I LOVE TO SING....IN THE ATTIC

"She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer...

  But 'twas not her beauty alone that won me

  Oh no, 'twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning

  That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee."

    ************************************************

I love to sing upstairs in our attic. It may be, all told,

the happiest place in the world.

It's true that this "old timer" can't sing today as well

as he could that late May day in 1955 when he had

just graduated Hardin-Simmons University, in 

Abilene, Texas, and he drove away into the world,

after four years of private voice lessons and singing 

in the  famous HSU A Cappella Choir.

That day, As he sadly left, he was at the top of

 his game, vocally.

Much water has gone under the bridge since 

then---a thousand church services ---over five dozen

revivals--- weddings, funerals, conventions...singing of

the matchless sacrifice of the Savior.

"Time and chance," as it says in Ecclesiastes,  have

happened to the voice....which was from the beginning,

always a gift from God.

But if one sings softly and in head tones, he can still 

do an old ballad that will bring tears to the eyes of

listeners. Put a guitarist with him, and he could go

on the road and rival Willie Nelson.

So here I am up here sitting at my rough table, with 

a cup of decaf (from the scarred office microwave) and

I'm humming a hymn...you always hum to warm up

your voice...and get great head-tones going...

My song I'm hummin' is a favorite church song---of

 many people---

"Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me...

See on the portals he's waiting and watching---

Watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home,

Ye who are weary, come home;

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling---

Calling, O Sinner...come home."

A tear sometimes leaks out of an eye when

old timers hum hymns.

I am about half-through writing a piece about the

many hundreds (or thousands) of "love songs"

written to our ladies---over the decades: like

"Juanita," "Mavourneen," "Annie Laurie," "Lorena," 

"Clementine," "K-k-k- aty," "Maggie," "Evalina,"

"Georgia," and on....

So this morning I begin singing softly (I thought--

"only to  myself,") maybe the saddest tune of all,  

by Stephen Foster...

"Thou wilt come no more gentle Annie,

Like a flow'r thy spirit did depart;

Thou art gone, alas, like the many

That have bloomed in the summer of 

    my heart...

Shall we nevermore behold thee

Never hear thy winning voice again...

When the springtime comes, gentle Annie

And the wild flowers are scattered 

   o'er the plain."

Then BE called up the stairs: "You okay

up there?" (Must sing more softly.)

Then the ballad:

"I wandered today to the hill Maggie

to watch the scene below;

The creek and the old rusty mill, Maggie

Where we used to go long ago...

The green grass is gone from the hill Maggie,

Where first the daisies sprung,

The old rusty mill is still Maggie

Since you and I were young."

(I am a ballad guy, a Stephen Foster guy,

a "melody" guy---and I can't stand noise---

that says nothing. That means some church

music, too. That's just the way it is.)

Ah, listen to this one: I sang "The Civil War

Sweetheart Song..." to myself---the tune by 

Webster who also wrote "In The Sweet By 

and By..."

"The years creep slowly by Lorena

The snow is on the grass again;

The sun's low down the sky Lorena

The frost gleams  where the flowers 

   have been...

But the heart throbs on as warmly now,

As when the summer days were high...

Oh, the sun can never dip so low...

A-down  affection's cloudless sky."

That song, of more than 150 years ago,

was said by Civil War officers on both sides--

when sung by campfires, to have caused 

more desertions than any other factor.

When in a singing mood, I almost always

do the great Scottish love song:

"By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie

   glen

Where the sun shines bright on Loch 

    Lomond..."

Or...

"Maxwelton's braes are bonnie... where early

   falls the dew...

And 'twas there that Annie Laurie gave me

   her promise true...

Gave me her promise true, which ne'er forgot

   will be...

And for bonnie Annie Laurie---I'd lay me 

  doon and dee."

Call me "old-fashioned," I don't care--- a 

listener at the foot of the stairs might hear a

tenor-like voice singing:

"In the sky the bright stars glittered

On the bank the pale moon shone;

And 'twas from Aunt Dinah's quilting party

I was seeing Nellie home."

Do you like, an old one---

"Put on your old gray bonnet

With the blue ribbons on it

While I hitch old Dobbin to the shay,

and through the fields of clover

We'll ride out to Dover

On our Golden Wedding Day."

(Never tho't I'd say: "Our 60th is coming

up in February.)

So, maybe you get a feel for a fun 

song-time in the attic...now,  I can do

the heavy stuff, like "Honor and Arms"

from Judas Maccabaeus, or "Caro Mio

Ben," if it's Italian you like...

But somehow those songs don't seem 

FITTIN' for a quiet time in the attic.

Snack time now, and somebody has been

into my "larder" over the summer. What am

I gonna do?

Oh boy! A can of Wolf Brand chili back

there behind the Ritz--- and one diet Snapple

left!

-----------------

BY MIL

August 13, 2016