For many years Kathie and I have been members of the Chautauqua Concert Association. It consists of people from our area that love musical entertainment. Throughout the year five groups come to share their musical talents with us. They come from near and far so not only do they share their music with us but often their cultures as well.
The music varies from vocal soloist, honkytonk piano music, brass groups, woodwinds, stringed instruments or a combination of all of the above.
This weekend we were entertained by an Irishman named David Shannon.
Besides the wonderful music the entertainers usually add stories and jokes which brings a smile to all in attendance.
Since the song Danny Boy is my all time favorite I was anticipating that Mr. Shannon being the Irishman that he is would perform Danny Boy sometime during his concert. I had a brief stint as a singer when I was a senior in high school and I sang Danny Boy at the spring music contest.
Considering I had never sung a solo before and my stomach was doing flipflops throughout most of my performance the judge was kind to me and said I had a nice voice. I didn’t earn the coveted star award but having the judge state I had a nice voice was almost as good as starring! 🙂
As Mr. Shannon was concluding his concert the second to last vocal of the evening was a version of Danny Boy. I so badly wanted to belt out the words right along with Mr. Shannon but remembering the stories I have heard about ‘hot headed’ Irishman I controlled myself and hummed along instead.
I wouldn’t have wanted him to come flying off the stage and have him perform a ‘drop the mike’ on my head all because my sing along voice irritated him.
Humming was a better idea as I was probably surrounded by many ‘hot headed’ Irish people seated in the audience around me. I would have had to face many nasty comments once the concert was over and Kathie and I attempted to escape to our car.
Right about now you are probably wondering when the title of this blog, “Forgetting the Day of Rest” is going to weave itself into this ‘Danny Boy’ saga. Well hang on because I’m about to share an embarrassing ‘Day of Rest’ all resulting from our trip to the Irish concert.
Normally the concerts are held on Sunday evenings however this particular event was held on a Saturday. As I drove home after the concert I forgot it was Saturday and not the normal Sunday.
So I went to bed that evening preparing my mind for the arrival of Monday the next morning. In spite of the fact that the Vikings had yet to play (and lose 🙁 ) . You would think that would have triggered a reminder that we were skipping over Sunday the day of rest!
No such reminder took place so when I rolled out of bed that Monday am (actually Sunday am) I dressed in an old pair of blue jeans and a pea green t-shirt because after our trip to Subway for the 9:00 am coffee with friends I planned to do some weeding in the garden.
Why didn’t Kathie shape me up you ask? Perhaps you weren’t aware of the fact that she suffers from MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) so she is losing her short term memory so she too was unaware of the missing Sunday. (At least she had a good excuse!)
Our church choir practices forty five minutes before our 9:30 church service and since Kathie and I were both members we were now very late.
At 8:50 am we were calmly driving into Wheaton on our way to Subway twenty-four hours early.
As we approached the outskirts of Wheaton the first building we viewed was the St. John’s Lutheran Church. I noticed their parking lot was filled with cars so I remarked to Kathie, “Oh, look the Lutherans must be having a funeral. I’ve never heard of a 9:00 am funeral before!”
Seconds after that comment the lights finally came on as I shouted, “Oh my gosh, this isn’t Monday it’s Sunday and we are ten minutes late for choir practice!”
Since my pea green t-shirt and faded jeans wouldn’t be well received in the choir loft I made an immediate U-turn (highly illegal) and sped off for the two mile race to our house.
Flying into my closet I made a quick change into a nice shirt and a pair of slacks that turned out to be the wrong color since the closet lighting was not adequate. But anything was better then a pea green t-shirt and faded blue jeans! 🙂
We walked into the choir loft just in time to sing the last practice song before the church service. Not one choir member suspected that we had left home on a Monday am to arrive at church on a Sunday am. And I suspect it should remain one of those untold secrets between Kathie and I.
However writing this blog sorta blows that plan out of the water. 🙂
From now on I’m going to quiz myself each morning as to what day it is and then perhaps it would do well to repeat that quiz each evening.
Growing old is not always a pretty picture! 🙁
Until next time. (If I can remember when the next time is. 🙂
