Singing through the holiday...part 1

I've been trying to get to this post all day, and though it won't be about the entire weekend it'll at least cover the beginning. I'll preface the story by saying that one of the things I have been most thankful for over the past couple of years is that I've been able to do so much singing, and that therefore it's appropriate that I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a great deal of my Thanksgiving weekend doing just that. Things were interesting at times, though...

Each year on the Wednesday before the holiday, a group from Chicago Chamber Choir does an outreach concert at Good News Partners as part of their Thanksgiving Eve festivities. As most of the families they serve are working on the holiday or are otherwise unable to have their own traditional Thanksgiving meal, GNP usually does the turkey with all the sides, has activities, and generally has a nice evening planned. CCC has been part of this tradition for several years, and I've participated each of my 3 years in the group.

This year we got there, warmed up, and began our program as usual...and then things got interesting. After about 4 songs, Budd (guy in charge) comes in to the large space we're performing in and says in a very calm voice, "Well, folks, this is definitely going to be a Thanksgiving you're never going to forget. We've actually got a fire in one of the back rooms and in a few minutes when the fire department gets here we're all going to have to move to the room next door." Turning to us, he apologizes for interrupting our singing, to which we respond that it's really Ok.

So, someone else decides that it would be better to begin moving people immediately and fortunately everyone keeps calm. Our director decides that we should keep singing (the part of the building we were in was fine - they merely needed to move people so that the FD could get through as we were right at the entrance to the place) and we pull out an English carol called "Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head." Now this carol is very calm and slow...maybe even somber at times.

It was a little bizarre singing this slow, calm music while people were filing past us somewhat nervously. It reminded me of something, but at first I couldn't quite pinpoint it. Twenty seconds later came the "Ah-ha!" moment...I felt like I was on the Titanic. Someone else made the same comment when we were finished, and we all decided that it was too bad we didn't have "Nearer My God To Thee" on us. Everything did turn out alright, by the way, and no one was hurt.

So, that's how the long weekend began. More to come tomorrow!