memories that brings back.

Well, there you have some of my confessions and a look at what led me to a career in music. If you get a chance, watch The Lawrence Welk Show on PBS some weekend. Don’t think of it as dated or passe, but listen carefully and marvel at the talent of Welk’s musical family.

Deck THe Halls With Non-Christmas Carols

As a music teacher, well, a retired music teacher to be accurate, I am a huge fan of all types of music. Please don’t ask my views on hip hop and related genres. I will just put out there that little of that style could be construed as music. Call me old-fashioned or just plain old if you wish.

Holiday music is my groove! As a teacher, I’ve rehearsed and conducted 30 Christmas concerts featuring instrumental and choral performances. I’ve also been involved in 20 or so elementary Christmas programs. Most people would get tired of hearing holiday tunes every fall as rehearsals for winter concerts begin. Not me!

One element of Christmas music that I have pondered in recent years is the sheer number of holiday tunes that do not mention Christmas at all. Baby Jesus, wise men and Santa are conspicuous by their absence. Most of these outliers are simply winter songs. Why these wonderful melodies and catchy lyrics are relegated only to the Christmas season is a puzzler. However, if you were to sing some of these in February, I guarantee that someone will ask you why in the world are you singing Christmas songs two months after the fact.

Here is my short list of non-Christmas songs heard only at Christmas:

*Good King Wenceslas – This one takes place on St. Stephen’s Day, which is the day after Christmas. The good king’s generosity and saintly ability to melt snow with his feet make this a yuletide classic. That would be a handy skill to have, and would save a lot on rock salt, too. By the way, yuletide is not really related to Christmas, either.

*Deck The Halls – Since this is a yuletide song, it really isn’t a Christmas carol. Yuletide was a big old party that lasted as long as the yule log did. That’s why they always chose the biggest piece of wood they could drag into the house. The party could go on for days.

*Jing-a-Ling, Jing-a-Ling – a sleighing song. Look this one up if you have never heard it before – it is a lot of fun.

*Jingle Bells – written for Thanksgiving, it is a sleighride tune with some romance thrown in.

*Auld Lang Syne – New Years favorite based on a Robert Burns poem. It is sort of pigeon-holed to a single night. Bummer.

*Frosty the Snowman – no Christmas here – just a snowman coming to life and frolicking with children. This concept sounds a little creepy when you think about it.

*I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm – December is mentioned, but other than that, this is a tune about bad winter weather.

*Let It Snow – must be remnants from the previous song on the list.

*Baby It’s Cold Outside – Same idea, but clearly a different goal in mind.

*Suzy Snowflake – More winter weather, but this time it talks. She must be why Frosty talks and comes to life. Does that make Suzy Snowflake Frosty’s mother?

*The Holly and the Ivy – Another song related to yuletide. Decking the halls with boughs of holly and ivy. Wait – where have I heard that before?

*Winter Wonderland – As with most non-Christmas winter songs, romance and fun in the freezing, snowy weather is the theme. Obviously, these are young people because most older people aren’t crazy about cold weather. That is why there are so many seniors in Florida and Arizona.

*Sleigh Ride – The Leroy Anderson classic, and a personal favorite. The title sums it up perfectly. This winter song even include dessert.

I’m know there are others, but you get the picture. Perhaps you would like to belt out one of the songs from this list in the middle of Walmart sometime in February? I dare ya! I double-dog dare ya!

 

 

Christmas Lights

 

            “Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year.” 

                                                                            -   Lee Mendelson

 

Without exception, I enjoy Christmas time, and always have. Some of my fondest memories are of the holiday season. The lights and music lift my spirits every single year. The same is true in this 2020 global pandemic. The lights still shine, and music still sounds sweet!

We have an artificial tree that we purchased at Lowes a few years back. It is 6-1/2’ tall, which is perfect for us. The LED lights have eight or nine effects and color patterns, from white to multi-colored flashing. The best part is that we bought it on sale, and by opening a Lowes charge account, we got a bigger discount. It was the only time we used that Lowes card, but we ended up getting the tree for less than $30. Quite a bargain in our estimation.

I sometime refer to our Christmas tree as the “curse bush,” since our three cats bedevil the ornaments and lights, which results in some cursing. Most of this is from me, but the wife gets in on the action sometimes. One cat likes to stand up inside the center of the tree and swat at ornaments, though so far this year she hasn’t done so. The tree has only been up for six days, so the season is young. I am not holding out much hope.

Since the weather was nice the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I was getting a little antsy, I decided to put up some outdoor Christmas decorations. This was something I used to do every year, but haven’t done in four or five years. We usually just put some battery-operated candles in the windows. Hey, I’m retired. I don’t need a lot of aggravation – beyond the curse bush, that is. With our COVID precautions and the cancellation of a lot of our usual holiday activities, outdoor Christmas lights were a go! The window candles were also given the green light, as usual.

I went with “old school” stuff outside. We have a pair of Noel blow mold candles that are attached to the porch railings. We have a lighted nativity set that I zip tie to a plywood sheet that I painted white. The plywood sheet is secured to the ground with a dog yard stake. With all the wind we get up here, that keeps everything here instead of a neighboring farm field!

We strung a set of C9 lights around the porch railing, and strung a few sets of miniature lights in the shrubbery in front of the house. We have a lot of stuff that I didn’t put out, such as our blow mold Christmas tree and angel. I also have a couple of sets of animated candy canes, a set of large lit yard ornaments and a set of oversize yard Christmas light bulbs, and a huge animated snowflake. I wanted to spread a little Christmas cheer down here at the end of our dead-end street, but still make it fairly easy to take down again in January. Things that are zip-tied are easily to tear down. Stakes frozen in the ground, not so easy to remove!

When I was a kid, we didn’t usually have outdoor Christmas lights. In fact, I can only remember one time. Dad had stapled pine boughs around the door, and then secured a set of C9 lights to that. He finished with a star that he has made out of sheet metal and wired with C9 bulbs. They looked great, but he didn’t get around to taking them down until well into January. I guess that is why he didn’t put outdoor lights up very often.

I hope your Christmas lights shine bright, your hearts are filled with happiness, and that you spend some quality time with those you love – practicing social distancing, wearing face coverings and frequently washing your hands, of course!

 

   

Somewhere In My Memory

 

I don't know the future, but the past keeps getting clearer every day  - Theme from The Goldbergs

Lately, my mind has been wandering to days gone by. I don’t know if it is the stress of 2020 that is the impetus for this, or just the fact that as I get older I am getting closer to the end of my life. Maybe the days of yore remind me of a time when my life was still ahead of me instead of in the rear-view mirror.

Don’t get me wrong. These are pleasant memories. Sure, I can recall unpleasant ones if I try, since there were a bunch of those, too. But I reminisce on the memories so meaningful that I can still see, hear and even smell them today.

My school as a kid was actually pretty large, and for good reason. I grew up on Wheeling Island, a part of the City of Wheeling, WV. There were about 3,200 people living on the Island when I was growing up, so the population of those 374 acres situated in the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio was more than a lot of the rural towns where I live now. Madison School was the public school where the Island’s kids were educated from kindergarten through ninth grade.  The county high schools back in those days only housed student is grades 10-12. That has changed, and Madison is now an elementary school with only students in K-5.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Madison School was comprised of the original 1866 “red building,” and the newer “white building.” Calling the white building newer is a stretch, since it was built in 1916. To be fair, it was only 50 years old at that time. In grades 1-3, my classroom experience was in the red building.

Just the mention of the red building brings back a lot of memories, even though I was obviously pretty young. The building had a massive wooden stairway, accessible from two sides of the main floor. First and second grade rooms were on the first floor. That stairway had a little bit of a creak when you walked on it. You could only hear this if the hallway was nearly empty, since there were usually lots of kids around making the sound that lots of kids make.

The smell of old wood, school paste and wet raincoats is vivid in my memory. Upon entering our classroom, we would immediately hang our coats in a long, narrow room referred to by our teachers as the cloak hall. I don’t know how many people can remember details from first grade, but several are live in my mind. I remember the thick, blue pencils that we wrote with. Those things seemed like telephone poles at the time. Maybe little kids can’t hold normal pencils. I’m not sure if they still use those, or if it was just a ‘60s thing.

I remember the reading books with lots of pictures. We used those giant pencils to do arithmetic. It wasn’t called math in first grade. My first grade classroom had a toy house for the girls to play with when we were given free time, while the boys had a metal barn to play with. The house was ranch style and even had a pool. There were no homes on the Island that looked like that, though a couple did have pools. One day, our teacher had the boys play with the house and the girls experience farm life. Funny how that one experience was memorable for me.

It was an honor to have the task of opening a new stick of clay when we were doing art. The cellophane-wrapped clay sticks were about the size and shape of a stick of butter, and to me they always seemed to be gray in color. Some were light gray and some were darker gray. There were no bright colors of this stuff. I hope that there were other colors, but this was definitely not Play-Doh. It certainly didn’t smell like Play-Doh, either. Still, it was must nicer to use a new stick of clay than a clay blob that fifty other kids had already handled!

Once a student entered fourth grade, he or she was introduced to the wonders of the white building. As I got older, previously unknown portions of the white building were discovered yearly. Finding your way around was pretty straight-forward for the most part, but explorers could find some cool areas off the beaten path.

One Madison School tradition that I will always treasure was the singing of Christmas carols every morning the last week of school prior to Christmas break. The entire white building student population would gather on and around the center stairway just after the Pledge of Allegiance and announcements, and we would sing Christmas carols from lyric sheets. The fourth through sixth grade were on the steps and second floor landings, and the older kids were downstairs on the main floor. Madison’s music teacher would play the piano as loudly as she could to accompany those hundreds of singers. We did that every year that I was at Madison, and I believe that this tradition continues today with the elementary kids that now call Madison home.

There were a lot of memories in that white building. I like to keep these posts sort of short, so some of those memories will have to wait for another time. The old red building was torn down a year or two after I left Madison for Wheeling High School, and the spot where red building stood became a playground area. The playground is still used today. No matter how much it changes, Madison School still feels like home to me in my memory.