Thirty Years

December 30 will mark the wedding anniversary of my wife and me. Thinking back, I was a very young 21 and in the middle of my 4th (of 5 years) year in college at Eastern Kentucky University. Joy was (still is!) 2 years my senior. We'd dated for 1 1/2 years before our engagement (which lasted about 6 months). I knew by our first date that things could get very serious and it was easy to imagine being married to her. Since then much water has passed... three children, way too many job changes and up and down times in our marriage. But we have survived so far and God has been very, very gracious. She is the love of my life and God willing we'll have many, many more celebrations.

Nazi's SS and my dad

My dad died in early 2001 at the age of 84. He was a WWII veteran with a (shall we say) colorful past. He brought back some souvenirs from the war among which was a really nice German Luger and Mauser. During this Christmas vacation, my brother brought me some of his effects in old military folders. In it was a document that looked like 'papers' that soldiers carried with them complete with photos, and some type of records. However the papers were that of a German SS officer, his picture and apparently his war records. My brother said the Luger was from the officer of whom we had his papers. I have the two weapons since my dad's passing. I don't know what the siblings will do with them. I always kind of wanted them for myself but right now, i just have them. I'm kind of inclined to do some research on this officer and see if I can locate him, his family +/or children and perhaps return the dossier and weapons. No, I don't feel guilty. It might just be something special for his family. As I think of this I wonder if seeing the papers, picture, dates and locations might bring back horrible memories that have long been tried to be suppressed? It could be extremely painful to see his own dossier if he is still alive... probably near 90 now. If I'd ... hell, I have absolutely no idea of what his mind set would be. He may have come to peace with being an SS officer. He might have been a supporting role. Who knows?

He also (and this is where things get really interesting and weird) apparently fathered a child out of wedlock in Iceland sometime during 1940 or 1941. The details are sketchy. My mom knows of this. It occurred before my parents met. He was involved with a beautiful woman who had was the daughter of an ambassador or governor or some type of leader. She became pregnant and her influential father tried to sue for paternity. He denied the child was his. Somehow, he needed the help of the vice-president of the USA who was a Kentuckian to wield some influence. He was transferred to Ft. Benning in Georgia and later went to France and then Germany. The story goes, that his 'girl friend' moved to Kentucky and married. The child is thought to have been a girl. Among some of dads remains, we found some military records of when he was stationed in Iceland. We also found a picture of an attractive woman that was torn in 4 pieces along with several small scraps of paper that were torn as well. While trying to piece this letter together, my daughters found the word "illegitimate child" and pieced together just a tantalizingly small portion of the typed letter. There appears to also be two pictures torn up of which are a small child. My daughters are attempting to piece the pictures together but there appears to be pieces missing of both the photographs and the letter that keep us from getting a more complete understanding of what happened.

Old Songs on Vinyl Records that I'd love to have again.

OK, more old songs to find. I was a kid when i heard some of these old songs.

1. I took a ride on a bubble, a big soap bubble, a big soap bubble i blew
2. Make believe Cowboy, you've had a busy day.
3. Flying Magic Song - flying, flying, flying magic song, I wish I were a Indian arrow, Inka, binka bong!
4. Crockie, Crocodile. "I'm a poor old crocodile, I always frown and never smile. Won't somebody help me out and find out what it's all about."
5. A Travlin' Man was Gulliver, a travelin' man was he. He said upon the ocean to see what he could see."

Robin Hood - an old operetta

As a young boy who longed for adventure and loved music that tugged at the imagination, I listened repeatedly to an operetta on two 45 rpm records (both sides) that had several songs of which I can remember several snippets. I've never been able to find any mention anywhere of any of this operetta. Several websites that specialize in older records have no recollection of anything like what I remember. If you search on the web, you'll find listings of the cartoon Robin Hood (played by a fox in a green suit) which I think is a Disney release. Erroll Flynn was in a production of Robin Hood as well. I even found an operetta but the lyrics weren't the same.

So hoping against hope, I'll list as much as my foggy memory can retrieve.

1. "We are the men of Robin's band,
We are the men who took a stand.
We will fight for the right, to keep up the (right?)
Till justice returns to our Land."

2. ".....But supposing he's hiding there, right behind that tree?"
It'll help him not at all, at all; for I shall arresteth thee
Ha, ha ha ha ha, Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee.
Poor Robin, poor Robin, poor Robin Hood."
(I think the above song was sung between the characters of Maid Marian and the Sheriff on Nottingham when the sheriff was plotting on arresting Robin).

3. This song occurs when Robin meets "John Little." There is verbal dialogue between the two until Robin knocks him off the log into the creek. Whereupon Robin says "what is your name?" "My name is John Little." "We'll call thee, "Little John" to which there is raucous laughter among the merry men. Some dialogue like "Verily?" "Yea, Verily!" "Forsooth?" "For truth, sayeth me, myself and I." (or a variant of it). You can hear the staffs banging into each other and the splash of the falling 'Little John' into the water with the merry men laughing lustily.

No internet filter mom and dad? Are you kidding me?

In both of my 8th grade music classes I asked the kids if they had an Internet filter on their computer at home. They asked if I meant a pop-up blocker. I said no, then said, "so you can go to any website that you want to?" As best as I could recollect, all of them said "yes." It was an informal discussion. Now maybe some of the kids were intimidate to say "yes, mom and dad have something that keeps me from going to certain places."

I am dumbfounded if this is true. As a father of a boy who loved to be on the web and chat, I had an Internet filter on my computer that was really good (for both of us!). Although there is plenty of great stuff on the web, there is a boatload of trash, filth, and danger there. Now are the parents of my 8th graders naive, too trusting or are their kids angels who'd never go to places they shouldn't go?

Parents, if you think your kids (especially boys) are just "looking around" you are a candidate for Ostrich of the year!!!! Get one of two filters. 1. check out www.besafe.com a multi-tiered provider that offer choices of only a content filter all the way up to anti-virus, spam filter, and a host of other services. Or there is a second service which doesn't block anything but sends a copy of every website visited to another persons computer... one of the parents own choosing. This provides accountability because it all websites are listed.

I believe this is so critical that parents ought to shut down their Internet NOW until they get a content filter set up. If you don't do something like this you are allowing criminals to have access to the hearts of your children. That stuff can suck your child into a web of disaster. Please, please, please do it now!!!

The Great Keith Irwin

Upon the re-entry into the orbit of teaching (my trajectory was tad-bit too steep - burning some of my tail feathers) I landed nose first into the halls of South Spencer High School as the fourth choir director in as many years. The first few days were predictable. While the chorus had been somewhat of a dumping ground for years some students were surprised I actually expected them to sing in chorus!!! Go figger??? I lost two kids the first day. We 'warmed up' and actually heard sounds coming from their throats. I believe there were about 22 kids the first day. We lost two and grew 4. I'd grown up (musically) in a classical choral tradition of standing and singing where all the focus was the sound and education. SSHS had a history of showchoir in it's far distant past. "When David Girten was here..." the filler was "we packed out the auditorium." Almost implied was 'we had senior citizen bus tours stopping here everyday to watch the greatest showchoir on earth!!!' 'Everybody sang in Rebel Singers.' Better yet (and this was from a colleague of the Great Girten), the school stopped what it was doing to put on the spring musical.'

Well in my opinion, showchoir was cotton candy. It was pretty (pink) it was sweet but it didn't have staying power (all fluff). I'd performed in a Broadway type revue that traveled three of Kentucky's State Parks during the summers of '75 and '76 and had enjoyed it immensely. But my steak and potato choir tradition was "stand and sing" or "park and bark."

Somehow thru' the years of change at SSHS, the 'great Girten' legend lived on. Kids thought that real choirs danced and sang. So we stumbled on going on into the blazingly challenging works of SAB music of "you get a line and I'll get a pole, honey" type of music. Trying to get 3 parts singing in tune was a pipe dream that wouldn't be realized that fall.

Into the once hallowed halls of 'choirdom' came Keith Irwin. Keith had a look of Elvis with a twinkle in his eye and another look of don't get in my space at the same time. For some strange reason, he seemed to plug into the singing thing. He had a decent tone and even began learning solfeggio. He was a senior. I had no history of him. He acted like he had a disdain for school but an interest in singing. For the second semester, I introduced my fledgling chorus a piece in Latin and we began to learn it. After a day or two of teaching notes and rhythms, we began the pronunciation to which the now unforgettable Keith Irwin said "Why do we have to sing songs in Latin?!?!?!" (accompanied with the unverbalized - 'this sucks!) I laughed and told him that I was going to put up a plaque to honor him with that great question [which I've not yet lived up to.]

I got to 'splain' it to him that Latin vowels are pure and without any diphthong which helps singers listen to their own blend and tone more easily than singing in English. Most of the choir eyes were in 'full-tilt eyes glazed over' mode accept for one serious music student who seemed to nod and agree and yet their was Irwin... listening, giving an unvoiced (well if that isn't the biggest crock of ____) but yet their was a twinkle in his eye that maybe, even possibly he was really listening!!! One day he came up behind me and gave me a quick grab on the back on the neck squeeze for about 1 quick second that unspokenly said "I like you. I like choir - a lot"

Some time in the early dark days of early December of 2004, I received a letter about an Honor's Choir Festival with the University of Louisville. I was to pick some kids, learn 'em some fancy Latin stuff and bring them to Louisville and 'sang' with an orchestra. There was little doubt who my tenor would be. We ordered the music and practiced although not enough and off we bussed to U of L.... spent Sunday night. I gave a devotion (he elected not to come). The next day those 4 kids were immersed into a classical choral rehearsal. They rehearsed with 120 high school kids from Kentucky and about 40 college students from the U of L Chorale, a select ensemble. That afternoon they rehearsed with the U of L orchestra and yes... they sang in Latin, a mass no less. What a great experience for them. At the end of the year I asked for classroom evaluations where they could anonymously tell what their frustrations and enjoyments were. One of the most telling comments came from a senior. The unnamed students said "I wish I'd been in choir all my high school years." I think this was the comment of the originator of the never to be forgotten statement "Why do we have to sing in Latin?"