church choir + walmart

stone:

I joined the church choir. It gives me a chance to do a bit of music and to meet some people in this new town (new to us). We practice from 7 till 8 on Wednesdays and perform in the 11 o'clock service on Sunday. It is an experience for me.

I don't mean this as a "put-down." Many of these people cannot read any music, yet they sing in the choir with pretty good voices. I actually admire their ability to memorize this music on Wednesday and perform on Sunday. I just don't see how they do that. I read the notes on the page and sing the words with a adequate but not great voice. There are some with great vocal cords, and they can read music.

One guy is a boss at the local Chrysler house, another is a general handyman in town, there is a jr college student, a school teacher, a rich oil man who happens to be mayor of the town, a dental hygienist. . . . it is an interesting mixture of locals.

A couple of months back they decided they needed to do a "show." Great Idea. On a Sunday afternoon, we perform Broadway songs for whomever happens to show. Free show. Everyone was excited. Plans were made and music was ordered. Members of the First Baptist church were invited to join us and about 8 have. It is a wonderful possibility.

The performance is 4 weeks from today. And we made it through the first 2 songs tonight -- made it through means we made it through, not performance ready, just through. Now I have faith it will work out.

The director has extended rehearsals. 6:30-7:30 work on Sunday music. 7:30 - 8:30 work on Broadway. That would be a 2 hour rehearsal. He extended it an extra 15 minutes tonight with the approval of the group.

When I left, it was to be a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some French Onion soup, hot peppers, some new socks - etc. Did you know that after 9-ish, Walmart begins to clean the store. They run machines up and down aisles. They block off areas for cleaning. They pack boxes in the middle of the aisles. And, here, teenagers seem to come to hang and be loud. I do believe there was a shift change in the middle of my visit. Not dilly-dallying around, it took an hour in the store. Even the checker made a mistake and had to do my stuff twice as well as change the register tape. I tried the self-checkout - but the machine acted up and the kid in charge was talking to 3 of his best friends - WHO WERE HANGING OUT IN WALMART.

One last thing. Now you can create your own short story from this one sentence. I was walking down the main aisle of the grocery section. Two men were standing in the middle of same (I had to go around them). They were well dressed (one a bit better than the other) - well groomed, etc. I would guess both were in late 40s or early 50s. The one facing towards me spoke with a very stong voice. I quote: You make up story:

".... nobody is going to tell me not to pray for her to come home."

that's it; see ya
mtz